Question

17. What are the signs of a healthy ethical climate?

Answer 1

An ethical climate refers to the moral environment and atmosphere that is prevalent in the organization. It also refers to the ethics present within the company`s framework and employees attitude while dealing with such issues. The key measurement of true ethical success is how the employees respond to critical situation rather than the leadership response.

To ensure the ethical practices are well managed in the organization companies often train employees to understand the right and wrong situations. But in spite of sessions and seminars the employees will always learn more when they observe the leadership and team leaders in action and how they react to an ethical issue. Most companies keep a strict policy which covers most of the ethical issues such as illegal work, in-subordination, grudges, personal vendetta, data breach etc. To check whether the company is having a healthy climate the teams need to look out for following aspects:

• There is no acceptance for inappropriate behavior such as aggression, harassment, discrimination and incivility
• There is a clear communication of companies values and frequent reminders of the values and culture of the organization
• The leaders act as mentors for ethical practices and follow ethically correct values and stances
• The systems and structure reinforce leadership value and commitments
• All leaders display ethical knowledge and skills to take correct decisions
• There is a strict adherence to process and no alternative motives are welcome in the company
• There is transparency in the company with regards to finances, performance evaluation and other metrices
• Decision making is doing jointly and there is proper delegation of authority
• There is a deep rooted concern for social responsibility
• There is well maintained code of ethics, core values and timely reminders on the core values that uphold the company

If the company displays all the above mentioned aspects we can ascertain for sure that the ethical climate is proper in the organization.

However, if the company shows any of the below aspects it means there is still work to be done in terms of providing a true ethical climate in the company.

• Fear of management and silence to come forward with truth
• Pressure to follow the targets and deviate from process
• Weak leadership decision making
• Constant conflict in teams

There signs show that there is still areas that need to be improved. Every company must look out for such signs to ensure the issues and core underlying problems can be resolved easily.