Ethical management practices and organisational wellness

MANAGEMENT PRACTICES: The corporate culture of a nation should make organisations to be more socially responsible and accountable to all its stakeholders without any emphasis on the degree of influence these stakeholders have on the organisation.

This culture has to spearhead the aspects of fairness, equatability and justice among all parties who are connected directly or indirectly with the organisation.

These aspects need to be continuously monitored, as they are the three most important factors, which decide the stability and the productivity of the organisation. Being socially responsible, not only helps all the stakeholders but also the organisation in a long period of time.

Customers have a pivotal role to play in ensuring that companies are socially responsible. As the degree of influence customers could place on the company has greatly increased due to the free trade polities and the abolishment of trade barriers, customers should do the needful to make sure that the organisations are mindful of their responsibility towards the society.

Whenever a product is purchased no matter whether it is buying soap, getting a cab or going to a movie, customers should think whether these organisations have successfully fulfilled their obligations to their stakeholders.

It is important to identify whether the organisation looks after their employees, provide at least the basic facilities to their employees, pay their taxes properly to the State and to what extent they care for the country and the environment.

This sort of scrutiny by the customers will make these organisations to understand that they are answerable not only to their shareholders but also to their customers.

Ethical management practices play an important role in establishing a socially responsible organization.

Ethical Management practices looks at the aspect of management in a more humane way and align all its stakeholders in driving the organization towards achieving its goal while fulfilling its obligations towards the country, community and the environment.

Ethical management practices help in improving customer satisfaction, both internal and external and also in determining the future stability of the organization.

Ethical Management Philosophy (EMP) also expects the organisations to treat all the stakeholders as partners. The general practice of the management is to listen to their shareholders and only concentrate on the financial benefits to the company no matter what happens to the suppliers.

The importance of having a supplier who understands the company and its needs well is totally forgotten as certain companies are only concerned about the price.

The situation is even worse in certain organisations where the purchasing officers place the order with the least quoted supplier even without adequately scrutinising the ability of that supplier.

This often results in poor quality products and much delayed delivery schedules. EMP expects the organisations to take the suppliers also into their fold and work with the suppliers so that both parties could reach a win-win situation.

Sustainable purchasing and supplier development not only helps the suppliers but also the company through improved product quality and reduced administrative work.

EMP insists that senior managers of the organisations need to make sure that there is openness in their management style.

Open management facilitates honesty, transparency and timely and effective communication in decision-making. It also helps the manages to avoid secretiveness, defensiveness and exclusion.

These factors will help them to perform their tasks without sacrificing personal, professional, or corporate integrity.

Managers should also be prepared to explain and justify the organisation's acts to the relevant stakeholders when appropriate. The system has to infuse accountability into the minds of every employee so that the game of "passing the buck" will not be tolerated in the organisation.

The executives should provide guidance to others through personal example and sound judgment and courage, which commands moral, ethical and professional respect.

These leaders should be able to provide transformational leadership to all others in the organisation to improve the degree of commitment of the employees.

This atmosphere of openness will also improve the employee's feeling of fairness, as they are well informed about the organisational activities. This feeling is one of the most important factors in ensuring the wellness of the organisation and its sustainability over a long period of time.

Therefore, it is important that organisations understand the need for ethical management practices and make sure that it is been practiced in their organisations.

This bold step could not only improve the satisfaction levels of both internal and external customers but also could drive the organisation towards the achievement of competitive advantage and to sustain it over a long period of time. - Andrew Rohanaraj