Ethical Climate

An ethical climate research paper looks at a business or an industry and examines the ethical climate of the entity. There are some specific points that should be covered when examining the ethical climate within a business or industry. Below, you will see the elements that need to be discussed.

Outline for Ethical Climate Research Paper:

1. Organizational climate: Describe the climate of the organization overall.
2. Historical research into organizational climate
   1. Ethical climate in specific organization
   2. Ethical climate (summarizes research)
3. Constructs included (in this section)
   1. Loci of analysis /ethical criterion
      
   2. Ethical climate theory
      
   3. Cognitive moral development
      
   4. Information concerning the development of instrumentation to identify ethical climate: Victor and Cullen ethical climate questionnaire (ECQ).
4. Ethical climate in the industry
5. Demographic Research in ethical climate
6. Summary of the review of Literature for loci of analysis and the influence of demographic variables on ethical climates in non-profit health care
   

Be sure to include the following:

• Demographic variables:
  • Race
  • Gender
  • Education
  • Number of years in industry
  • Number of years at specific company

Overview on Ethical Climate:

Our attention has been focused on corporate ethics as never before in recent years because of a series of high profile scandals. It seems that every day, new ones are reported. More and more, the public, shareholders, and employees are demanding that corporations create good ethical climates. Research is also demonstrating that ethical companies are successful companies. The basis of ethical climates is the leader. Leaders must set the example with their own compensation and by promoting diversity. Leaders who create ethical climates will find that doing so pays off in the long run.

Creating and maintaining a strong ethical climate in an organization obviously must begin at the top. Leaders must behave ethically themselves and demand that others in the company behave in an ethical manner as well. But, leaders must recognize that ethical climates can only be created with input from those below them. The first step in creating an ethical climate is for the leader to determine what he wants to achieve. For example, the corporate climate will be very different for a company whose ethical objective is to stay out of trouble and another whose objective is to balance the needs of managers, employees, shareholders, and customers. Furthermore objectives must be tailored to the company; you cannot adopt another company's ethical system effectively. After obtaining input to develop ethical objectives, the leader must begin nurturing an ethical climate. Next, the company must strive to hire people who are themselves ethical and share the corporation's view of ethics.