Developing an Ethical Culture

Developing an Ethical Culture
Student's Name
College/University
Course
Professor's Name
Due Date
Date: June 15, 2023
To: Murphy USA CEO
From: Student's Name, Manager
Subject: Developing an Ethical Culture
Dear Andrew Clyde and Shareholders,
Culture constitutes an abstract construct and is increasingly difficult to evaluate. It implies more than drafted corporate ethics codes and value statements – it defines the way things work within an organization. Workplace culture entails how employees interact with customers, dress code, and how they collaborate with their managers. Human resource (HR) professionals encounter challenges delineating ethical workplace culture for corporate managers that constant doubt its efficacy. Murphy USA suffers from serious unethical cultural issues, and there is a need to address and rectify the situation as soon as possible. The existing organizational culture significantly leads to unethical decision-making by peers and subordinates. As a mid-level organizational manager, the recommendation is that leaders understand the issue and formulate suitable solutions to enhance the ethical working environment.
Current Ethical Culture Issues
Murphy USA is presently experiencing various issues concerning ethical culture, which negatively affect the organization's performance and general reputation or corporate image. The critical ethical culture issues entail a lack of transparency, ethical dilemmas, and a reward system malignment. Although the organization's moral values provide for integrity, the decision-making process lacks transparency, resulting in distrust and suspicion among workers. This suspicion and mistrust in the executive team's decision-making led the employees to rate it at 61%, with 64% of the workers feeling that the organization's goals were unclear (Comparably, 2023). Also, workers encounter ethical dilemmas with the organization failing to offer support and clear guidelines. Such ethical dilemma leads to moral distress and confusion and thus causes compromised decisions and possible harm to the organizational stakeholders. The organization's existing reward system emphasizes personal performance metrics while ignoring long-term sustainability and ethical behavior. It solely focuses on perks and benefits based on individual performance, like paid holidays and tuition reimbursement (Comparably, 2023). Such misalignment inadvertently motivates unethical practices among employees to attain short-term benefits.
Stakeholders Affected
The organization's ethical culture issues affect stakeholders such as shareholders, workers, and the local community. The unethical practices adversely affect the workers' morale, engagement, and job satisfaction, escalating turnover rates, creating an unconducive workplace, and reducing productivity (Gonzalez-Padron, 2015). Unethical decision-making and practices substantially affect the organization's shareholders significantly and negatively. Such corrupt practices and behavior decrease the confidence and trust of the shareholder in the organization. Thus, this decrease in faith and trust can lead to reduced investments, possible reputation and legal risks, and stock price reduction. The organization's reputation reflec...