A strong ethical climate is a system of informal rules concerning the stakeholders’ behavior in internal or external environments. In such an environment, organizational leaders take the initiative to shape or support the ethical environment. Ethical climate corresponds to organizational personality, which has a direct impact on both organizational success and employee satisfaction. Ethical climate represents common values and beliefs that hold an organization intact. Given that employee and customer dissatisfaction are some of the causes of turnover and loss of trust respectively, leaders at all levels of an entity must be aware of their predefined roles and responsibilities in preserving an ethical workplace setting that can improve both customer experience and employee satisfaction. While most managers or organizational leaders recognize the significance of ethical climate in customer and employee satisfaction, some fail to realize the direct impact they have is shaping it. Therefore, shaping ethical climate is one of the critical tasks of organizational leaders because the process entails turning trust and trustworthiness, mentorship, consistency, delegation, and empowerment into positive ethical traits. Moreover, shaping an ethical climate is an important aspects for leaders because they must be cautious when making decisions and ensuring that equitability and fairness exist within their organizations and the ethical standards are preserved.
In essence, ethical climate necessitate the general personality of an organization. It focuses on perceptions, ethics-related attitudes and decision-making processes in the subject organization. In other words, ethical climate is the psychological perception of on an organization. Therefore, leaders concentrate on shaping ethical climate because organizational structures developed from an ethical climate encourage ethical behavior. Specifically, ethical climate influences employee satisfaction, organizational expenses, employees’ perception of leadership and employee’s organizational commitment.
Steps that Leaders Can Take to Prevent and Control Destructive Behaviors on Ethical Climate
Conflict is inevitable in any organization. Employees argue, departments lock horns, and ideas clash. Some forms of conflict induce creativity. However, in most scenarios, conflict causes poor performance and discontent, which catalyzes disaster in a ethical climate. Some of these destructive conflicts emerge from destructive employees. Destructive employees are individuals whose behavior violates the values and principles of an ethical or cultural climate. Additionally, other employees are manipulated to propagate the agendas of destructive employees. Despite the fact that not all destructive behaviors can be avoided, leaders may use the following steps to prevent and manage such behaviors.
- Communicate well. It entails getting feedback from other employees to determine if the underlying preconceptions are correct.
- Listen better and focus on facts and not on the destructive employees
- Create healthy boundaries through Job Descriptions. It would ensure that destructive employees are restricted access to other leaders
- Create behavioral consequences alongside reward systems and
- Use professional consultants when hiring or promoting employees. It can help prevent hiring destructive employees.
These steps are not stringent and specific to any organization. Hence, leaders should strive to create an exhaustive procedure of managing destructive behavior based on their cultural and ethical environments.