Do you believe that use of ethical behaviour will pay off

Ethical behaviour is characterized by honesty, fairness and equity in interpersonal, professional and academic relationships. Ethical behaviour respects the diversity, dignity and rights of individuals and different groups of people.

It can be defined as the standards you hold for yourself in all facets of life like the attributes of responsibility, honesty and how you treat others in whatsoever situation. These same standards are applicable in your job to whatever position you hold, in your community, and even in your personal life where only you are the master of whatever you do. Ethical behaviour is practicing all these standards of dignity and attributes of virtue even when it is not convenient to do so.

Companies sometimes use a pledge to ensure that employees practice ethical behavior in different business scenarios. Employees, too, confirm these pledges with their signature stating that they agree and follow the ethical principles of the company. Companies may also use these pledges to reinforce the importance of ethical behavior in business and why the employees should sign the pledge and follow these principles. Ethics pledges also gives the employees the freedom to report any unethical business practices by any other employees or even the manager for which most of the companies use an anonymous reporting method to ensure employees aren’t harassed, punished or castigated for pointing out people who engage in unethical behaviour.

In business as well, ethics and ethical behaviour play an important part. Companies use ethical behaviour models to make sure employees and managers follow the proper rules of the business environment and the company while working. Many organizations even develop proper guidelines to train employees on structured ethical behaviour in the workplace. Ethical guidelines can help to relieve the pressure of a company it faces from its competitors, the economic market, and, of course the customers when conducting business.

Leadership is the main way in which companies surrogate proper ethical behavior. Executive managers and leaders have a responsibility to set the breeding ground for ethical behavior by conducting business in a moral and ethical manner. Workers may become unwilling to accept the ethical guidelines of the company, if a leader himself fails to display a proper ethical behavior in an organisation. Leaders who act ethically make sure that if there are any problems arising in the company; they should be quickly identified and handled appropriately.

The perceptions of ethical leadership in an organization are important for employee job satisfaction and these perceptions may be influenced by leader’s ethical behavior. In fact, employee perceptions of communication and leadership behavior may differ from leader perceptions of the same factors. Thus, it is very important to understand managers and employees view each other’s behavior and communication within a business.

Ethical behavior is something what all career-minded people should aim to have. And, in this regard, not just the ethical values but an exceptional behavior too. This is because to build a career, one must be regulated by rules of ethics to safeguard oneself and others as well. Ethics purely point on personal conduct of behavior. It includes personal choices that can either make you or break you in the work place or business. Having a good conduct is important to maintain a high level of regard not only for your profession but for the people around you as well. However, in everyone’s profession there are certain limits that have been set and different rules and regulations to govern one in the job. In simple words, as a professional, one need to know the things one should do and one should not. Different organizations have different ethical code of behavior. There are many things that one can gain by having good ethical behavior in the workplace.

Ethics are taught to us at a very young age. Practicing ethical behavior is important to everyone in the workplace, because it promotes teamwork among co-workers, can take a business to new heights, and build confidence and trust in each other. One of the first things we learn probably in the kindergarten is to be honest. Behaviors such as, cheating or lying, were and are always considered wrong and could land one a bad situation. Practicing honesty, holding on to what you say and remaining loyal to your beliefs, can build a sound and respectable reputation in the workplace.

One should treat others with equal respect regardless of sex, colour, creed, age, or other differences. Being respectful towards co-workers, supervisors, and customers promotes an environment of tolerance and openness that is the perfect base for establishing customer and employee satisfaction and loyalty as well.

But without responsibility where would honesty, loyalty and ethical behavior take you? Responsibility is performing at your highest level and taking your duties seriously. If a task seems difficult, one shouldn’t give up rather one should try to find the answer, solution or help you need to complete the work as ultimately you are the person who is responsible for the quality of work you do so take and accept responsibility for your decisions. Working as part of team in the workplace can be sometimes challenging because you have to be open-minded and listen to everyone’s opinion. But it is a great way to build a reputation of balanced equity in the workplace by being fair and reasonable to the positions and views of others. These ethical behaviors would mean nothing if the caring attitude is not developed to match them. Infusing your co-workers and customer interactions with compassion, gratitude, and forgiveness are some essential tools for creating mutually respectable relationships that will prosper in future.

Ethical behavior in the workplace isn’t a myth; the capacity to practice honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness, and compassion has existed in each of us since we were taught these values in kindergarten. If you haven’t already, tap into those memories to be on your way to becoming the best person you can be in your career.

Practicing ethical behavior in one’s career can do so much good. Firstly, it can take business to tremendous heights. This is because actually doing what you are supposed to do will develop a discipline which will push the practices of your work to higher level and set higher standards. Plus, it has also been observed that this promotes teamwork among workers. This is because there is great regard practiced in any of the fundamental issues occurring in the work place. It also builds up confidence which in turn builds up confidence among co- workers and in your career too. Trust in one’s career is an inevitable and something that can not be valued and that is able to pave way to great success and progress.

Secondly, simple ethical behaviors such as being honest and telling the truth are becoming rarer in jobs and careers. So, just doing these simple things can make your career achieve phenomenon heights. Practicing these rare attitudes and virtues can not only develop your career but your personal life as well as one stand unique and admired practicing these behaviors. It is just doing simple things that will develop you as a good person besides developing your career.

Ethical decisions of management are something that can either make or break a business. Because of these decisions, people have good working environments to work with having a personal satisfaction that they are ethical. Being ethical in management means that a business will have a great atmosphere to work in, efficient employees and of course, satisfied clientele. On the other hand, when a business or anyone associated with the business makes an unethical decision, it not only effects themselves but to a much extent business as well, all those who are connected with the business such as investors, clientele. So one wrong decision can affect each and everyone connected to the business directly or indirectly.

So, in the nutshell, it can be said that practicing ethical behavior does pay off in the long run as it is the virtues, the values, the attributes you hold. The ethical practices you practice in your business, in your workplace, so it does make a difference and make a business as well as an individual prosper and progress.

“Within the business context, businesses are expected to have good ethical values and act socially responsible. The problem is that the ethics of a business is a mixture of individual sets of ethics. This is why it is important to have good individuals as employees. It is also equally important that when you go to work somewhere that you feel like you share the values of those you work with. Ethics is not just talking about right thing. It is doing what is right in every decision that is made.”

Based on above observation discuss the impact on society that ethical leaders can make.

Ethical behavior is exhibited by the leaders when they are doing what is good, justified and morally right. When, they help to elevate their followers through moral self-actualization and moral awareness. Ethics is basically concerned with impact of one’s actions on others and the society as well. It is expected from every ethical leader that he/she treats his/her employee unbiased and with justice. Being treated fairly and equally encourages the followers to do their job more sincerely, be more satisfied with the position they are into and giving more devotion and commitment to the job.

Being an ethical leader is not that easy. A leader is a role model for his followers. If a leader is particular about ethics and about practicing ethical behavior in the workplace, it will enhance the employees’ trust in their leader which in turn will enhance their compliance with the rules of the company, facilitate the implementation of organizational change as well as increase their zones of indifference. In addition to this, employee trust in their leaders influences their performance in the organization, their intention to remain with the company, and the virtue of behavior. All these attributes will ultimately contribute to the success of the organization.

An ethical leader is the one who looks after the interest of his team members or employees rather than seeking at fulfilling his own self-interest on the expense of others. Ethical leaders involve their team members or employees in decision making process in their organization. Ideally, ethical leaders base their behavior on moral principles that takes into account the rights of others, treats them equally, fairly and unbiased.

Ethical leaders can have a huge impact on society. Ethical leaders are the role models of their followers and can be set as an example for others to follow as well. In regards of jobs, because these leaders aim to protect the basic human rights of autonomy, dignity, self-respect etc., they are more intended to structure jobs so that the employees as well have participation in decision making over dimensions of their jobs, plus, widen more participation within decision-making structure of their firm. This surrogates the feeling of much more participation from each and every one working in the firm and also gives the feeling of self-determination and self-confidence.

Also, ethical leaders are more intended to provide job opportunities to the youth of the society. And, being unbiased they are more interested in valuing and acknowledging the talent an individual has, rather than playing any mind games or the traditional office politics which are very common in the workplace. They are more interested in knowing how much knowledge and devotion an employee has for his position, and for this, they keep providing opportunities such as active participation in office meetings and decision making. They keep encouraging full engagement of the employees at work as this helps raise an individual’s spirit and confidence and help them realize their future dreams, their plans and make contributions to the organization that cannot be made by an individual alone.

So, in sum, it can be said that it is very important to have good and honest ethical leaders in the society as well as in the workplace as these leaders help protecting an individual’s rights, particularly the most basic rights of self-respect, autonomy and dignity. This in turn results in development of greater feelings of empowerment in employees’. Ethical leaders are the role models of the society and they can be set as an example for future leaders to come.