ORGANIZATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AT WORK: TECHNOLOGY & ETHICS Organizational Behavior

Digital and information technology allows for new opportunities for education, including at the professional level. More and more, human resources use technology to assist in the modification and development of company culture. 21st century organizational leadership can be characterized by the realization that a clearly defined and strongly present organizational culture is key to success. Some of the most successful organizations are ones wherein their culture is adaptable and flexible. These same companies understand the importance and value of smooth transition and effective implementation of organizational change as well as promotion of organizational culture. Human Resources is a department that is integral in the development and sustainment of the organizational culture. Human Resources is additionally a depart that can facilitate organizational change(s). Human Resources professionals should take the time to educate themselves and learn the ways in which technology can supplement their skills and help them perform the job functions better. The paper examines how companies use technology in regards to ethical standards and guidelines. The paper estimates the affects ethics, technology, and organizational philosophies have upon the individual and the group within the organization. Information technology is yet another resource for the Human Resources department to effectively enact organizational change including strengthening and diversifying organizational culture.

The paper endeavors to understand the applications of organizational philosophies in the workplace with the utilization of technology regarding ethical standards and guidelines. How do companies use technology to uphold and demonstrate ethical standards and guidelines? How does organizational philosophy factor into the successful and productive application of technology and ethics? Human Resources can use technology to manage ethics in the workplace and charter the affects upon the work environment and company culture.

Technology is a great aid for Human Resources and Management to guide employees toward ethical behaviors and practices in the work place. Software such as PowerPoint and Keynote are great visual aids for presenters in any field. Human Resources can show videos on projectors or high definition screens as a way to promote ethical behaviors and practices in the workplace as well. There are also interactive tools that can be used. There are computer programs that allow viewers to hold their own remote with buttons that represent different choices. There could be an interactive presentation such that the characters in the videos may present questions or situations to the audience (employees) and using these special remotes, the television and computer registers each individual answer as it moves through the narrative. Training by Human Resources should be as interactive and user friendly as possible to increase likelihood of information retention. Instead of taking a test on ethical standards on paper or online, the technology affords the employees the opportunity to have a more interactive and experiential association with the topic at hand. Technology can distract people from knowing they are learning while learning occurs nonetheless. In these instances, the technology promotes absorption of the information learned on an unconscious level. The use of technology in the workplace promotes a culture of modernity, of interactivity, and awareness of the social determinants of health at work.

Why consider ethics in the workplace at all? Whatever the personal points-of-view for any employee, ethics in the workplace should be valued and demonstrated. At the end of the day, no matter the ethical relativism of each person, lack of ethics in the workplaces costs the company money. A key to the demonstration and adherence to ethical standards is clarity. It may seem self explanatory, yet it is necessary. The company must perform due diligence and begin with clear explanations for the ethical expectations and consequences in the work environment. Ethics are relative. One is acceptable or praised in one culture is deeply abhorrent in another culture. When people come together as they work for an organization, the employees and management bring along with them their cultural perspectives, attitudes, aesthetic...

It is unwise to presume that every employee has the same concept of acceptable and inappropriate in the workplace. It is up to the management to provide and present every employee with the company regards as ethical practice and ethical standards. People within an organization cannot justly held accountable for information of which they are unaware. Behaviors in the workplace demand a great deal more of specificity, even for behaviors that might seem completely obvious; there should also be transparency regarding consequences for violation the organizational code of ethics.
Lack of ethical practice in the workplace can lead to theft, litigation, and fraud. The costs to a company due to these results are grand. The employees will experience cut backs of various sorts from health care benefits, salary, and may suffer lay offs. Thus, ethics practiced in the workplace keep everyone employed and keep the company in business generating constant revenue. We do not exist within a perfect reality; there will be perplexing and difficult ethical situations that every individual faces over a lifetime and for which there are equally as difficult choices to be made. Attempts to maintain ethical leadership and ethical behavior in organizations and in life make a difference and ultimately should be the standard and/or tradition.

What about organizational philosophy lends itself to the practice or study of ethics? Organizational philosophy is a part of organizational studies. Within organizational studies contains topics such as organizational behavior, and organizational theory. The primary concern of organizational studies is the study and application of knowledge how, in groups and as individuals, people behave within organizations. Companies and corporations are popular organizations that most of us find ourselves within for a small to large portion of our lives. In the span of a few decades, organizational studies, philosophy, and behavior have moved from obtuse, dubious subjects to highly respected field with professionals who are taken seriously and in high demand. Furthermore, the relationships between improving organizational cultures with the use of IT have been studied with interest and vigor, too.

Recent scholarly and popular literature has examined the role that IT plays in promoting collaboration and information sharing both inside and across organizational boundaries…IT is a variable that can be used to enhance the quality and timeliness of organizational intelligence and decision making, thus promoting organizational performance…we examine IT as a moderator of the relationship between organizational characteristics and several organizational outcomes, most importantly, efficiency and innovation…We believe this approach both places IT in a more theoretically plausible position and offers a useful framework that allows for the discussion of IT and a larger array of strategic organizational issues. (Dewett & Jones, The role of IT in the organization, 2001)

There are more and more organizational studies course including organizational psychology, including in undergraduate, graduate, and professional certification programs with focus in areas directly related to Human Resources, as well as many other fields that are unrelated. Organizational studies has potentially endless applications, most definitely with regard to organizations, technology, and ethics. Ethics are sets of behaviors based on attitudes, perspectives, and cultures regarding morality. Therefore, organizational philosophy in the workplace culture is a critical area of study. Furthermore, with the advent of a multitude of digital technologies, the application of organizational philosophy has an added aspect. Human Resources is a department that can capitalize on the growing trend of interaction and dependency on technology because technology has great power to effect changes in behavior in individuals and groups of various sizes. Greater portions of their staff will be able to use whatever technological aids with relative ease, which would not have been the case even as much as a decade ago.

There is a need for ethical standards and guidelines in every society on a grand scale and on smaller scales. The workplace is a microcosm of society; therefore, there is a need for ethical standards and guidelines in the workplace environment…