An organizational leader needs to know and understand the organizational values and framework of the organization to maximize the potential of the organization. As a leader, personal values and behaviors should be the first analysis that is conducted. The most important role for the leader of the organization is reinforcement in word and deed of the values of the organization (Schein, 1983). Identifying and prioritizing what is important both personally and professionally will raise awareness to what behaviors the leader values from other top-level leadership and subordinates. This introspection will provide a starting point of how ethics and values are integrated into the organizational culture starting at the highest level.
Observation of management and employees can familiarize leadership with traditions and habits in daily operations within the organization. Observing how business is conducted and what behaviors are valued and rewarded will provide a basic understanding of how the values and ethics are implemented. This can be found in not only behavioral habits of individuals but also employee work appraisals. Ethical expectations can be integrated into an employee’s formal role to make ethical behavior at work relevant and rewarding (Selvarajan, 2009). Leaders can analyze the appraisal system and monitor the outcomes based on the results of the assessments.
Surveying employees is a common way to get feedback from within the organization. An ethical beliefs scale developed by Daniel et al. (1997) is used for measuring individual differences in beliefs. This scale includes five dimensions of ethical beliefs: personal integrity issues, corporate integrity issues, individual rights issues; environmental issues; and international issues (Selvarajan, 2009). This type of scale can be modified to measure what is specifically needed to be measured for the organization. Another measure that can be used is the Likert scale which is a method of attributing quantitative value to qualitative data. This scale can measure the perceived leadership ethics and ethical attitudes in the organization and provide data to determine the level of shared values and ethics.
References:
Daniel, L.G., Elliott-Howard, F.E. and Dufrene, D.D. (1997), "The ethical issues rating scale: an instrument for measuring ethical orientation of college students toward various business practices", Educational and Psychological Measurement, Vol. 57 No. 3, pp. 515-26.
Eisenbeiss, S. A., van Knippenberg, D., & Fahrbach, C. M. (2015). Doing well by doing good? analyzing the relationship between CEO ethical leadership and firm performance. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(3), 635-651. http://dx.doi.org.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2124-9
Jiao, C., Richards, D. A., & Zhang, K. (2011). Leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: OCB-specific meanings as mediators. Journal of Business and Psychology, 26(1), 11-25. http://dx.doi.org.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9168-3
Selvarajan, R., & Cloninger, P. A. (2009). The influence of job performance outcomes on ethical assessments. Personnel Review, 38(4), 398-412. http://dx.doi.org.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/10.1108/00483480910956346
Schein, E. (1983). The Role of the Founder in Creating Organizational Culture. Sloan Management Review 25 (2), pp.3-16.
Sinclair, A. (1993). Approaches to organizational culture and ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 12(1), 63. Retrieved from https://saintleo.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/docview/198007763?accountid=4870
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