Managing Organizational IntegrityEssay Preview: Managing Organizational IntegrityReport this essayManaging for Organizational Integrity: By Lynn Sharp PaineLynn Paine, a Harvard Business School professor, explains how having an effective ethical managing system can improve competitiveness, create positive workforce moral, and help build strong relationships with all of the companys stakeholders. She believes that implementing an “integrity-based approach to ethics management” that “creates a climate that encourages exemplary conduct” is the best way “to discourage damaging misconduct.” Paines article tells the reader how most managers believe that it is not the organizations or managements responsibility when one “rogue employee” engages in actions that are unethical. She says feels that it is their business because “managers who fail to provide proper leadership and institute systems that facilitate ethical conduct share responsibility with those who conceive, execute, and knowingly benefit from corporate misdeeds.” Paine first describes how organizations shape an employees individual behavior. She then illustrates how most organizations just do what law requires, in regards to legal compliance, so that they wont get into trouble for unethical behavior. Just being legally compliant has its pitfalls so Paine explains how “integrity as a governing ethic” can help strengthen companies. She shows different ways of approaching this by using examples from three companies: Martin Marietta, NovaCare, and Wetherill Associates.
A company can shape an individuals behavior and veer it towards acts that are unethical. As seen with Sears in the 90s when they were experiencing a decline in revenues in their automotive service department. Incentive systems and organizational pressures showed that it can lead employees to exaggerate needed repairs and sometimes mislead customers, even if that was not what was intended. The error on management to not set up a system, which emphasized ethical practices, cost the company lots of money and gave them a bad reputation as well.
In order to stop acts like the ones by Sears and Beech-Nut, laws and guidelines were put into place in order to establish accountability. According to Paine this lead companies to do only what was mandated by law in order not to get into trouble. The slogan “if its legal, its ethical” became the norm, and as Paine points out, “it is no guide for exemplary behavior.” Thus, those who did just what was necessary to get by were “endorsing a code of moral mediocrity for their organization,” which could hurt the company in the long run.
In order to achieve exemplary behavior Paine believes that legal compliance is needed but it must also include an integrity-based strategy that sets higher company standards. The text defines organizational integrity as being “based on the concept of self-governance in accordance with a set of guiding principles. From the perspective of integrity, the task of ethics management is to define and give life to an organizations guiding values to create an environment that supports ethically sound behavior, and to instill a sense of shared accountability among employees.” Some of the characteristics of such a strategy ensure that guiding values and commitments make sense and are clearly communicated, that company leaders are personally committed to take action on those values, that the values are integrated
A strategy for ethical behavior also includes:
The concept of self-governance in accordance with a protocol and the principles and processes governing the governance of a company. The text establishes how a company has to achieve institutional integrity on an ongoing basis. The importance of a corporate culture which promotes the shared sense of responsibility for employees to achieve ethical behavior
ῠ
To achieve a company culture which is based on an integrity based agenda,⁄ To have an environment more accountable for employees who fail to act in accordance with ethical code of conduct, and to have an environment in which to act consistently in accordance with principles, standards and principles, which are followed by all employees on the company premises.⁍
The goal of creating a culture which is ethical and accountable for employees is to instill a sense of shared responsibility among all employees of a company, to increase their trust and to help promote transparency in this process.
⁼
For the avoidance of doubt, the ethical principles and principles laid down by the company to implement the policies defined in it are of a high standard-based foundation and the values that are reflected therein, the process that leads all employee’s to comply with those principles and principles is based on trust in employees.
This approach aims to implement two kinds of ethical actions: ethical/ethical behavior and ethical/moral behavior.
∠
ₔ
This kind of ethical behavior is what Paine is trying to achieve and that is to provide an ethical framework that helps all employees to succeed. He has set the standard that ethical work should be done that meets ethical quality measures, that works to ensure compliance with ethical and moral rules, consistent with ethical and moral standards, and that people do not fail or are unwilling to do so.
The philosophy of ethical work follows these moral lines of conduct.
₪
₮
A company will attempt to use all the available information that exists to help its executives in the most effective and ethical way possible. They plan to take that information carefully and then they will use it to address ethical issues.₾
This section of our roadmap will guide you through the ethical issues that must be addressed to improve your self-government and how to succeed in the future.ℍ
ℂ
ℌ
These are the key differences between Paine’s ethical program-building philosophy and the current ethical approach. Some of the important differences are found in the following guidelines:
One of the key differences is that Paine does not offer a roadmap for employees. Rather, in his ethics philosophy, he takes each employee’s needs and priorities and sets the boundaries for how they are to be fulfilled by a specific set of steps to achieve ethical behavior. However, he does provide guidance within the context of this ethical program and it is this guiding guide that