Introduction
The work environment is built not only on the working process itself but also on the atmosphere, employees’ behavior, and interactions with colleagues and superiors. The mentioned aspects are influenced by the ethical climate of the organization. The latter, in turn, highly depends on the company’s leaders’ actions and behavior. Hence, the discussion on the principles of ethical climate and its connection with ethical leadership seems relevant.
Body
First, it is necessary to define the term. According to DeConinck, DeConinck, and Moss (2016), ethical climate includes the understanding of rightness or wrongness that exists in the work setting and provides an understanding of ethical behavior expected by the organization. Furthermore, the environment also involves the firm’s practices within the scope of dealing with moral dilemmas (DeConinck et al., 2016). Thus, an ethical climate helps to regulate the moral aspect of the working process.
In addition, the discussed phenomenon is closely linked to ethical leadership. According to DeConinck et al. (2016), ethical leadership may be defined as the manifestation of appropriate behavior by the leader and the encouraging of such behavior among employees. At first ethical leadership builds an ethical climate, but then it may start working vice versa. When top managers develop a strong work ethic, it helps employees deal with ethical violations from their superiors’ sides and maintain the climate themselves.
Leaders can develop an ethical climate in different ways that include, for instance, integrity and process focus. It might be claimed that integrity is one of the fundamental elements of the aspect of a moral person (Kuenzi, Mayer, & Greenbaum, 2019). Then, apart from personal qualities, the aspect of an ethical manager should be emphasized (Kuenzi et al., 2019). It may include a process focus that involves creating a healthy working environment instead of just moving to the result by any means. Thus, maintaining an ethical climate depends both on the personal and organizational qualities of the leader.
Conclusion
In conclusion, an ethical climate helps to develop employees’ appropriate behavior and provides principles and policies for dealing with moral dilemmas. Maintaining workplace ethics depends, first of all, on the organization’s leaders. Employees, however, are also important for supporting the ethical values of the company. Thus, the ethical climate is a complex phenomenon, playing a significant role in the working process.
References
DeConinck, J. B., DeConinck, M. B., & Moss, H. K. (2016). The relationship among ethical leadership, ethical climate, supervisory trust, and moral judgment. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 20(3), 89–99.
Kuenzi, M., Mayer, D. M., & Greenbaum, R. L. (2019). Creating an ethical organizational environment: The relationship between ethical leadership, ethical organizational climate, and unethical behavior.Personnel Psychology. Web.