Organizational culture can be briefly described as the as the repertoire behaviors of employees from the same company and the way in which they react or respond to the meanings which they have attached to their lives. Organizational structure determines how the roles, power and responsibilities are assigned, controlled and coordinated between the different levels of management. More specifically, structure describes how members are accepted, how leadership is chosen, and how decisions are made. To have a satisfied, motivated, less stressed performing workforce an organization must have consistency amongst its structure, system, people, culture and good fit with the strategy.
In this paper an attempt has been made to identify how ethics is affected by organizational structure and culture. Culture is what the majority of employees view as acceptable behavior at work, the ethics of the leaders and organization as a whole. A collection of actions and views that reinforces what a company truly values. Every company has different organizational culture, for me it is how the company is defined in its entirety; its integrity, shared goals and focus on building teams. A positive work environment also encourages ethical decision making where employees feel comfortable and have freedom to make honorable decisions.
The structure of an organization (also called design) has a huge impact on the type of culture a company develops. Structure can be defined in several ways, Motan and Hu (2004) noted that commonly used structural dimensions include centralization, specialization, standardization, formalization, hierarchy levels, etc. All of these contingency factors or issues determine how collaborative, cooperative and supportive attitudes are promoted in an organization. It becomes difficult for employees to make ethical decisions in an unethical work environment. Good