1. Ethics and Culture
Module 2
LIS 580: Spring 2006
Instructor- Michael Crandall
2. Roadmap
• What is ethics?
• Ethics in the workplace
• Organizational culture and social
responsibility
• Diversity in the workplace
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3. The Wall Street Journal Workplace-
Ethics Quiz
FIGURE 2–1
Source: Wall Street Journal, 21 October 1999, pp. 81–84. Ethics Officer Association, Belmont, Mass.; Ethics
Leadership Group, Wilmette, Ill.; surveys sampled a cross-section of workers at large companies and nationwide.
G.Dessler, 2003
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4. The Meaning of Ethics
• Ethics
– The study of standards of conduct and
moral judgment; also, the standards of right
conduct.
• Normative Judgment
– A comparative evaluation stating or
implying that something is good or bad,
right or wrong, or better or worse.
• Morality
– A society’s accepted norms of behavior.
G.Dessler, 2003
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6. The Ethical Continuum
Low High
FIGURE 2–2
Source: Source: Michael Boylan, Business Ethics
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001), p. 119.
G.Dessler, 2003
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7. Ethics and the Law
• Important Points:
– Something may be legal but not right
(ethical)
– Something may be right (ethical) but not
legal.
G.Dessler, 2003
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8. What Influences Ethical
Behavior At Work?
Ethical Work
Behaviors
Individual
Factors
Organizational
Factors
Top
Management
Ethics Policies
and Codes
G.Dessler, 2003
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10. Raytheon Company’s Quick
Ethics Test
• Is the action legal?
• Is it right?
• Who will be affected?
• Does it fit company values?
• How will it “feel” afterwards?
• How will it look in the newspaper?
• Will it reflect poorly on the company?
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11. Checklist 2.1
How to Foster Ethics at Work
Emphasize top management’s
commitment.
Publish an ethics code.
Establish compliance mechanisms.
Involve personnel at all levels.
Train employees.
Measure results.
G.Dessler, 2003
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12. What Is Organizational Culture?
• Organizational Culture
– The characteristic set of values and ways of
behaving that employees in an organization share.
• Patterns of Behavior
– Ceremonial events, written and spoken comments,
and actual behaviors of an organization’s members
that create the organizational culture.
• Values and Beliefs
– Guiding standards of an organization that affirm
what should be practiced, as distinct from what is
practiced.
G.Dessler, 2003
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13. Components of Organizational
Culture
• Signs and Symbols
– Practices and actions that create and sustain a
company’s culture.
• Stories
– The repeated tales and anecdotes that
contribute to a company’s culture by illustrating
and reinforcing important company values.
• Rites and Ceremonies
– Traditional culture-building events or activities
that symbolize the firm’s values and help convert
employees to these values.
G.Dessler, 2003
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14. Managers And Social
Responsibility
• Social Responsibility
– The extent to which companies should and do
channel resources toward improving the quality of
life of one or more segments of society other than
the firm’s own stockholders.
• Managerial Capitalism
– The classic view is that a corporation’s main
purpose is to maximize profits for stockholders.
• Stakeholder Theory
– Business has a social responsibility to serve all the
corporate stakeholders affected by its decisions.
G.Dessler, 2003
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15. FIGURE 2–5
A Corporation’s Major
Stakeholders
G.Dessler, 2003
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16. Managers And Social
Responsibility (cont’d)
• Moral Minimum
– The idea that corporations should be free to
strive for profits so long as they commit no
harm.
• Stockholders versus Stakeholders?
G.Dessler, 2003
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17. How to Improve the Company’s
Social Responsiveness
• Corporate Social Audit
– A rating system used to evaluate a corporation’s
performance in meeting its social obligations.
• Whistle-blowing
– The activities of employees who try to report
organizational wrongdoing.
• Social Responsibility Networks
– Organizations that promote socially responsible
business practices and help managers to establish
socially responsible programs.
G.Dessler, 2003
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18. Managing Diversity
• Managing Diversity
– Planning and implementing organizational systems
and practices to manage people in a way that
maximizes the potential advantages of diversity
while minimizing its potential disadvantages.
– Cultural diversity contributes to improved
productivity, return on equity, and market
performance.
• Diverse
– Describes a workforce comprised of two or more
groups, each of which can be identified by
demographic or other characteristics.
G.Dessler, 2003
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19. Bases for Diversity
• Racial and Ethnic
• Gender
• Older workers
• People with disabilities
• Sexual/affectional orientation
• Religion
G.Dessler, 2003
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20. Barriers in Dealing with Diversity
• Stereotyping
– Attributing specific behavioral traits to
individuals on the basis of their apparent
membership in a group.
• Prejudice
– A bias that results from prejudging someone on
the basis of the latter’s particular trait or traits.
• Ethnocentrism
– A tendency to view members of one’s own
group as the center of the universe and to view
other social groups less favorably than one’s
own.
G.Dessler, 2003
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21. Barriers in Dealing with Diversity
(cont’d)
• Discrimination
– A behavioral bias toward or against a person
based on the group to which the person belongs.
• Tokenism
– Appointing a small number of minority-group
members to high-profile positions instead of more
aggressively achieving full group representation.
• Gender-Role Stereotyping
– Usually, the association of women with certain
behaviors and possibly (often lower-level) jobs.
G.Dessler, 2003
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22. Activities Required to Better
FIGURE 2–7
Manage Diversity
G.Dessler, 2003
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23. Wrapup
• Management is part of life in an organizational
society
• Knowing how it works can help you achieve
your goals: personal, professional, and social
• Ethical and social responsibility is affected by
managerial actions and inaction
• Your choices as a manager build an
organizational culture that reflects your
decisions and values
• Take charge to make changes
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26. Next Time
• A week on planning– Tuesday’s topic is
“decision making”
– Read Chapter 3 and assigned article
• First discussion!! Be sure to read the case
• Think about these questions as you read
– Why is a decision so hard in this case?
– What process might have made it easier?
– Could something have been done earlier in the
process to avoid the complications?
– Who should be responsible for the decision?
– If you had to decide what to do next to resolve this
problem, how would you go about it?
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