Leadership has specific skills that enable an individual to determine strategies for accomplishing goals and meeting objectives with others. In a workplace, leadership would consist of building relationships, conducting meetings, and having positive relationships with all the employees. Ethical behaviors are those actions that are considered “right” in the view of most people. Ethical behaviors at the workplace include honesty, fairness and integrity. Organizations’ appropriate and effective individual values and belief systems should guide leadership and ethical behaviors for them to maintain profit and success.
Ethics is not embedded in culture; it is taught, enforced, and made into a part of society through the thoughts and actions of everyone. According to TEDx Talk. (2016), ethics get to the point where unethical behavior is condoned into a culture by top leaders not taking up their responsibilities to set the standards on ethics and accountability. For example, when a leader knows that ethical conduct is taking place and fails to act, that conduct continues. Additionally, unethical behavior to seep into the culture when everyone ignores an occurrence of such behavior. For example, college sports are symptomatic of ethical behavior embedded in a culture since many coaches involved in unethical behaviors do not face the consequences. Therefore, when unethical behavior is embedded into the culture it forms a pattern.
To combat unethical behavior embedded into a culture, ethical leaders must take up the challenge to learn from their mistakes and change their ways of leadership. It can be done by leaders setting standards of accountability and transparency that every employee must follow. It enables leaders to take advantage of opportunities to influence and shape cultural values within the organization positively. For example, a leader should not look at performance metrics such as the number of championships. Instead, a leader should enforce a culture that no one is above the law, and if a person is involved in unethical behavior, they should be punished. In addition, to embed ethical culture in an organization, there should be communication and feedback from the top leads, which will lead to a good work ethic, high productivity, and increased commitment. Therefore, the organization system should set up competently so that it allows for the checking of unethical behavior that takes place.
The statement “If you want to get along… go along” means that people do not have control over what every individual in the organization does and say. What is wrong with this statement is that it assumes that as long as a person wants to get along with others, then everything is fine. It is wrong since an individual needs to see if people can be trusted, especially if the way a person acted in the past was bad since they are probably not going to change. For example, when workers experience bullying or intimidation at the workplace, they are forced to “get along” with their bullies; this will result in increased cases of bullying.
A statement like this can escalate into a bigger problem in an organization by forcing employees to allow negative situations in their life due to this thought, which means that there is a possibility of a problem such as making employees vulnerable to discrimination. It will result in serious consequences, such as having the female employees feel that males dominate them, creating a hostile work environment. Thus, the breakdown of a company’s ethical behavior occurs if unethical behaviors at the workplace are swept under the rug.
As an individual, I can break this thought pattern by being honest with others in the organization I work in instead of trying to get along. I will speak out willingly if I feel like something is wrong or if I think about bringing about a change for the better for others. It is because standing up for others no matter what when being treated unjustly will only show that we are strong and willing to fight for what is right. Many people are unwilling to stand up for themselves when experiencing unethical behavior because they fear being punished if they speak up. Therefore, being honest will break the pattern of getting along with people who bully or discriminate against others at work.
The text I choose is “because something is unethical does NOT mean it is illegal… Nor is all legal behavior ethical”. This means that just because unethical acts are legal does not mean that they are ethical and legal actions may be unethical but not illegal. In other words, everything is legal in a society and in the world however not all are ethical. I would use this in my leadership role by knowing the difference between legal and ethical issues. It will help me as a leader not to force something that is not morally right and not to “overlaying” things where they are potentially not legal. For example, I will not consider a halo of experience such as the years of service in a situation where an employee is involved in unethical behavior. Instead, the employee will face the necessary consequences for their actions. Therefore, I will know the respective policies and procedures of both so that I can make wise choices when there are no clear-cut answers in situations that are wrong but legal.
In conclusion, ethical behavior is an attitude; therefore, breaking the thought pattern of accepting unethical behaviors is done by forming strong core values of what is right and just. Next, those with leadership roles in workplaces do not have to form a pattern or way of doing things, such as sweeping things under the rug or forcing employees to accept bad situations. Instead, leaders should know the difference between legal and ethical to make decisions based on particular situations.
Reference
TEDx Talk. (2015). Legal vs. Ethical Liability: A Crisis of Leadership and Culture [YouTube channel]. Web.