Code of Ethics to Guide as a Manager, Organizations Workplace Values - Assignment Example

1. Your personal values, personal vision/mission ment and a personal of ethics to guide you as a manager or future manager. Youth is known to see life with idealism. I am no different. I know that the world right now is deep with troubles and tribulations, and this is most apparent in the workplace. However, with rose-colored lenses, I hold on to my own personal ideals of how an organization should exist and how it must be run by a great leader. For me, I value people. I believe the staff of an organization is its lifeblood. That is why organizational leaders must accord them with utmost respect. With this comes my sincere expectation that respect begets respect. The ability to establish and maintain harmonious relationships with diverse people and groups, especially with those different from themselves is a quality most effective leaders have. He is the glue that fuses the group together with diplomacy and commonality of goals. He possesses high emotional intelligence, maturity and understanding of people coming from various backgrounds. I believe that having a sensible and stable moral and ethical base should be the foundation of an organization. Michael Fullan, a leading advocate in the study of leadership claims that a leader should have moral purpose. This moral purpose pushes him to act with the intention of making a positive difference in the lives of the people around him and in society in general (Fullan, 2004). “Moral purpose infuses an organization with passion and purpose since workers become eager to know the enabling purpose of their work” (Fullan, 2004, p. 26). A manager needs the capacity to keep his focus on the real purpose of the organization. He has a clear vision of where he is going and sets directions to others towards that vision. He works together with others on thinking of ways and means to reach their goals and not focus on the authority on himself. In doing so, he empowers them to be confident in their abilities and motivates them to welcome challenges and opportunities. His positive influence gains him the respect of everyone to follow his lead while pursuing a common mission for the growth and development of the organization (Leithwood & Riehl,2003). Although the manager is imbued with great knowledge and skills, he is aware that he still needs help from others. He is humble enough to admit when he does not really know instead of putting up a façade of being all-knowing. He is always open to learning something new, and not haughty enough to claim that he is already “made”.” Being human and fallible is one trait that all people share, and what better quality to relate to than that? His staff will even feel important enough to share the burden of thinking up solutions to problems with him. In sum, for me a good leader has a clear vision of how an institution should be. He is equipped with the knowledge and skills of how to get there, complemented by a positive attitude and high emotional intelligence in handling people. He does not see himself as central in the process of change but shares his leadership with key people like his members who directly affect the institution. His caring, considerate and sensitive attitude is oriented towards the growth and development of the members and the institution itself. 2. Your organization’s workplace values, culture/climate, vision/mission statement and code of ethics. (If any of these are not published, interpret them from organizational policies, observations and experiences therein, and examples of the organizational climate and/or operational practices.) I have been fortunate to be part of an organization that had very diverse members. The concept of diversity is broadened to include all “individuals who bring unique perspectives or outlooks to the organization” (Schakelford, 2004, p.53). That means, it not only includes the traditional categories of race and gender, but also people with disabilities, gays and lesbians, and other non-traditional categories considered having “diversity of thought” or those from different disciplines, college degrees, socio-economic backgrounds, etc. The managers of this company were advocates of equal opportunity and did not discriminate against people who were much different from themselves. A culturally diverse workplace bursts with positive energy that can be very motivating for workers. The organization I was part of is considered an “inclusive workplace”. Mor Barak (2000) defines it as one that: “values and uses individual and intergroup differences within its work force; cooperates with and contributes to its surrounding community; alleviates the needs of disadvantaged groups in its wider environment; and collaborates with individuals, groups, and organizations across national and cultural boundaries” (pp. 339-340). This is not to say that my workplace perfectly adhered to this definition, although I would say it came close. All organizations encounter conflict in various forms and degrees, however, the culture of the organization makes it easy to resolve them due to the high respect and acceptance of differences. The practices I learned from that workplace taught me lessons on good management. We valued the exchange of alternative points of view. This fostered thinking “out of the box” and brought fresh perspectives to surface. Uncertainty was tolerated at times, because it pushed us to come up with various solutions until we got the right one. Brainstorming sessions strengthened the bond shared between members as we strived to pursue best options together and cooperated to come up with a group decision. We also respected each other’s experiences and shared our own, as this enriched each other’s knowledge and possibly increased understanding and tolerance of differences. Finally, exposure to other cultural values was treated as opportunities for learning. Everyone stood to gain from learning about others. 3. Your organization’s social responsibilities and your appraisal of whether and how effectively it meets those responsibilities. Our social responsibility is providing the best service possible to our customers. Our quality assurance consistently follows through recommendations, suggestions and even complaints from customers, if any. Thus, the quality of our customer service is hailed as highly satisfactory due to all the happy customers who return to us for more, and even bring some referrals to try our services. The company makes sure that in providing the service, the satisfaction of the customer is the priority, fully considering the workers’ health, safety and security in the delivery of the service. Workers are well-compensated for, however, benefits are only provided to those with regular status. What makes up for lack of benefits and incentives is the quality of care workers get from management, such as free meals, especially when we go on overtime for meetings, trainings, etc., out of town assignments, etc. It is also very easy to negotiate with management regarding schedule adjustments especially if the workers’ presence is needed out of the office, such as family-oriented events. The company conforms to government statutory requirements. 4. Your organization’s ethical analysis and training programs, and an evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses Management provides in-service training and team building workshops to its workers on a regular basis. This is to update them on current effective practices. 5. The moral philosophy(ies) and ethical principle(s) in your organization that you affirm most and least. Give specific, detailed examples of circumstances and contexts 6. Reflecting upon the judgments you have made, project how you would want to change the organizational culture/climate if you became the leader of your organization. Finally, present a plan for how you would go about implementing such change. In developing your plan, try to apply in an integrative and coherent manner everything of true significance related to such planning that you learned in this course and then think about/report specific scenarios that you would expect to result. Read More