Question

What purpose does an ethical climate serve, and why is it important to an organization?
How do biases impact our moral decision making?
Provide an example of an ethical issue. Why is this issue unethical? What behaviors are occurring that are unethical?
How could the ethical issue have been avoided? In other words, what are some of the leadership actions that should have been implemented to establish an ethical climate?

Answer 1

What purpose does an ethical climate serve, and why is it important to an organization?

An ethical climate is very important for the organization as well as all the individuals related to the organization. It is about "doing the right thing". Organizations portraying a highly ethical climate are respected and earn reputation of being an ethical and moral-based organization. It's employees feel a sense of self-confidence and pride. This leads to overall self-motivation and the organization is bound to be involved in creating a very positive environment around. Also, it's impact on the surrounding is very optimistic. Thereby, creating value for customers.

How do biases impact our moral decision making?

Biases cause to impact our moral decision making capability negatively. This means, when we are biased about a particular subject or individual; our reasoning and decision making skills are affected. We become emotional about decisions and mostly end up taking wrong decisions. This may impact us more or less severely. However, biases must be highly discouraged if we wish to achieve a higher business growth.

Provide an example of an ethical issue. Why is this issue unethical? What behaviors are occurring that are unethical?

There was an instance in my previous organization, wherein my design team had goofed up during generation of a project's BOM (Bill of Material). As a result, the material was not purchased and the project got delayed due to this. In order to hide this internal mistake, the project manager informed the client that the project was delayed due to late approval by client side. Also, he falsely stated that the material which was shortfall had a long delivery time, which it didn't. This was a lie. The project manager tried to cover our internal errors under the client's name. Thus, this matter was an unethical issue.

How could the ethical issue have been avoided? In other words, what are some of the leadership actions that should have been implemented to establish an ethical climate?

Firstly, the design team must have been careful in designing and determining the BOM. There must have been additional efforts by the Purchase head to reduce the delivery period of the material and procure it at the earliest. Thirdly, even after the first two measures would have been taken, the delay would be there, the project manager must have been honest enough with the client to state the actual reason for delay and own the fault. The client would have been upset, but definitely content with the approach of the project manager. "Honesty is the best policy" this would have definitely provided that our organization believed in telling the truth and would have assured that such incident would never reoccur.