Organizational Values and Codes of Ethics

A mission statement is a statement that describes the organization’s reason for being (Cady et al.,2011). It explains why the organization exists. It focuses on the present; it defines critical processes, customers and informs the company about the desired performance level. It describes the objective of the company as well as its approach to attain those objectives. Hence, a mission statement is the company goals that are to be achieved.  Mission statement reflects every aspect of the organization that is customers, employees, services, products, quality, technology, survival and market position.

Looking at the mission statement of Albany Med Center this aspect of what a mission statement is evident. The mission statement state is “committed to achieving the highest quality standard of care, education as well as research initiatives.”

For the mission statement of RPZ Marketing to be attractive and useful, there are some key things that it needs to highlight. First, it should define what the company does for its customers. This should be made clear so that everybody who read the statement can relate who the target customers are. Second, it should describe what the company does for its employees. Lastly, it should describe what the company foes for its owners.

Values statement

A company’s value statement is a  statement that describes to the customers, employees and other company stakeholders about the company’s top priorities and its core beliefs (Cady et al.,2011). The value statement defines values that are of importance to the company which governs how the company conducts its operations. Value statements are used by companies to identify and connect to their customer and remind the employees about the company’s priorities and goals. For example, the value statement of Walt Disney World goes like “Openness, honesty, integrity, courage, respect, diversity, and balance…” (The Walt Disney Company. n.d.) This value statement explains the set of beliefs and principles that are used by the Walt Disney World to guide its business activities and the way they are operated.

RPZ Marketing should incorporate the values of excellence and continuous, improvement, integrity, compassion,  respect for all, responsiveness to society and a diverse, inclusive and welcoming environment.

Ethics

Company’s ethics refers to moral principles that govern a company’s behavior or the conducting of an activity. It is a set of rules that govern the behavior of employees working in an organization Cady et al., 2011). They are principles that decide the way employees within an organization need to conduct themselves. These principles are best demonstrated through acts of fairness, responsibility, compassion, and integrity. For example code of ethics states that ” Employees of Alphabet and its subsidiaries and controlled affiliates (“Alphabet”) should do the right thing – follow the law, act honorably, and treat co-workers with courtesy and respect.” (Alphabet. n.d.)

While developing a code of ethics, RPZ Marketing should include confidentiality and privacy policies, professional appearance, and obeying the law.

The relationship between values and ethics

To be human is to care, help, guide, learn, understand and teach. From these qualities, humanness is born. A humane employee is a person who exhibits harmony in the workplace. Harmony in the workplace is brought about by both values and ethics. They are the guiding principle in life. When employees of a specific organization live per values in the workplace, their relationship with colleagues becomes balanced. These employees will perform better since they will be feeling joy and happiness within themselves. For instances, if employees live with mutual respect, trust, gratitude in the workplace, that workplace becomes harmonized.

Ethics, like values, create a balanced and harmonized workplace (Johnson 2018). Ethics being the policy if living in the workplace nurtures order. This order is essential for the success and continuity of the organization. Ethics in organizations are critical in product and service delivery, in proper distribution and efficient utilization of the available resources. This helps the organization to avoid wastage, deprivation, and exploitation.

Ethics and Values within an organization are used to lay the foundation for sustainability. From the definition of ethics- a set of rules that govern the behavior of employees working in an organization, it is correct to say that ethic gives direction to the organization.   On the other hand, values are defined as enduring principles, based on which employees make decision Johnson 2018). From the definition of both, it is correct to say that ethics and values shape the behavior of employees within the organization – they provide behavioral rules.

Employees who live per the ethics of the organization are termed as being ethical (Lefkowitz 2017).  Unethical employees result in wastage and imbalance in the organization. An unethical employee is a person who disregards a set of rules that govern their behavior. Such an employee lacks the values of mutual respect and accountability and thus can be said to be living a valueless life.

Application to RPZ Marketing

Considering the nature of business of RPZ Marketing, an employee might be contracted to market and advertise a product. As a salesperson contracted to sell the product, a vacuum cleaner, the employee could market aggressively to make most sales. Marketing aggressively is not the problem. The problem is when the employee decides to market the vacuum cleaner based on lies. While marketing the vacuum cleaner, the employee might decide market  to  potential customers purporting  that the vacuum cleaner is the “fastest in the market.” Even though the product is one of the vacuum cleaners with the lowest speed, the employee will make the customers buy underlies and pretense. The employee will end up making massive sales from which the RPZ Marketing and the employee will benefit. The unfortunate thing is customers who buy the product will be very much disappointed after finding the speed of the vacuum cleaner does not match the description.

This situation is a conflict between ethics and values. To make this understandable, let us review the ethics and the values for RPZ Marketing. Let’s say that  RPZ Marketing emphasis on the values of honesty, respect, integrity, and accountability. And the code of ethics of RPZ Marketing is based on treating co-workers with courtesy and respect,  maintaining confidentiality and privacy policies, and maintaining a professional appearance. In this case, the employee might have been consistent with the RPZ Marketing code of ethics but failed to observe the company’s values. The employee is  dishonest and lacks respect for customers by selling a product on pretense.

Authenticity is a virtue that employees at all levels need to have at all times. Like all virtues, being inauthentic makes one collide with the culture of the organization. This is the case with the RPZ MARKETING employee. The employee might have acted per the code of the ethics of the company. However, not acting per the company values brings about the conflict. Acting unauthentic in the capacity of an employee and in particular a salesperson has a lot of implications to the company. The most basic one is that the customer would never want to be associated with the employee or the company in the future. To resolve such a conflict between the code of ethics and values, it is imperative for the company to take disciplinary action against the employee. This will prevent the employee or any other from engaging in such a practice.

 

References

Cady, S. H., Wheeler, J. V., DeWolf, J., & Brodke, M. (2011). Mission, vision, and values: what  do they say?. Organization Development Journal, 29(1).

Johnson, C. E. (2018). Organizational ethics: A practical approach. Sage Publications.

Lefkowitz, J. (2017). Ethics and values in industrial-organizational psychology. Routledge.

Alphabet. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://abc.xyz/

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.amc.edu/aboutus/mission_vision_and_values.cfm

The Walt Disney Company. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/

 
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