How to Shape the Culture and Ethics of an Organization

Introduction 

Organizational culture describes a notion in an entity that refers to a set of rules, guidelines, values, and beliefs which often determine and illustrate the behaviors and practices of the members through words, interpersonal interactions and gestures. The aspect of organizational design, on the other hand, encompasses various entities that demonstrate the fit and synergy between and among different critical elements of the organization. These elements include culture, structure, mission statement, vision statement, leadership, reward system among other facets that determine the success of an organization (Motilewa, Agboola, & Adeniji, 2015). Evidence indicates organizational culture, and fundamentally the organizational design is important since it often determines the success or failures of the corporate. Similar to organizational culture, in recent years, business ethics continue to be identified as important traits to the success of an organization. Business ethics define the proper business policies and practices that govern how a business should behave. Ethics are important in shaping the perception of an employee subsequently influencing their morale and job satisfaction. Career satisfaction among the employees is important in not only employee retention but also organizational productivity. 

Moreover, ethics as a moral standing of an organization determines a corporate’s interaction with the suppliers, consumers, and the community at large. It is fundamental to understand the relationship between business ethics and the aspect of shaping organizational culture in the efforts of creating a better working environment that is focused on the objectives and agendas of an organization (Motilewa et al., 2015). Corporate culture and ethics as critical elements in the organizational design since they are fundamental in the pursuit of organizational goals relating to their employees, customers, suppliers, and shareholders. The article reviews different accounts of the effects of culture and ethics on organizational design and the role that the three concepts play in the success of an organization. 

Literature Review 

Different articles provide various accounts of organizational design, culture, and business ethics and their impacts on an organization. This literature review aims to adopt a meta-analysis approach in the evaluation of different explanations of organizational design and business ethics. The findings of the review intend to support the research in the concept of business ethics and organizational design and their impacts on organizational performance. The literature review plans to provide clarification on what the society perceives as common knowledge. The review commences with detailed definitions of corporate design and organizational culture and their interaction. It proceeds to the definition of business ethics and considers the sources of both organizational design and business ethics. The review evaluates the relationship between organizational design and business ethics. The article examines how an organization’s leadership shapes the entity’s culture and ethics and analyzes how the business practices impact on the organizational design. Essentially, the purpose of the review is to investigate the influence of business ethics on the organizational design. 

Organizational Culture Defined 

Motilewa et al. (2015) define corporate culture as a system of integrated values and beliefs which interact with members of the organization, the company structures, and systems to produce behavioral customs that define how an organization performs in its activities. Mehra and Goswami (2017), on the other hand, define organizational culture as collective programming of the mindset that differentiates one member of an organization from another. They argue that the culture of an organization is grounded in the integrated interactions between different individuals in the entity. Hogan and Coote (2014) perceive organizational culture as a cultural reference that emphasizes the belief system that provides the behavioral norms for members of the organization to follow. Although there is no definition of organizational culture that has been adopted, many scholars acknowledge organizational culture as a notion that is holistic and typically determined by the leaders and often integrate the perceptions, values, suppositions, and beliefs of the differentiate members to develop shared attitudes and beliefs. In the business environment, situations often change consistently with the desire to remain consistent changing consumer preferences. 

Organizational culture provides a social force in a particular entity. The culture of a specific organization determines many variables of a business from the routines, the language, dressing code, values, and communication systems among other aspects of the company (Ali, 2017). To remain relevant, an organization has to adapt and change accordingly. As an important element in the organization, the changes in practices of the entity cause changes in the organizational culture. As such, work-related cultural values often evolve as the political, social, economic, and cultural environments change in the society. Reflecting on the constant changes, it is necessary for managers and business scholars to invest in research that refines and re-evaluates cultural theories to remain updated on the changes (Ali, 2017). As such, organization culture provides common behaviors among members of the firm who are from diverse backgrounds for a particular period in the efforts of realizing organizational objectives. 

Organizational Design Defined 

The organizational design, on the other hand, forms part of the area of organizational theory and is aimed at the efficient organization and arrangement of any organization (Burton, Obel, & Håkonsson, 2015). Organizational design often adheres to a systematic criterion to ensure that the enterprise can produce the highest level of outcomes as possible with the least degree of inputs as possible. It shows that the organization's design is based on a system that will maximize what it gets compared to the resources it puts into what it ( Burton et al ., 2015). As a critical part of the organization, it will determine how it performs and how all parties work together. As it represents how the franchise is structured, the organizational design will incorporate the aspects of coordination and structure thus they represent the primary choices for any organizational design. 

The structure will involve the assignment of tasks to the different individuals, systems, and subsystems in the businesses. It will also include the transfer and distribution of resources to the subsystems and the breakdown of organizational problems from its helm to these small subsystems (Burton & Obel, 2018). Coordination involves the various efforts geared towards bringing these subsystems together thus smoothening their cooperation. The unison among the small systems can be achieved through encouragement and implementation of appropriate communication, leadership, organizational culture, the establishment of procedures and routines, information technology and incentives (Burton & Obel, 2018). There is a precise relationship between structure and coordination that eventually results in the appropriate design for the organization. Every structure will be accompanied by a unique coordination design to ensure the achievement of a good fit for the structure. Thus working through and achieving an effective organizational design require the presence of a working structure and effective coordination. In the end, the design as determined by its structure and coordination will help shape its ethics and culture. Business Ethics 

Organizational culture is often accompanied by business ethics that will act as the standards which guide the behavior of the organization and its employees. Business ethics is an area of study that goes back more than thirty years especially, for the United States. Many scholars including philosophers, economists, consultants, and others have focused on the issue to identify the various dynamics that describe business ethics. However, business ethics have become a necessity for many if not all businesses across the world due to the many scandals that have been witnessed in organizations and companies (Mehra & Goswami, 2017). As Mehra and Goswami (2017) identify, many individuals including clergymen from all denominations identify the amoral and anti-social nature of the business which necessitates the existence and implementation of business ethics. As it stands, business ethics make up an important part of the organization which makes it hard for any business to survive without its presence. Just like ethics will determine what is right or wrong for various professions and organizations, so do ethics play a similar role for business. Ethics is a critical area in shaping the perception of an employee and eventually influencing their morale, relationships in the workplace and job satisfaction (Mehra & Goswami, 2017). Th e employee’s career satisfaction is important in not only employee retention but also organizational productivity. 

Furthermore, ethical standards as moral standings for any organization determine a corporate interaction with their suppliers, consumers, the community and the social responsibility the organization holds overall. It is fundamental that the relationship between business ethics and the aspect of shaping organizational culture is clearly understood for the efforts of trying to establish a better working environment that is focused on the objectives and agendas of an organization Mehra and Goswami (2017). The organization’s ethics and culture act as vital elements in its design and are fundamental in the pursuit of organizational objectives relating to their employees, customers, suppliers, and shareholders. It means that smooth coordination between these two aspects works well in the overall development of the organization. 

Moriarty (2016) identifies that business ethics is made up of two primary areas which are micro and macrowhere the macro aspect involves the organization’s validation of its culture es pecially that which is carried out through the organization’s corporate manifestation (Moriarty, 2016). The macro aspect of the organization’s business ethics further includes the social responsibility automatically assigned to the enterprise, the rule of law that governs the company’s operations, the role of the organization’s profits within its market and the justification if the market in which the company belongs to (Moriarty, 2016). The micro aspect mainly involves internal issues in the organization including the ethical issues the organization will encounter in its daily operations. Therefore, business ethics demonstrate to the organization not only how it is doing concerning its role in the community, but how it is functioning within and how it is functioning concerning other organizations. As is evident, business ethics involves the external and external aspects that work in the making and sometimes possible breaking of the organization. It is an indication of how critical business ethics are for any company looking to make headway in its specific market and adhere to the requirements of the rule of law. 

Sources of Individual Ethical Principles 

There are numerous sources of personal moral principles, and these include religion, culture, and law. Moral principles in the organization are determined by issues such as managerial ethics and corporate social responsibility. 

M anagerial ethics 

Managerial ethics exist at the management level of the organization. Schwartz (2017) identifies that ethics are implemented by the person and not the institution. It means that right from the most influential individual position to the lowest position; ethics are demonstrated as determined by one’s position. Therefore, managerial ethics will culminate to what the rest emulate from the management and how they view the organization’s ethics. As a specific company employs the manager, he or she comes with personal principles and ethics that determine how the individual behaves and interacts with others. Then the firm will have in place business and organizational ethics that the individual will be needed to adhere to (Schwartz, 2017). It means that he or she will need to combine personal values and organizational ethics into effective managerial ethics that provide a clear example to the rest for them to emulate. 

Social Corporate Responsibility 

As identified, the business ethics of any organization is determined by its social responsibility to the community. The World Bank recognizes corporate social responsibility as businesses working towards good citizenship and ethical behavior for the contribution towards individual and group economic development and the development of the rest of society (Ni & Van Wart, 2015). There are numerous ways through which organizations demonstrate corporate social responsibility. These include the efforts towards meeting social environment standards, seeking of external certification and the regular provision of public states of how their organizations are progressing and any issues that may cause controversy from the public (Ni & Van Wart, 2015). In many instances, corporate social responsibility will be maintained by organizations to help portray and support a positive image towards the public which will act as a marketing strategy. Further corporate social responsibility ensures that not only is the environment well cared for but people too are protected. Therefore, corporate social responsibility serves numerous purposes for the organization, and as the company thinks about maintaining a certain level of social responsibility, the efforts help build the its culture. 

The Relationship between Business Ethics and Organizational Design 

It is indisputable that there exists a relationship between business ethics and organizational design. Theories on the organizational design help determine the role it plays in ethical decision making and moral reasoning in the company. Every enterprise is founded on various moral premises mainly geared towards the provision of the best and quality goods and services to the people (Schwartz, 2017). These include the organization’s desire to operate in the most effective and efficient manner, the role of providing products and services that are socially valuable, to bring in profits that help maintain the economic well-being of the organization and its members and an organizational structure that will help keep the welfare and dignity of the individuals in the organizations and those who are outside the company. It means that even as the organization works in fulfilling its moral obligations, it is necessary that the organizational design is checked to ensure the appropriate cooperation between the two. 

It means that the effective merging of the moral responsibilities and organizational design will be dependent on the appropriate design functions including the carrying out of the frequent evaluation of the board of directors, especially the directors from inside the organization and those from outside. It will also require the development of committees that will monitor and conduct oversight on the organizational responsibilities (Schwartz, 2017). It is an indication that the whole organization has a particular role to play in the existent relationship between corporate design and business ethics. 

How Managers Shape Ethics and Culture in the Organizations 

One group of individuals who have a significant influence on developing the organization’s culture is the managers who represent the leadership in the organization. The type of leadership in the business will determine the nature of ethics and culture the organization will adopt as those in leadership positions have a significant say in what occurs in the organization. To this end, value-based leadership often makes a big difference for the organizations exposed to such by their leaders. 

Value-Based Leadership 

As identified, leaders come to the organization with a set of personal values which they need to merge with those which they find in the organization to ensure that they represent a holistically efficient leader for the business they represent. It means that value-based leadership helps build the organizational culture that has been developed during the company’s existence. Here the leader conducts the firm’s business and interacts with those they lead through the values set by the organization. With value-based leadership, evaluation of employee and company performance is enhanced (Schwartz, 2017). It also improves the maintenance of an ethical working environment as every employee is subject to equal institutional values under the watch of their leader. Therefore, value-based leadership does not only contribute to the ethical standards and environment in the organization but helps to continually shape its culture. Apart from value-based leadership, managers have the power to shape their organization’s ethics and culture through formal structures and systems they establish in the firms the lead. 

Formal Structure and Systems 

The organization is a collection of systems working together for the overall purpose of achieving the goals it has put in place. It means that a formal system and structure is necessary to help show the relationship between the different departments in the organization. The formal structure and system help assign hierarchy and competencies among the various departments and leaders in the organization. Leaders are tasked with establishing and maintaining such a structure and system to ensure that the relationship among the various departments and jobs are well defined. It means that the manager helps accentuate the organization’s culture (Schwartz, 2017). A formal structure and system also ensure that the ethical requires of the organization are well spelled out thus promoting adherence to such requirements by all those involved in the organization. It means that formal structure and systems as spelled out by the manager is necessary for the shaping of the organization’s culture and ethics. 

Managers shaping culture and ethics and how business practices impact organizational design 

Why it pays to be a supporter of ethical behavior 

Managers are critical players in the shaping of an institution’s culture and ethics. It is so because they make crucial decisions that can either make or break the enterprise. The manager is in charge of major decisions and plans implementation in the collaboration with other members in the organization. Many if not all these decisions often impact the culture and ethics of the organization (Fernando & Moore, 2015). As identified, formal structure and system issues lie in the power of the manager. It means that he or she determines the course through which many problems in the company will take. The manager will also learn what is best suited for the company and that which will help in building its ethical standards and organizational culture. It, therefore, shows that the type of leader in the business will be a significant determinant in the kind of ethics and culture the organization will adopt as those in leadership positions often have a substantial say in what occurs in the organization. 

Cultural and ethical values 

Ethics are the basic moral standards of people which aid in guiding their behavior. Ethics practiced in the working environment can either be moral or unscrupulous and when they are ethical, how is it conceivable to shape them into being identified as ethical. Pope (2015) composes that behavior must be carried out while keeping in mind the end goal to deal with the impact of deceptive behavior to ensure achievement of ethical changes. If an enterprise assembles a set of ethics, it will be more advantageous in anticipating exploitative behavior as it represents standards of behavior, and with moral laws, it is likely that dishonest behavior will cease in the organization. 

Developing Organizational Values 

Fernando and Moore (2015) noticed that for the firm to meet administration greatness and experience increasing client satisfaction, they should implement and practice ethical ideologies. Clients are probably going to expel themselves from their relationship with an organization that does not consolidate ethics into their everyday schedule. For ethics to be compelling much like the hierarchical culture, it must be exemplified by initiative and translate from those in authority to different workers. 

Linking and Review of Published Literature over the Past Three Years Pertaining to Organizational Design and Ethics as it Relates to Corporate Culture 

The social learning approach recognizes the requirement for good examples to encourage the correct behavior in employees and also demonstrate the rewards and consequences for not behaving as expected (Demirtas and Akdogan, 2015). Campbell (2015) believes that the leadership is a main impetus for implementing culture and ethics due to the impact it has on influencing the inspiration for employee behavior. Ethical initiative is characterized by the certain behavior through close identified collaborations and relationships. This definition fortifies the requirement for the extensive organizational compatibility and central management yet it is often centered around the start of genuineness and honesty (Demirtas & Akdogan, 2015). The present world of business is limitlessly focused and always showing signs of change, so organizations hope to keep their consistency. However, a culture of ethics ought to be set up to achieve this. It is regularly observed that organizations that do not have ethical standards in place will not flourish. 

Different investigations explore the impact of managerial morals and ethical behavior, which underscores how the working atmosphere can help in the decrease of vulnerability if ethical initiative is decreased (Demirtas and Akdogan, 2015). As communicated by Pope (2015), like culture speculations have distinguished these qualities characterize what is anticipated from employees giving them a positive impact on behavior. The more tedious the activity is, the more probable they will epitomize and comprehend the need for hierarchical ethics. The worry with ethics originates from varieties of self-intrigue; one's powerlessness to settle on choices that are autonomous and objective, an absence of profound quality and making the best decision, and immature or ineffectively settled authoritative culture that is overlooked by the management, and the negligible nonattendance and inability to execute moral judgments (Zulganef, 2015). Zulganef (2015) further proceeds by expressing that building up a decent responsibility framework for unethical behavior when advancing society in ethics inside the firm can prevent the dishonest behavior from happening frequently. It is clear that making an ethical culture comes from the activities of the employees and the organization at large. 

Organizational Ethics, Design and Corporate Culture 

Theories 

Hofstede features the concept of culture through an onion outline to demonstrate that there are prominent and basic parts of an organization's culture that are covered up if the ability to peel at these layers exist when there is a more profound comprehension of the center of an organization's culture ( Waisfisz, 2015 ). The layers that show up on the outside give a perspective of ancient rarities, images, dress, and state of mind which is shallow as these things can without much of a stretch vanish if not created and actualized suitably ( Waisfisz, 2015 ). The layers underneath the outside layer symbolize individuals like saints that give any real symbolism and are exceedingly appreciated, as this individual replaces the outer images ( Adelstein & Clegg, 2016 ). Waisfisz (2015) depicts the third layers as the ceremonial layer that ties individuals together to frame standards. The outside layers are what most pariahs can see and hear. The inside layer administers what those distinguished inside the organization shows every day practices. The deepest layer is the place the way of life esteems genuinely lie. The Schein's model gives a comparable look perspective of Hofstede by upholding the three layers that he has recognized by utilizing practices, and convictions ( Waisfisz, 2015 ). 

Schein's model advances through the various levels of comprehending the hierarchical culture of organizations. A few methods of insight recognize hierarchical culture as a flat single layered idea; in any case, Schein like Hofstede looked for the significance of peeling back the layers to distinguish and break down the distinctive layer of culture (Hogan & Coote, 2014). Hogan and Coote (2014), look into how disarray existed with the nonattendance of other scholar capacities to separate between the different features of authentic culture. In his hypothesis, he additionally shows how ethical standards decide how specific examples of behavior exist since they are the routine practices that are constrained by weight from the administration (Cheng & Huizingh, 2015). The practices that are displayed from authoritative standards and qualities are persuasive of the more up to date creative ways the organization chooses to advance understanding the guidelines that are set up are gotten explicitly from the qualities and are obviously meant by antiquities on the off chance that they are in presence. Indeed, Hogan and Coote (2015), contend that qualities are not as apparent to outcasts as the ancient rarities are because they are displayed in different aspects like the hierarchical dialect, images, or even the physical appearance of the partnership's climate. These hypotheses distinguish the variables that shape culture, yet don't recognize the capacity of hierarchical culture. 

Corporate Culture and Ethics in an International Environment 

Ethics is one's capacity to comprehend what is right and wrong. Culture alludes to the qualities, practices, objectives and different variables that a specific gathering of individuals or an organization adjusts as their own. How are these two ideas incorporated into one to help in molding and cooperation of employees and the organization in an international environment? In light of the thought put forward by a couple of scholars as specified by Zulganef (2015) the integration among ethics and culture originates from the comprehension of the connection among qualities and culture because of the relationship they each posture with behavior, values, authentic culture, and ethics. Perez (2017) characterizes ethics in business as the use of commonsense issues in an ethical way to incorporate the organizational problems. At the point when incorporated shared regard, network, consistency, responsibility, dependability, opportunity, quality, and trustworthiness give an intentional structure to leading business in a culturally based moral environment internationally (Hoffman, Driscoll, and Painter-Morland, 2016). These qualities exist as indicated by Hoffman et al. (2016) in light of the fact that the regard unites individuals by treating each other with nobility enabling them to deal with those reasons in their connections both inside and outside the company and giving employees the opportunity to assume liability for their activities while staying focused on their commitments. Moreover, for the enterprise, equivalent, and reasonable open door opportunities are accessible for all employees; the organization is permitted to serve to furnish the quality while agreeing to different laws and controls ensuring to add to the firm (Hoffman et al., 2016). 

Spiritual Perspective 

Even as ethics and culture are founded in organizational research, these aspect take a spiritual perspective. Spirituality acts as a form of affirmation for individuals helping satisfy their inner feelings and desires for self-actualization. Spirituality represents part of one’s culture meaning that for individual employees, it will incorporate the culture he or she has developed in their workplace. It is an indication that even as other factors contributed to the shaping of culture and ethics in the organization, spirituality has a role to play in the function. 

Conclusion and recommendations 

Different aspects including its design shape the organization's culture and ethics. All parties involved in running the business have unique roles to play in how its ethics and culture turns out. However, increased influence is often in the hands of managers as they will make significant decisions that will steer the organization’s culture and ethics in one direction or the next. It means that even as the business working on developing an ethical environment and an outstanding organizational culture, numerous aspects have to come into play to ensure the process in success and the result is as required. Ethics and culture go beyond the organization at the local level and will take various forms at the international level. It means that at this level, how ethics and culture are shaped will be dependent on different factors compared to the organization at the local level. Ethics further involves the spiritual aspect which is intertwined in one’ religious background and religion will determine personal principles. 

Recommendations 

The text has established how the culture and ethics of an organization are shaped by the organization. The following recommendations are made;

Future research needs to focus on organizational design. The area has limited studies and information thus limiting the scope with which one can understand the issue 

It is also necessary that breadth of knowledge on the link between organizational ethics and culture and corporate design is expounded as the information is currently limited. 

The information on corporate social responsibility and organizational culture and ethics are also limited which calls for increased research in the area to provide a vast variety of knowledge in the field. 

References 

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