by Ethics are moral principles that guide a person’s behavior. These morals are shaped by social norms, cultural practices, and religious influences. Ethical decision making is the process of assessing the moral implications of a course of action. All decisions have an ethical or moral dimension for a simple reason they have an effect on others. Managers and leaders need to be aware of their own ethical and moral beliefs so they can draw on them when they face difficult decisions.
Ethical decisions can involve several determinations. The field of ethics, also known as moral philosophy, shows that there are various ways of systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. For example, from a consequentialist standpoint, a morally right action is one that produces a good outcome, or consequence. A utilitarian perspective takes the position that the proper course of action is one that maximizes overall happiness.
Most ethical decisions exist in a grey area where there is no clear-cut or obvious decision that can be determined solely through quantitative analysis or consideration of objective data or information. Ethical decision making requires judgment and interpretation, the application of a set of values to a set of perceptions and estimates of the consequences of an action. Sometimes ethical decisions involve choosing not between good and bad, but between good and better or between bad and worse.
Ethical management is the practice of being honest and virtuous in a role as a manager. Management training will help you with this and there are several responsibilities and obligations of an ethical manager, including setting a good example, holding everyone to the same standard, and making expectations clear. In order to do this, there are four main principles of ethical management you need to keep in mind at all times.
They are as follows:
Mutual respect: Your role as a manager involves making sure that your employees all treat each other respectfully as well. While they don’t all have to agree with each other, they should show proper respect for each other’s ideas and opinions. A team that doesn’t get along on a personal level will not work will together and will be less productive.
Respect for each employee: While it’s difficult at times, it is important to make sure you treat each of your employees or team members respectfully. Everyone you work with will have different religious and cultural beliefs and should be treated fairly.
Decision making transparency: It’s incredibly important for you to make sure your employees understand why you make the decisions you do. If they realise you aren’t making arbitrary choices based on personal beliefs, they’ll be more likely to accept your decisions and work together as a team.
Procedural fairness: You may not have control of the procedures your company expects you to follow but you do have control over the procedures you can implement within your team. It is important to make sure the procedures you implement are fair to all of your employees neither favouring nor neglecting one employee or another.
Ombudsman
An organizational ombudsman is a designated neutral or impartial dispute resolution practitioner whose major function is to provide independent, impartial, confidential and informal assistance to managers and employees, clients and/or other stakeholders of a corporation, university, non-governmental organization, governmental agency or other entity. As an independent and neutral employee, the organizational ombudsman ideally should have no other role or duties. This is in order to maintain independence and neutrality, and to prevent real or perceived conflicts of interest.
Using an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) sensibility, an organizational ombudsman provides options for people with concerns, including whistleblowers, who seek to bring their concerns forward safely and effectively. Additionally, an organizational ombudsman offers coaching on ethics and other management issues, provides mediation to facilitate conflict resolution, helps enable safe upward feedback, assists those who feel harassed and discriminated against. Overall, the organizational ombudsman helps employees and managers navigate bureaucracy and deal with concerns and complaints.
The concept has been widely implemented, and has been spread around the globe, with many corporations, universities, government and non-government entities establishing organizational ombudsman programs.
The organizational ombudsman role has evolved from at least two sources:
a) An evolution from the concept of the ‘classical’ ombudsman.
b) A spontaneous creation and re-invention of the idea of an internal, neutral conflict resolver often by senior managers who had never heard of the classical model.
Evolution from the classical model: the classical ombudsman appeared in Sweden in the early 19th century as an independent high-level public official responsible to the parliament or legislature and appointed by constitutional or legislative provisions to monitor the administrative activities of government. This model has been copied and also adapted in many ways in many countries and milieus.
The spontaneous creation model: the organizational ombudsman role has also been regularly “re-invented” by employers who did not know of the classical ombudsman but valued the importance of a senior manager who is a neutral, independent, confidential and informal problem-solver and systems change agent. Examples appeared in the 1920s in the US and probably appeared here and there in many cultures. In many organizations the organizational ombudsman is seen as part of a complaint system or link to a complaint system, but the office is intended to function, and to appear to function, independently from all regular line and staff management and to report to the CEO or Board of Directors.
Compliance system
A compliance management system is an integrated system comprised of written documents, functions, processes, controls, and tools that help an organization comply with legal requirements and minimize harm to consumers due to violations of law.
A compliance management system is woven into every functional area in your organization, from sales to advertising to operations and administration. A good compliance management system can proactively address the risks relevant to your organization while meeting multiple regulatory requirements.
| Components of a Compliance Management System | |
| Policies | Set by management and followed by employees |
| Processes | Documented and comply with established regulations |
| Training | Implemented during the hiring process and refreshed as standards change |
| Monitoring | Recursively checking for compliance in business transactions |
Hot lines
A hotline is a point-to-point communications link in which a call is automatically directed to the preselected destination without any additional action by the user when the end instrument goes off-hook. An example would be a phone that automatically connects to emergency services on picking up the receiver. Therefore, dedicated hotline phones do not need a rotary dial or keypad. A hotline can also be called an automatic signalling, ringdown, or off-hook service.
