No one deny the importance of workplace ethics. Because ethics are those principles that help us make the right decision in any situation.
Knowing these principles ahead of time can help us stay out of trouble and maintain our integrity at work.
As employees, it’s important to be aware of the ethical boundaries that exist in the workplace and how to stay within them.
In this post, we’ll discuss some of the key ethics issues that can crop up in the workplace and offer tips to deal with these.
What are Ethics at the Workplace?
In the workplace, ethics are set of moral principles that guide our behavior as employees.
There are a number of different ethical frameworks that can be applied to the workplace. The most well-known is the utilitarian approach, which assesses actions based on their ability to promote the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
Other ethical frameworks include the deontological approach, which focuses on adherence to rules and duty, and the virtue ethics approach, which emphasizes character traits such as honesty and integrity.
While there is no single right or wrong answer when it comes to ethics, it’s important to be aware of the different ethical frameworks and how they can be applied to workplace situations.
Importance of Workplace Ethics
Workplace ethics are important for a number of reasons.
1. Positive Work Culture
First and foremost, when employers and employees uphold strong ethics at workplace, they are actually building a positive work culture.
These ethics help to ensure that employees act in a way that is consistent with the company’s values and standards.
They also help to create a positive work culture where employees feel respected and valued.
2. Smooth Management
When ethical management consults their employees before taking important decisions then employees put their hard work into implementing those decisions.
It’s always a smooth implementation of decision and organizational policies where there are strong ethics at the workplace.
3. Increased Productivity
Workplace ethics help to build trust between employees and employers. When employees act ethically, they are seen as being reliable and trustworthy.
This, in turn, leads to increased levels of productivity and creativity. A study by the Josephson Institute of Ethics found that employees who perceive their workplace to be ethical are more likely to be productive
4. Low Turnover
Workplace ethics also help to attract and retain talent. People want to work for companies that have strong ethical standards and are committed to doing business in a morally responsible way.
A study by the Ethics Resource Center found that employees who work in ethical organizations are more satisfied with their jobs and less likely to leave the organization.
5. Good Reputation
Nowadays people are more concerned about employees working conditions. People raise their voices if they found any unethical practice in any organization around them.
Workplace ethics help to protect organizational reputation. When employees act ethically, they help to ensure that the company is seen in a positive light by the public. This can help to attract new customers and business partners, and it can also lead to increased profits.
Examples of Ethics at the workplace
There are a number of different workplace ethics that you should be aware of. Here are some examples:
1. Honesty
Honesty is unarguably the most important workplace ethic. It’s about being truthful in your work, and it includes things like being accurate in your reporting, not plagiarizing other people’s work, and not misrepresenting your qualifications.
2. Integrity
Another important workplace ethics is integrity. It’s about behaving in a way that is consistent with your morals and values. If you have integrity, you will do the right thing even when no one is watching.
3. Respect
Respect is about treating others with dignity and understanding. In the workplace, respect includes things like not making offensive comments about other people’s race, religion, or gender.
4. Diversity
Diversity is about valuing people from all walks of life. In the workplace, diversity includes things like hiring a diverse workforce, providing equal opportunities for all employees, and creating an inclusive environment.
5. Compliance
Compliance is about adhering to the company’s rules and regulations. It includes things like following the company’s dress code, showing up for work on time, and completing tasks as directed.
How Managers can create an ethical workplace environment?
When it comes to setting the tone for a strong ethical workplace culture, managers play a key role. Here are 08 ways managers can create an ethical environment in the workplace:
1. Develop strong ethical policies
The first step to create an ethical workplace environment is to develop ethical policy which is aligned with organizational values. This should be a comprehensive written document which address all the ethical issues employees usually face in their work.
This policy should be clear and specific because unclear ethical codes create only obstacles in the way of ethical behaviour. Every organization has its own work culture so management and leaders should be very clear on what are their values and what ethics they want to promote.
It’s also important that ethics policy needs to be regularly reviewed and updated.
2. Clearly communicate ethics
Everyone at workplace needs to know what are ethics that are valued. It’s a job of management that they should clearly communicate their expectations for ethical behavior to their employees.
The best way to communicate is to give orientation to every new comer about ethical policies. Special training programs about ethics at work should also be a permanent feature. And more important is that leadership must talk on ethics more frequently in their routine communication with employees.
3. Promote honest and open communication
It’s also management job to encourage employees to speak up if they witness or become aware of unethical behavior.
Management needs to create an environment where employees feel comfortable coming to you with concerns without fear of negative consequences.
4. Identify reasons of unethical behavior
Knowing reasons of unethical behavior is crucial for promoting ethics at workplace. It’s equally important to understand what are obstacles in the way of ethical behavior.
There could be multiples reasons such employees are not motivated and committed towards work. Among other reasons, there may be negativity at workplace, lack of recognition and rewards for showing strong ethics.
The job of management and leadership is to first understand and assess such reasons and fix these before implementing ethical policies.
5. Reward ethical behavior.
Employees need recognitions and appreciation. If employees are practicing strong ethics, then they must be recognized and rewarded. If one employee is rewarded for showing strong ethics, it would aspire others as well to follow same ethics.
Management should announce it as a policy that ethical behavior will be recognized and rewarded. This could include anything like public recognition, bonuses, or other incentives.
6. Invest in employee training
Capacity building of your employees on work ethics is one of effective ways to promote ethical work environment. There could be range of trainings on work ethics which include basic orientation on organizational ethical policies and code of conduct, how to report misconduct and unethical behavior, common ethical dilemmas, and compliance training.
There are different methods for conducting these trainings. Sometimes formal exclusive training is effective, sometimes it’s good to have a round-table discussion, even role-play method is also useful in some of cases.
Nowadays e-learning options are also available where employees can be enrolled in different online training programs.
7. Conduct regular ethics audit
Conducting regular audits of ethics at workplace helps to build a strong ethical culture. It also creates awareness of workplace ethics among employees and ultimately reduces risk of unethical practices.
Ethics audit include review of code of ethics, implementation of ethical policy, review of past incidents and actions taken by organizations. For this audit, interviews are conducted with management and employees to understand their view point and incidents happened against the policies.
One important aspect relating to ethic audit is that it should be conducted by an independent third party.
8. Disciplinary action against unethical behavior
Unethical conduct or behavior poses a serious threat to work culture and organizational reputation. It should not be left unchecked or unaddressed. Everyone in organization no matter senior executive or a common worker must be hold accountable in case of any violation of ethical policies.
Employees who are involved in any unethical conduct or unethical behavior are subject to disciplinary action which results into punishments like suspension or even termination in extreme cases.
