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Ethics in Corporate America

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Ethics in Corporate America

Ethical v. Unethical, Compare & Contrast
The organizational performances of companies who deal with unethical business as opposed to companies who have leaders who consistently behave in an ethical manner have significant differences. One must, first, take into consideration how ethics are looked at as it pertains to the business community. Because terms dealing with the ideal behavior of leaders are used so loosely, it is helpful to define what these terms have generally come to mean in the business community. Ethics is the study of moral obligations, or of separating right from wrong. Ethics can also be a plural noun meaning the accepted guidelines of behavior for groups or institutions (Dubrin, 2010). Therefore, when dealing within organizations, if unethical behavior is not frowned upon, it can easily form at the highest level of the organization and trickle down throughout the organization, effecting employees on all levels. A leader who values fairness will evaluate group members on the basis of their performance, not personal friendships. And a moral leader will practice good ethics (Dubrin, 2010). In turn, if the leader has established good ethics and displays those in all fronts for the organization then the majority of the employee within the organization will be motivated to do the same. To further suggest the idea of the importance of the amount of ethical behavior displayed by the leader of the organization, the text provides that according to an LRN Ethics study conducted in the United States: A majority of full- time workers say it is critical to work for an ethical company. More than one in three workers left a job because of poor ethics by company leaders. Eighty-two percent of workers would be willing to receive less pay to work for an ethical company. Only 11 percent of workers claim not to be affected by

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