This Is Question Being Asked:
- Using the Competing Values Framework, how would you categorize the culture in your organization or an organization for which you have previously worked and was it effective? Why or why not?
- What do you think is your primary ethical perspective when making decisions?
- How do you think organizational culture impacts ethics and how do the ethics exhibited by an organization impact the organizational culture?
THIS IS FIRST STUDENT RESPONSE TO THE QUESTION:
I currently work at the VA, and I would say the culture of organization is Hierarchy. In some aspects it works, but in others it fails. It provides no room for people to create new ways of doing something better, for everything has to follow SOP and be uniform in procedure. While I agree certain things should be, other aspect should allow for change and function.
I would say the most often, I act within the ethical perspective of Virtue approach, for I base my decisions on the virtues of life. Understanding right and wrong is easy, for some reason it is doing the right for some people they find hard. The real test is doing what is right, when whats wrong is easier.
I certainly do think that an organizations culture influences ethics. If an organization has a strong culture of doing what is right, it is easier to be ethical in decisions, because it is expected and required. If the culture is weak and allows for unethical behavior, than that is what it will find occurs.
THIS IS SECOND STUDENT RESPONSE TO THE QUESTION:
The culture of an organization defines many crucial aspects of what will occur within an organization. As a federal employee, the culture within our organization falls within the bureaucratic model. Decisions made follow a chain of command, which serve as guidance for each department, agency and organization. It would be difficult to follow any of the other models based on the type of work performed. Portions of other models could be used to make things run a smoother or to allow input from the ground level but with as many locations and different agencies this would eventually cause problems with preserving authority. My primary perspective when making decisions would come in under the Virtue Approach. As someone rose with military parents, I was afforded the opportunity to live in many places and gain perspectives from many different people. This experience allowed me to see people doing the ethical things and the outcome as well as the unethical and the repercussions of those actions. When evaluating the impact that ethics have on an organizations culture they are hand in hand. If you view companies like Enron it was quite clear that the ethical issues within the company were not above board. This culture was the eventual downfall of the company, which led to many jobs lost and jail time for the people in charge of creating the culture.
