Introduction
Every company is tasked with the role of developing and reinforcing organizational standards commonly referred to as ethical culture. This is because there is a direct relationship between the attainment of a company’s objectives and the nature of its ethical norms (Priyanka & Jasuni, 2022).
Discussion
However, to create clear ethical programs, developers must concentrate on important principles like openness, integrity, respect, and impartiality within the company. Similarly, to ensure the secrecy of whistleblowers, businesses must strengthen their intrinsic reporting framework and consult with departmental heads about the applicability of stated norms (Furlotti & Mazza, 2020). Contrarily, there are cases where ethical developers face challenges that could obscure them from doing their job as required. A breakdown of a potential unethicality encountered when developing a communication and training program for Green Company employees alongside the consultant’s ethical obligations at this company forms the basis of this paper.
According to conventional knowledge about developing ethical programs, two major concerns can be deduced at Green Company:
- The consultant’s inability to meet with senior executives suggests that several theoretical assumptions will have to be made to fill any gaps in information for the program to succeed.
- A quality ethical program that addresses genuine employee-related concerns is less likely to be created if the consultant is not authorized to ask employees about moral dilemmas.
Constraints that limit access to the company’s staff greatly challenge the assessment of the prevailing ethical dilemmas as workers are the most reliable sources of first-hand information (Sharma, Agrawal & Khandelwal, 2019). The section below highlights the reason why corporate leaders may become defensive when their company needs to be assessed for ethicality during the process of designing ethical programs.
Based on the context of the question, the corporate counsel gave that response because he was hiring an outsider (third party) to perform the task. He is concerned that the latter may expose corporate malfeasance which could potentially damage the reputation of the company. In such cases, the consultant should organize meetings with the human resource manager to identify any useful unethicality leads (Trevino & Nelson, 2021).
If this is impossible, a non-disclosure agreement should always be signed by consultants to win the trust of the client. Conversely, the consultant’s ethical obligation to the company would be to make an effort to involve a sizable proportion of the workforce before designing the program. This will help him to establish the actual unethical behavior that may be pervasive in the organization.
Another obligation is that the consultant may change the contract or add a proviso to it after explaining the reasons if the counsel insists on denying him consent to speak to all employees. It is advised that the consultant first raises his concerns with corporate counsel, specifically on the restrictions to speak with the top management to establish any preexisting problems. If the latter remains adamant and uncollaborative, the consultant should terminate the contract with the company.
Conclusion
One of the major activities in all companies involves developing and reinforcing organizational ethical culture. However, ethical developers may face unethical challenges that could obscure them from doing their job as required. Such obstacles include a lack of consent by management to assess the company and unethical senior-level employees who may avoid meeting with the program developers. In such cases, ethical facilitators are advised to use non-disclosure agreements to win the trust of top management or request a formal objection from the company. The study of ethical problems and their mitigation options highlighted throughout this paper can help readers appreciate the need for honesty, transparency, and whistleblower privacy in developing ethical culture and programs for different organizations.
References
Furlotti, K., & Mazza, T. (2020). Code of ethics and workers’ communication policies: The role of corporate governance. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(6), 3060-3072.
Priyana, Y., & Jasuni, A. Y. (2022). Moral Integrity as Business Ethics. Libertas Law Journal, 1(1), 42-52.
Sharma, A., Agrawal, R., & Khandelwal, U. (2019). Developing ethical leadership for business organizations: A conceptual model of its antecedents and consequences. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2021). Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How to Do It Right. John Wiley & Sons.