The Relationship Between Business Ethics and Organizational Culture Essay

The Relationship Between Business Ethics and Organizational Culture - Essay Example Research into cultural variables has been carried out and the outcome reveals that the ethical perception of an organization is dependent on its organizational behavior. Other researchers have also revealed that employees’ behavior is hugely influenced by value system organizational culture. It has been discovered that unethical and illegal conduct by corporate agents has a huge capability of creating adverse effects on the immediate stakeholders. Culture is perceived to be just one of the variables that influence an organization as a whole but with very significant effects. The leadership and members of an organization have a big role to play in constructing, enforcing and retaining the culture within their organization since culture can easily be manipulated by these very same people. Organizational culture can be viewed from various approaches. The first approach involves a traditional perspective; this involves objectives matter such as: rituals, symbolism and tales. Secon dly, it can be viewed from an interpretive perspective; this involves the study of how members of a given organization could be having a common subjective meaning towards the organization. Lastly, organizational culture can be viewed from a critical-interpretive perspective; this involves the study of the common subjective meanings within an organization and the possible struggles for power that could be brought about by the competition among the subjective meaning. Although there are a few commonalities, organizational culture widely varies from one organization to another. Enron Corporation was once one of the most successful corporations with almost everything handled in the correct manner. It was known for its comprehensive management control and a proper system of governance which led the corporation to winning several awards in acknowledgement of the same. However things started getting out of hand in the company when unethical organizational culture found its way into the fir m. The poor organizational culture involved emergence of irregularities in the financial statements of the firm and embezzlement of funds in the form of using company working capital for personal purposes that are not included in the company budget. The case of Enron provides a firsthand example of how inadequate attention to alteration in cultural practices and leadership of a firm can results to its downfall despite there being a proper management system in place. This is a clear indication that the effectives of variables such as proper management system control heavily rely on an organization’s leadership and culture. Under the tenure of Richard Kinder as the company chief executive officer, the company incurred bad losses which led to some of the investors withdrawing their investments from the company. However, Richard Kinder was well known for his high levels in discipline in handling matters involving both employees and figures. He kept the business unit leaders on to es with numerous challenges. He also kept a close look on matters pertaining to expenses, cash flows and employee levels. But all this did not yield any positive results in preventing the company from incurring losses. However, things changed drastically with the appointment of Jeffrey Skilling as the new chief executive officer to replace Richard Kinder. The organizational culture of the company was also set to change widely with the introduction of a new chief executi