Ethical Conduct by Managers

Ethics refers to the moral principles that guide an individual or group of people in an
organisation. Ethics has been a major cause of concern in many business environments today.
The ethical values have sunk so low that people no longer expect ethical treatment from
others. The quality of service that one expects to receive has become equivalent to the
amount of money he or she is willing to give for the said service. It is, however, the ethical
responsibility of every manager out there to ensure that he or she upholds ethical conduct at
the workplace he or she supervises. The key question that one should ask themselves when
evaluating their ethical stature in administration should be based on the golden rule. The
golden rule states that one should unto others what they would like done unto them. As such
the manger should question whether the working environment, he or she subjects the
employees to would be ideal for him to work in. The answer to the question would help
managers manage ethical behaviour in the workplace.
The accounting department is simply that; an accounting department. It is in no way
different from other departments in the organization. The form of treatment given to the sales
department should be the same treatment given to the accounting department. Special
treatment of the department would mean jeopardy of ethical conduct as it would be a sign that
there are some departments that are more important than others within the organization. What
would happen to marketing of the company’s products and services in the case that the sales
and marketing department decided to boycott the special treatment of the accounting

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department? As a manager, it is important to make all the employees in all departments feel
that they are of great value to the company. In the case that the manager was an employee in
the sales department, he would, perhaps, have been the leader in the boycott. Ethical conduct
by the manager prevents a lot of crisis in the workplace.