PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

Week- 11
Dr. Henna Qureshi
Spring 2022
 ETHICAL CULTURE

Ethical culture is a source of a good bit of that guidance and can influence employees to do either the
right thing or the wrong thing.
 ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS AS CULTURE

What Is Culture?

Anthropologists define culture as a body of learned beliefs, traditions, and guides for behavior
shared among members of a group.

This idea of culture has been particularly useful for understanding and differentiating among
work organizations and the behavior of people in them.

It’s a way of differentiating one organization’s ‘‘personality’’ from another. The organizational
culture expresses shared assumptions, values, and beliefs and is manifested in many ways,
including formal rules and policies, norms of daily behavior, physical settings, modes of dress,
special language, myths, rituals, heroes, and stories.
 ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS AS CULTURE
To assess and understand an organization’s culture requires
knowledge of the organization’s history and values, along with a
systematic analysis of multiple formal and informal organizational
systems.

Organizational cultures can vary widely, even within the same

industry (consider Wal-Mart, Target, and Costco—all big-box
retailers that have very different cultures).

In the computer industry, IBM was known for many years for its
relative formality, exemplified by a dress code that mandated dark
suits, white shirts, and polished shoes. Apple Computer, on the
other hand, was known for its informality. Particularly in its early
days, T-shirts, jeans, and tennis shoes were the expected Apple
‘‘costume.’’
 STRONG VERSUS WEAK CULTURES

• Organizational cultures can be strong or weak.

• In a strong culture, standards and guidelines are widely

shared within the organization, providing common
direction for day-to-day behavior. This is likely because all
cultural systems, formal and informal, are aligned to
provide consistent direction and to point behavior in the
same direction.

• Example: Citicorp/ Citigroup culture

 STRONG VERSUS WEAK CULTURES

In a weak organizational culture, strong subcultures exist and

guide behavior that differs from one subculture to another. Many
large public universities can be thought of as having weak
cultures.

For example, for faculty, departmental subcultures are often

stronger than the overall university culture; the romance
languages department differs from the accounting department.

In some situations, weak cultures are desirable. They allow for

strong subcultures featuring diversity of thought and action.
However, in a weak culture, behavioral consistency across the
organization is tough to achieve.
 HOW CULTURE INflUENCES BEHAVIOR:
SOCIALIZATION AND INTERNALIZATION

Socialization
Employees are brought into the organization’s culture
through a process called enculturation, or socialization.

Through socialization, employees learn ‘‘the ropes.’’

Socialization can occur through formal training or

mentoring, or through more informal transmission of norms
of daily behavior by peers and superiors.

New members learn from observing how others behave or

through informally transmitted messages.
 SOCIALIZATION

When effectively socialized into a strong culture, employees

behave in ways that are consistent with expectations of the
culture (or subculture). They know how to dress, what to say, and
what to do.

With socialization, people behave in ways that are consistent with

the culture because they feel they are expected to do so. Their
behavior may have nothing to do with their personal beliefs, but
they behave as they are expected to behave in order to fit into
the context and to be approved by peers and superiors.

Example: Brooks Brothers

TASK 1

Can you think of one instance where you were socialized into a culture of a particular organization.
 INTERNALIZATION

But individuals may behave according to the culture for

another reason— because they have internalized
cultural expectations.

With internalization, individuals have adopted the

external cultural standards as their own. Their
behavior, though consistent with the culture, also
accords with their own beliefs.

They may come into the organization sharing its values

and expectations, thus making for a very smooth
transition. Or, they may internalize cultural
expectations over time.
 INTERNALIZATION

The concepts of socialization and internalization apply to

understanding why employees behave ethically or unethically in an
organization.

Most people when join an organization with a strong ethical

culture, the messages about honesty and respect resonate with
their personal beliefs and are easily internalized.

They act ethically because it’s natural for them to do so and

consistent with the cultural messages they’re receiving.
SOCIALIZATION AND INTERNALIZATION

But unfortunately, most employees can be

socialized into behaving unethically, especially if
they have little work experience to contrast
with the messages being sent by the current
unethical culture.

If everyone around them is lying to customers,

they’re likely to do the same as long as they
remain a member of the organization.
 TASK 2

Can you think of one example where you internalize one good and one bad culture of a
particular organization.
ETHICAL CULTURE: A MULTISYSTEM
FRAMEWORK
ALIGNMENT OF ETHIC AL CULTURE SYSTEMS

To create a consistent ethical culture message,

the formal and informal systems must be
aligned (work together) to support ethical
behavior.

To have a fully aligned ethical culture, the

multiple formal and informal systems must all
be sending employees consistent messages that
point in the direction of ethical behavior.

Example: DOW CORNING

 ETHICAL LEADERSHIP

Executive Leaders Create Culture

Executive leaders affect culture in both formal and informal ways. Senior
leaders can create, maintain, or change formal and informal cultural
systems by what they say, do, or support.

Formally, their communications send a powerful message about what’s

important in the organization. They influence a number of other formal
culture dimensions by creating and supporting formal policies and
programs.

And they influence informal culture by role modeling, the language they
use, and the norms their messages and actions appear to support.