Introduction

Organisational ethics are envisioned in the culture of the organisations culture. An

organisational culture refers to the organisations beliefs, practices, standards,
procedures, attitudes, values, ideologies, customs, tone and language. These
individual elements drive the ethical and moral aura of the organisations ecological
community. Ethical organisational culture refers to that aspect of the overall
organisational culture that consists of formal and informal systems of behavioural
control which either promote or hinder ethical behaviour (Trevino et al., 1998)

Promoting Ethical Climate

Promoting ethical climate in the organisation is to utilitarianise these elements

towards the betterment of the organisations people, environment, and objectives.
Moral agencies of the organisation have a duty to create any ethical climate within
and outside the organisation. The organisations leadership, as the moral champions
of ethical behaviour are indebted to create the ethical climate. Edward Hennessy
once said Ethics must begin at the top of an organisation, it is a leadership issue
and the chief executive must set the example. The duty of an ethical leadership is to
remove ethical dilemmas and ethical problems. Ethical problems in a business are
situations in which, on the other hand, one does not know what is right or wrong, and
on the other hand one knows the right thing to do but fails to act accordingly (Nash,
1990). Organisations moral environment should be built on trust, honest, integrity
and justice among other ethical ingredients to promote the organisations ethical
wellbeing.

Healthy ethical environment is rooted on clarity. Clarification of what is expected of

the lieutenants and partners of the organisation will help to promote the
organisational ethics. If clarity prevails in the organisation, expectations about what
responsible choices should be made when dealing with ethical problems will be clear
to both managers and employees (Kaptein, 1999) Clarity is found in the
organisations code, guidelines, mission statement, policy statements, contracts and
agreements. So the organisation through is moral agency should develop these
moral and ethics code, which regulate the organisations ethical climate.
When clarify has been defined, transparency must prevail in the application of the
codes and rule. Same issue must be handled in the same way. Transparency brings
up fairness, trust, commitment, openness and information sharing. In transparent
organisations, employees, peers, colleagues and superiors are able to recognise
and observe the consequences of (un)ethical behaviour (Hiekkataipale and Lms,
2017).
Leaders must set an example of exemplary ethical behaviour in their contact as a
critical way of contributing to the ethical behaviour of other members in the
organisation. Their contact will act as a benchmark to people within and outside the
organisation. (Solomon, 1999) noticed the same when he said managers act as role
models and salient authority figures whose example of (un)ethical behaviour is often
noticed and most likely followed by the other organisational members. According to
the Corporate Ethical virtue theory, role modelling is a component of organisational
ethics virtue of congruency

Organisational virtue of feasibility refers to an organisations ability to enable ethical

behaviour by offering adequate time, financial resources, skills, training, facilities,
information, technology, etc. for attaining the organisational objectives (Kaptein,
1999). This usually is imbedded in the organisations strategy in supporting individual
to execute their job. In my company there are cases where the mangers demand
people to deliver, without providing adequate resources at time. In the quest to meet
targets people will end up turning to unethical action. People will not report errors
and sweep them under the carpet.
Last but not list, ethical climates promotes enforcement of ethical behaviour through
punishing unethical behaviour and rewarding ethical behaviour. The guidelines to
rewards and punishments must be clearly stated in the codes, as seen (Pick n Pay,
2011) which reads In the event of misconduct, any disciplinary action must be lawful
and fair, and a proper record should be kept for each employee. Disciplinary action
cannot include physical abuse, corporal punishment, cruel treatment or punishment.
Fines or deductions from salary are prohibited unless this is permitted by law and
agreed to by the employee

Strengths and Weakness

The practises identified above come with their own strengths and weakness in
operationalizing them. While the organisation is bad up of apples from cultures with
different personas, putting ethical codes means transforming people into new
personality. If not done with due care, the process of creating an ethical climate,
might lead to moral disengagement and a reduction in self efficacy. The moral
agencies have their own interest and ethical believes. There might be a risk bias in
the process of creating ethical code.
However, the process has an advantage of directing all people in the organisation to
one strategy objective. Ethical climate has a motivational effect to the employees. If
people believe that the organisation is operation with a moral reasoning, they are
motivated to abide by its codes and participate in moral and ethical way.

Hiekkataipale, M.-M. and Lms, A.-M. (2017), (A)moral Agents in Organisations?

The Significance of Ethical Organisation Culture for Middle Managers Exercise
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Nash, L.L. (1990), Good Intentions aside: A Managers Guide to Resolving Ethical
Problems., Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
Pick n Pay. (2011), Code of Ethics for Pick n Pay, pp. 128.
Solomon, R.C. (1999), Better Way to Think about Business: How Personal Integrity
Leads to Corporate Success, Oxford University Press, New York.
Trevino, L., Butterfield, K.D. and McGabe, D.L. (1998), The ethical context in
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