Ethics is the principle, value, and standard that guides the conduct of an employee in an organization to achieve the organizational set goals.
This usually guides them on how to behave, and what is expected of them in their various areas of specialization.
Some of these ethical behaviors include;
Discipline: An employee is expected to be well-disciplined in carrying out his or her responsibility as an employee.
Professionalism: An employee must prove Professionalism in his or her work and any other responsibility as may be directed by the superior.
There are some causes of bad work ethics;
- Indiscipline: In an organization where there is no discipline, definitely the conduct of the employees will be disorganized, and as a result of this, the set goals of the organization will not be met.
- Laziness: This is another barrier that causes bad work ethics in an organization whereby the employee is unable to do the work that was assigned to him or her as when due. They're not ready to do any work but are fully available at the end of the month for their salaries. They also feel comfortable sitting at a point for nine (9) hours.
- Unprofessionalism: This is when an employee is unable to carry out the work they were assigned as a result of lack of experience or unmatched academic qualifications.
- Inadequate training: The lack of adequate training for the employee can also lead to the causes of bad work ethic as the employee has no orientation or experience in the work they were employed or assigned for in an organization.
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Several questions usually bother my mind, on whether there is any orientation for workers about their ethical behavior in their various places of work. I have not gotten an answer yet.
Some years back, I had the opportunity to observe my Industrial training as a student at that time. I used to think to myself, why are these people behaving in this way?
It usually saddens my heart when some workers resume work very early in the morning, and the next thing they begin to do is put their various handbags on the table and start going from office to office to greet their friends and chat for a long period, sometimes until the closing hour.
Sometimes, this set of people will sit on the desk stretching their two legs as if they were in their sitting room, and start talking about everything that happened in their home and area without doing any work.
At a point, I came to realize that many of these people are employed based on political influence or familiarization with the chairman or a director, which influenced their appointment because many of them just go around with a secondary school certification.
However, some of them have turned the office into a place where they go about their buying and selling activities, which is unethical in an office environment.
I recommend adequate training for the employees from time to time as this will help them to improve their conduct at their different places of work.
Employees should be ready to make corrections whenever their attention is being called to wrongdoings in an organization.