Corporate Culture Research Paper

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The concept of corporate culture is commonly defined as a set of values that characterize a company. The purpose of this written piece is to examine the influence that corporate culture has on personal ethics and whether or not, this type of influence is appropriate. The essay will also discuss the best possible steps to solving problems in an organisation. It has been said that a strong knowledge of the corporate stance on ethical values can lead to the creation of a strong ethical culture (Stanwick and Stanwick, 2009, p. 15). There exist many cases in which we can see that corporate culture has had a negative effect on personal ethics. One of the most recent examples of this is the 2008 collapse of the American economy, caused by the fall …show more content…

13). Simply put, this theory suggests that it takes only a few unethical or underhanded members of an organization to corrupt those with stronger moral values. The bad apple theory also subscribes to the idea that a person is either good or bad, and that an organization is incapable of having any influence on or altering their personality. The bad apple theory appeals to many people with a high position in a corporate hierarchy, due to the fact that it is easier to simply fire those employees who are deemed to be the cause of the problem rather than go through the difficulty inherent in searching for a deeper solution to the cause of the trouble. However, merely firing employees is very often only a short term solution. If an organisation wishes to get to the heart of its problems, then it is essential that those in power undertake a strong critical observation of employee …show more content…

This is necessary to begin the final course of action. The options from the previous stage should be contrasted against each other so a proper course of action can be decided upon. The most morally acceptable option should be decided upon by the decision makers and brought forward in order to effectively combat the moral problem (Stanwick and Stanwick, 2009, pp. 19-20). Next, the essay will examine the use of corporate ethical programmes as a form of control systems. Ethical programs in the business environment normally include an ethics committee, the task of which is to analyse the behaviour of their organisation and its employees. Another one of its tasks is also to monitor and investigate violations of company policy (Weaver and Trevino, 1999, p.