Kantian ethics is the best approach to the issues surrounding business ethics There are a number of issues which are created by business activity. Firstly, how are businesses relationships with their consumers? Secondly, how businesses relate to the environment, for example with pollution, or sustainability, or treatment of waste. Another is whether businesses follow moral principles like honesty in their dealings. Kant says that people in business should act out of duty alone, not self-interest or desire to earn huge amounts of money.
Ethical considerations must be given by managers as to how the strategic plan will influence the stakeholders. The business organization’s management follows the mainstream behaviors of the society to justify their decisions on choosing their role as being ethically and socially responsible business. Many businesses in a depressed economy have to lay off their employees and close plants, these decisions are difficult to carry out because socially, it will cause hardships for employees or the community. A good example of being ethical and socially responsible business when encountering this situation is when Cisco Systems decided to lay off 6,000 full-time employees, that it acted ethically in providing a unique severance package where these employees it who agreed to work for a local nonprofit organization for a year would receive one-third of their salaries plus benefits and stock options and be the first to be rehired (Wheelen & Hunger, 2010). When investors or shareholders are demanding the business to produce profit, managers must consider how to devise steps for transparency in their strategic plans to report factual business dealings.
Social Responsibility and Company Q Social Responsibility and Company Q Western Governors University Company Q believes that their responsibility is to the financial health of the company more so than any social responsibility to the communities in which they have stores. According to the textbook Business Ethics 2009 Update: Ethical Decision Making and Cases social responsibility is “defined as an organization's obligation to maximize its positive impact on stakeholders and to minimize its negative impact.” (Ferrell, 2013 p.38). By closing those two stores Company Q is showing their corporate focus on profit and not how important those two stores may have been to the communities in which they were located. The leadership of Company Q is so focused on revenue and its loss that they are overlooking how the positive impact of social responsibility could help them and their revenues.
They influence and impact the business because the business may need money for it to keep running. The owners/shareholders provide the money that may be needed. The capital that is provided by the shareholders will pay for everything to keep the business up and running, this means that they will be paying for the costs to start up the business. This may include the salaries of the cleaners, the employees, the rent of the shop, the electric and utility bills Etc. They should be kept well informed of the financial state of the organisation, so as to encourage them to keep investing in the company.
When looking at the bottom line, this practice takes an employee away from working the register or counter as well as increases the costs associated with providing goods for no profit. As a manager, I support Kudler’s practice of offering the samples. I see that it makes the customers happy and our employees get to know members within the community. The event offers more social interaction than a traditional grocery store could offer. Although it may cost most to staff this event, my values and ethics tell me I should concentrate on what is most beneficial to my employees and my customers.
Political competence is what can really make the CC part of it shine and in turn CC will make political competence shine. Political competence is one of the skills necessary to apply good cooperate citizenship. Both are related to ethics. Whereas good corporate citizenship is about an organization acting ethically toward society as a whole, political competence is one of the necessary skill required to apply good cooperate citizenship, which is a number of related skills. Good CC, for example, a company CEO of a HCO defines good corporate citizenship as meeting the growth and demands placed on health companies by society in an economically, environmentally and socially responsible manner (“The Power to Change: Mobilizing board leadership to deliver sustainable value to markets and society”, 2001).
BAC 3654 Tutorial 2 - Discussion of questions and case: WorldCom: The Final Analyst Question Why might ethical corporate behavior lead to higher profitability? Answer: * Because attention to ethical concerns can keep corporations out of costly problems such as clean-up of pollution problems, fines, low morale. * Loss of reputation and stakeholder support. * It can open up profitable opportunities such as developing green product lines. Question Why should a professional accountant be aware of the Ethics Code of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC)?
Social responsibility is important in a community and any entity has an obligation to benefit the society that they live or do business in. Also, social responsibility is generally a way to increase its profits. Company Q’s current attitude is not conducive to the society that it operates business in. Three areas that could be improved by Company Q are the social responsibilities to its employee’s, to its community, and to itself. The social responsibility that Company Q owes to its employee’s is not closing the stores in the high crime rate areas.
Conversely, for-profit industries focus on the needs of the marketplace, offering whatever may be needed to create a lucrative profit and “choosing to distribute profits between owners, employees, shareholders and the business itself.” (Ingram). The idea of social business has become an increasingly sustainable and profitable model in today’s economy. In his book, Creating a World without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism, Muhammad Yunus discusses two types of social business. The first focuses on businesses dealing with social objectives only, and second type is any money-making business that is owned or managed by the disadvantaged people. The social idea is
In embedding and integrating sustainability into its business operations, the Bank takes every measure to fulfil its vision of creating sustainable shared value by delivering social, environmental and economic benefits across the stakeholder spectrum. The Bank’s sustainability goals include ethical business practices, good governance, minimizing of its carbon footprint,fostering of a sustainability culture throughout the organization and implementation of CSR initiatives that promote national economic growth and uplift the most vulnerable in society. Projects A key initiative with regard to the community and customers is the SME training programme which the Bank conducts for entrepreneurs in SME hubs in the main regions. The participants included existing as well as potential customers including customers of the local Chambers of Commerce. The programmes covered a diverse range of business related subjects including business management, business planning, financial management, working capital management, human resource management, marketing, taxation, accounting and taxation, leadership on motivation and planning, positive thinking, management of investments and new business in Sri Lanka.