Ethical behavior is among the strategic activities organizations apply to gain competitive advantages. In this case, the organizations that maintain ethical behavior gain customers’ respect and trust. As a result, they have certain competitive advantage over other organizations (Zeger). In order to maintain strict ethical behavior in the organization, company authorities have to treat their employees decently. For this reason, an employer must portray positive ethical behavior and be a role model for the employees, thus establishing and maintaining high ethical standards (Mantel 45). Such actions will boost the organization’s image motivating the employees. On the other hand, an employer portraying negative ethical behavior in an organization ruins its renommee. Therefore, it is essential to conduct an analysis on ethical impact of negative employer behavior.
The first ethical impact of negative employer behavior is that it creates a negative ethical behavior culture in an organization (Mantel 45). Employers act as role models in the organization. Therefore, if they start behaving improperly, the employees will tend to imitate such actions (Mantel 45). As a result, the organization will adopt a negative ethical behavior culture. For example, if an employer is always late for work, the employees will start adopting this negative behavior and copy it. In this case, they will start coming late, too. For this reason, creation of a negative ethical behavior culture is the first ethical impact of negative employer behavior.
Lack of respect is the second ethical impact of negative employer behavior in an organization. According to the ethical code of conduct, many organizations state that employees must respect one another (Mantel 48). Therefore, when an employer portrays negative behavior in the organization, he or she is going to lose respect. This can escalate to a point where the employees will not be listening to the employer’s instructions even if they are serious (Mantel 49). An excellent example of negative behavior by the employer is coming to work drunk. In this case, employees will not respect the employer. That is why lack of respect in the organization is another ethical impact of negative employer behavior.
Another ethical impact of negative employer behavior is the creation of mistrust in an organization (Zeger). Ethics does not only mean behaving well in a company; it also has a significant impact on other issues. In this case, if an employer behaves improperly, he or she will end up creating mistrusts in the office (Zeger). For example, sexual harassment is one of the types of such behavior. In case of such a situation, employees will stop trusting the employer. In addition, certain employees might adopt this behavior creating further mistrust in the organization. Therefore, mistrust among employees is another ethical impact of negative employer behavior.
Lack of cooperation in the company is another ethical impact of negative employer behavior. When an employer does not involve employees in the decision making process, he does not promote cooperation among them. In this case, employees will tend to do what they want without cooperating with one another (Employee Motivation Skills). Such actions will influence performance directly. For instance, when an employer fails to punish an employee or favors an employee after behaving unethically, others will consider such actions as unfair. Therefore, they will stop cooperating with the employer or the favored employee. In addition, they will start behaving unethically since they know that there is no punishment. As a result, there will be no essential cooperation in the organization. Thus, lack of cooperation is another ethical impact of negative employer behavior.
One more ethical impact of negative employer behavior is low morale among the employees. An organization that has high ethical standards tends to create high morale among its employees (Employee Motivation Skills). This is because employees feel happy to work in a highly reputable organization. On the other hand, if the employer behaves in a wrong way, he or she will tend to tarnish the organization’s name. As a result, no employee would like to associate with such an organization (Employee Motivation Skills). As a result, the employees are going to lose morale. An excellent example of such circumstances is an employer who is stealing money from the organization, or a corrupt employer. Such actions will taint the organization’s name. Therefore, employees will lose morale because of poor leadership. Thus, low morale among the employees is another ethical impact of negative employer behavior.
Finally, misuse of organization resources is another ethical impact of negative employer behavior. It is extremely unethical to misuse organization resources (Zeger). When one person is performing such actions, it cannot be easily revealed. However, if many employees engage in such activities, the company is going to lose a lot of money. Therefore, if an employer misuses organization resources, he or she will encourage employees to start misusing resources (Zeger). That is why misuse of resources in an organization is another ethical impact of negative employer behavior.
Conclusion
According to the analysis above, negative employer behavior has significant ethical impacts on an organization. First, it creates negative behavior culture in the organization. Second, it creates mistrust and lack of respect in the organization. Third, it leads to lack of cooperation and low morale among the employees. Finally, it results to the misuse of organization resources. It should be noted that all the consequences of negative employer behavior result in the organization’s inefficiency, poor performance and low quality services. If such practices are not prevented in time, the company may lose its renommee and customers, and will have to stop running business. For this reason, any employer should portray positive behavior for purposes of gaining competitive advantage over other organizations.
