Ethical Issues and Behavior - Essay Example

There has been disposal of sewage and waste from the organizations into the rivers due to which, the quality of waters was affected and their consumers’ susceptibility towards diseases like cholera and typhoid was increased manifolds. Provision of clean water to the nation is one of the biggest challenges facing the governments in the contemporary age. This would not have been so had the organizations foreseen the impacts of their activities upon the environment and community as a whole. Besides, organizations all over the world are the prime consumers of the natural resources.

Countries need steel, oil, gas and electricity because they are required for the making and functioning of machineries, as well as the products the machines are making. In addition to that, ethics are a major concern for organizations because organizations have a profound effect upon each and every individual of the society. Childhood obesity is much more widespread in many advanced countries of the world in the present age than it ever was in the past. US, UK, Canada, Australia and such other technologically advanced countries are busy looking for ways to control the spread of childhood obesity.

Childhood obesity needs to be controlled because it increases the susceptibility of the victims towards various kinds of diseases including high blood pressure, depression, diabetes and heart attack along with causing an overall reduction in the expected life of the victims. A thorough analysis of the causal factors of childhood obesity suggests that the problem originates in organizations in the food industry that are supplying thousands of new varieties of junk foods into the market every year and are thus encouraging the public to consume them at least once, if not more.

Junk food production has become the spinal cord of food industry in the contemporary age because they are made from very cheap ingredients and get sold at a price much higher than what was incurred in their production. Again, childhood obesity is primarily an outcome of the food organizations’ selfishness and insensitivity towards the public health. Had food organizations tried to evaluate their activities on the scale of ethics, many children would have been smart and healthy today rather than overweight and obese.

In light of these and several other issues, ethical issues are a major concern for the organizations. Ethical behavior in organizations is impacted by individual influences. Influence of individuals that particularly occupy higher positions in the hierarchy of the organization structure and have relatively greater power is profound. In a vast majority of cases, organizations are run primarily by the top managers, that may or may not include the subordinates in the decision making process. Nevertheless, since the ultimate decision is taken by the top manager, it is their behavior that primarily governs the level to which the organization complies with the standards of ethics.

Ethical behavior of organizations is also governed, to much an extent, by the level of transparency maintained by the top management. An organization in itself is like a complete state that may have democratic government or dictatorship. If the top management implements the former system, their actions are criticized by the subordinates, so they may not be able to take independent decisions. If the dictatorship prevails,