ETHICAL ISSUES

Ethical Issues



Ethical Issues

Introduction

The study focuses on the ethical issues related to the education industry, especially the University of Redlands and the Erskine College. Ethics plays an integral role in the viability of nonprofit organizations for multiple reasons. Nonprofit organizations serve as stewards of public monies and as a result they receive tax exemption privileges. This benefit comes in exchange for the work and services they provide to the societal common good. Nonprofit organizations historically have filled the gap between the goods and services provided by business and government and the remaining unmet needs of communities. This typically includes the specialized needs of marginalized populations. Since the work of nonprofits receives public scrutiny and often depends on the generosity of donors to continue providing services, nonprofits have a vested interest in maintaining ethical organizations. Even the hint or perception of unethical behavior can destroy a nonprofit entity as donors and community members will typically not support a nonprofit organization labeled as unethical.

The organizations like the University of Redlands and the Erskine College seeking to ride out the guilty-by-association phenomena, while maintaining their funding streams and reputations, have needed to take a proactive approach to demonstrating their ethical health during these troubled times. Striving to create an ethical context in which ethical behavior is the default behavior has served as one means of accomplishing this task. Nonprofit leaders can promote a healthy ethical context within their organizations by staying informed and actively promoting ethics within their organizations. (Berns, 2007)

The Power of Organizational Culture on the Members of an Organization

Organizations in the education industry create and maintain a unique social context, including nonprofits. Social context of the University of Redlands and the Erskine College also often referred to as organizational climate or organizational culture, serves as the unwritten code of conduct by which members of an organization abide. The power social context has over the members of an organization to shape and direct their behavior often exceeds the written policies and procedures of the organization. To underscore the singularity and strength of culture, one can best conceptualize opposition to the values and beliefs of an organization's social context as equivalent to swimming against the current of a river, while still heading at a fast pace toward a waterfall. Typically, those who do not comply with the unwritten rules of the organization find themselves faced with the choice of leaving the organization or going over the falls. (Ethics Resource Center, 2007)

Organizational Transparency

Organizational transparency of the University of Redlands and the Erskine College represents a well defined and studied concept in the academic literature and numerous researchers have found that transparency promotes good governance in organizations. Transparency calls for allowing access to information about internal processes, policies, and decision making. That said the transparency does not equal full or thoughtless disclosure. Appreciating organizational transparency as a positive characteristic of organizations requires recognizing it as movement from complete containment of information by an organization (the historical business norm) to discretionary release of information in the ...