Introduction of Leading and Managing People

Figure 1 Accountability trend in the UK in comparison to other European countries

Source: https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/ethics-at-work-2018-whistleblowing-misconduct/

 Such scandals represent the risk factor for the procurement agency working in the United Kingdom that can be controlled through accountability. [2]. Organizational policies and strategies related to the ethics, accountability, and transparency influence the behavior and environment of the organization. Appropriate policies developed to control employee’s misconduct, strong and fair auditing systems can reduce the risk factor for the companies related to the ethical scandals and ethical misconduct.  

The procurement agency will deal with the state and government. Therefore there is the responsibility for the procurement agency to work on the policies and practices that can ensure ethical operations. A wrong step or action taken by the procurement agency can create trouble for the sustainability of the government and state businesses in the international market and national market. Therefore considering this fact procurement agency will develop policies and work on the practices that will ensure ethical operations and help out in achieving the target related to the transparency, accountability and employees conduct. to ensure ethical operations at the procurement agency we can develop several strategies as we can bring accountability by ensuring training, empowering employees, clearly explaining expectations, and making the accountable environment in the agency and in all the concerning areas.

To ensure ethical operations at the procurement agency we can also encourage transparency in the agency operations and practices. For this purpose we will develop policies as open financial details, hiring the right employees, treating all the employees equally, and eliminating the discriminations and stereotyping from the agency. Agency will involve the employees in the decision-making process, leaders will treat the employees in the right way without any type of personal biases, employee's salaries and hiring will be totally based on the laws and regulations set out by the government and state. Only working on these policies and practices procurement agency can get the title of ethical operations for all its operations. However, one more important aspect for the procurement agency is to eliminate and reduce the ethical misconduct of the employees to make the organizational operations ethical. Procurement agency will develop strategies that will reduce the chances of misconduct and help out the employees to perform their duties and responsibilities in the ethical ways and support the ethical environment of the agency. Procurement agency will introduce the auditing system to monitor the financial statement to eliminate the chances of data manipulations and other ethical misconduct related to financial data presentation. While for other operations PA will assign duties to the managers to monitor the operations and report or take corrective actions for ethical misconduct. As corruption is getting common in the world and there are a number of ethical scandals in the UK, therefore procurement agency need to work hard to present a clear and fair image in front of GCC member state.

Ethical change in the organization can be ensured by appropriate leadership model. Employees working in an organization follow up the instructions and orders of the leaders. Leaders create the environment and culture of the organization supportive for ethical operations or unethical operations. To bring strategic ethical change in the organization, the Democratic leadership model is required. In accordance with the democratic leadership model, managers create the democratic environment in the organization that gives importance to the employees of the organization in decision making.

Democratic leadership model in the organizations ensures and promote accountability and transparency that are essential to make the operations of the organization ethical in reality. Therefore to bring sustainable change there is a need to support the culture of transparency and accountability in the organization. Autocratic leadership models cause to make the employees unable to stand against the unethical and corruption related operations or actions taken by their supervisors and managers of the organization. In the case of Equifax organization, the organization faced an ethical scandal because of the fake news presented by the employees of the organization.             

Such issues could be controlled through the increase of accountability and ethical policies. However, initiatives as a strategic change in the culture of the unethical organization can support the organization to eliminate the chances of such issues in the future. The strategic change relates to corporate level management. Corporate management develops policies and strategies on which the organization work. Developing strategies related to ethics as providing training sessions to the employees related to ethics and making the management accountable for their actions corporate management of the organization can ensure ethical practices in the organization. New strategies made by the corporate level management of the company will help out in changing the culture of the organization.

Culture develops with the actions, values, thinking styles and norms of the employees and behavior of the employee can be modified through the leadership. Therefore after the whole discussion recommendations for the procurement agency is to focus on the strategies and policies first if procurement agency wants to make changes in the culture of the organization to support ethical environment and ethical operations. While another recommendation for the procurement agency is to adopt the democratic leadership model in the organization. Treating employees as an asset and giving importance to the employees in decision making process can make the employee loyal. Employee’s empowerment supports the employees to stand against the unethical actions taken by their supervisors, subordinates, and managers without having any kind of fear. However, while adopting this agency should not forget that development of ethical policies at the corporate level is essential. Employee’s empowerment in the organizations that do not have an ethical culture and policies causes to promote unethical practices only rather than ethical practices.