Fostering workplace ethics

Bradwell Mhonderwa Business Ethics
GETTING to understand the importance of ethics in the workplace, is a matter that demands organisations to deliberately set in motion, empowerment efforts that seek to help workers resolve ethical dilemmas inherent in the workplace. Organisations must plan and allocate adequate time, towards staff training in business ethics in order to equip employees with skills that will help to tackle ethical dilemmas among other ethical challenges characteristic of the workplace.

Employees face ethical dilemmas on a daily basis. Sometimes they are tempted to lie to a potential customer in order to get him/her to buy their products, or it may be a case of a male supervisor who is in the habit of nagging his female subordinates through suggestive and unsolicited sexual gestures.

In other instances it may be a case of employees not knowing how best they should handle customer complaints, or that they are simply not sure of how they should report colleagues and supervisors, they find engaging in inappropriate behaviour.

The key to fostering strong business ethics at your company is to create an ethics management framework that clearly spells out what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. This means coming up with a code of ethics that is supported by other ethics infrastructure such as an ethics office, a reporting hotline, scheduled ethics training for staff, and ethics reward and sanctioning processes.

A solid ethics framework will clearly outline the ethical standards and procedures, employees must follow in order to resolve ethical dilemmas.

If these ethical procedures and standards are not spelt out in black and white, employees will be tempted to handle workplace ethical matters in their own way, which will cause confusion and compromise the integrity and reputation of the firm.

The company ethics framework should also make it clear to workers that they must treat clients and customers fairly and honestly. This means discouraging employees from lying to potential clients or providing them with misleading information. Employees should not hide the true price of a service or product in an effort to trick customers, into paying up. They should not promise more than what they can deliver and employees should never harass customers.

An effective ethics management process forbids abusive behaviour in the workplace. Abusive behaviour in the workplace can take many forms.

Employees might engage in sexual harassment, bullying other workers, badmouthing others or using offensive jokes and stealing from the company.

The company ethics processes must explicitly state that all such actions are forbidden and punishable. It also needs to spell out the sanctions to be meted out on such actions.

Some employees are in the habit of seeking to gain favours from their supervisors and managers, by taking credit for work that others employees may have performed.

Such behaviour must be discouraged as it promotes backbiting and disharmony in the workplace. Through deliberate employee ethics training, employees are empowered to engage in ethical reasoning and decision-making that will help them to resolve ethical challenges with ease.

Ethical decision-making is a key element of sound workplace relations and staff productivity, so the need to develop ethical decision-making skills amongst employees should always be on the agenda of every responsible business entity.

Ethical decision-making helps employees to anticipate ethical problems, recognise ethical dilemmas, and resolve ethical challenges as they come.