Assignment 1

Assignment #1: How Personal Can Ethics Get?

Travis Avery

Leadership and Organizational Behavior – BUS 520

Dr. Kitoko, Fall 2010

1. Discuss how personal differences and preferences can impact Organizational Behavior.

Organizational ethics is defined in an article by Joshua Joseph “as a set of formal and informal standards of conduct that people use to guide their behavior at work. These standards are partly based on core values such as honesty, respect, and trust, but they also can be learned directly from the actions of others” (Joshua Joseph, 2000). In other words, what people see their organizational leaders, managers, and coworkers do on the job can influence their own views of what is acceptable or unacceptable behavior.

Personal differences and preferences can influence our perception of organizational ethics. For example, most companies hire people with diverse backgrounds. This is prevalent now more than ever. A person’s background, cultural influence, and current environment can skew their comprehension of a set standard of conduct in a negative or positive way. Someone from the southern states of the US may have a more conservative understanding of organizational ethics than someone from the North. To further explain, employee A takes pencils, purchased by their employer, home for personal use. Employee B prefers to only use the pencils at work. No matter what the company’s policy is, personal differences and preferences separate the decisions made by Employees B and A.

2. How can organizational policies and procedures impact ethics?

The definition of Ethics can be found in our text book. “Ethics are the values and principles that distinguish right from wrong” (Hellriegel/Slocum, 2011). According to Joshua Joseph, two out of every five employees prefer not to report misconduct. The article states “There are many reasons why employees may decide not to raise ethical concerns or report misconduct they observe at work....