Ethical behavior in the workplace is more than adhering to a handbook or code of ethics – it’s about prioritizing everyday conversations and actions that are influential to an organization’s culture, success, and employee wellbeing. According to a Business News Daily article, workplace ethics inform employee behavior and affect how leadership treats their employees, customers, and the community. Without ethical management, employees lose trust and organizations lose top talent. With March representing Ethics Awareness Month, this month serves as a great time to reflect on the significance of ethics and remind organizations of the necessary steps to get back to a sincere ethical culture.
The Role of Misconduct Management Solutions in Ethical Culture
Leadership is one of the most critical aspects of improving ethical practices. According to Forbes, “speak up” cultures are the way to help employees feel safe and guide organizations to success. However, bad leadership (or a lack thereof) can have an inverse effect, as the 2023 Deloitte Technology Trust Ethics Survey found that 41% of GenZ employees felt middle management did not escalate their ethical concerns, likely leading to voluntary turnover and dissatisfaction, or worse, intensifying an unethical environment overall.
However, not often discussed, in addition to promoting great leadership tactics and everyday ethical practices, it’s equally important for ethical organizations to implement misconduct management solutions. This technology helps to ensure that ethical principles are upheld and all employee concerns and reported incidents are taken seriously to encourage transparency and trust within the organization. Utilizing this technology also reduces workplace bias, which increases accountability and promotes ethical behavior, according to the Harvard Business School Online.
Navigating Common Ethical Dilemmas in Organizations
With organizations commonly facing workplace harassment, discrimination, and misconduct, employers face prevalent challenges relating to workplace ethics, such as a lack of accountability, transparency, and mutual respect. Forbes adds that when businesses are viewed as morally wrong, customers are less likely to continue to support them, showing that unethical situations not only affect an organization’s culture, but also hurt its profitability. Misconduct management solutions, such as Work Shield, offer effective strategies for navigating these dilemmas, helping to quickly investigate and resolve incidents in a fraction of the time and avoid costly long-term damage to an organization’s reputation.
Continuous Improvement and Sustaining Ethical Momentum
Organizations with effective ethics programs reported observing less misconduct than those without robust strategies in place, demonstrating the importance of sustaining ethical momentum. Ethical cultures aren’t built overnight, so to further promote ethical conduct amongst employees, daily strides towards continuous improvement are crucial. Misconduct management solutions, such as Work Shield, handle the reporting, investigations, data and analytics, and adaptive strategies to help cultivate a thriving culture of respect, inclusion, and long-term retention.
This Ethics Awareness Month and every day, Work Shield understands the importance of strong ethical cultures, and via our third-party incident management software, employers can protect their reputation and improve reporting and investigations while using real-time data and adaptive strategies to better understand their cultural health and ethics.
