How Code of Ethics Shape Behaviour within an Organisation - Coursework Example

Ethics Codes Introduction Ethical behaviour is a crucial tenet of superior organisational performance in the contemporary competitive market. Every organisation has the responsibility of developing a definite way in which all employees are expected to behave and execute their duties. With many challenges such as diversity management facing organisation in the face of modernization, many firms are concerned with creating organisational culture that allow for innovation and employee growth and development, thus high organisational performance. Managing diverse workforce would be a nightmare without a preset set of rules dictating how employees are expected to interact with each other and with people outside the firm. With time, organisations usually grow to include employees of different backgrounds, thus the possibility of diluting organisational ethics. Code of ethics set in to prevent ethics dilution by setting expected behaviour standards that all employees must adhere to. This paper explores how codes of ethics shape ethical behaviour within an organisation. Ethics Code Defined Code of ethics may be referred to as a formal documentation of acceptable and ethical behaviour or conduct within an organisation. Ronald Sims defines a code of ethics as “a formal document that states an organisation’s primary values and ethical rules it expects employees to follow” (p. 313 2002). Many firm use ethics code and code of conduct interchangeably to influence how employees behave within the organisation and how they perform various tasks on the behalf of the firm. Ethics code attempts to set out and clarify the core values that an organisation embraces going beyond telling employees about what is expected of them to what stakeholders expect of the company (Nelson & Michael 2014; Fairhurst 2007 ). In most cases, code of ethics of companies are accessible to the public so that anyone interested in the operations and activities of the firm as well as their manner of conducting business can access them and scrutinise what happens on the ground. A code of ethics incorporates a company’s strategy on implementing its core values and vision (MCDANIEL 2004). It shows workers about acceptable behaviour standards in the organisation and how to meet such expectations. It restricts workers to certain behaviour patterns so that the organisation can achieve its overall objective and operate within the wider society with minimal friction. How Code Of Ethics Shape Behaviour within an Organisation Despite the fact that the nature of leadership within a firm has a significant bearing on the behaviour pattern within an organisation, this is often not enough, particularly in giant firms. Organisational code of ethics is often used to supplement the best behaviour example displayed by the management (Brown & Treviño 2006; Nelson & Michael 2014; Chonko, Wotruba & Loe 2003). Ethics code acts as a guideline on how employees are supposed to behave. Code of ethics is often used on new employees during induction to ensure that new staffs thoroughly comprehend organisation’s ethics and the importance of observing such ethics as they perform their day-to-day organisational tasks. Code of ethics direct employees on what is acceptable and what is unacceptable within an organisation (Sims 2002). Some companies usually strive to make their code of ethics more comprehensible by including examples and scenarios that surround their line of operation (Kalshoven & Den Hartog 2009; JOHNSON 2012). By using these examples of possible occurrences or situations that occurred in the past are crucial for instilling employees with skills on how to solve similar challenges that may arise in the course of their work (Saeed, Shakeel & Lodhi 2013; Kaptein & Wempe 2002). They may also make out clearly what the company expects of them in different situations. For example, a company manufacturing food stuffs may restrict its employees from carrying any foreign substance into the production room and explain what other employees should do upon seeing any unusual substance in the production room. This can be complemented by the consequences of acting in the contrary. Successful organisations usually ensure that their code of ethics goes beyond being seen as a mere paper print by making them part and parcel of organisational culture (Belak, Duh, Mulej & Stukelj 2010; Fisher & Lovell 2009; JOHNSON 2007). This can be achieved through regular mandatory trainings on ethics for all employees of an organisation (PHILLIPS 2005; PETERSON 2005; Healey & Isles 2002). Regular training on ethics equips employees with the importance of abiding by the code of ethics of the organisation and makes them appreciate the ethics because they get exposed to the tinges of the ethics policy. In some cases, organisations usually conduct follow-up trainings, including examinations on ethics policy matters to ensure that employees are conversant with crucial organisational values (Mayer et al 2009). Constant training serves a crucial way of shaping how workers think and behave as it fixes the code of ethics in the minds of employees. Different firms conduct ethics training for different reasons. The reasons for conducting training on ethics include “avoiding adverse publicity, potential lawsuits, illegal behaviour, and monetary and criminal penalties” (LEWIS 2007 75). Most organisations also use ethics training to gain competitive advantage over their market rivals by making their employees more equipped with business decision making ethics and make employees more familiar with probable ethical challenges that they meet in the course of executing their tasks (Stevens 2009; BOYLE et al 2001). For example, ethics training programmes provide a crucial ground on which managers can lay bare ethical framework of their organisation to employees for the benefit of the entire organisation in the form of superior performance. By requiring all employees to behave and act in a pre-defined manner, code of ethics effectively shapes behaviour patter within an organisation. It achieves this by demanding every employee to be moral actors who only do the good and shun the bad. Ethics code instils employees with core values of the organisation and attempt to uproot undesirable behaviour within an organisation (Resick, Hanges, Dickson & Mitchelson 2006). Code of ethics emphasises on moral business conduct, thus requires all workers to behave and act morally on behalf of their organisation. The basic principle of code of ethics is that immorality has no home in ethical organisations. As such, organisations usually formulate and implement code of ethics in order to influence how employees behave, work and relate with each other as well as people outside the confines of the firm. Conclusion Code of ethics is basically a set of guidelines formulated by a firm to direct employees on how they are expected to behave and execute their assigned tasks. Code of ethics usually attempt to shape the way people behave and act by creating a standard way of behaving within the firm and stating the expectations, which all employees must strive to fulfil. Code of ethics usually seeks to establish a good working relationship between the company and its environment (stakeholders). 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