Values in modern organizations essay

Taking into consideration the importance of ethical policies and organizational culture, it is necessary to lay emphasis on the fact that often it is quite difficult to define the extent to which the policy of organizations or behavior of its members is ethical without the knowledge of local culture. In this respect, it should be said that modern organizations often operates worldwide (Mohrman, 2008). Therefore, they operate in different cultural environment that makes it difficult to define which behavior or policies are ethical and which are not. In this respect, it is necessary to understand that the ethical norms are grounded on the set of values which accepted by the society.

Obviously, each culture and each society has its own set of values which may differ consistently. For instance, it proves beyond a doubt that oriental cultures, such as Japanese, Chinese, and others are more concerned with the concept of face, interests of the community, public needs, etc., while western culture, such American or European, is more concerned with individual needs and interests and this culture is highly individualistic (Wilkins, 2006). These differences have to be taken into considerations by organizations operating worldwide. At the same time, the cultural differences determine the different set of values which defines ethical norms in the society. Obviously, the existing set of values can differ depending on the cultural environment. For instance, returning to the example of oriental and western culture, it should be said that the pursue of an individual success, private property are main values in the western culture, while the oriental culture treats the maintenance of face more than an individual success (Khor, 2007). As a result, a representative or oriental culture can easily sacrifice his professional career for the well-being of the community organization and this will ethically correct for this culture, while for the western culture, such behavior is unacceptable and can be interpreted as an offense of an individual’s rights and liberties and, therefore, this action will be unethical, if an individual is forced to end his professional career under the pressure of his mangers, for instance. In such a situation, the system of value defines ethical norms and principles that define the policy of organizations and organizational culture.