The culture in any organization is the set of rules and beliefs that people associated with that culture shall live by. On the other hand, ethical problems are like a periodical test. If the culture is strong enough the workers pass the test with flying colors. However if the culture is weak, the test of ethics shall be hard to pass. This is because culture tells people every day they come for work the rules of the game—what is right and what is not.
After the ouster of Elcorps tainted CEO Mitch Greenbaum, a study clearly lays this out. Records indicate that during Greenbaum’s time employee culture included snitching, back talking and a lot of negative energy. The workplace was for some reason very stressful, it was almost as if Elcorps’ people knew that their company operations were not entirely legal and yet no one chose to come forward. At the same time removing the one bad fish, Mitch Greenbaum, set in motion an entirely different chain of events.
Within a few weeks of a new management, seven different scams were also uncovered by the direct help and involvement of company employees—the same employees who were too scared to raise their voices earlier. Under the previous mismanagement and corruption of Greenbaum, employees considered Elcorp to be a place of gloom and were all associated in Greenbaum’s corruption in one form or another because they did not come forward. Once he was ousted and new management took over everything changed.
Because of the new management team these employees began acclimate to the new culture of the organization—spending their lunches chatting with each other and joining each other after work for drinks. Studies even showed that employee satisfaction rates were at an all time high. Based on this example it is easy to see how a change in an organizations culture can affect the organizations ethics.
