Introduction
The American economist Robert Reich once said "Your most precious possession is not your financial assets. Your most precious possession is the people you have working there, and what they carry around in their heads, and their ability to work together." Organizational behavior has become an increasingly important topic over the last decade as businesses have come to recognize their most important resource is the employees who work for them. To truly understand organizational behavior, one must first understand trends in organizational behavior and how these trends have an impact on employees. Trends such as the influence of ethics on decision-making and the impact of technology on work-related stress are two trends we must better understand, if we are to fully understand organizational behavior. We will look at both of these trends in order to gain a better understanding of organizational behavior and the impact on employees.
The influence of ethics on decision making.
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English: 2001 Pfizer Employee Survey
English: Sign outside Cadbury World, Bournville, B...The first trend to evaluate is the influence of ethics on decision making. Ethics are the rules, principles, standards, or beliefs that commonly define right and wrong (Sims 1994). Ethics are involved in all parts of business from decision-making to budgeting, from personnel issues to leadership. Today's managers must be able to see the ethical issues in the choices they face when making decisions within an ethical framework, and build and maintain an ethical work environment. Managers must be particularly sensitive to ethical issues because of their key role as a bridge between upper management and operating employees. For most employees, their manager is the only contact the employees have with middle and top management. As such, employees interpret the company's ethical standards through the actions and words of their managers. For example, if a manager steals company supplies, manipulates department financial reports, or engages...