Introduction
Ethics, morals, and values are significant parts of the organizational culture. They guide the company’s actions and determine its social responsibility. This paper provides a description of Better Together and its activities. In addition, the report features a plan for developing ethics, values, and morals, as well as addresses the questions of inclusion and diversity in the workplace. The paper concludes that the company’s ethical actions and moral principles are vital for its performance.
Description of the Organization
Better Together is a local voluntary membership organization that offers high school preparatory programs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The company assists individuals of various academic levels between the ages of 11 and 13. Better Together is a non-profit organization; its programs are free of charge and are funded by local initiatives. The mission of the company is to help children to enhance their academic performance and improve their grades while motivating them to become engaged in the learning process. Better Together’s teaching strategies address not only students’ academic knowledge but also their emotional and mental states, as well as challenges presented by their social backgrounds.
The main activity of the organization is preparing children for high school during courses. Currently, Better Together has three community-based programs, such as After School Academy, Weekend Academy, and Summer Academy. Children have an opportunity to attend Better Together’s courses after school, on weekends, or in the summer. During the lessons at Better Together, students are introduced to various learning strategies, including retrieval practice, elaboration, and dual coding. Children are encouraged to share their ideas with each other, explain new information to their peers, and actively participate in the learning process.
Over 15 experienced educators work at Better Together to help young students to address challenging topics, understand complex concepts and information, and prepare for high school. In addition, there are more than 30 volunteer mentors working at the organization.
It is vital to mention that the company offers psychological support to children from disadvantaged communities. Better Together has four professional therapists specialized in cognitive, developmental, and neurological conditions. Students can undergo voluntary psychological assessments to identify potential problems. In addition, Better Together offers support to individuals encountering challenging situations at home or school. Children are encouraged to discuss their problems, needs, and emotions with professional therapists. Better Together strives to ensure that students’ concerns are resolved, as they can affect their emotional and physical state, as well as their academic performance.
Organizational Ethics, Morals, and Values
Ethics, morals, and values can be considered a significant part of the company’s culture. Azmi (2006) reports that ethics determine the social responsibility of an organization in its relationships with customers, personnel, and partners. Ardichvili, Mitchell, and Jondle (2008) add that the clarity of values in the organization is associated with enhanced trust and respect among employees and other stakeholders. It is possible to conclude that a company should not only establish a clear set of ethics, morals, and values but also design strategies to develop them.
Ethics
Ethics can be seen as the standards that guide the company’s and its employees’ actions. In Better Together, ethics incorporate the principles of equality, human rights, and safety. It is vital for the organization to ensure that all students are treated equally regardless of their social, cultural, or economic background as many of them have already been encountering challenges because of their backgrounds. Moreover, employees of Better Together show respect and kindness to children and each other, which helps them to support a positive environment within the company.
Morals
Morals can be considered relative standards of behavior; they are the ideals companies should follow. The primary moral principle of Better Together is being compassionate and understand the challenges students may encounter. As the company offers services for children from disadvantaged communities, it is crucial for the personnel to be aware of the problematic issues the students’ backgrounds can cause. For instance, some individuals may show aggressive behaviors or refuse to engage in group discussions. Compassion allows educators to understand the causes of these problems and address them, allowing children to overcome their problems.
Values
Values are core ideas or beliefs that guide the company’s perspectives and actions. The values of Better Together include commitment, respect for people, support of diversity, and trust. The company strives to assist students in achieving their personal goals by providing them with the necessary tools for learning. Better Together does not discriminate against individuals; it values diversity and respects all people and their identities. Finally, the organization aims to establish trust-based relationships within its personnel and with students. People at Better Together believe that trust can play a significant role in children’s dedication to studying and engagement in the learning process.
Plan for Developing Ethics, Morals, and Values
Once the ethics, morals, and values are established, it is necessary to outline a plan for their development and practice. The first step of developing these principles is to decide what factors are the most significant for the organization. In the case of Better Together, the company strives to support diversity and equality, treat its students with respect and dignity, and be committed to providing excellent-quality services and support. Next, ethics, morals, and values will be developed from the perspectives of these factors. Then, the plan for practicing these aspects will be established.
Ethics
The concept of ethics can be implemented in decision-making processes, company policies, and competition with other organizations. Ethical considerations can be considered a significant part of positive leadership, which, in its turn, can help the organization to utilize its strengths and potential effectively (Youssef & Luthans, 2012). To maintain ethical behavior within the organization, one should create structural mechanisms for managing ethics (Suen, Cheung, & Mondejar, 2007).
For instance, Better Together will establish regulations addressing the topics of human rights and the principles of equality. They can include the problems of discrimination, freedom of opinion, and the right to education. In addition, Better Together will implement training sessions and meetings aimed to address its ethics and enhance personnel’s understanding of their significance. This way, the company can ensure that it supports ethical behavior on all organizational levels.
Morals
Morals can be practiced in the company by developing the principles of teaching. As compassion is one of the most significant morals of Better Together, it is vital for the organization to underline its significance in working with children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Better Together will implement educational training for teachers and volunteers working in the company that will address the challenges its students may encounter and discuss the methods that can be utilized to eliminate them. Moreover, it is vital to ensure that the therapists employed in the organization share their perspectives on compassion and implement it in their work. This goal will be achieved by tracking students’ emotional state during the course of therapy and collecting their feedback along with regular assessment of employees’ performance and attitudes.
Values
Values are a significant part of the organizational culture and should be practiced in all of its actions. To implement values in the company’s operations, it is first necessary for its authorities to enhance the employees’ awareness of them. Schaubroeck et al. (2012) report that leaders should discuss organizational values with the personnel to establish an appropriate corporate culture. Better Together will organize discussion sessions aimed to stress the significance of respect to all individuals, as well as a commitment to enhancing student outcomes and establishing a safe learning environment for students. In addition, the policies and fines aimed to prevent discrimination will be developed.
Inclusion and Diversity Plan
As mentioned above, one of the primary goals of Better Together is to support diversity and inclusion. This aim is particularly significant due to the fact that the organization offers services to individuals from various economic and social backgrounds while focusing on the needs of disadvantaged populations. It is necessary to mention that the issues of inclusion and diversity should be addressed not only among students but in the workplace too. Diversity may be perceived as accepting and valuing differences of genders, races, ages, ethnicities, religions, and disabilities (Kozan, 2019). Inclusion, in its turn, implies that the organization establishes a supportive, welcoming, and collaborative environment that encourages employees to collaborate with each other and engage in shared activities.
To address these two principles, it is first crucial to create an appropriate strategy at the CEO level. Executives will be responsible for supporting diversity and inclusion by establishing proper behavioral standards among personnel, implementing training sessions aimed to eliminate potential bias, and creating employee networks or resource groups. Second, it will be necessary to integrate appropriate approaches to recruitment.
For instance, the workforce should be represented by individuals of various cultural and racial backgrounds, as well as include the representatives of minorities. Better Together will ensure that the leadership positions show diversity as well. This way, it will be possible to implement multifaceted approaches to managing the organization and comply with its core values, morals, and ethics.
Creating well-developed evaluation measures is also crucial for addressing inclusion and diversity. The company will analyze promotion rates, recruiting principles, and turnover both among educators and in the leadership positions to investigate whether these two principles are followed. The findings of the analysis will be used to address the potential disadvantages of the existing strategies aimed to support diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Such an approach will minimize possible discrimination and a lack of integration among personnel, as well as ensure that Better Together provides equal opportunities for all employees.
Conclusion
The report shows that the company’s ethics, morals, and values are significant both for its performance and for establishing a positive organizational culture. Better Together supports the principles of equality, human rights, diversity, respect, and safety, while implementing compassionate and supportive attitudes towards its students. To practice these principles, the company will establish training sessions for its employees along with regulations aimed to identify potential biases and weaknesses of existing approaches.
References
Ardichvili, A., Mitchell, J. A., & Jondle, D. (2008). Characteristics of ethical business cultures. Journal of Business Ethics, 85(4), 445-451.
Azmi, R. A. (2006). Business ethics as competitive advantage for companies in the globalization era. Web.
Kozan, K. (2019). Diversity and inclusion: A beginner’s guide for HR professionals. Web.
Schaubroeck, J. M., Hannah, S. T., Avolio, B. J., Kozlowski, S. W., Lord, R. G., Treviño, L. K.,… Peng, A. C. (2012). Embedding ethical leadership within and across organization levels. Academy of Management Journal, 55(5), 1053-1078.
Suen, H., Cheung, S. O., & Mondejar, R. (2007). Managing ethical behaviour in construction organizations in Asia: How do the teachings of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism and Globalization influence ethics management? International Journal of Project Management, 25(3), 257-265.
Youssef, C. M., & Luthans, F. (2012). Positive global leadership. Journal of World Business, 47(4), 539-547.