Transcript Ethics as Organizational Culture Part 1

Ethics as
Organizational Culture
Part 1
Geoffrey G. Bell, PhD, CA
University of Minnesota Duluth
November, 2003
Cookie-cutter approaches
won’t work
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Fundamental assumption of chapter – ethics is an
integral part of the organization’s culture.
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Underlying assumption – organizations’ cultures differ greatly
from each other.
Thus, designing an ethical organization means analyzing
all aspects of the organization’s culture and aligning
them to support ethical behavior and discourage
unethical behavior.
“Cookie cutter” approaches can only address superficial
problems.

Beware the consultant who generates a boiler plate report.
Common and distinct elements
of ethical problems
Common ethical problems may exist
across organizations.
 However, organizations differ in terms of
ethical problems that are most common or
of most concern.

Beware “flavor of the month” ethics

Employees will be able to sniff out a “flavor of the month”
approach to ethical (or any other) problems.
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Recall Al and making employees independent contractors.
This is really the “Dilbert-ization” of management and ethics.
After a while, the attitude will become, “if we just keep
our heads down long enough, it’ll go away, and we’ll be
back to business as usual.”
Unique plans are needed to solve unique organizational
needs.
Organizations are interaction of
formal & informal systems
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Formal systems
Organization structure
Methods of
differentiation &
integration,
centralization, and
formalization
Planning, controlling,
etc. systems

Informal systems
Informal peer-to-peer
networks
 E.g.,
who is friends of
whom, who goes to
whom for advice?

Organizational norms,
values, and beliefs.
All systems must be aligned
to support ethical behavior

Note that norms, beliefs, and values may make
formal rules / structure unnecessary or
inoperative.
 E.g.,
if there is a norm that we always strive to help
others, then a formal reward system for helping
behavior is unnecessary.
 E.g., if there is a norm to produce at any cost, then
rules that “quality matters” may be ineffective.

To create an ethical culture, the formal &
informal systems must be aligned and sending
the same message.
An introduction to
organizational culture

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Culture is a body of learned beliefs, traditions, and
guides for behavior shared among members of an
organization.
Expresses shared assumptions, values and beliefs of the
organization.
Note – neither strong culture nor weak culture by itself is
either good or bad. However, strong & weak cultures
determine where guides to behavior will occur.

In weak culture organizations, there is no dominant culture, so
many different subcultures exist.
The role of socialization
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Socialization of newcomers occurs both formally
and informally.
Socialization teaches newcomers what the
bounds of acceptable and unacceptable
behavior are.
The goal is that, at some level, newcomers will
internalize cultural expectations.
Importance of ensuring formal and informal
socialization sends a consistent, positive
message.
Organizational imprinting:
the role of the founder
Much organizational research suggests
that an organization’s founder has a strong
influence on the organization’s culture.
 Interestingly, research indicates that the
imprinting is relatively indelible, and new
leaders change it only with difficulty.

 Change
vision.
will involve a clearly articulated
Executive leadership & ethics
Moral person
 Note
that changing
culture is difficult.
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Tone at the top
matters.
See lesson plan.
Strong
Weak
Strong
Hypocritical
leader
Ethical
leader
Ethically
neutral
Weak
Leadership is a
critical component of
creating an ethical
culture.
Moral manager

Unethical
leader
?
Ethics and bureaucracy
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An organization has a formal power structure,
and tendency toward obedience to authority can
undermine an organization’s attempt to build in
personal accountability.
If employees don’t question authority, it means
they’re not thinking for themselves.
Managers can delegate responsibility to avoid
blame for problems.
Diffusion of responsibility

Managers (and employees) and the formal
organization structure can also diffuse /
fragment responsibility.
 Key
if you’re trying to take unpopular actions
– make sure the blame is diffused.
 Another key – make sure you’re in a position
to control key bridges (structural holes) across
fragmented responsibility.