Ethical Issues in Organizational Behavior

Ethical Issues in Organizational Behavior Ethical decisions play a very important role in an organization. Ethics is the concept of good and bad behavior. Ethical behavior is governed by state, federal, and local laws. It is important for an organization to promote good moral choices and do everything in its power to prevent unethical behavior from taking place in the workplace. This can be achieved through continuous training and reinforcement of the desired behavior. Unethical behavior in the workplace can be detrimental to an organization because it is both costly and can ruin a good relationship between business associates. There are several influences on ethical behavior. They can range from the diversity of the workforce to the technology used in the organization to the quality that is now required of the products produced by an organization. Diversity can become an issue when a manager uses personal race related biases in organizational decisions. Technology can be an issue when proper training is not available to the employees in an organization. The fact that the employee is not trained properly makes them more likely to make a mistake or incapable of performing job duties. Quality can become an issue when an organization does provide its employee with the tools necessary to provide products within the specifications of their customers’ requirements. An employee is then forced to make a decision on whether or not to continue in the development of the less than required product. All of these influences to ethical behavior can be tracked back to a system breakdown. An organization can influence the ethical behavior of employees in several ways. First the organization can offer some kind of reward for behavior defined as ethical. This will give the employee reason to continue making the “right” or desired organizational behavior. Continuous training will enable the employees to efficiently perform specified job duties. It will also enable managers

References: Kinicki, A., & Kreitner, R.  (2009). Organizational behavior: Key concepts, skills and best practices (customized 4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Human Genome Project Information. (2008). Biological and Environmental Research Information System: U.S. Department of Energy Genome Programs. Retrieved July 25, 2010, from http://genomics.energy.gov. Ethical Issues. (2009). Easy: Business and Society. Retrieved July 25, 2010, from http://bizcovering.com/business-and-society/ethical-issues.