Ethical Organization Essay

In the time of an ongoing deterioration of the economic situation and negative trends in the business environment, the organization is facing the problem of the necessity of the personnel reduction and the maintenance of employees’ loyalty to the organization. In actuality, this means that the organization needs to cut jobs and, at the same time, preserve employees’ loyalty, which is quite a difficult goal to meet.

In fact, it is obvious that employees become uncertain in their future in the organization, if they understand that some of them will definitely lose their job. On the other hand, the company has to cut jobs in order to maintain its competitive position in the market and survive during the crisis. In such a way, the organization needs to minimize negative effects of job cuts and prepare the personnel to job cuts.

In this respect, the organization deals with ethical, moral and social issues. In fact, the job cuts imply that the organization needs to define employees who will lose their job. In this respect, it is important to remember about legal issues, such as the focus on professional characteristics of employees as major factors that determine the decision concerning each employee which is to be fired. In other words, the organization has to avoid cases of discriminations while cutting jobs. At the same time, the organization has to take a social responsibility for its employees since even those employees who lose their jobs should get the financial support from the part of the company. Otherwise, other employees will be uncertain in their social protection even if they stay in the company. In such a context, ethical and moral issues concerning the relationships of the organization and employees naturally arise.

It proves beyond a doubt that, in order to avoid possible conflicts within the organization and prevent the risk of the violation of ethical or legal norms, the organization needs to implement a clear and effective ethics program which can facilitate the process of job cuts. Firstly, it is necessary to develop a Code of Ethics which defines ethical principles of relationships within the organization, including cases of behavior of employees which is unacceptable for the company and which can lead to the firing of employees. At the same time, the Code of Ethics should admit the possibility of job cuts and define that only the least efficient or productive employees can be fired. Hence, it is necessary to define criteria of effectiveness and productivity on the ground of which the assessment of work of each employee is conducted.  In order to improve the professional level of employees and minimize the risk of professional degradation, the company needs to organize training of employees which should be available to all employees. At the same time, the company should monitor effectiveness and productivity of employees with the help of control officers. In addition, it is possible to enforce the organization with highly-qualified employees which can be trained within the organization to take the top position and show other employees a positive example.

Thus, on implementing the aforementioned ethics program, it is possible to establish clear and understandable rules according to which the organization can function effectively. At the same time, such rules can help the organization to cut jobs with minimal harm to the organizational culture.