Defined by Cambridge Online Dictionary (2014) Ethics is as follows: “A system of accepted beliefs that control behavior, especially such a system based on morals; the study of what is morally right and what is not. ” And as a general definition According to Merriam Webster Online Dictionary Ethics (2014) has been defined as “An area of study that deals with ideas about what is good and bad behavior: a branch of philosophy dealing with what is morally right or wrong; a belief that something is very important.”Ethics in the workplace is a setting of organizational culture or a system of moral values that categorize what will be acceptable and unacceptable behavior in that workplace. This paper will discuss the ethical issues organizations face when implementing change.
Introduction In the process of an organizational change ethics can be ignored and often is ignored by higher management even though there any many rules in an organizations employee booklet. The last thing that should be overlooked when a change is taking place is ethics, especially in a fast changing business world of today.Higher management or directors should pay more attention to ethics during the time of organizational change. Ethics comes along with all changes within an organization such as environmental, cultural, and business changes. According to Jones, T. , & Gautschi, F.
(1988) “During the 1960s and 70’s the business press explained business leaders were becoming increasingly concerned with business ethics and corporate social responsibility”. Resistance to change cannot be averted especially during organizational change. In the first stages of change in fact resistance is expected.One of the main reasons to resistance is the conflict between ethics and values. This majority of the time involves both management and ETHICS DURING CHANGE 3 employees of the front line. According to Palmer, Dunford, & Akin (2006) “ A research about obedience to authority showed that there are existing motivational factors of why people resist change based on the individual desires to at according to the existing ethical principles of the organizational culture.
It is also worth considering that some perceived threat of career advancement and security can cause central management to ignore established ethical considerations.”It is believed to keep balance the organization should provide immediate solutions to resolve the issues at hand in order to ensure ethics are put and kept in place. Morals are created because there is a need for the morals to be put into place. Morals of the past will not be morals of today and vice versa. A business environment requires that chance can be best accepted if there is an established strong ethics and morals for that certain change.
One would think morals are universal but this will also follow along with constant change of the organizations environment in order to ensure the success of change.In the words of De Graaf & Levy (2011) “One may take someone as a threat in the group if he or she claims that he or she knows and understands everything have known what is acceptable or not without careful examination. ” Requiring constant studying and researching is how one knows and understands the things that are morally and ethically acceptable. All the aspects of change must be looked at very carefully especially the ethics, business, moral, and environmental aspects of the business and its participation in the change.Ethical Issues Organizations FaceIn the business environment that we live in today, businesses change at a very fast pace.
Sometimes the pace can be at distressing rates. One of the main factors making an impact on a positive exertion of change is the issue on ethics. You must see change as an attempt to bring in more profit but also that change is going to be put into place to educate ethical awareness inside the organization. During the change or decision making process many situations do not include existing information that ca be used when putting the change into place.
This kind of occurrence is not useful in an organization when ethical issues can be served as the foundation of the organization itself. Many businesses today do not try to discuss ethical discussions or confrontations. These are usually seen through different forms of examples. These examples are put into four major problems people face every day including: First, financial issues, these are both ethical and moral issues which need great changes. When applying primary changes the management of the organization applies these changes in what the management thinks is appropriate.Leadership calls for the higher management to make these decisions.
This leadership can be applied when an employee engages in unethical behavior. The management will need to take the corrective steps to ensure the unethical behavior seizes and is resolved. Second, the internet, this stirs up ethical issues of safety, privacy, reliability, and stability. Living in the world today all of the above is at stake.
Organizations now need to look into reinventing the internet sites they have implemented for their organizations.Reinventing the internet or the organizations website is one of the most challenging things a company will have to face. With the ever changing business environment this is very important to keep up to date with. Third, global warming is a worldwide event that still stirs up a challenge to every business. A lot of company’s think they have a cure for the ethically sustainable issue on climate change. There is however a concern on the lack of ethical standards on how to discuss the issue on global warming ethically.
Bringing ethics into this subject gets every business upset and ready to give their version of solution to the problem. Fourth, globalization, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online (2014) is defined as : “The act or process of globalizing : the state of being globalized; especially : the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets. ” The relevant issues that come from globalization are focused on data security, financial wages, corporate, and social responsibilities, etc.While globalization is taking place, change is also taking place, and due to the change the business or organization must take it as a priority to create new ethics and morals and principals.
There are three key points when talking about ethics for the organization. These three key points are as follows: uncertainty, vagueness, and complexity. When solving ethical issues it is important the organization address the above three key points. If the organization does so this will create flexible acting and a better environment.Conclusion When an organizational change is about to occur or is occurring a lot of important factors and strategies needs to be taken into consideration. The important factors include: moral, ethical, and cultural aspects.
The organization must also take into consideration the employees and anything that helps the organization itself. Communication and leadership are essential before, during, and after change has occurred. They must involve all employees and try to assert the change positively.If trying to assert positively fails, it can cause resistance to the change and an ethical division within the organization. The business or organization will have to deal with the conflicts and can risk failing as a whole.
Ethics in the workplace is a setting of organizational culture or a system of moral values that categorize what will be acceptable and unacceptable behavior in that workplace. Now that this paper has discussed the ethical issues organizations face when implementing change, hopefully it’s understood how important organizational ethics are to back up the organizational change to ensure success of the change.
