Hannah Devis

Introduction

Ethics and knowledge of cultural values play a critical role in people’s private lives as well as professional activity. For efficient organizational performance, responsible and ethical behavior is highly crx ucial as the main condition of its sustainability. However, the practice shows that managers and employees do not always understand the importance of ethical attitude. At the same time, the comprehension and awareness of cultural patterns and acceptance of people from different cultural backgrounds is also significant. It can be challenging, but it is critical for efficient professional growth in the time of globalization and diversity in the world. Therefore, the main requirements to the effective performance and professional development are ethical and responsible conduct as well as cultural diversity competence.

Ethics and Sustainability

Nowadays, the corporate world requires the moral conscience. Business ethics is related to moral standards and principles and the code of conduct that an individual is expected to follow while dealing with others. It covers a lot of various aspects, and it handles the norms relating to the organization and its relations with rivals, customers, suppliers, and employees. Overall, ethical behavior and attitude are highly critical in both personal and professional lives. Nevertheless, the problem is that people do not always notice the unethical or irresponsible conduct. In the business environment, it is critical as a leader has to stay reasonable and prudent and at the same time, notice the changes in the attitude of his subordinates.

There are several challenges in noticing the inappropriate behavior, and one of them is ambiguity. Only in rare cases, the critical executive decisions demand deliberation among alternatives that are unambiguous and clear. As a rule, the information provided is represented by hints that something is wrong; however, they are not supported by convincing evidence (Bazerman, 2014, p. 117). Another issue is motivated blindness. Very often, people have their own interest in the situation, and it is clear that they cannot view the case without bias, even if they have some moral compass. The next barrier that leads to the ignorance of important signals is the conflict of interest. Desires impact the way people interpret information, and it is especially true “when our responsibilities are not aligned with the actual incentives in place” (Bazerman, 2014, p. 117). Furthermore, slippery slope can turn out to be a great obstacle when ethical principles gradually become weaker, and the change in most cases is imperceptible. To continue, misdirection is another problem, and it is critical to remember that an individual can intentionally mislead his/her colleague. Unfortunately, the phenomenon is a common challenge for the corporate world. Lastly, one has to consider indirect harm as the challenge to notice the unethical behavior. A fire of the Bangladesh garment factory where half of 300 females and children that worked there were killed can serve as a bright example of the given factor (Bazerman, 2014, p. 118). The situation poses the important question of who is to be blamed in the mentioned accident. Obviously, the organization must share the responsibility in this case as it had not invested into safety. Hence, all the mentioned above barriers explain why unethical attitude is often ignored.

To continue, it is vital to say that mere awareness of these obstacles is not enough for building noticing skills. First of all, it is important to look inside in order to analyze appropriately previous mistakes. Undoubtedly, strategic threats occur owing to factors outside of leader’s control. However, most of the failures have both external and internal causes, and often, external attributes are applied exclusively forgetting about the possibility of the internal issues (Bazerman, 2014, p. 118). Hence, when the ethical challenge takes place in the company, it is critical to consider one’s own role and the role of the team. Another way to enhance one’s noticing skills is taking the position of an outsider that often helps to notice and highlight the mistakes. It is important to wait for a minute and ask if the established policies and rules promote motivated blindness or conflict of interest or other errors. The effectiveness of this approach lies in the fact that the view from the side aids to determine vulnerabilities and possible effective solutions much better. Finally, the last piece of advice is to build a noticing organization (Bazerman, 2014, p. 119). It is not enough for a leader to work on his/her own noticing skills because others also have to manage barriers in seeing and solving bad behavior. Therefore, it is possible to begin with explaining one’s expectations and to analyze the conduct when employees believe they miss something.

In my experience, there have been different situations. My friend worked at a company that represented a great level of effective corporate social responsibility. It invested great sums in the renewable energy for saving the environment and launched a campaign aimed at persuading other organizations to enjoy the initiative and invest in the renewable energy. The campaign included many events and conferences, social media advertisements and promotion, and public activities all of which had an objective of increasing the knowledge level regarding the environmental issues among people. Obviously, my friend was amazed by the amount of efforts and attempts directed at demonstration of such ethical and responsible attitude to the environmental challenges and participated in the campaign. As a result, many investments were raised to manage renewable energy sources. For me, such an example is great evidence of the ethical behavior among leaders and the great role and impact of the responsible and ethical attitude on the social sustainability and well-being.

Nonetheless, I have also had not really positive experience regarding ethics in the workplace. One of my ex-colleagues from my past part-time work was the son of a manager’s friend. The company we worked for was small, and only several people were employed there. Despite this fact, the executive’s attitude was biased because he was very loyal and attracted to the friend’s son, while the treatment of other workers was different. Hence, when this employee made mistakes in the work, the manager accepted them or even blamed other staff members. This is a bright example of the motivated blindness because the biased attitude of the manager to the acquaintance working in his business was a barrier in noticing the irresponsible conduct of my colleague. As a consequence, I left that workplace because due to such unhealthy environment, I had to do extra work instead of that employee, and many arguments took place among the staff because of the situation. Now, it is clear for me that in this case, a great solution for the manager is to take an outsider, unbiased position that would help him to realize how wrong it is to ignore or not to notice such unhealthy conditions in the organization he/she manages.

Cultural Values

Nowadays, cultural understanding is another important condition of the professional development. In the last decade, the corporate world has experienced dramatic changes regarding this aspect. In particular, organizations have become more global, and consequently, employees come from various backgrounds (Molinsky, 2012, p. 139). Due to globalization, the whole world is experiencing such a phenomenon as diversity and has to manage it efficiently. Additionally, the migration flow among states has a great influence on the business life that similarly provokes the high tension level between foreign and local workers. What follows from all the mentioned above facts is that cultural awareness can really help to develop as a professional that is able to work effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds.

There are a few important skills one needs to develop for the efficient collaboration with a variety of people. Firstly, one needs to be ready and open to code switching between cultures. When discussing the business and the cultural values, it has been noticed that when one is in other culture, they can feel uncomfortable when their behavior is in a conflict with their personal beliefs and values. The situation becomes worse when the people they work with insist that it is a true reflection of their personality. Therefore, it is critical to provide the behavior adaptation for distress reduction. It means making small but efficient changes that are appropriate to the new setting and do not violate personal values (Molinsky, 2012, p. 140). It can mean conduct that combines elements of both cultures. The other solution to the problem is to completely appreciate the code-switching value. One of the ways is to concentrate on how the needed results align with your personal beliefs and goals, even if the behavior itself does not (Molinsky, 2012, p. 140). Lastly, it is advisable to view the code-switching from the perspective of the culture you are in instead of perceiving it only through your own lens (Molinsky, 2012, p. 140).

Another skill is taking advantage of digital influence. Most leaders nowadays realize how to apply online tools for expanding and building networks. Furthermore, it is not difficult to take an active part in the corporate social media initiatives. Online networks have become bridges between unconnected groups (Molinsky, 2012, p. 141). As a result, they can raise effect on the business life because they represent a chance to detect all possible collaborations or conflicts and to manage the superior information. Furthermore, good networkers use their contacts as a quick feedback source with the help of which they can get solutions to work challenges of all sorts. The feedback can help to persuade the person to accept some position (Molinsky, 2012, p. 141). Moreover, the network can be used for strategies and proposals testing outside and inside the organization.

The third necessary skill is a deliberate division of attention. The information stream control can help to feel more productive and focused (Molinsky, 2012, p. 142). Thus, given technique has to be promoted and harnessed.

From my own experience, I can tell that my personal values have been challenged, and that was difficult for me. One time, I was attending education courses that included different people from various cultural backgrounds. I had to prepare the final project with a Japanese guy. The main problem we encountered was that we had a different approach to work and could not understand how to cooperate. Once, I expressed my ideas in a clear way, and my partner agreed immediately, but later, I learned that he believed that it was rude to reject my proposition, and his ideas were opposite. Hence, our different cultural backgrounds were a great barrier, and my personal values needed changes for managing the common work. In the end, we decided to find some compromise and implement both perspectives in the project. This experience has helped me to understand that people and cultures are different, and without understanding and accepting this fact, it is impossible to work with the team efficiently. Moreover, in that case, I realized the best solution for conflict avoidance would be to combine dissimilar perspectives. Just as it is said in the reading under analysis, it is critical to unite both cultures to find a way out. Currently, I strongly believe that the most critical issue for any profession is the ability to work in a team and to find a compromise for gaining effective results.

Conclusion

Overall, after reading the materials and analyzing them, I have realized that the ethical and responsible behavior is highly critical for effective performance of employees, organizations, and a society in general. Awareness of the main ethical norms and principles and their implementation are critical conditions for gaining sustainability. At the same time, knowledge of and perception of cultural values and various backgrounds play a great role as well. Based on my experience, I can say that the ability to work in the team is highly important for professional development, but it cannot be gained without finding a compromise or unity between the representatives of different cultures. Hence, awareness of ethical norms and cultural values are significant for personal and professional development.

Reference List

Bazerman, MH 2014, ‘Becoming a first-class noticer’, Harvard Business Review, vol. 92, no. 7/8, pp. 116-119.

Molinsky, AL 2012, ‘Code switching between cultures’, Harvard Business Review, vol. 90, no. 1, pp. 139-143.

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