Personally, I relate workplace ethics to the set of moral principles, values, or standards of behavior which aims to guide the conduct or behavior of employees here at Fujitsu. Workplace ethics involves establishing an atmosphere characterized by tolerance and respect for every individual in the workplace. Workplace ethics is a tool that seeks to enhance the employee’s capacity to distinguish between the right and the wrong course of action within the workplace. Workplace ethics fosters the capacity of an employee to strive for excellence in their areas of specialty, enhances the competence of an employee, and it aids in the development of important workplace values such as honesty, courtesy, and respect (Jeff, personal communication, February 16, 2018).
What are your Views on Ethical and Unethical Behavior in the Workplace? Give Examples of Ethical and Unethical Workplace Behaviors.
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Unethical workplace behaviors refer to any action that does not comply with the established standards of conduct within the organization. Unethical workplace behaviors are usually associated with negative impacts which include poor job performances recorded by employees, poor employee relations, negative effects on the company’s credibility, and various legal issues. Employee performance is largely impacted by employee ethics which, in turn, affects the productivity of an employee within the organization. An employee who exhibits unethical behaviors at the workplace often lacks commitment towards his assigned duties and depicts a poor work attitude and this subsequently impacts his capacity to attain the goals and objectives of the organization (Jeff, personal communication, February 16, 2018).
According to Jeff, unethical behaviors may also impact employee relations by affecting the existing relationship between an employer and his employees. For instance, when a manager displays an unethical behavior, he is likely to lose the respect accorded to him by his employees. A manager’s unethical behavior may create tension among employees and may lead to the potential lack of trust within the organization. A company is prone to losing its credibility following its employees’ consistency in exhibiting certain features that may be considered unethical by the public. A company’s failure to exhibit ethical behaviors in its performances may subsequently lead to various legal issues. Examples of unethical workplace behaviors include deliberate deception such as taking credit for a duty performed by someone else and the misrepresentation of a company’s service or product to record high sales, violation of conscience, an employee’s failure to honor commitments, disregard of the organization’s policies by employees, and unlawful conduct within the organization (personal communication, February 16, 2018).
Ethical behaviors, on the other hand, focuses on actions that conform to the organization’s standards of conduct. Ethical behaviors seek to promote the organization’s public image, fosters the development of a positive workplace environment, enables the organization to avoid legal issues, enhances workplace diversity, strategic planning, and quality management, it promotes employee productivity and teamwork, enhances the effective decision-making process within the organization, enhances the retention of employees, and it seeks to maintain customer loyalty in business. Examples of ethical behaviors in the workplace include honesty, integrity, respect, accountability, punctuality, and competency (Jeff, personal communication, February 16, 2018).
What are the Importance of Workplace Ethics in your Organization?
At Fujitsu, ethics plays a major role in enhancing employee productivity and teamwork through fostering features such as respect, effective communication, and cooperation among employees. Employees are usually encouraged to value each other’s opinions, treat clients with utmost dignity, and embrace cultural diversity which, in turn, promotes the company’s overall productivity. The organization also employs managers who promote collaboration and cooperation through involving subordinates in various activities such as decision-making processes. Our managers are usually encouraged to maintain high integrity levels and honesty and openness in their communication with employees; this subsequently, leads to the development of a positive work attitude, trust among employees, and job satisfaction. Secondly, ethics is an important contributing factor in the development of our company’s public image. Through fostering ethics throughout our operations, the organization has earned a lot of respect from the public especially our potential consumers; this subsequently acts as an effective marketing and promotional tool for the organization, reflects the company’s integrity and credibility, and it promotes the establishment of trust, loyalty, confidence, and stronger relationships with our customers (Jeff, personal communication, February 16, 2018).
Thirdly, ethics fosters the effectiveness of the company’s decision-making process. The development of ethical conduct within our organization has played a crucial role in promoting the ethical culture in decision making by encouraging transparency, honesty, and accountability during this process. The organization’s strong ethical culture acts as a guide in decision making processes regarding the management conflicts, fosters the successful introduction of change, and it fosters consistency throughout the company’s operations. Fourthly, ethics is perceived as a strong form of asset protection within the organization. Fujitsu’s strong ethical culture has played a major role in safeguarding the company’s assets through the help of our esteemed employees. For instance, our employees protect the organization’s assets by avoiding the use of business lines when making personal calls. Lastly, workplace ethics has been an important tool in promoting employee relations within the company. Employee relations has been an important aspect in promoting employee motivation, effective communication, and a unifying workplace culture within the organization and through these strategies, productivity is enhanced (Jeff, personal communication, February 16, 2018).
How do you Promote Ethical Conducts Within your Organization?
Jeff points out that there are various strategies employed by the organization to foster ethical conducts; they include developing the organization’s code of ethics, training employees on how to comply with the established code of ethics, reward ethical behaviors, encourage managers to lead by example, and establishing disciplinary actions for unethical behaviors. The preliminary step in promoting ethical behavior within an organization’s employees is through developing a code of ethics which is effective in providing guidelines and directions regarding employee behavior. The code of ethics is a tool that fosters the understanding of the company’s ethical regulations and rules by employees. Training employees enhances their capacity to establish a clear understanding of the expectations of the management with reference to the employee code of conduct and it promotes the development of an ethical culture within the company (personal communication, February 16, 2018).
Employees ought to be taught constantly on how to approach various ethical dilemmas when carrying out their respective duties. Rewarding an employee’s ethical behavior not only encourages the employee to uphold the organization’s ethics policies but also serves as an inspiration to other employees within the organization. Therefore, it is very crucial for employers to identify and reward workers who uphold various ethical practices in spite of the tempting situations. A manager’s capacity to conform to a high ethical standard when carrying out his assigned duties enhances his credibility in instances where he communicates the company’s expectations to other employees. Managers should hold regular meetings with employees and discuss potential ethical problems that exist in the department and develop ways to overcome these issues. Disciplinary actions for behaviors that are considered unethical also seeks to promote ethical behaviors within the organization. If an organization’s employee resorts to any unethical behavior or malpractice, sanctions should be imposed on them; this will help workers to understand the consequences of inappropriate behavior (Jeff, personal communication, February 16, 2018).
How do you Recognize an Ethical Business?
According to Jeff, there are various characteristics associated with an ethical business; they include leadership, values, loyalty, integrity, respect, and accountability. Fujitsu’s ethical culture is often delineated starting from the highest rank in the company’s chart. For an organization to be recognized as ethical, its respective leaders have to exhibit ethical practices in any given situation. Leaders who consciously opt to embrace the ethical path as opposed to the financially driven path usually develop a successful ethical culture in the organization. When the organization’s culture is solid at the topmost rank, it subsequently flows down to all departments and its workers. An ethical business is also recognized by its core value statement which describes the business’ mission. Any organization is capable of creating a value statement, but an ethical organization abides by it. An ethical organization communicates its mission to every worker within the organization’s structure and it ensures that every employee abides by it (personal communication, February 16, 2018).
An ethical company institutes a code of conduct that seeks to support the company’s mission. Integrity is a general characteristic of any ethical business. An ethical company always adheres to regulations and laws at the federal, state, or local level. An ethical organizations aims to treat its workers fairly by upholding honesty and openness when communicating to them. An ethical business often exhibits fair dealings with consumers and its suppliers through ensuring competitive pricing, production of quality products, and timely payments. A business is considered ethical if it demonstrates respect for its workers by valuing their respective opinions and treating every worker as an equal., if it exhibits respect for its consumers by listening to consumer feedbacks and evaluating their needs, if it shows respects to its suppliers by paying them on time and by incorporating fair purchasing prices, and if it respects its community by giving back to the society, protecting their environment, and showing concern for the environment. Ethical businesses remain loyal to their respective relations at all times, which, in turn, fosters solid relationships. Ethical businesses are usually accountable for anything or anyone affected by their business operations and this includes suppliers, general public, employees, and consumers (Jeff, personal communication, February 16, 2018).
Would you Recognize Yourself as an Ethical Leader?
I consider myself an ethical leader due to a variety of factors. First. I always strive for excellence in all my endeavors at the workplace. I consider excellence my first rule in my attempts to attain success and greatness at my workplace. Secondly, I am a trustworthy individual. I am capable of fulfilling my assigned tasks, I never disappoint the board’s expectations with reference to how I perform my duties, and I am reliable and dependable when called upon to perform various managerial duties. Thirdly, I am a respectful and courteous person. I am generally polite, friendly and well-mannered and this, in turn, enhances an effective social interactions within the workplace and it helps me avoid various workplace conflicts. Lastly, I am honest, transparent, competent, loyal, and I uphold my integrity at all times (Jeff, personal communication, February 16, 2018).
