Answer :

MGTA301A: Ethics and Sustainability

Introduction

The prioritised purpose of this reflective report is to explain the aspects of ethical and cultural behaviour, which are essential for managing action in the workplace. In the first section, the report describes a summarised version of the ethical issues as well as frameworks represented in the Part A. The second part is comprised of a series of total six reflective questions, by which a broad viewpoint about my future workplace behaviour would be reflected. 

Summary of issues and frameworks discussed in Part A

The first ethical issue described in part A was about the Volkswagen Scandal, in which the company used particular equipment, named TDI or Turbocharged Direct Injection, for passing the emission control test. As per the issue occurred in 2009, the company cheated in this context, as due to the presence of TDI, it showed a false assumption of the amount of emitted Nitrogen Oxide (Ewing, 2017). For overcoming this extreme level of ethical breach, the common good approach would be used, as this would provide the opportunity of making decisions through maintaining moral reasoning. On the other hand, the second issue is described the Tesco's unethical accounting scandal, in which the company showed inflammatory trading profit figures for obtaining more investment from the stakeholders (Ft.com, 2019). In order to manage the ethical issue, the utilitarian approach can be used for controlling the ethics in organisational operations. The benefit of using this approach is company actions would include a balanced influence for the stakeholders and community, through which the harmful impacts become reduced. 

Reflection on your future workplace behaviour

How might you change your behaviour in the future based on what you have learned about the two ethical frameworks?

From the above-mentioned two ethical frameworks, I have learnt about the implications of common good approach and utilitarian approach. Through this, I could improve my knowledge regarding professional ethics and manage my ethical behaviour in any kind of workplace conditions, even during the conflicted ones. For example, if I start working in any HR consultation firm, and observe that the managerial department does not show proper report of employee recruitment, including the financial justification to the hierarchy for gaining extra margin, I would raise my voice against them through applying the common good approach. I would ensure that this unethical event would be reported to the hierarchy of the organisation correctly, along with sufficient evidence, for making sure that the managerial department would stop such types of activity in future. On the other hand, if I observe that the department is making hasty decisions regarding the recruitment, due to which the entire company needs to become the sufferer. Thereby, instead of being silent, I would apply the utilitarian approach, and try to change such types of unprofessional behaviour, through maintaining the balance in working. 

How does your professional ethics influence how you might behave?

The entire humankind living in the current world maintains different kinds of ethical practices, in both the personal as well as professional lives, as these ethical standards have the capacity of influencing the norms, values, behaviours, and attitudes of people. However, as contradicted by Hamel (2018), the professional ethics, followed by various organisations, do not provide any assurance about the prevention of unethical practices; however, it might influence the mindset of employees, during the decision making the process. For example, if the workplace I would join in future has a proper set of ethics, I would assure that I would maintain the ethical standards while working in the company. However, it is necessary to reinforce the ethics properly, through some ways of punishment, which would influence the casual professional attitudes of other workers and me.  

How might the behaviour of senior management influence your behaviour?

From the evidence given by Barney, Foss & Lyngsie (2018), it is proved that most of the employees learn from their senior management groups. Therefore, managerial tones become the sound of the organisation. Consequently, it can be easily assumed that professional attitudes showed by management would influence the behavioural standards of workers. In future, while I would join an organisation, if I observe that my seniors are more profit-oriented and less outcome-oriented, thereby; this might influence my mind in doing different unethical tasks, especially for increasing personal profit level. On the other hand, if I observe the contradictory thing, I would focus on doing ethical jobs, like helping others, making positive relation, and taking right decisions, without considering the percentage of profit. 

How might corporate governance structures influence your behaviour?

Through taking evidence from the larger firms, it can be mentioned that developing a proficient corporate governance structure, including all the managers, CEO, executives, administers, shareholders and employees are one of the most critical processes, as it influences the governing flow from the upper level to lower level. As influenced from the viewpoint of Boateng et al.  (2017), environments characterized by strong corporate governance provide a remedy to many agency problems. Although it is necessary to maintain stakeholder satisfaction level, however, doing wrong things for making them happy might influence my ethical principles through an adverse way. On the other hand, I might behave more ethically and maintain workplace morale if corporate governance focuses on making ethical decisions for the betterment of the community.

How might the culture of the organisation influence your behaviour?

As suggested by Körner et al. (2015), organisational culture is the social glue holding an organization together. On the other word, culture, the immune system of an organisation, would influence the behaviours and attitudes of the workers, involved with it. For example, while I start working with a team, in which I feel higher motivation due to strong internal bond, it would force me to provide my best efforts for the growth and development of my organisation. I would also try to maintain the proficient interactional relationship for incorporating high team spirit. On the other hand, if I start working in a de-motivated and less efficient workforce, in which the interactional relationship and team spirit remains absent, thereby, I would begin to adopt these behaviours as the normal aspect of my profession. This repetitive behaviour might change my professional behaviour towards an adverse direction. 

How can ethical codes of conduct be used by organisation to create an ethical culture in organisation?

Huhtala et al. (2015) mentioned that rewarding ethical conduct makes employees see ethicality as worth pursuing, which can reduce the probability of their resorting to unethical behaviour. Evidence suggests that organisational operations are required to be aligned with the ethical codes of conducts; however, the fruitful conducts need proper visibility and explanation, rather than being a 100-page description. Employees might lose their interest in reading and understanding the 100 page conducts; thereby, organisations would require designing the conducts in short and approachable format. Other than this, the codes of ethics might ensure that the employees would focus on maintaining the internal culture of the workplace. For example, many retail organisations of Australia focus on implicating the ethical codes of conducts for preventing corruption as well as any unethical practices.

Conclusion

Based on the entire discussion about ethical practice and behaviours, it can be stated that understanding and evaluating professional ethics would help in managing my occupational functioning in a proficient way. On the other hand, the study also reflects the influence of senior management, corporate governance, and organisational culture, on the process of ethical behavioural management. Thereby, I can ensure that through following the evidence and descriptions mentioned in this report, I would follow the ethics and make proper moral decisions for my workplace in different kinds of on-going situations.