Ethics

Ethics in the workplace will continue to be a sensitive subject no matter what the organizations is or the ethical values they represent. This week’s focus on ethics has been useful by providing tools and information on promoting ethical behavior within the workplace. One of the challenges of being a manager is creating a healthy balance between the organizational and financial goals of the institution without compromising ethical and moral values. Standing for what is personally ethical may not produce efficiency financially for the organization in which a person is employed.
As there are several definitions for ethics, for the purposes of this paper ethics as it pertains to business is defined as “the act of learning what is right and what is wrong in the workplace and then making the decision to do the right thing” (Brandi & Maguire, 2002, pg. 8).
The assessment that I completed from the William Institute for Ethics and Management hit the bull's eye in summarizing my ethical perspective and ethical style. According to the survey I have a tendency “to base [my] ethical perspective on an individual's duty to do what is morally right... in judging whether a person's actions are ethical [I] look to the intent behind his/her actions, rather than focusing on the results." Intent of any action is difficult to measure, and sometimes impossible to identify, this explains the majority of the anxiety and stress that I have suffered from others by not being able to identify their intentions. For example, I once had a coworker assume that I did not complete a task of processing the mail; while I became distracted for a few minutes by assisting a client I intended to come back to processing the mail. I went back to my desk and my coworker had sent a harsh and demonizing e-mail to me stating the mail processing procedures, which I have been doing for years. I reviewed the e-mail and discovered she had copied my boss. Her actions bothered me believe that this was unethical...