adminSWOT analysis.
This undertaking will unravel critical organisational issues and identify existing gaps between “the way we do things here” of the organisation and the firm’s envisaged ethical paradigm.
An ethics SWOT analysis will help managers to systematically scan the existing organisational culture and operating environment, findings, which will then be used to structure the firm’s ethics programme.
Managers must be at the forefront of effectively communicating ethical standards and expectations to employees, they must schedule business ethics training for employees and managers must embed ethics in reward management systems.
And when managers engage in ethics management, the overarching goal should be to create a compelling ethical culture that revitalises production processes making the ethical culture a source of competitive advantage.
Ethics must be used as part of the corporate grand plan to rebrand and migrate a business towards increased market presence both locally and internationally.
It is the responsibility of managers to shape and transmit ethical values to employees.
This is so because managers deal with critical staff issues such as reward and performance management, promotions and dismissals, and they are the key persons in strategy implementation including driving business operations.
Research shows that the most powerful means through which managers can achieve a quick turnaround in promoting ethical behaviour in the workplace is by exhibiting exemplifying behaviour.
Managers must be committed to ethics and they should model ethical behaviour in the eyes of employees and all stakeholders.
As explained above, commitment towards growing ethical cultures should first see managers making an effort to examine and understand the existing ethical state of the organisation thus finding answers to questions such as these:
- Do employees feel safe to report unethical practices in the organisation?
- Do employees think that management always treats them fairly?
- Do employees feel valued as members of staff?
- Do employees feel pressured to compromise company values?
- Do employees believe ethical behaviour is rewarded or unethical behaviour punished in the organisation?
- Does the organisation have interests of workers at heart?
These questions speak to the heart of the fundamental issues that form the visible aspects of an ethical organisation.
It is when managers secure answers to such questions that they can correctly gauge the ethical mood in the organisation and get to know what needs to be done.
Ethics must be incorporated in reward systems so that it becomes an explicit part of compensation and promotion decisions in the organisation.
High performers should be rewarded not only for their good performance, but also for exhibiting exemplifying ethical behaviour.
The message this should send to staff is that both the performance targets and ethical behaviour count, and unless individuals have both, they should not expect advancement and good rewards in the organisation.
Managers have the responsibility to ensure employees go through business ethics training.
Simply telling staff to be ethical is not enough. Impact full organisational ethics goes beyond having individuals of a good upbringing to deliberately engaging all employees in ethics training.
Specialised ethics training must be mandatory in today’s organisation in order to capacitate employees in dealing decisively with ethical dilemmas and other complex ethical issues prevalent in the workplace.
Managers must be powerful communicators of ethics to employees. Employees need clear and consistent messages that ethical practices in the workplace are essential to the success of the organisation, and to achieve this, the manner in which management communicates the value of ethics must be a source of inspiration.
Managers must provide ethical leadership to staff. They should eat, drink, and sleep ethics, and managers must promote ethical reasoning and dialoguing among employees.
Giving lip service to ethics simply leads employees to reach the conclusion that managers do not care about ethics as much as they do care about other issues in the organisation.
Bradwell Mhonderwa is an Ethics Coach and Trainer with the Business Ethics Centre. Send feedback to [email protected], or call 0772 913 875
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