Assignment task:
Conduct an ethical culture analysis of an organization (for profit or not-for-profit) of their choice (you may want to conduct this ethical audit on your employer or a company or not-for-profit organization you are familiar with). To complete the assignment (APA 6 reference formatting), you will need to read online and printed materials produced by the organization and draw upon news articles. The 10-point ethics audit questions on page 319 (SEE IMAGE BELOW) in the Johnson textbook will guide this assignment. Answer to the best of your ability the 10 questions and conclude your analysis with an overall evaluation of the organization's ethical climate as well as offer suggestions for improvement. Ethics Audit Questions use the following set of questions to evaluate the ethical culture of your current organization or one that you would like to join.
Selected Questions for Auditing the Formal System
Q1. How are organizational leaders perceived in terms of their integrity? Is ethics part of the leadership agenda?
Q2. How are ethics-related behaviors modeled by organizational leaders?
Q3. Are workers at all levels encouraged to take responsibility for the consequences of their behavior? To question authority when they are asked to do something that they consider to be wrong? How?
Q4. Does a formal code of ethics and/or values exist? Is it distributed? How widely? Is it used? Is it reinforced in other formal systems, such as reward and decision-making systems?
Q5. Are whistle-blowers encouraged, and are formal channels available for them to make their concerns known confidentially?
Q6. Is misconduct disciplined swiftly and justly in the organization, no matter what the organizational level?
Q7. Are people of integrity promoted? Are means as well as ends important?
Q8. Is integrity emphasized to recruits and new employees?
Q9. Are managers oriented to the values of the organization in orientation programs? Are they trained in ethical decision-making?
Q10. Are ethical considerations a routine part of planning and policy meetings, new venture reports? Is the language of ethics taught and used? Does a formal committee exist high in the organization for considering ethical issues?