Organizational Behavior by Hellriegel: Organizational Ethics - Term Paper Example

On the other hand, where employees hold a preference for fixed moral values as in Kantian ethics, one may find that the organisation shows a greater level of interest in following ethical processes and practises, not just the consideration of the end result. The channel however, may be seen as a two way process. While organisations and organisational culture may be seen as derived from the values and beliefs of those who make work for an organization. This is not to state that an organizations culture and values do not have an impact upon the moral and ethical behaviour of those who work within them (Ivancevich et al, 2011).

One view is that while an organizations ethical stance may initially be formulated from the sum of the values of its employees, as new employees join an organisation, the culture and values of the organisation may come to have a bearing on the way in which individuals behave over time. 2. Discuss how organizational policies and procedures can impact ethics.  While ethical considerations may be seen as a reflection of an employee’s personal moral values, it is quite possible that organizational policies and procedures may contribute toward encouraging either enhanced or diminished levels of ethical behaviour within an organization.

Reward systems may be a prime example of such a consideration, for instance, where a reward system includes sales based bonuses or other bonuses based upon short term gains. It could be argued that in some cases this may lead to the encouragement of poor ethical standards, such as the sale of inappropriate products to a customer or the exaggeration or inflation of the marketed benefits of a product or service. On the other hand, long term policies such as the encouragement of employee engagement in manufacturing processes and job design could encourage positive ethical behaviour.

For instance, where improvements are made in manufacturing processes which result in reductions in waste or input goods, such an engagement policy may be seen creating a positive ethical response through the implementation of a suitable HR based strategy (Torrington et al, 2008). 3. Discuss the ethical dilemmas that Valerie is facing. On the whole, the case study highlights a scenario in which Valerie can clearly see the ethical wrong doing on the behalf of her manager. Namely, that the manager is taking personal bribes from a number of suppliers, in order to secure orders on the behalf of the companies who are paying the bribes.

Aside from the fact that such a practice is unlawful in the first place, such an operation also means that Wisson as a company suffers from a poorer range of potential products and may be getting a poorer deal from the two companies which Waters has deals with than in comparison to making deals in a competitive market. Having discovered these illicit deals, Valerie’s dilemma is now whether or not to inform a superior of the information which she has discovered. As to whether or not Valerie takes such a step may be seen as relating to which ethical framework is applied to the situation (Fisher and Lovell, 2009).

Taking a fixed view of ethics and morality, such as those associated with Kantian ethics, the issue is a relatively simple one,