Bus610 Assignment 1

Alison Saviers

Assignment #1

BUS610: Organizational Behavior

Professor Isabel Wan

In today's society business ethics have become more important than ever in the field of organizational behavior.  Business ethics can not be defined by a single definition, it is a multilevel concept, that involves the "moral responsibilities, obligations, and virtues of business decision making have been the choices and characters of persons, the policies and cultures of organizations, and the arrangements and beliefs of entire social and economic systems." (O'Rourke) Simply put, ethics involves the study of moral issues and choices. (Kinicki) Managers are faced with decisions that affect the overall persona of the organization, and those decisions must abide by the code of ethics established by the organization.  Managers also have to be careful of the ethical challenges that they face due to the innovation of the technology age.  Information can be secured and hidden easier through the use of the internet and other technology, and the temptation to stray away from the ethical codes can be even greater. It is up to managers and other upper level executives to stray away from the temptations to commit unethical acts, and provide leadership to their employees on how to behave and interact in the workplace.

Ethics in the workplace involve both internal and external influences. When looking over internal influences, it can be determined that the larger an organization, the more possibilities there are for unethical behavior; also, when the organization branches out, managers are more likely to perform illegally. This can be due to the fact that managers always want to please their bosses and other upper level management, so they are willing to take the risks of shortcuts in order to achieve this goal. There are six major internal influences that organizations face: ethical codes, organizational culture, organizational size, structure, perceived pressure for results, and...