Develop an Ethical work environment for your strategic advantage.

?Organizational ethics is defined as sets of formal and informal standards of conduct that people use to guide their behavior. These standards are partly based on core values such as honesty, respect, and trust, but they also can be learned directly from the actions of others. For example, what people see their organizational leaders, managers, and coworkers do on the job can influence their views on acceptable or unacceptable behavior.

?With the growing focus on corporate governance standards, leaders should establish a practice of positive workplace ethics within their organizations with some formal written ethics standards, provide ethics training, and ensure resources are available for advice /clarifications. Leadership should also act strongly in cases of violation of ethical principles. I recollect instances during performance assessments and promotion evaluation discussions, this was brought up in a hushed voice, and the person was denied good ratings or denied promotions, etc. However, the individual was never confronted on these allegations nor was any proactive action taken up. These behaviors are neither good for the employee nor healthy for the organization. ?

?Many organizations now see value in actively promoting ethics within their organizations. The list of potential benefits linked to organizations known for their work ethics practices include:

• ?Recruiting and retaining top-quality people;
• Fostering a more satisfying and productive working environment;
• Building and sustaining the reputation of the organization.
• Maintaining the trust of employees to ensure continued self-regulation;
• Legitimizing open discussion of ethical issues;
• Providing guidance and resources to employees before making difficult decisions; and
• Better investor confidence and funding terms.

?An ethics program could address how people think about and address ethical issues on the job. Is it okay for employees to acknowledge that they have a dilemma, and are resources readily available to guide employees in working through such issues before making decisions?

??A proper structure that tells people they need to report it when someone does something wrong or inappropriate, (a whistle-blower policy is designed with this in view). However, this is not the main reason to have an ethics program. A formal ethical guideline, in the form of policies and practices, provides employees with the tools they need to take informed risks on behalf of their organizations. Ethical guidelines should enable employees to steer away from unethical risk-taking behaviors and into more productive and appropriate kinds of risk-taking behaviors.

?Ethical guidelines should give employees a framework to make these decisions themselves. Ethics guidelines and programs cannot prevent all misconduct from occurring, even in the best-run and most ethical organizations, there are always a few employees who willfully break the rules, in such cases, there is no substitute for strong disciplinary measures.

?The reason for an ethics program is to allow good people to do the right thing and succeed. Employees need to be sensitive to ethical issues on the job and must trust their organizations enough to raise them.

?A simple survey to check if the employees trust their organizational ethical practices and guidelines and expect their organizations to do what is right, not just what is profitable, would clarify the perceptions.

Employees would like to see their leaders and supervisors modeling ethical behavior, and values such as honesty, respect, and trust. An ethical work environment is strongly linked to advocacy and ethical modeling by leaders and supervisors. Creating folklore within the organization of such instances instills confidence in existing and new employees.?

These become critical aspects for employees in transitioning organizations - those that have undergone a merger, acquisition, or restructuring in the recent past.

?The perceptions of the ethical environment become critical in attracting and retaining talent. This slowly builds and sustains the organization's reputation. In many cases, the top-quality people you want to hire are those looking for more than a job - they want to feel good about their work and organizational integrity. In a competitive job market, one should not underestimate the potential impact of an environment of good work ethics in attracting high-quality candidates. The low attrition rate in some of the leading IT companies in the current high attrition environment in the IT industry may be a case in point.

Long-term investors would like to invest in companies whose promoters and management are ethical and honest. Stock markets reward such companies with fancy premiums over their competition and stock markets punish companies for defaulting their trust in ethics and governance standards. There are several instances of stock prices of companies hitting rock bottom and never recovering due to ethical issues. ?

Commitment and top leadership style are critical to any ethical workplace. Developing an ethical work environment can be your strategic advantage and profitable in long run.