The success of an organization both in the private and the public sector is heavily reliant on the leader’s

abilities to respond to the ever changing business environment, to be innovative and to deal with ethical
issues. There are different opinions about what it means to be ‘ethical’. Business ethics has been defined
as the study of business situations, activities and decisions which have to do with what is morally right or
wrong (Crane and Matten, 2016). For some leaders being ethical means to strictly adhere to laws and
regulations. However, abiding by the law does not mean that what you are doing is right from a moral
point of view. In authoritarian regimes it may be legal to kill someone, but this does not mean it is
morally right. I may also be legal to pollute the environment and cut down trees, but it is not ethical.

Running an ethical and responsible business, maintaining integrity and compliance is all about
developing your own set of moral principles. A starting point is answering the following questions:

 Why is ethics important for our company or organization?

 What triggers unethical behavior in our organization?
 How to foster an ethical business culture?
 What leadership behaviours help create our ethical culture?
 What are the risks involved in allowing unethical behavior to occur?

Leaders are responsible for shaping the culture of their organization. It is down to them to take practical
actions, promote attitudes and articulate values that would encourage employees to engage in ethical
decision making. Each company is responsible for designing its own ethics programme. In his book
‘Ethical Leadership: Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Business culture”, Andrew Leigh argues that a
strong ethical programme should have a three-dimensional focus: on compliance with laws and
regulations, an individual focus and a corporate focus. According to Leigh a strong ethical programme
leads to a strong ethical culture and as such to more misconduct reporting, less misconduct and less
retaliation for reporting (Andrew Leigh, 2013).

As an employee I have experienced myself unethical behavior in the workplace when one of my
supervisors considered people of the same nationality as him for promotion. His behaviour was biased
and unethical in that it violated the company policy which states that all employees will be treated
equally regardless of ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, etc. In this case, the selection criteria were not
based on qualifications, experience and knowledge but on ethnic background. Fortunately, I can also
come up with examples of strong ethical culture. The company I currently work for specialise in
designing and printing eco-friendly, recycled cotton business cards. The company is looking to lessen
their impact on the environment by replacing usual business cards with recycles ones. The company
makes all their business cards from t-shirts, not trees.

Since ethical issues are unavoidable, the question which arises is why is ethics important for a business
or organisation? Failure to identify and address ethical problems can have catastrophic consequences
both legally and financially. In all cases, bad ethics equates bad business. A business or organisation
which ignores ethical issues is unlikely to succeed. The way a company treats its staff and customers, the
way they design and promote their products, the way they award or land contracts or deal with critical
situations are just a few key elements which will determine whether a business is ethical or unethical.
Bibliography

Crane, A and Matten, 2016. Business Ethics. Managing Coprporate Citizenship and Sustainability in the
Age of Globalization. Oxford University Press: New York

Leigh, A., 2013. Ethical Leadership: Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Business culture. Kogan Page
Limited