Introduction:
Ethical Conduct in the workplace is an ever changing and every growing topic, ethics in the work place have always been a bit of a strange topic as having a strict ethical conduct means having rules, guidelines and changes around how workplace are ran day to day. Ethics are a way to guide people to conduct themselves in a respectful manner whether is he in the work place or just their day to day lives. Company managers or hiring managers have a keen understanding of how having someone of strong integrity and a genuine personality is critical in to the company’s reputation and good standing. Ethically sound people are an asset to any company, as it means for more frequent and longer lasting success for the company. No one wants to deal with a company that seems shady, or selfish. People want to deal with people who have everyone’s interests in mind and not just their own. But ethics in the workplace has a lot of different levels to it, it’s not all about just being a happy honest man or woman. You need to have the ability to be able follow instructions, rules and guidelines that the company has set in place. The majority of companies specify what is acceptable behavior and what is not when hiring new employees. As a new employee your behavior in the workplace will be monitored carefully by your employer, it is crucial that the new employee follows the ethical guidelines, some of which would be under the topics of work attire, attitude, harassment etc. Often times if any of the codes of conduct our broken and trust is broken between employer and employee we will see a course of action put in place. This may result in a written or verbal warning or, of course the loss of the job. A large chunk of workplace ethics can be broken down, one of these parts being accountability, a employee must be well able to take responsibility for any of their wrong doings, failure to do so could result in a loss of respect from employer or other staff. No one likes to be lied to, or told things that aren’t true, especially when it is to hide someone. That is shown as weak and dishonest, no one can build a strong ethical image of themselves if they are lying and doing tricks from the get-go. People who exhibit accountability are honest and admit when something has gone wrong, then working on that problem in a professional manner in order to resolve and learn from it.
Teamwork is another huge factor in being a welcomed part of a workplace. People often have this idea that teamwork in the workplace is down to them and their staff, but often times this is wrong. Teamwork doesn’t start and finish at the place of work, it extends to people, customers and even people outside of work. Personally I feel as though you cannot be structured well ethically if you aren’t trying to show the same honest and genuine respect to people both in and outside work. But, people in the workplace don’t always see eye to eye, and that is to be expected. But while in the workplace these problems must be set aside, you are hired to work and follow a set of guidelines. This includes having respect and not doing anything to ruin any other members of staffs sound reputation. Often times people can’t set their problems aside and they let it effect their work, but a employer could see this as the person not being a team player and not adjusting for the better of the company to side their issues aside, and truthfully this can often lead to demotion or complete termination.


Every company has their own code of conduct but a lot of companies will have a similar template to begin with. For example Tesco’s code of conduct can be viewed with ease on their website. As a new employee in a job this would always be advised, to read the code of conduct to ensure you know exactly what their rules and regulations. Tesco for one has their code broken down into several topics, with short but informative descriptions for each. Topics such as “Equal Opportunities” after a quick read they state that everyone is welcome at Tesco, and they pride themselves in employing people who reflect the diverse nature of society. Tesco believes that no matter who you are, or how different to anyone else you are, be it age, height, disability, sexual orientation or any of there other irrelevant things that people discriminate because of these days. Tesco believe that no one should ever be left out or fall subject to discrimination. They include in this topic that “every employee must demonstrate respect to your fellow colleagues, and other you may come in contact with”. Along with this ethically strong code of conduct they include that if anyone may feel harassed or discriminated against they should be advised to “please”
Contact a manager, personal manger or  confidential protector line.

Although ethics in the workplace are important sometimes we need to focus on what is unethical behavior in the workplace so we can avoid doing them. After reading an article by Maria Amelie via the website www.tu.no, I had a much better idea of what I should avoid doing in order to keep my reputation among colleagues in a good standing. Now of course some of these examples may be a little bit obvious to people who already have good ethical conduct. She asked over 1600 managers of different business several questions about their staff and their thoughts about certain ethics in the workplace. She tried to break down what the most common unethical behaviors were. I will quote the top from from her report:
1. Taking shortcuts 72%
2. Lying to hide mistakes 72%
3. Badmouthing colleagues 68%
4. Slacking when no one is watching 64%
5. Taking credit for other colleagues work 57%

As you can tell from this information, even the simple little white lies are eventually going to be found out. Something as simple as avoiding a job while no one is keeping an eye on you, it’s not ethically decent. You are being paid to do something and if you do not do this you are only losing the respect of the employer that put their trust in you.

Workplace ethics for employers:
Of course ethics in the workplace till know have been very focused on the employee, but this is where we need to be careful. You see a lot of people overlook the fact that even employers will often times break ethical rules for self gain within their work place. An example of this being transparency while hiring. The hiring process is one that can be daunting for employees, going into a business to be interviews on a quiet room with only you and your employers. But what if I told you that sometimes people go through all that nervousness and getting themselves ready for interviews all for nothing? We often times hear of stories of people missing out on jobs because the position was filled by someone who had a personal relation with the employer, this often times results in an unfair hiring process and lasting damage to the organization in the long run. Someone with distinctly better qualification for the job may have missed their opportunity to really make a mark in the company during their time there.
Employers should also never discriminate against new employers based on any grounds. Every employee should be treated as equal irrespective of their age, religion, colour, gender and so. Managers need to ensure they do not hold grudges against anyone due to personal conflicts also.

And thus, with everything mentioned previously we can see how important having a strong ethical standing is on the workplace, be it to customers, colleagues or managers and everything in between. Both managers and employee need to have the same level of ethical conduct within the workplace and have respect for everyone that they are connected with via work. Personal problems need to be resolved quickly or put aside in work in order to keep the team strong and efficient.