Ethical Aspects of Retail Business

Assignment

Abhijit saha
PGDM- RM
Roll No. 01

Discuss the role of ethics in leadership and establishing an

ethical climate in their organizations.
Ethical Organizations Should Value Employees as an End in Itself, Not a
Means to an End.

The ethical leader understands that the gold standard for all organizational effort is
positive relationships. The most important determinant of organizational success is
good quality relationships built on respect and trust — not necessarily agreement
because people need to spark off each other. The ethical leader understands the
germination and growth of these kinds of relationships and grow in the deep
rich soil of fundamental principles: trust, respect, integrity, honesty, fairness, equity,
justice and compassion.

It is important to have an ethical environment at workplace in order to create a value

system for the organization to perform code of conducts, rules and regulations, desired
behaviour and serves as a decision making path to righteous actions.
“The Discipline of Building Character”, by Joseph L. Badaracco, talks about the
“defining moments” that managers and leaders experience in an organizational
environment. . The reading says that the managers suffer from a kind of ethical
myopia, believing that their entire group views a situation through the same lens that
they do. Badaracco states that there are three types of defining moments that surface
in the corporate world:
1. “Who am I?” which is largely an issue of personal identity,
2. “Who are we?” the character of groups and individual are at stake, and
3. “Who is the company?” the most complex and involves defining a company’s
role in the society.
Managers who learn and are clear about these three types of defining moments are
able to navigate right-verses-right decision more appropriately with grace and
strength.
The reading on moral theory of framework emphasizes on how important it is for
managers to be familiar with the language of ethics. The can be guided by the four
theories or frameworks, namely:
1. Principle of standards of conduct-focused on the action
2. Character of the person or company- focused on the agent
3. Consequences of a particular action-focused on the outcome
4. Case extended within relationships-focused on relationships
Each of these theories raises important themes for decision making, a complete set of
moral considerations for managers in the organizations while also developing an
interconnection between them all.

For managers and leaders it is important know about basic ethical framework because
these framework contribute to managerial practice: effective and responsible decision
making is improvised without conceptual self-awareness. Ethical framework also
provides knowledge of ethics and moral philosophy in three different way of thinking:
Descriptive ethics, analytical, and normative with levels of attribution or application:
persons, organizations, and systems.

When ethics are enforced they bring in the checkbox mentality that narrows the
purpose of having them within in the first place. It reduces the scope of broadening
their implementation. The article mentions how virtues are learned and not inherited
and therefore a clear communication of the organizational culture and values .
The last reading on CEOs are getting fired on ethical lapses, tells us nowadays
companies have fired their officers and executives for misconduct on ethical grounds(
being involved in scams, scandals) but companies don’t mull much when it comes to
firing a CEO who has adopted unethical practices and also encouraged employees to
do so.Since it’s these executives that set the standards of conduct for other team
leaders and managers in the organization, leniency in actions against them could
change the tone of the organizational entirely.
An ethical organization is a community of people working together in an environment
of mutual respect, where they grow personally, feel fulfilled, contribute to a common
good, and share in the personal, emotional and financial rewards of a job well done.
Ethics provides the values and morals that an individual, organization or society finds
desirable or appropriate. As leaders of an organization have the power to influence
others, their ethical leadership in instrumental in establishing and reinforcing
organization values. It is important and the responsibility of leaders to help individuals
realize their values and needs to help them rise to a higher level of ethical functioning.