Affiliation:
1. Marymount University, USA
Abstract
Evidence of ethical organizational leadership is becoming increasingly rare, and without witnessing ethical leadership, the standards of organizational ethics cannot occur, let alone be sustained. The ethical orientation of an organization's culture is defined as the values, norms, and guidelines for enforcing ethical standards. In essence, the ethical climate of an organization's culture shapes ethical decision-making processes and the behavior that supports those processes. The following case study examines the ethical violations of a hypothetical legacy automotive company that recently agreed to deferred prosecution agreements with several government agencies The case study references supporting scholarly literature that evaluates the correlation between senior leadership and the organization's culture. It provides advanced knowledge in Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), change management theory, and innovative solutions to remediate a severely compromised organizational ethical climate and prevent its recurrence.