Ethical and Work Cultures - Thesis Proposal Example

DBA Ethics Week 5 CAL Critical Literature Review Saleh Alothman Introduction It is widely acknowledged in worldly forums that evil certifies the existence of good, that sadness presents itself only after the epitome of happiness. I witnessed the same recently while boarding a flight. A couple of strangers were engaged in a conversation with each other on the global economy and the perils of living in the Middle East as a result of the Arab Spring uprisings. It paved way for a thought that has existed in my mind for a long time but has received very little in the way of nourishment, what exactly do the concepts of good and evil entail? Problem Statement In an organization, especially an account’s practice such as mine, leaders and disciples often trade places several times a day. In some cases, such an arrangement is referred to as distributed leadership. Across the board, the traits of authenticity, coupled with the dispositions of integrity and fidelity that vary between individuals, form the basic principles in the pursuit of conceptualizing good in my organization (this conclusion was drawn after rigorous action research (AR) that took form of interviews of members in informal settings conducted during the course of my dissertation module). Ben-Yoav, Hollander, and Carnevale (1983) discussed argumentatively the difference authenticity makes to a movement initiated by a member who aims to promulgate relationship building between members or project an action within the member community of the organization. The followers, in order to assist with the protagonist’s motion, must witness for themselves the goodness of his intent in order to be willing to follow and subsequently play their role as supporters when the situation leads to that. The focus of my paper is to assess the legitimacy of this statement. The aim is to highlight the ethical frameworks which develop into principles which help direct the participants to collaborate amongst themselves, as opposed to defining the ‘inside’ groups and the outside collaborators which proved deceptively hard to completely define. Thus, the underlying qualities of a leader were assessed in light of ethical and moral justness. In order to achieve this, the focus has been primarily placed on the communicative bridge called leader authenticity, a concept that dictates the flow of conscience amongst members which then enables them to follow their leader’s word (widely believed by the majority to be the best way to incite support and action with the prevailing cultural norms, subject to unforeseen changes). This notion translates to the following understanding, if ones actions are done in light of what the others consider right, just, and overt, this validates one’s own actions so as to deem them morally viable and trustworthy/authentic (Clark & Payne, 2006; Coghlan, 2004; Cole, 2011). Initial Problem Statement It is noticeable in this particular organization that most of the persistently high performing teams (HPT) have the distinct capability to control problems and resolve issues during the course of completion of projects or programs as and when they surface. The problems in question are varied, consisting of deteriorating experiments, mismanaged and problematic team dynamics originally designed to thrive on effective member collaborations, as well as ethical concerns and complications arising therein in the process of project completion. The current module aims to divulge the practices that allow HPTs to successfully approach such issues alongside complicated occurrences of ethics and similar challenges before they develop, ironing them out along the way. It is pertinent to formalize and study the practices that alleviate the effect of unpleasant occurrences in team work so that well managed teams can harness the knowledge to turn negativities into positives to the benefit of the larger interest of followers or the team itself. Once I am done analyzing the aforementioned practices of HPTs, I aim to formalize a profile pertaining to such practices that would serve as rules and guidelines for other teams aiming to boost their efficiency and problem-solving proficiency, causing them not just to exceed at their relevant tasks but to elevate from the status of standard teams to one of HPTs that are fully equipped to handle situations concerning an ethical challenge amongst their team members. This also forms the basis of success in part. The reason my company is so successful is that ethics and authentic behavior form part of our values. Those two combined with thorough R & D, which in turn lead to commercially-viable products that benefit society, the result is a true recipe for success. Of the defining characteristics of company operations, none is quite as important as leading by example, as that paves way for entrepreneurship and the promulgation of new ideas for global stewardship in technology and general science, resulting in effective decision making and catapulting various difficulties towards successful completion. The firm enforces a few basic rules throughout its daily operations. Laboratory jobs which form part of the PDTs comprise of channels of work that engulf transparency, support and ethics, thereby forming a foundation that encourages morality and conscientious behavior for other scientists to follow. Such jobs encompass the following three highlights:         Do not encourage or require any individual to perform an unjust, degrading, morally corrupt or illegal task.         Individuals are encouraged to present original content, based off their own persona which must allow for credit where it is due to the respective team member leaving no room for undue credit so that the teams do not feel restrained or discouraged but instead commit further towards maintenance of company edge in NPD or New Product Development.         Maintain a generally agreeable workplace atmosphere that complements the personal and inter-team feelings of morality, integrity and fidelity to the highest of criterions. Provided the above three requisites are met, there can be very little conflict in the way of achieving set targets and dealing with difficulties and obstacles in the achievement of which. The results would take the form of scientific conclusions while at the same time according originality to the discourse. Refined Problem Statement Rationale Thus, I would like to present a refined version of the problem that I originally planned to address, as the center of focus now becomes what is referred to in the industry as a communicative bridge termed leader authenticity, a matter of extensive importance in decision making and leadership within organizations (as the same is widely believed to be a profound tool to instigate followers to action and influencing conduct within team members). The reason for this has to do with the multi-layered approach of authenticity that the team members perceive which benefit the organization’s reputation as a whole. When the leadership can be defined as authentic, while a hierarchy of leadership already exists subject to constant evolution within the company, the competition between the leaders to prove their authenticity over the others allows for the entire structure of the system to appear benevolent, fair and free from prejudice. This is easier said than done, as the filters in place require constant scrutiny in order to eliminate doubts and misgivings. This can be seen in the collection and review of scientific data as efforts are made to avoid collusion through deliberate fabrication or biased analysis at the hands of insiders when scrutinizing external sources and from external sources who knowingly alter data directed towards the company so as to be accepted in a proposal for consecutive research exercises. Another method of preserving the authenticity of data is to place external and internal members into product development teams so that there is further unity in PDTs in general, as suggested by various papers listed in the literature review below. As aforementioned, my organization reverts to the distributed leadership model which forms a welcome exchange between who follows and who leads as the roles are often interchanged along the operational process. When one leader strives to be more authentic than the other leader, the overall system appears fairer and moral which provides effective insight into the framework of concepts that help team members decide on which leader to follow, the concepts of right and wrong. As such, the leaders lay down the guidelines for integrity benefitting the organization’s image as a whole, which ultimate trickle down as assistance to members who are aided in their decisions regarding consultant/collaborators and leadership/followship. Critical Literature Review A careful examination of the literature concerning ethical and just work cultures reveals an outline of guiding principles for people, groups and on a bigger scale, institutions. Upon examining those precepts, a further revelation was divulged in the form of the influence different cultures have on workplace ethics. The studies and analysis provide a seemingly thorough understanding of the effect of cultural dispositions, in the form of a diversified range of results that originate as a direct result of the cultural exodus that surrounds that situation, even when a different result was construed in a similar situation elsewhere. The review brought to light several different cognitive substructures that humans conceptualize within their minds in the determination of the key fundamentals of right or wrong or in some cases, indifferent, based on the external inputs they receive in the wake of the actions of other people. The literature aimed to highlight how individuals within groups, separately, or in large institutions sought to base their actions on their belief of what they considered ethical and morally just in response to the incitement offered to them, thereby effecting the processes or teams that they were a part of. Thus, a culture played an all important role in shaping this belief of wrong and right (Abratt, Nel, & Higgs 1992), a vivid example of which is the cultural pretext of Islam which necessitates the validation of a person’s moral reputation in society at the outset of any business oriented discussions (Abuznaid 2009), or as Al-Khatib discusses, the influence of networking relations in the Chinese culture and their inclination towards pedaling (2007). The question however still lingers; do other choices between the primaries of good and wrong influence the outcomes substantially in conventional settings, settings that include the all too familiar situations of being presented with a conflict of conscience that leads to a perplexing crossroad of choice between right and wrong which, as Badaracco (1992) discusses, are referred to in lay terms as the defining moments (Badaracco, 1997; Badaracco, 1998; Badaracco, 2002)? I have devised a list of key points pursuant to the discussion of my problem which will assist in further exploration of the research pertaining to this module:         Demarking the difference between the two forms of ethics and morals, absolute and relative         The influence of norms and the changes they bring as a result of changing norms.         As a general perspective, a norm representing a group or company represents the majority viewpoint.         Policies that serve as workplace norms can be both morally justifiable and unjustifiable.         In the definition of the individual, the self must include authenticity, decision making, and pursuit of a goal that satisfies the present situation.         The concept of self-care alludes to succumbing to the norms of the society which are not to be deemed perilous or immoral, alongwith distancing oneself from behavior that is admissible by the people in general, but might be deemed by the society as unjust or immoral: such as cheating on an exam, breaking a signal in a vehicle, keeping possession of property found instead of trying to locate the original owner.         Morals are dictated in light of cultural settings, but they do not serve to define the entire culture.         One culture may define an action as wrong whereas another can define the same action as right, although there may be instances when one defines it as right and the other as wrong, but passable based on the situation at hand; such a situation is termed as the contextual foundations in cognitive thoughts.         The method known as action research paves way for delving deeper into the research, providing a greater definition of objects aimed to be studied and the activities surrounding them. This type of research places one within the depths of the environment, so that a richer experience is intimated to the researcher, with the common risk of greater influence during the course of the study. The researcher is therefore obligated to utilize his ethical and moral commitments in volatile situations arising as part of the action research.         Dialogues serve to provide better transparency in thought and discussion during member interactions, hence, when members seek to ‘disengage’ from them in an organization, they begin to alter what may or may not be admissible to the organization or themselves. This deteriorating behavior is usually the advent of a series of problems and is considered a form of normative understanding, eventually trickling down to other members who in turn begin altering their own viewpoints. Theoretical Scaffolding for Next Steps The preceding discussion and review can now be used to delve further into three main points of research: 1.      An individual’s demeanor and responsibilities. 2.      The group’s demeanor and responsibilities. 3.      The entire organization’s demeanor and responsibilities. The above three serve as guiding principles towards the delving into of more practical examples of processes, normal guidelines and frameworks that have worked in other multinational organizations similar to mine in similar situations as well. More of my research will uncover and study the presence of shifting value systems in cultures and the role they play in influencing and shaping what we consider right and wrong. The aforementioned views will be further exacerbated into a construct of authenticity in order to focus on the true meaning of individuality, group and institution/organization. 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