The Role of Ethics in 21st Century Organizations - Research Paper Example

The Role of Ethics in 21st Century Organizations Introduction Ethics can be referred as a segment of business philosophy that fundamentally concentrates on different approaches of values as well as morals. Moreover, ethics also focuses on the distinctions between proper and improper aspects of human life. With due regards to these studies, the philosophers have propounded numerous theories targeting changes in terms of human perceptions and actions. Some main theories of ethical concern include ‘egoism’, ‘rationalism’, and ‘emotivism’ among others (Yucel & Elibol, 2009). The various daily basis operations and conflicts are often observed to generate certain issues towards the organisations. Thus, in order to cope up with the various troubles or problems, there lies an utmost requirement and importance of ethical behaviour within an organisation or an individual (Mahdavi, n.d.). In this paper, the conception of ethics and its importance in the global financial market has been taken into concern. In addition, a fundamental analysis of ethics in the 21st century is also elaborately discussed in this paper. Role of ethics in 21st century It was observed by Brimmer (2007) that there lies an immense role of ethics in the 21st century towards the organisations and greater concern towards the society by emphasising upon the conception along with the importance of ethics. From an organisational point or view, ethics not only affect the procedure of making decisions in an organisation, but also tend to enhance the existing culture within the organisation. In this regard, ethics is recognised as an arrangement procedure that incorporates the mission, vision and values along with goals and strategies of a business organisation. The role of ethics plays a crucial role in enhancing ethical culture of an organisation in order to attain various organisational objectives such as increasing revenue, reputation and maintaining proper procedure of making managerial decisions (Brimmer, 2007). It was further noted by Brimmer (2007) that the association between the leaders and the followers along with the association between the clients, vendors, customers as well as the community gets affected by ethics. Notably, it is in this manner that there lies a strong foundation for the culture of ethics within an organisation. The other major role of ethics in the 21st century is the creation of opportunities beyond priorities and responsibilities. After realising ethics as a priority, the next functions of ethics include the scope of various opportunities that ultimately contributes towards shaping a particular organisation’s behaviour in the long term. It has been observed that there are a few organisations who felt the need of maintaining and preserving the view of ethics for the purpose of defending their reputation along with keeping away from any sort of bad media reporting which can easily hamper the organisation’s goodwill in the market (Brimmer, 2007). The other significant role of ethics in 21st century is that it is often regarded as “values-based culture”. Furthermore, it has also been identified that ethics in the 21st century is neither a comfort nor an alternative. The primary duty of this century is generating and encouraging the “values-based culture” so that the organisations can greatly focus upon the ethical values and ultimately enhance their quality standard of business operations. Fundamentally, there are several key factors that should be considered while generating a “values-based culture”. The several main factors include collective core values such as honesty and respect, common language and moral courage among others (Brimmer, 2007). Another important role of ethics in the 21st century is that ethics is considered as a management control procedure and plays a critical part towards enhancing the business communities’ along with the society’s welfare. The business organisations of the 21st century realised that as the business trade and commerce policy and procedure became more difficult, there lays an utmost need of preserving ethics in order to sustain within the global financial market (Sims, 1991). Benefits of Managing Ethics in the Workplace With due consideration to the fact that the different roles and duties of ethics in the 21st century are immense, as a result various significant advantages of managing ethics in the workplace can be apparently noted. One of the major benefits of managing ethics is that proper attention towards the particular conception of ethics substantially enhances the welfare and development pace within the society. The introduction of anti-trust regulations, government agencies and numerous establishments of laws as well as regulations as measures of ethical concern also tend to benefit the business organisations from managing ethics in the workplace (Thompson, 1991). Moreover, the ethics in the 21st century eventually guided the business leaders through complex disagreements between them regarding what is proper and improper. Therefore, proper attention towards ethics effectively increased the sensitivity of the business leaders as well as the staffs and also intended to continuously develop their working culture. The other benefits of managing ethics in the workplace include that it can efficiently increase as well as enhance better teamwork along with competence (Thompson, 1991). Moreover, ethics within an organisation also maintain and preserve various aspects that include integrity, community and openness among others. In addition, managing ethics particularly in the workplace can deliberately support towards the progression and the advancement of the employees within the business organisation. The employees of an organisation usually face various favourable and unfavourable conditions while executing their business operations. It is in this context that after having proper attention to ethics in the workplace, the employees get motivated and work better (Thompson, 1991). The other noteworthy benefit of managing ethics in the workplace is that it plays a vital role in promoting a strong public image. Notably, managing of ethics in the workplace assists the organisations to maintain and preserve an effective public relation which in turn enhances the competency of the organisation to attain its desired objectives. Thus, it can be stated that especially the ethical values in the 21st century are the cornerstone in order to build a commercially successful along with communally responsible business organisation. In this connection, ethics also helps to manage various values that are linked with the quality management, diversity management and strategic planning among others. Thus, it can be recognised that the organisations emphasise more upon these management topics as compared with other factors in the current scenario (Thompson, 1991). The quality management comprises certain aspects such as belief among the shareholders, reliability and performance. Similarly, strategic management comprises of expanding market share and decreasing expenditures. Thus, it can be stated that ethics enthusiastically organises the various management concepts within a business organisation. The other collective benefits while managing ethics include developing the managerial actions, strengthening the equilibrium between the organisational cultures and enhancing the belief in associations between individuals and groups. Various other benefits of managing ethics also include supporting greater reliability and stability towards maintaining the class of the products and delivering greater understanding towards the employees of the business organisation among others (Thompson, 1991). Furthermore, it has been widely considered by experts and researchers that ethical behaviours which prevail within the business organisations can avoid various misunderstandings among the business leaders and their sub-ordinates along with initialising several lawful actions. In this competitive world of financial market, the role of the employees or the staffs is becoming very much important day by day. The lack of belief and trust along with improper relationship between the sub-ordinates and the business leaders eventually create misunderstandings within the business organisation which can be dealt with ethical concerns effectively (Thompson, 1991). In this regard, it has been observed that ethics plays a fundamental role to avoid the various lawful issues that might prevail in any business organisation. As noted by Thompson (1991), understanding the lawful proposition of executing a business in an ethical method or approach, is the ultimate way in order to avoid any lawful action towards any business organisation. With due consideration to the above mentioned facts, these benefits of managing ethics in the workplace can be regarded as a necessary component for the success of the business and will continue to serve as an outline for success, especially in the 21st century. By focusing upon the various roles and the importance of ethics in the workplace, it can be stated that the significance of ethics in the global financial market is exceptional as well as outstanding. In order to maintain and preserve the organisational culture, enhancing greater link between the business leaders along with their sub-ordinates and in order to avoid any misunderstandings and various lawful actions against the business organisations, it is necessary to pay more attention towards the conception of ethics. By emphasising more upon the conception of ethics, the business organisations can attain their desired results along with their business objectives. It is worth mentioning that it is the ethical concerns of the organisations that has eventually paved the way towards the progression as well as the advancement of the business organisation and laid a strong foundation towards executing business operations that would be carried in the long term. Conclusion After acquiring a broad idea regarding the conception of ethics in the 21st century, it can be stated that an increasing number of organisations are becoming conscious of the critical requirement for ethics in their cultural framework. The business organisations must visualise the conception of ethics as a communal duty towards which they are obligated. Moreover, by generating a “values-based culture” within the business organisation, there lies every possible chance for the society to improve to a certain extent. Thus, it can be concluded that ethics in the 21st century play a significant function in the global financial market. References Brimmer, S. E. (2007). The Role of Ethics in 21st Century Organizations. Leadership Advance Online, (XII), pp.1-6. Mahdavi, I. (n.d.). International Business Ethics: Strategies and Responsibilities. Journal of Academic and Business Ethics, pp.1-6. Sims, R. R. (1991). Institutionalization of Organizational Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 10, pp.493-506. Thompson, T. (1991). Managing Business Ethics. Canadian Public Administration, 34(1), pp.153-157. Yucel, R. & Elibol, H. (2009). Globalization and International Marketing Ethics Problems. International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, (26), pp.93-104. Read More