CORE GATEWAY COLLEGE

INC .

2nd Semester 2022-2023

BE ETHICAL AT WORK
UNDERSTAND YOUR MOTIVATION

P.A 206
Human Relation in Administration

Submitted by:
Ms.Sheryl Fernandez
MAPA- Master of Arts in Business Administration

Submitted to:
Ms. Marjorie Santos Velasco
Ph.D
What is Workplace Ethics?

Workplace ethics are the set of values, moral principles, and standards that need to be followed
by both employers and employees in the workplace. It is the set of rules and regulations that need
to be followed by all staff of the workplace.

Examples of Ethical Behaviors in The Workplace 

Examples of ethical behaviors in the workplace includes; obeying the company’s rules, effective
communication, taking responsibility, accountability, professionalism, trust and mutual respect
for your colleagues at work. These examples of ethical behaviors ensures maximum productivity
output at work. And could be pivotal for career growth.

 Obey The Company’s Rules & Regulation

 At the start of an employee contract, companies may need the employee to sign various
documents, including the company rules and regulation agreement form. Also, the employee
may be given a handbook that may serve as a guide.

Some common rules are tardiness, inappropriate dressing, and language, etc. Due to the
excitement of getting a new job, some employees do not properly read these rules and may end
up deferring them in the future.

Therefore, it is important that new employees properly read these rules & regulations in other not
to defer them.

 Communicate Effectively

Effective communication is very important to avoid misunderstandings when dealing with issues
in the workplace. Communicating effectively may mean different things to people at different
points in time.

Let us consider the hypothetical situation of an employee trying to relay information to a French-
speaking customer. The best way to communicate effectively with the customer is to have an
employee who can speak French relay the information. 

Effective communication may also have an employee breaking one of the rules and regulations
of the company without getting penalized for it. An employee reaching out to HR that they will
be coming in late due to some unforeseen circumstances may be spared for coming late if the
situation is properly communicated. 

 Develop Professional Relationships

Good professional relationships are not only a thing that fosters teamwork among employees, but
also help with individual career development for employees. Developing professional
relationships with coworkers or other professionals outside the workplace will also directly or
indirectly improve productivity. 

Professional relationships between low-level and high-level employees will make it easier for
ideas to be shared and knowledge to be passed to junior employees. That way, the company can
confidently have an intern work on a tough project to meet a pending deadline due to the
guidance from older employees.

Salespeople, for one, need to build external professional relationships with professionals from
other organizations—especially those who are potential clients. These relationships will help
create a contact person in another organization in case they need to sell a product to them.

 Take Responsibility

 It is important for employees to always take responsibility for decisions made both individually
and in a team. This is, in fact, a leadership trait that every employee who is looking to take up a
managerial position in the future should exhibit.

Understandably, employees may want to save their job and are therefore scared of taking
responsibility for a particular event. However, they shouldn’t let this fear take them.out of the
team.

For example, the communications team came up with a marketing strategy for the company and
it failed. The team members are to jointly take responsibility for this failure, not individuals
coming out that they weren’t part of the decision making process.

If the strategy has gone the other way round, they wouldn’t have said the same.

 Professionalism/Standards

There are professional standards that everything an employee does in the workplace. The use of
informal words in a formal workplace is highly unprofessional. 

These standards should be held high and applied to every part of an employee’s activity in the
workplace. This should include the way they speak, kind of work they deliver and their
relationship with coworkers and customers.
  Be Accountable

 Accountability is also a very good trait of an employee. One of the things that may short change
a talented and responsible is the lack of accountability. 

Lack of accountability may result in your boss thinking you have an “I don’t care attitude” to the
company’s project or worst take you as a liar and may lead to job loss in the long run. For
example, at the beginning of each year, a certain amount of money is allocated to each
department.

The manager is meant to oversee how this money is spent. If at the end of the year, the manager
can not make an account of how the money was spent, he may then be suspected of stealing
company funds.

 Uphold Trust

An employee should not do anything that may make his or her employee withdraw trust. As an
employee of a company, your employee trusts you to get work done perfectly on time.

Things like missing deadlines regularly or delivering work that needs to be revised over and over
again will deny you a promotion. It may even leave the employer not giving you tasks to
complete in the future—a nightmare for freelancers.

 Show Initiative without being told

Is the company running behind deadline and you feel you can stay a few extra hours after work
to finish up? Do it.

You are a freelance designer and your client wants a particular poster designed but doesn’t have
a copywriter to write the content. If you can write the contents, do so. Don’t delay a client’s
work because of a few contents.

 Respect Your Colleagues

It doesn’t matter whether you are dealing with the intern, a junior, janitor, etc. they should all be
treated with respect. As a manager, treating your team members with respect will help improve
their productivity.

Giving constructive criticism and saying kind words to them even when they are not able to
deliver perfectly will help them strive to do better in the future.

 Work Smarter

 Don’t just work hard, work smarter. The reason why you see an employee promoted to the post
of manager after just 2 years and a hardworking employee who has been with the company for
10 years failed to get a promotion is smart work.
Assume that these 2 employees are data scientists who collect data and analyze them. A smarter
employee will use the Formplus data collection tool to collect data and receive real-time data
analytics, while a hard-working employee will print paper-based forms and do the hard work of
sharing it to respondents.

Unethical Workplace Behaviors

 Lies

Lying is a trait that is detested in and outside the workplace. It kills trust, affects relationships
and may even put people in trouble.

There are different situations where employees lie in the workplace—with just one lie opening
the floor for many others. It could be a sales manager lying about the number of clients they
were able to get in a month or an employee calling in sick just to attend another job interview. 

A lot of employees start lying from their CV, by adding experiences they didn’t acquire, and the
skills they don’t have. Employees need to understand that lying about work may eventually get
them in trouble and needs to stop before they lose their job. 

However, we notice that employees lie due to fear of their employer—an employee will call in
sick to go for interviews because companies frown against employees interviewing at another
company. HR should put up a more friendly culture that will encourage people to progress in
their careers taking up other jobs and even support them throughout the process.

 Taking Credit for Others Hard Work

It is very common for managers to take credit for their team member’s hard work when reporting
to the management. A team member may have brought an idea that helped the sales team
improve their sales by 200%.

However, when giving a report, the manager doesn’t mention the team member’s name but
claims the idea as his. Employees need to reduce the use of “I”, but embrace the use of ” We”.

By taking credit for another person’s work, you will be denying the person a promotion, bonus or
commendation for a job well done. This will discourage the person from sharing ideas that will
benefit the company in the future. 

 Verbal Harassment/Abuse

Employees need to stay away from using foul language on coworkers in and out of the
workplace. This is very important when dealing with customers.
Customers are known to get angry and may result in verbal abuse due to a bad product or
service. They may even get insult you when they are at fault.

As a customer care representative, salesperson or any other employee, it is beth important that
you don’t use abusive words on customers no matter how provoked.

 Violence

Similar to verbal harassment, employees should not be violent when dealing with coworkers and
customers. Customers may likely provoke you, but it is better to keep shut and walk away rather
than turn violent.

 Non-Office Related Work

 A lot of employees have side hustles which they use to supplement salaries. This is very good
and only very few companies are against employees working to make money outside work
hours.

However, some employees still do non-office related work during office hours. Employees who
have side hustles should try doing them on weekends or employing other people to handle some
of the business logistics to avoid eating into office hours to get the work done.

 Extended Breaks

Companies give lunch breaks to employees and people take advantage of these breaks to do
other things outside office work like, go for interviews, meet with friends or even work on their
side hustles. They are free to do whatever they want these lunch breaks. 

Employees, however, take advantage of these lunch breaks and extend them beyond time. 

 Theft/Embezzlement

Some employees are known for diverting company funds into their bank accounts—padding
project quotations, invoices, etc. to deceive the company on how much was spent on particular
projects.

This act is detrimental to the company because employees who steal sometimes replace quality
products with counterfeits which are cheaper but causes damage in the future.

 Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is an offense that is not limited to the workplace alone. An employee accused
of sexual harassment will not only face consequences in the workplace but also tried at a court of
law.
Many companies have a zero-tolerance rate for sexual harassment in and outside the workplace.
This may tarnish the company’s reputation and the only way to curb is to make an example of
defaulters.

 Corrupt Practices

Some common causes of corruption can be seen during the employment process of an
organization. They invite so many people to send their CVs and come for interviews but only
people with the same political affiliation with them get the job.

This is also common with companies that ask for contractors to bid for a project but the
employees will only give them to their friends who may not even bid at all.

Get started with our workplace harassment form template to receive feedback from employees

Management/Employers Unethical Behaviors 

Workplace ethics is not for employees alone. Employers are also bound to workplace ethics and
may also be tried for unethical behavior.

 Sex for Job/Promotion

It is common for managers, employers and major decision-makers to use their position in the
workplace to influence the hiring decision in exchange for sex. 

 Late Night Out/Unpaid Overtime

Some employers take advantage of desperate job seekers and the competitive job market to use
employees’ leisure time as they wish. They do so with the mentality that they are doing
employees a favor by employing them, not knowing that the favor is mutual.

Employees who are scared of queries or job loss are not able to protest the infringement into
their private time by the employer.

 Verbal Harassment

It is common among employers to verbally harass employees when they make little mistakes.
This will reduce employee morale and productivity.

Employers should always say kind words to their employees. 

 Undue Pressure

Deadlines are a great way to make sure the work gets done on time. However, when employees
are placed under undue pressure, they end up trading quality for on-time delivery.
An example of undue pressure will be giving an employee a 1-day deadline for a project that
would normally take a week.

 Nepotism

This is a common type of corruption that happens in the workplace. An employee who has been
working hard for years while influencing company growth may get sidelined for a promotion
because of another employee who is a family friend, family, or friend of the employer. Things
like this are what reduce employee morale or even push talented employees to dropping a
resignation.

 Unfriendly Work Environment

One of the things that can mar productivity is an unfriendly working environment. This may
come as a combination of abusive bosses, lack of commendation, nepotism, etc. An unfriendly
environment is an environment that combines various unethical behaviors into one.

 Unrealistic Expectations

Creatives usually have it worse when it comes to having unrealistic expectations from
employees. 

Advantages and Implications of Workplace Ethics

1. It can stimulate positive employee behavior and create a positive ambiance in the
workplace
2. Ensures management guides and mentors their employees in a healthy environment
3. A workplace with good ethics usually strengthens the bond employees have with their
superior
4. It boosts productivity through employee performance and job satisfaction which in turn
increases company growth.
5. Bad workplace ethics can cause a strain in the relationship with company stakeholders
6. When it leaks (which it most likely will) poor behavior can be recorded and propelled
into unsavory headlines online. This can lead to reputational damage to the brand name.

How to Solve Unethical Issues at the Workplace 

1. Have Rules

Organizations need to have predefined rules and regulations regarding workplace ethics. These
rules and regulations should be given to new employees together with their employment
contracts.

Also having the rules written at strategic places at the workplace will also help remind people
about the rules. People tend to unconsciously imbibe things they see every day.
2. Accept Feedback/Complaint

Make it easy for employees to send feedback or complaint in case of harassment, abuse, or any
other unethical activities going on in the workplace.  

With tools like Formplus, you can create online forms to receive complaints on workplace
harassment or any other unethical behaviors 

3. List Consequences for Unethical Behaviors

Consequences for unethical behaviors should also be placed alongside the rules at strategic
places in the organization. That way, if anyone wants to ignore the rules despite seeing them, the
fear of getting punished will stop him or her from going ahead.

4. Swift Justice/Disciplinary Action

Some Companies often cover up issues of rape, sexual harassment, etc. when the perpetrator is a
high-ranking member of the organization. Things like this should not be accommodated.

Ethical frameworks 

are perspectives useful for reasoning what course of action may provide the most moral outcome.
In many cases, a person may not use a reasoning process but rather do what they simply feel is
best at the time. Others may reflexively use a principle they learned from their family, peers,
religious teachings or own experiences. The study of ethics has provided many principles that
can aid in ethical decision making. Some of the most common are captured in the following

5 ethical frameworks:

 Virtue ethics : What is moral is what makes us the best person we could be.
 Deontology : What is moral is what follows from absolute moral duties.
 Utilitarianism : What is morally right is what generates the best outcome for the largest
number of people.
 Rights-based Ethics : What is moral is that which is in accord with everyone's rights.
 Care-based Ethics : What is moral is that which promotes healthy relationships and the
well-being of individuals and their interdependence.

Ethical decision-making
 is based on core character values like trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness,
caring, and good citizenship. Ethical decisions generate ethical behaviors and provide a
foundation for good business practices.

Understand Your Motivations

Motivation also involves factors that direct and maintain goal-directed actions. Although, such
motives are rarely directly observable. As a result, we must often infer the reasons why people
do the things that they do based on observable behaviors

Pat Riley
Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines
how well you do it.
 Human Motivation at Work
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Be able to discuss why you or others may not be satisfied at work.
Be able to explain how the human motivation theories apply to you.
1.Theories on Job Dissatisfaction
There are a number of theories that attempt to describe what makes a satisfied employee versus
an unsatisfied employee. Knowing what motivates us—and what doesn’t—is the key to choosing
the right career path. It may be surprising, but much of what makes us satisfied or unsatisfied at
work has little to do with money. We will discuss some of these theories next.

2.Progression of Job Withdrawal

Have you ever felt unhappy at a job? If you have, consider how you went through the process of
being unhappy—because for most of us, we start out happy but then gradually become unhappy.
One of the basic theories is the progression of job withdrawal theory, developed by Dan Farrell
and James Petersen.Dan Farrell and James C. Petersen, “Commitment, Absenteeism and
Turnover of New Employees: A Longitudinal Study,” Human Relations 37, no. 8 (August 1984)
2011, http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/J_Petersen_Commitment_1984.pdf. It says that people
develop a set of behaviors in order to avoid their work situation. These behaviors include
behavior change, physical withdrawal, and psychological withdrawal.
Within the behavior change area, an employee will first try to change the situation that is causing
the dissatisfaction. For example, if the employee is unhappy with the management style, he or
she might consider asking for a department move. In the physical withdrawal phase, the

employee does one of the following:

Leaves the job
Takes an internal transfer
Starts to become absent or tardy
If an employee is unable to leave the job situation, he or she will experience psychological
withdrawal. They will become disengaged and may show less job involvement and commitment
to the organization, which can create large costs to the organization, such as dissatisfied
customers, not to mention the cost to employee and his or her unhappiness in the job.
Often, our process of job withdrawal has to do with our lack of motivation, which we will
discuss in the next section.
Theories on Human Motivation
Hawthorne Studies
Between 1927 and 1932, a series of experiments were conducted by Elton Mayo in the Western
Electric Hawthorne Works company in Illinois.Elton Mayo, The Social Problems of an Industrial
Civilization (1949; repr., New York: Arno Press, 2007). Mayo developed these experiments to
see how the physical and environmental factors of the workplace, such as lighting and break
times, would affect employee motivation.
This was some of the first research performed that looked at human motivation at work. His
results were surprising, as he found that no matter which experiments were performed, worker
output improved. His conclusion and explanation for this was the simple fact the workers were
happy to receive attention from researchers who expressed interest in them. As a result, these
experiments, scheduled to last one year, extended to five years to increase the knowledge base
about human motivation.

Physiological needs are our most basic needs, including food, water, and shelter. Safety
needs at work might include feeling safe in the actual physical environment or job security.

employees were asked what pleased and displeased them about their work. From his research, he
developed the motivation-hygiene theory to explain these results.

6 motivation factors:

1. Achievement
2. Recognition
3. The work itself
4. Responsibility
5. Advancement
6. Growth

6 hygiene factors:

1. Company policies
2. Supervision
3. Relationship with manager
4. Work conditions
5. Salary
6. Relationship with peers

The implication of this research is clear. Salary, for example, is on the hygiene factor list. Fair
pay is expected, but it doesn’t actually motivate us to do a better job. On the other hand,
programs to further develop us as employees, such as management training programs, would be
considered a motivator. Therefore, the actual motivators tend to be the work and recognition
surrounding the work performed.

McGregor

Douglas McGregor proposed the X-Y theory in his 1960 book called The Human Side of
Enterprise.Douglas McGregor, The Human Side of Enterprise (1960; repr., New York: McGraw-
Hill, 2006). McGregor’s theory gives us a starting point to understanding how management style
can impact the retention of employees. His theory suggests two fundamental approaches to
managing people. Theory X managers, who have an authoritarian management style, have the
following fundamental management beliefs:

 The average person dislikes work and will avoid it.

 Most people need to be threatened with punishment to work toward company goals.
 The average person needs to be directed.
 Most workers will avoid responsibility.

Theory Y managers, on the other hand, have the following beliefs:

 Most people want to make an effort at work.

 People will apply self-control and self-direction in pursuit of company objectives.
 Commitment to objectives is a function of expected rewards received.
 People usually accept and actually welcome responsibility.
 Most workers will use imagination and ingenuity in solving company problems.

As you can see, these two belief systems have a large variance, and managers who manage under
the X theory may have a more difficult time retaining workers.

CStrategies to Increase Motivation

Motivation plays a significant role in student learning. Students with high motivation levels tend
to have the best learning outcomes. Motivation is particularly useful in encouraging persistence
in applying effort to a learning task and trying new approaches. Although motivation is highly
influenced by student characteristics and tends to vary across different learning areas, the
classroom context also plays an important role in influencing student motivation. 

10 Ways of Increase Motivation

1.Build strong relationships
Positive relationships with teachers are significantly related to positive motivation and to greater
achievement. Motivation is affected by the level of emotional and social support students
perceive. Students who believe their teachers are not interested in their learning report more
negative motivation and experience lower achievement. Research has demonstrated that
relationships with teachers are particularly important for Māori students.
2.Promote students’ sense of membership of the classroom and the school
Students’ motivation is strongest when they believe they are socially accepted by teachers and
peers and their school environment is fair, trustworthy and centred on concern for everyone’s
welfare. Motivation tends to be lowest in environments that are perceived as unwelcoming and
untrustworthy. When students have a strong sense of membership of the class and school, they
are more likely to adopt the values endorsed by the school. Students from negatively stereotyped
groups are most sensitive to cues of belonging and trustworthiness.
3.Enhance task interest and engagement
In classrooms characterized by positive attitudes and emotions, and high levels of interest in the
tasks undertaken, students report greater motivation and perceptions of competence. Students
who engage with activities and tasks relating to their interests find learning easier, more
enjoyable and more related to their lives, and they perform better than those without personalized
content.
4. Emphasise the relevance and importance of the learning
Research finds that when teachers emphasise the importance of learning a particular strategy or
piece of content, student motivation increases. Students perceive more challenging classes as
more important, although it is necessary to find the optimal level of challenge: when challenge is
too low or too high, students attribute low importance to the learning task.
5. Connect with students’ goals, values and identities
When students see learning tasks as useful and relevant to their goals, they develop more
interest, persist longer and perform better. Students who see their future adult self as being
dependent on their educational achievement spend more time on homework and have better
grades. Students might have between one and five core goals for their self-development and
future plans. It is helpful if school goal setting can tap into and co-ordinate with these goals. 
Students may value a learning area as important for their self-worth and identity, or they might
value an area for its usefulness in accomplishing future goals relevant to their career or life plans.
For example, one student may perceive mathematics as useful for eventually owning a business,
another may view mathematics as handy for calculating cricket batting averages, and another
may simply enjoy maths for its own sake.
6. Give students autonomy and responsibility
Motivation is impaired when students feel they have no control over a situation. Giving students
choices and empowering student initiative enhances motivation, effort, interest, positive
emotions and perceptions of personal control and competence, as well as achievement. Most
students perform better on self-adapted tests in which they can select test items from various
options. Providing choices can also increase risk taking and help students develop interest for
particular activities. However, for students from some cultural groups, motivation might be
highest when authority figures or peers make choices for them.
7.Develop students’ self-efficacy
Students have important needs in relation to feeling competent. Motivation is strongly influenced
by students’ perceived expectations of success or failure, which are in turn influenced by teacher
expectations. Motivation, self-efficacy and achievement are positively affected when outcomes
are represented as the result of student effort and action. Optimal learning experiences occur
when the student perceives the challenge of the task as equal to his or her skills to achieve it.
When challenge and skills are unbalanced, learning activities are not rewarding and perhaps even
evoke anxiety. The highest levels of motivation occur when there is both high challenge and high
feelings of self-efficacy.
8. Set appropriate goals and provide regular feedback for learning
Goals can motivate students by providing a purpose for using different learning strategies
and encourage students’ persistence and effort over time, especially when goals are related to
mastery of content and strategies rather than to specific performance. What is more, when
students perceive praise or feedback as intended to facilitate their task mastery, they tend to feel
their autonomy has been supported and are consequently motivated by the feedback. However,
when students feel that the teacher is trying to control their learning and behaviour, there is a
negative impact on motivation.
9. Provide opportunities for co-operative learning
Meeting students’ need for connection with others can enhance motivation for the related
learning activity. Students show increased motivation when teachers provide frequent
opportunities for them to share their questions and what they have learned with their peers. 
Students also often demonstrate increased work effort when there is a sense of collective
responsibility for learning. In addition, research shows students given collaborative learning
opportunities engage in deeper-level processing of information.
10. Explicitly teach the concept of motivation and talk about how motivation supports
learning
Supporting students’ understanding of motivation can aid their ability to self-regulate their levels
of motivation and help them to identify strategies and behaviours that increase or lower their
motivation. Although motivational support strategies should be embedded into instruction, it can
also be worthwhile to explicitly discuss motivation with students. This helps students to
understand the importance of effort in learning and how finding ways to get motivated can help
them put in the necessary effort.