ETHICS IN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

 

Introduction

 

Organizational culture is an important element in the process of decision making.  Note that organization comprises a group of people with different beliefs and where people interact in sharing assumptions and beliefs. Culture is valued in decision making in that the different norms   are applied in solving workplace problems. In times of crisis, organizational culture offers a common set of premises which guide lower-level and high-level personnel in making decision.  Culture and decision-making is strengthened by trust. The latter promotes integrity which allows organizational members follow norms and act ethically in achieving mission and mandates. The purpose of this paper is to examine how culture in government organization can influence the decision making and create both ethical and unethical policies.

 

The military commission is a government organization established by the Bush administration. The culture in this organization led to unethical practices through appointing a political appointee to serve in the Convening Authority (Kurtz, 2003). The organization created a culture of political influence which was reinforced by the Secretary of Defense.  The culture influenced unethical practices in that the political appointee   does not consider unbiased and apolitical issues as a military commander and he or she lacks military equivalent.  The politically organizational culture influence unethical practices by violating the codes of ethics which states that the military justice should not be connected with a politically organizational culture (Kurtz, 2003).

Organization culture is a collective phenomenon where members create mutual understanding through shared values and beliefs. The social interaction promotes a sense of identity and when making decision, members adhere to ethical behaviors and core values. Strong organization culture influences decision making in that culture comprises agreement among the members where they develops creative thinking in their roles and making policies (Cooper, 2012). An organization culture encourages the members to share assumptions while honoring the diverse cultures. However, an organization culture may promote unethical behaviors where members resist the authority. Upper management may be aware of the culture of defiance but they may encourage it for the purpose of achieving financial goals. In addition, culture may promote unethical behaviors when leaders ignore legal and ethical principles. Diligence leads to unethical practices since leaders are unable to communicate the ethical codes and address the ethical violations (Cooper, 2012).

 

Norms, customs and traditions could play an important role in making decision this is because, inputs and outputs from personnel could influence the decision, managers and organizational members could pay attention on the issues and come up an effective idea, managers could address critical incident in the right way and could use the right criteria for selection and promotion (Cooper, 2012).  In addition, management and leadership are key elements required in making decision in that leaders and managers could act as an example and address the events wisely for organizational members to see what is expected from them.  Other point to note is that organization culture play role in decision making in that the ethical beliefs and values are shared. The culture norms establish moral values which are use in making decision (Cooper, 2012).

The organization is faced with an ethical dilemma by shifting from a military culture to a political culture with political control. This practice creates a dilemma in that the new paradigm ignores the enemy prisoners and provisions (Kurtz, 2003).  This dilemma rooted from the leadership since majority of Bush administration were political appointees who acted differently from military members.  The selected apolitical appointee act differently with the limitary commander and end up developing diverse legal policies (Kurtz, 2003).  The military commission has a unique political dynamic which creates ethical obstacles. The professional disincentives and political manipulation contributes to bureaucratic and ethical pressures which hinders effective decision-making and professional responsibility (Kurtz, 2003).

 

According to Cooper (2012), public administrators can maintain a responsible conduct through creating an effective organization management.  In order to have a responsible conduct, managers should manage the organizational ethics through creating code of ethics.  In other words, managers should act like a designer in order to address ethics in the organization structure and culture. Acting like a designer will help the administrators examine the organization, understand constrains and think creatively in implementing change. Ethical management acts as internal control where managers are expected to show professional values and develop professional socialization in addressing ethics scandals. In addition, Cooper (2012) says that managers should not apply idiosyncratic fashion in dealing with organization conflict. Rather, they should set policies which align with public service values. In other words, administrators   can maintain a response conduct by establishing polices which adheres to the basic principles and avoid focusing on self-serving. In other words, managers should apply the eternal controls such as adopting new legislation, creating new rules and regulations, creating new monitoring and building a new organizational structure.

Cooper (2012) provides solution to ethical dilemmas and states that a public administrator should address ethical dilemma by focusing on the situational context. This means that before encouraging ethical behaviors, it is important to find the root cause of ethical dilemmas. In other words, managers should consider social, cultural and physical setting in making ethical decision. Having examined both organization and environmental setting, members will offer alternative courses in solving the dilemma. In encouraging positive human behaviors, situational variable is a path for moral behaviors which are reinforced by considering individual and organization setting (Cooper, 2012).  Generally, administrators should solve ethical dilemmas by ensuring they have a complete knowledge of the organization issues. This will help them define the issue, find alternative action, apply moral imagination in selecting a positive consequence and finally they will be able to implement moral rules and ethical principles.

 

Conclusion

 Organization culture is made up of diverse values and beliefs, and people shares their culture and uses rational analysis in making decision. Rational analysis is a process where decision makers use judgment and standards in order to avoid uncertainty. In making decision, organization culture develops a intuitive decisions which comprise unstable environment and disagreement. However, member forms a participatory decision making where they focus on goals and strategies, information enquiries, socialization and discussion. The research has shown that organization culture can lead to both ethical and unethical practices in organization.  However, administrators can maintain a responsible conduct and address the dilemmas by adhering to ethical principles.

 

Reference

 

Kurtz, R. S. (2003). Orgaizational Culture, Decision-Making, and Integrity. Public Integrity, 5(4), 305-317.

 

Cooper, T. L. (2012). The responsible administrator: An approach to ethics for the administrative role(6th

ed.). New York, NY: Jossey-Bass.