Importance of Ethics and Responsibility-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss aobut the Business Ethics and Social Responsibility. Answer: Introduction The report highlights the importance of business ethics and social responsibilities that every business manager needs to follow in order to maintain a successful business. According to Shaw Barry (2015), ethics is determined by the morality that an individual adapts to conduct oneself in the society. It includes abstract concepts such good, bad, peace and hatred. On the other hand, social responsibility is considered as the ways in which organisations tend to increase its profit by serving the society and satisfying the stakeholders. Social responsibility helps in the improving a society in which business is being conducted. The report investigates the importance of these terms and analyses ways to encourage managers to remain ethical in business. The report also provides a reflection that includes an experience related to ethical considerations at the workplace. The ways by which this experience shaped up the personality of the researcher is presented in the report. Importance of ethics and social responsibility In order to maintain a proper business without any racial or ethical issues, it is important that every business organisation maintain ethical considerations that help organisations to maintain a fair practise and competition with the rivals. The ethical considerations help to benefit consumer, society and organisations. The importance o maintaining ethics in the society include the satisfaction of basic human needs. DesJardins McCall (2014) stated that every human being wants a fair selection policy and a legal business in order to remain ethical in the society. Fair and ethical selection provides a sense of motivation among the individuals and helps in increasing the reputation of an organisation. For example, if an organisation like Tesco selects employees based on the colour of skin, the reputation, as well as the profitability of the organisation, may be compromised. Hence, it is necessary for managers to maintain proper ethics in order to maintain stability in the business. Ac cording to Weiss (2014), the leadership and decision-making prowess of an organisation also increases by maintaining ethical business. It can be said that maintaining an ethical business can help in uniting the employees as well as the managers. This is because most of the decisions taken by an individual or an organisation depend upon the values it has. For example, an organisation that does not provide respect or value to its competitors can take decisions that may lead to the loss of the company. Ethics helps in identifying the right from the wrong and prevents an organisation to cause harm in the environment (Hartman, DesJardins MacDonald, 2014). This also helps in building up long-term goals that are useful for the success of the organisation. In this regard, it can be said that the social responsibility of organisations is also important in order to maintain ethics as well satisfy the stakeholders. According to Michalos (2017), social responsibility consists of ethical behaviours that highlight the philosophy and idea of an organisation. Social responsibility helps to bring the duties of an organisation in front of the public. The stakeholders of an organisation such as the suppliers, customers and shareholders gain knowledge about the type of products and services that an organisation provides. In this regard, the most important aspect of social responsibility can be attributed to the fact publicity of the organisation is done. Suliman, Al-Khatib Thomas (2016) stated that irrespective of the reputation of an organisation, social responsibility is required in order to maintain the competitive advantage as well. Other benefits of social responsibility include increasing the profitability of an organisation. Most private organisations consider profit-making as the sole aim of the company. In order to gain profits and increase the financial capacity, it is necessary to indulge in social responsibilities. It also increases the creditability of an organisation. Goetsch Davis (2014) observed that an organisation that possesses moral values gain respect in a society. This is because people living in a society in which business is conducted expect support for the managers of an organisation. For example, an organisation like Infosys is perceived as an organisation that holds good social responsibilities as well as corporate governance. Even though most people are unaware of the type of business it conducts, the fact that it provides support to the society helps it to gain popularity among the people. Hence, it can be said that the ethical consideration, as well as the social responsibility of an organisation, are related to one another. As observed by Crane Matten (2016) the manner in which an organisation applies these concepts are dependent upon its aims. It is necessary that every manager is encouraged in order to remain ethical and conduct business that maintains all legal protocols of an organisation. Ways to encourage managers to be ethical and socially responsible In order to maintain ethical consideration in an organisation, it is necessary that the managers are encouraged to provide certain policies and procedures that signify the importance of ethics in an organisation. The encouragement needs to be provided keeping in mind the values of the organisation and its aims. Similarly, encouragement needs to be provided to remain socially responsible in order to maintain the reputation of the organisation in the place of business. According to Andriof et al. (2017) stated that one of the biggest ethical responsibility of a manager is to maintain a code of ethics that can help in promoting ethical behaviour in the organisation. For example, ethical code of Tata Motors is to ensure that every customer is treated equally irrespective of the colour or race. The ethical codes provide directions and guidelines for the employees based on the organisational performance. Farooq et al., (2014) stated that the ethical codes provide a clear expectation of the managers. In order to increase productivity and profitability, it is necessary that the managers maintain this culture and promote it throughout the organisation in order to encourage the employees. However, in order to encourage the managers, it is necessary to make them role models. This is the responsibility of the employees as they need to present the managers with proper benchmarking techniques. For example, in order to encourage the manager of Aldi to implement ethical codes of conduct in the organisation, the employees of the company can take examples of the ethical codes that are followed in Tesco. Hence, Korschun, Bhattacharya Swain (2014) stated that such an approach helps to guide ethical behaviours in an organisation. Hence, the managers, as well as the employees, need to adhere to the ethical code and policies of the organisation. Apart from the ethical considerations, it is also necessary to encourage managers to promote the importance of social responsibility Encouragement to the managers to promote social responsibility need to come from the stakeholders of the company (Hartman, DesJardins MacDonald, 2014). This can be done by building a sense of transparency among the managers in order to adopt helping the society. Shafer (2015) stated that this is an important phenomenon in the age of technologies as information about a company can be published on the internet. Any negative publication can lead to the loss of reputation for an organisation. Hence, it is necessary to maintain transparency in order to avoid negative publication of an organisation. Apart from this, managers can also be encouraged to engage in social responsibilities by promoting the effectiveness of profitability. This can be attained by playing an active role in the community of workplace. As stated by Idowu, Zu Gupta (2013) the social re sponsibility of an organisation is more to the community of the workplace. Managers need to be encouraged to contribute to the wellbeing of the society by providing them with information about the community. This information includes the labour force that can be derived from the community. Local labour can add to a competitive advantage for a business firm as the people remain aware of the local suppliers and buyers that also play major stakeholders for the company. The shareholders of a company can encourage the managers by investing in these local people in order to increase the reputation of the organisation (Wu et al., 2015). Apart from this managers can be encouraged to promote the idea of innovation in the organisation. This can be promoted in a social responsibility as the local people can also be encouraged to provide new ideas about the ways to improve the business. The initiation of corporate social responsibility comes from the top level management. Hence, it is required that every manager promote the idea of ethical and social responsibility in order to maintain the business (Chell et al., 2016). Reflection on experience In order to maintain an ethical code of conduct in business, it is necessary for an organisation to deal with situations that may help it to progress. At the same time, individuals also can personal benefits that include either breaking an ethical code or by following it. I had faced a similar situation that concerned the ethical wellbeing of an individual. The issue that will be highlighted involves feminism issue at a workplace. While working as an assistant manager for IBM, I had come across a situation in which a female worker had to stay at home for some days in order to attend her ailing mother. The person was in need of work along with taking proper care of her mother. Hence, she had to miss the staff meetings that usually took place at the end of the day as the worker had to leave early. This prompted lots of criticism from other co-workers as the demand for work from home increased vehemently. Not only this, comments were made rudely highlighting the place of work for "women workers" is the home. As an assistant manager, I had to be straightforward and fair to all the employees. This I needed to do keeping in mind the ability as well as the position each of the workers. However, it is also my duty to maintain the confidentiality of the staff members and ensure that the personal problems of the members are not leaked at the professional place. Hence, in this regard, it is necessary for me to follow a proper ethical code of conduct in order to maintain peace in the organisation. As stated by Ford Richardson (2013), it is important for every manager to ensure that ethical issues such as colour, racism, feminism do not exist in an organisation. Hence, it is my duty to impose punishment to the people involved in passing unethical comments to the worker. At the same time, rules regarding policies related to work from home need to be clearly and properly stated in order to maintain fair opportunities to other employees. From an individual perspective, this experience gave me knowle dge about the importance of maintaining ethical considerations at the workplace. The fact that policies and procedure need to be written and clearly stated indicates the manner in which employees can be made to follow ethical rules. Hence, this experience helped me to grow as a future manager as the importance of ethical code became clear to me. The affected parties related to the individual working from home or taking leave were compensated and at the same time penalised due to the unethical comments. I managed to understand the fact that rules, policies and procedures in an organisation need to be same for every employee. Hence, compensation to other employees needs to be given along with penalty to the individual violating the ethical codes need to be imposed on me. Conclusion Hence, it can be concluded that every organisation needs to maintain ethical considerations and the responsibilities that exist. This is important in order to increase the reputation as well as the profitability of an organisation. 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