A521.5.4.RB - Aligning Values

Identify the three basic components of an ethical community and discuss how they might be applied in your organization. Are there values that are missing from your organization?
Discuss how you might develop those values and also align them with the values of the individuals in the organization.

Denning (2011) describes the decentralization of ethics as a shift from a focus on ethical values to pursued values, in a clear and precise way that provided me with a different perspective on the subject of values and ethics.  When it comes to ethics, there are as many conflicting ideas that come to mind.  Denning (2011) states that a “genuinely ethical community has three basic components that include trust, loyalty, and solidarity.  In chapter 6, Transmit Your Values, Denning (2011) defines each term as the following:

• Trust is defined as the general expectation among members that their neighbors, friends and coworkers will behave ethically toward each other.
• Loyalty is defined as acceptance of the obligation to refrain from violating one another’s trust and to fulfill the duties entailed by accepting that trust.
• Solidarity is defined as caring for other community member’s interest and being ready to respond on behalf of others.

I am not sure if I agree with Denning on the fact that these values as if they are building blocks for any community or organization.  A more universal perspective would require taking many factors into consideration to include things such as demographics, population and location.  However for this discussion, I will focus on the values identified by Denning. 

The first ethical value that Denning (2011) discusses in his book is trust (see definition in previous paragraphs).  I think there is a huge gap in trust in my organization.  The term trust may be spoken word in verbal terms but the actions are totally different.  I briefly mentioned this point in an early class discussion forum; how individual values sometimes can precede community and organizational values.  Denning describes trust as the general expectation among members of an organization; however, I don’t know how an organization that is influenced by so many internal and external factors can overcome the lack of trust issue among its employees.  There needs to be a complete overhaul in the culture.  To be fair, the organization I work for does try to instill specific values, thus eliminating unethical and abusive managerial practices. The problem is follow thru; holding individuals to an acceptable behavior based on these values.  The biggest issue that exists is the divides that is caused by the union.  The lack of trust leads to another issue, the effect it has on organizational loyalty (which I will discuss later). 

Denning’s second basic component of an ethical community is loyalty.  Loyalty can be perceived in different ways.  Many times I have pondered the question of whether employee loyalty is to the person in charge, to the organization or to the almighty paycheck.  If I had to advise my organization about how to address the issue of lack of loyalty, I would use the words’ of a Wharton University Management Professor Adam Cobb (2012), “When you are talking about loyalty in the workplace, you have to think about it as a reciprocal exchange.  My loyalty to the firm is contingent on my firm’s loyalty to me.  What must be kept in perspective is the fact that there is one party in that exchange which has tremendously more power, and that is the firm.”  Until these words are clearly understood, I feel there will always be a loyalty issue in my organization.  

The third basic components of an ethical community are solidarity.  Trust and loyalty both influence solidarity in the organization in which I work.  There is a sense of solidarity in the organization, but it is divided; management versus employees, and both are strong.  As I mentioned earlier, the union is the foundation for this solidarity on one hand and the reason for division of solidarity on the other hand.  Solidarity, in its practicality and concreteness, is hard to apply because human beings will always gravitate towards those with whom they share similarities, which totally contrast with the concept if putting a collective of diverse people together in order to form organizational solidarity.  For the term solidarity, I will have to somewhat disagree with Denning.  We, as human beings, will by nature act in way to serve our own best interests, whether intentionally or not.  Organizations, like the one I work for, are always trying to get individuals to adopt the interests of the group instead of looking out for their own interests.  Often there is resistant to this course of action.

What I did find in the discussion forum is I have a lot in common with my classmates when it comes to values.  After reading several inputs by classmates, I see that we as a whole are quick to question organizational values and that of some of their employees (management levels), but we are not so quick to question our own values; especially when it come to how our values fit in with the  organization. 

References:

Denning, S., (2011). The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative (Revised and updated ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Cobb, A., (May, 2012). Declining Employee Loyalty: A Casualty of the New Workplace. Retrieved from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/declining-employee-loyalty-a-casualty-of-the-new-workplace/