Str 581 Week 1 Assignment

Running head: ETHICS REFLECTION

Ethics Reflection Paper

Yukie Ota

University of Phoenix

Ethics Reflection Paper

Ethics are the principles that define organizational behavior as right or wrong. Business ethics is a combination of business and societal guidelines that promotes legitimacy through critical reflection and conscious efforts to manifest right behavior and decision making which evolves over time.

Business ethics are written and unwritten codes of conduct and values that dictate the decisions made and actions taken in an organization. Organizations possess a culture that determines the differences between ethical and unethical behavior and decision making by managers. For example, organizational values can contribute to what employees and the company as a whole bring to the table regarding expected behavior. This behavior allows employees and business associates the ability to present a picture of the organization’s principles by defining what it believes in, why it exists, and how it will operate in the long-term to ensure its activities align with its proposed beliefs. Additionally, consistent reviews of an organization’s strategic plans and goals should be undertaken to ensure that plans and goals are not in conflict with the organization’s ethical standards or encourage unethical behavior.

Ethics should be a roadmap enabling management and employees to conduct their affairs in concurrence with the values and principles of the organization and ensure that the organization’s plans embodies the beliefs and values which are important to the organization. These beliefs and values are usually outlined in an organization’s mission, value and vision statements. It provides direction, purpose and a clear concept of their expectations and the decisions made by stakeholders. Such adherence to the mission, values and vision statements will create a baseline for goal-setting and strategic planning while preserving ethics to be at the core...