Research confirms the existence of three levels of moral
development each composed of two stages. At each successive stage, an
individual’s moral judgement becomes less and less dependent on outside
influences.
The first level is labeled preconventional. At this level a
person’s choice between right or wrong is based on personal consequences
involved, such as physical punishment, reward or exchange of favors. Ethical
reasoning at the conventional level indicates that moral values reside in
maintaining expected standards and living up to the expectations of others.
At
the principle level, individuals make a clear effort to define moral principles
apart from the authority of the groups to which they belong or society in
general.
INDIVIDUAL’S CHARACTERISTICS: Every person joins an organization with a relatively entrenched
set of values, Our values – developed at a young age from parents, teachers
friends and others represent basic convictions about what is right or wrong.
Two personality variables also have been found influence an
individuals actions according to his or her beliefs about what is right or
wrong: ego strength and locus of control.
Ego strength is a
personality measure of the strength of a persons convictions. People who score
high on ego strength are likely to resist impulses to act unethically and
instead follow their convictions. That is individuals high in ego strength are
more likely to do what they think is right.
Locus of control is a
personality attribute that reflects the degree to which people believe they
control their own fate. People with an internal locus of control believe that
they control their own destinies; those with an external locus believe that
what happens to them is due to luck or chance. How does this influence a
person’s decision to act ethically or unethically ? Externals are less likely
to take personal responsibility for the consequences of their behavior and are
more likely to rely on external forces. Internals on the other hand are more
likely to take responsibility for consequences and rely on their won internal
standards of right or wrong to guide their behavior.
Structural Variables An
organization’s structural design influences whether employees behave ethically.
Some structures provide strong guidance, whereas others create ambiguity and
uncertainty formal rules and regulations and those that continuously remind
employees of what is ethical are more likely to encourage ethical behavior.
Some organizational performance appraisal systems focus exclusively on outcomes.
Outcomes they may be pressured to do “whatever is necessary” to look good on
the outcomes variables and not be concerned with how they got those results.
Recent research suggests that success may serve to excuse unethical behaviors.
Just think of the impact of this type of thinking. The danger is that if
managers take a more lenient view of unethical behaviors for successful
employees other employees will model their behavior on what they see.
Organizations culture The content
and strength of an organization’s culture also influence ethical behavior. An
organizational culture most likely to encourage high ethical standards is one
that’s high are encouraged to be aggressive and innovative are aware that
unethical practices will be discovered and feel free to openly challenge
expectations they consider to be unrealistic or personally undesirable.
The Boeing company for example has a strong culture that has long
stressed ethical dealings with customers employees, the community and
stockholders . to reinforce the importance of ethical behaviors the company
developed a series of serious and thought provoking posters designed to get
employees to recognize that their individual decisions and actions are
important to the way the organization is viewed.
Issue Intensity Similarly a
manger might think nothing about taking home a few office supplies yet be
highly concerned about the possible embezzlement of company funds. These
examples illustrate the final factor that affects a managers ethical issue
itself. As exhibit 5 – 9 shows six characteristics determine issue intensity:
greatness of harm, consensus of wrong, probability of harm, immediacy of
consequences, proximity to victim(s), and concentration of effect. These six
factors determine how important an ethical issue is to an individual .
According to these guidelines the larger the number of people harmed, the more
agreement that the action is wrong, the greater the likelihood that the action
will cause harm, the more immediately that the consequences of the action will
be felt, the closer the person feels to the victim(s) and the more concentrated
the effect of the action on the victim(s) the greater the issue intensity. When
an ethical issue is important – that is the more intense it is – the more we
should expect employees to behave ethically.
