Ethics

The purpose of this essay will be to analyse the link between culture and ethics. To discuss the concepts of culture and business ethics, summarising different authors’ views. I will illustrate different cultures and generally discuss how ethical theories provide guides in valuing human being’s behaviours to be ethically good or bad. Finally, I will mention how cultures and ethics inform each other.

It is important to first understand the meanings and importance of organizational behaviour. Learning about organizational behaviour is important because it allows individuals to understand and change working conditions. According to Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborne (2005) organizational behaviour (OB) is the study of how humans as individuals and groups behave in organizations. An organization is defined as a collection of people who are all working as group to achieve a collective goal. Therefore, understanding organizational behaviour allows employees to work more effectively and efficiently towards achieving the common goal.

When you walk into a hotel, a bank, a shop, what do you perceive first? What do ‘first feelings’ tell you concerning the organization which you have just entered? What positive and negative signs, symbols and signals do you get? These are all features of organisational culture. The nature of that culture is important, both for those who work there and also for customers and clients.
When studying an organization's behaviour, an important concept is organizational or corporate culture. Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborne (2005) stated that an organizational culture is "the scheme of shared actions, values, and beliefs that progresses inside an organization as well as leads the behaviour of its members”. There are two key issues that are involved with organizational culture. External adaptation answers the question, "What needs to be done and how do we accomplish it?" Internal integration "deals with the creation of a collective identity and...