The Consequences of Ethical Culture in an Organization

Ethical culture in an organization is a common phrase that describes how an organization responds ethically to an external or internal stimulus. Ethical culture goes parallel with the organisational culture. Ethical leadership is a mixture of character and performance, with the active promotion of principled behaviour in an organisation. Traditionally, it has always been contemplated as a difficult aspect of the organisation. Over the past few years, social responsibility and ethics has been a matter of concern in business and of significant interest to scholars. Ethics is all about behaviour. In the situation of dilemma, ethics is all about choosing the right path. Ethical management for an individual and its people means to choose the right and good track without causing any harm. Organisations follow different procedures to create and sustain an ethical workplace culture. Researchers have been developing efficient processes to ensure that a particular organisation has an ideal ethical culture and they have leaders that lead with character. Investigating for a process that aims to implant an ethical culture in the environment is particularly necessary in places where there is ethical breech.

A well used principle in the behaviour of the organisation claims that it is the values of the inner-self that in the end drive our behaviour. The values of an individual put forth his or her attitude, which thus influences our behaviour. Ethical values in the environment form an integral part of the attitude formation and how different people respond to it. Organisational ethics is analogous to business ethics and organisational behaviour. Organisational ethics is just not any one of these but the combination of both. It expresses the importance of an organisation to its employees irrespective of the governmental laws. Studies over the issue that portrayed a clear picture of the values are the key components of an effective ethical managerial leadership. “Honest” is the perfect term used in the survey instead of “ethical” as it was pointed out by the participants itself in the initial phase of the survey as the honesty was a more common term for explaining the basic idea of integrity and right and wrong behaviour. Ethical goes more on the technical side and, therefore, was deleted from the investigation. Though, the terms were used alternately in the explanation.

According to the researchers, values that inspire ethical behaviour seem to have a universal influence. Listed below are values that apply to ethics:

• Wisdom and Knowledge: The ability to gain facts and convert them into something useful. Wisdom is the result of the capitalization of one's experience to develop something useful from the available information.

• Self Control: The capability to stay away from unethical temptations. To follow the path of ethics, a lot of commitment to the importance of acting sober is required.

• Fair guidance: Treat fairly to all. Justice is supplied only when an individual would perceive a fair return for the time and energy expended. Ethical leaders support fair advice and guidance.

• Courage and Integrity: The courage with integrity and ethically. Such values embrace discrimination of right from wrong and act accordingly. They compel one to constantly to follow the right path without any concern of the personal consequences, even though it is not easy.

Each and every responsibility can be implemented in its best form only in an environment where all the individuals within the company is supported and encouraged to adhere to the highest standards of ethics. It can only be done when there is proper attention paid to the company's code of ethics and proper professional codes, especially for those who stress the moral behaviour and character of the organisation itself.