Ethical Culture
Case Study:
David is a newly hired employee at ABC Nonprofit. On his first day on the job, he begins to notice some questionable things that are occurring in the organization. As he walked by the Vice President’s office on his way to the break room, he also overheard the VP state that he used the nonprofit’s capital expenditure fund to pay for his family to fly to Hawaii for their annual vacation.
Later on during the day, he also notices that most of the employees loiter and gossip in the hallways for a majority of the afternoon, and neglect their job responsibilities for the most part. He also overheard some of them (including several of the supervisors and managers) repeat inappropriate language that they used when they…show more content… He questioned her about why hadn’t she approached her supervisor about it, and she states that it doesn’t do any good. It just falls on deaf ears.
At the end of the work day, David goes home questioning the ethics in the nonprofit as well as his future with the organization.
Questions:
1. Name and describe the ethical dysfunctions found in the case study.
2. Identify internal and external measures that could create a more ethical culture in the organization.
3. What does the nonprofit need to do in order to reach Level 5 of the hierarchy of values as stated in the Strickland and Vaughan article?
Ethical Dysfunctions
1. Structural Dysfunction
• Supervisor does not listen to complaints of employees
• Organization does not offer recourse for employee…show more content… o expands their sense of competence and control and leads to decreasing of inefficiencies (loitering and gossiping in the hallways)
• By not having any avenues for complaints – ABC is not encouraging dissent. Not only does this not give the staff members a voice or a sense of control in their workplace which is needed, but it also stifles improvement
• Learning to listen, promotes ethics. Svara suggest that there should be multiple channels for complaints, including anonymous avenues
• If there were anonymous channels for complaint, David could report the Hawaii trip of the VP, the inadequate training he is receiving, the loitering and gossiping; and also, Grace could report the violation of pay discrimination without fear of backlash
• As Grave points out, ABC struggles with fairness – Svara suggests a 2-prong strategy for promoting equity: fairness and the absence of discrimination
• ABC should conduct an equity inventory to determine the areas that it is lacking
• If it is lacking fairness in dealings with its own staff members, it is likely that this extends to clients, services, or customers as