Issues of Morality and Professional Conduct in an Organisation - Essay Example

According to Seitel (1995), a Code of Conduct is the foundation for all company policies. It sets out the fundamental principles that the company values and that employees should apply in their daily work. Supporting the Code of Conduct policy is a range of corporate policies providing specific guidance in areas such as competition law, marketing practices, non-discrimination, share dealing, and conflicts of interest. It is the responsibility of each employee to implement the code and follow the employee guide to sustain trust and confidence as well as to ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and company policies, and to foster a positive, ethical work environment for all employees.

In an article by Scott Shifrel on 10 August 2008 entitled, “Worst of times unveiled in Lawsuit,” a case involving ethical considerations is brought to court. In this article, it is stated that “a lawsuit by a New York Times employee paints a disturbing portrait of a workplace rife with sexual harassment - including an alleged incident of office cubicle masturbation - and age discrimination. Charles Cretella, 57, who has worked for decades creating summaries of Times stories, is fighting back after he says he was falsely charged with sexually harassing a 33-year-old male co-worker.

” Though there are mixed reactions to this article, it is very unethical for one employee to sexually harass another workmate by seniority in the organization. Each employee is entitled to his or her freedom in the conduct of her daily duties. In another article that appeared in an online periodical entitled, “Mixing Politics, Religion, and Money,” the author condemns the use of money especially by religious leaders to buy votes during the period preceding the presidential elections in America.

“The involvement of popular and religious figures in swaying the outcome of elections is growing. While most of us are understandably shocked at the inflated importance given to the opinions of celebrities, perhaps we are overlooking the inappropriateness of religious authorities selling their support as many so blatantly do?”  In this article, the author laments that it is unethical for religious leaders to abuse their higher office of the Kingdom but should be supporting their entire congregations without pressuring them to get in line with the party that church leaders, for whatever reason, have decided to support.

In any case, it is often considered that a minister’s responsibility is to be attending to the spiritual and sometimes immediate physical needs of parishioners and not to be embroiled in local or national politics. For instance, the January 23, 2008, Wall Street Journal carried an article about this kind of unethical practice. The author discussed one candidate’s offer of a $5,000-per-month consulting contract to a state senator who is legendary for his record of vote-getting or suppressing who also happened to be a pastor of an 11,000-member church and runs an advertising agency seen as a formidable qualification in today’s political arena.

This kind of practice is very unethical by any standard. In an article entitled, “PEPS and the fight against bribery and corruption,” by Simona Mulinari, [online] it can be noted that the issue of corruption and diversion of state funds is often connected to Politically Exposed Persons (also called PEPs) and their relatives and close persons. It is stated that several cases in the past and various current investigations confirm the risk that offshore companies and nominee accounts are established on behalf of a senior government official and used to collect, disguise, export, and abuse public funds or proceeds of bribery or corruption.

The case of the former Nigerian President was highlighted in this issue. Another highlighted example involves the alleged recent occurrence that has been raised to the public attention by the British NGO Global Witness and concerned the entourage of the President of the Republic of Congo and the use of funds of the state oil company to sponsor the personal lifestyle of a restraint number of persons connected to power.

Those responsible for running the affairs of the organizations they work for should conduct themselves professionally and responsibly. Over and above, it can be noted that the aspect of ethics specifically deals with what is good and bad. Indeed, it is a contentious issue that needs to be seriously taken into consideration as a way of trying to build a formidable business entity that is based on morally expected standards of conduct within any organization.