Work ethics and organizational culture influence on employees’ behavior and relations

         A work ethic is a set of moral guidelines an employee uses in his \her job. These could be a sense of integrity, adaptability, diligence, perseverance and accountability. Organizational culture is the underlying beliefs, assumptions, values and ways of interacting that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization. It can also be seen as attitudes, beliefs, customs, and written and unwritten rules that have been developed over time in an organization and are considered valid. (Deal & Kennedy, 2000), defines organizational culture as “the way things are done around here”.

              How employees view and feel about their organizational ethical environment is found to significantly affect their job satisfaction, organization performance and commitment (Pettijohn, Pettijohn & Taylor, 2008). Any organizational management sets the tone and the overall working environment that can positively or negatively influence the behavior of subordinates. For instance, an organization devoting resources to developing policies and procedures that encourage ethical actions, improves employees ‘morale where they feel protected against retaliation for personal beliefs. Policies such as anti-discriminatory rules, open door policies and equal opportunities for growth will make employees feel good about being at work, cultivate an overall positive feeling in the organization and eventually breed organizational loyalty and productivity.

          Whereas organization culture varies in different companies and may be difficult to improve, having a weak one ,would result to low employee motivation, job satisfaction and weak organization commitment ,where jobs become just a means of “getting a paycheck” and not necessarily connected to the company and their role within company.

References

Deal,T. and Kennedy,A(2000). Corporate cultures: The rites and rituals of corporate life. Business Horizons, 269(2), pp.82-85.

Pettijohn,C.,Pettijohn,L. and Taylor, A. (2008). Salesperson Perceptions of Ethical Behaviors: Their Influence on Job satisfaction and Turnover Intentions. Journal of Business Ethics, 78(4), pp.547-557.