Respond to each classmate with 100 words or more. This is the question they had to answer. List at least four items that you think are necessary in an organization for establishing an ethical culture,

Respond to each classmate with 100 words or more.

This is the question they had to answer.

List at least four items that you think are necessary in an organization for establishing an ethical culture, and briefly expound on each item.

Classmate 1

Creating an ethical culture in the workplace is important for many reasons. Ethical culture sets an expectation for team members. There are several items that should be factored into creating an ethical culture.  One is leadership leading by example.  Leadership in the organization should model the behavior expected by their employees.  They need to understand people are watching at all times.  Another is having mandatory training on ethical behavior.  Leadership cannot expect employees to gain an understanding of the expected ethical behavior by only watching them.  They must also reinforce the behavior.  This reinforcement is encouraged with ongoing training.  Leadership must also communicate effectively the expectation.  One cannot assume others will model behavior without communicating the expectation.  Not only should leadership communicate the ethical expectation, but they should also explain the value and the why.  A third item necessary to establish an ethical culture is setting the team up for success by providing them the tools they need to act ethically.  These tools not only include training as mentioned above, but also includes counseling and supervision.  An organization that provides additional tools gives their employees a sounding board or someone to assist with problem-solving and ensuring they are modeling ethical behavior when making decisions.  A fourth item that can be included is leadership providing employees feedback when they are not following the established ethical culture.  Organizations must reinforce ethical culture when they observe or are informed of team members not meeting the expectation.  They should quickly take action for the team member to correct their behavior to avoid disruption and other team members modeling the incorrect behavior. 

Classmate 2 

Four items that are necessary in an organization in order for them to establish an ethical culture are recruitment, orientation, continuous employee engagement and leadership development (Ruddell, 2014).  It is always ideal to hire people who share the same ethics as your organization.  A great deal of information can be gathered from an individual based upon his responses to different scenarios regarding ethics.  Typically, his responses will give you a sense of his worldview.  

An organization’s orientation program should be geared toward socialization, which includes informing employees of their ethics statement, as well as encouraging them to acquire the necessary behavior.  There are two types of socialization - formal and informal.  Formal socialization involves the organization’s attempt to intentionally affect the employees’ attitudes.  While informal socialization involves just regular interaction amongst the employees.  

The organization’s ethics statement should set the tone for its ethical culture.  It should be precise and correspond with the organization’s worldview.  By accurately depicting the organization’s worldview, the ethics statement should leave no doubt as to how the employees should behave across the board.  Also, the organization should establish a way for employees to confidentially report ethical violations.  

Leaders will probably have the most influence on employees.  That is why it is important for them to actually “walk the walk.”  “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (King James Bible, 2017, James 1:22).  Their actions should embody the organization’s ethics statement.  They should be trained on how to implement and enforce business ethics.  As such, the leaders should be tasked with informing the employees of what can be done, what cannot be done, what the consequences will be for doing something that they should not have done and for enforcing the company’s standards.