Organizational Ethics Paroby and White Published \"The

¶ … Organizational Ethics

Paroby and White published "The Role of Shared Vision and Ethics in Building an Effective Learning Organization" in 2010. The article, published in the Southern Journal of Business and Ethics, stresses the importance of ethical leadership within a hierarchal organization as well as the necessity for clearly defined organizational culture with the presence of ethical leadership. Paroby and White put particular stress on these issues in light of numerous prominent ethical scandals within some of the most well-known brands in business. The authors, after providing a context within which to consider their ideas, use the United States military as an example organization to illustrate how some of their ideas play out in reality.

The authors may have more than one intended audience. Certainly, an intended audience is other researchers interested in organizational culture, ethics, and business leadership. Furthermore, an intended audience could be individuals who operate, own, or otherwise manage an organization or company. An intended audience would additionally be employees within a business organization. This article could provide a sound checklist for employees to reflect upon as they work.

The authors contend that the workplace environment is a learning environment. The workplace is also a flexible environment. Whether or not people are aware is irrelevant; it is very easy to set an example at work. The nature of the example set is contingent upon individuals in leadership positions. They argue that the workplace environment is a dynamic community that can serve to rejuvenate and invigorate itself, or it can contaminate and destroy itself from within. The discuss the concept of human capital -- things that are of worth and are assets within the social realm of the organization, rather than material wealth. They stress concepts such as collaboration, shared vision, ethical leadership, and adaptability as being critical to the success and robustness of an organizational culture.

The organization of the writing and the flow of the article are some of the strengths. The writing is succinct, vivid, and clear cut. While the tone of journal is academic, there is very much a humanistic tone to the writing and the ideas. These authors clearly find employees to be a strength within organizations. The authors additionally value social capital and the philosophy of leading by example. The authors additionally find very strong references to cite within their text to support their ideas and even contradict them. The authors executed an argumentative strategy of providing a historical and social context within which to discuss their hypotheses. They then left the remainder of the article, approximately the latter third, to examine the organizational culture and ethical leadership practice within the United States military. By the time readers reach the military example, they are well informed with their brief education on the topic; therefore, the readers are able to consider the authors' ideas with more depth and gravity.