What is ‘Workplace Ethics’?

All managers have a tendency to talk of ethics and ethical practices. Whether or not they are practiced, or for that matter whether or not they are enforced at their workplaces is a different matter.

What is understood by ethics? It is actually an offshoot of philosophy and seeks to focus on issues of principles through an arrangement of performance and conduct related principles. In other words, ethics can be termed as a procedure meant for enforcing a set of behavioural practices.

No workplace is a picnic place; on the contrary, it is the very livelihood for a large number of people and hence fulfills all requirements concerning individual realization. Therefore, ethics bestow grounds as a yardstick of living and occupation alike. Going by this logic, they keep morality going and facilitate growth; and hence cannot be ignored at any workplace. However, to adhere to them or not is an individual preference, something that cannot be thrust on people but only justified and looked forward to.

A workplace is a group of people with varying perceptions and outlooks and it is but natural that ethics there will stand watered down. But the fact is that the degree of passion, enthusiasm and ardour necessary to bring about an ethical workplace environment is immensely monumental, particularly when an organization is desired to progress in the true sense of the word.

Depending upon person to person, ethics imply guiding principles and actions that have to be pursued to achieve the eventual reality. But their adherence does usher in some element of answerability and liability to life as a whole. If that be so, ethical practices provide rationale and guidance and in the process attaches a connotation to life. Workplace ethics are a result of individual ethics that revolve around:

Sincerity: There is nothing better than being truthful, everybody says so. But very few seem to practice it. More often than not, sincerity that also entails honesty, genuineness and earnestness, is applied and gone through only if it is opportune or expedient. Perhaps this is true, however not forever. A mind that is prejudiced and narrow-minded is incapable of looking beyond and focuses on short-term advantages, resorting to untruth, if required. This is nothing but breaking and running away from reality – an act that amounts to self- deceit. But, for how long can you afford to do it? The aspects of sincerity of purpose and honesty of attitude need to be integrated in one’s disposition as also in those of newcomers in an organization because personal ethics will always vary.

Perseverance:  The fear of perseverance is more than the fear of fear itself. It tends to ambush you within yourself, depriving you of legitimacy and certainty that you ought to be pledging. At a workplace, one cannot refrain from work or promise and hence a very pledge for them serves as a big impelling factor. There is no denying the fact that perseverance has to emanate from inside, but it is also a fact that some cajoling facilitate workers to look inwards and consequently be more determined. Therefore, employees need to be helped to introspect so that they can persist with their work and bring in organizational progress.

Trustworthiness:  Devotion to one’s job together with constancy and credibility is what trustworthiness entails. As the name suggests, it puts together mutual faith and confidence amongst all employee factions; it is a trait that is most sought after in any buddy, ally or colleague. Workplace ethics also has a similar field of view. Trustworthiness and its wider meanings of honesty, dependability, reliability and integrity are traits that need to be preserved. Any stupid doing involving their sacrifice or even compromise will invariably have serious long term ramifications   

Obligations:  Each and every person has a right to freedom, life and assets. We can indulge in any activity, but it has to be regulated by a code of regulations. These regulations are ethics in their innate form. The forgoing implies doing everything in a proper way, lest monumental bedlam prevails.

            Sincerity, perseverance, trustworthiness and obligations are major contributory factors for a congenial working environment. They boost levels of enterprise erudition and business learnedness, besides dealing with crisis situations in a more proficient method. While individual ethics will always vary from individual to individual, they will invariably be of consequence in formulating ethical guidelines of any establishment.

Towards the above, the need to place every worker on to a common podium of ideology, if the requirement of ethical practices may be called so in the context of workplace imperatives, needs no emphasis. Principled or unprincipled, correct or incorrect or precise or vague are ethical queries that only the brawn of discernment and might of acuity can respond to. But, the important part of the matter is that they call for development and progression, the trigger for which to a very large extent can be ascribed to workplace ethics alone.