Ethics and values in business sustainability aims to look at what happens to enterprises at a competitive level with the hopes to ensure sustainable development with the hopes of the business being able to sustain itself through good codes of practice such as being ethical.
2. QUESTION 1
2.1 Business Sustainability
A sustainable business is one that provides to sustainability by bringing in economic, social and environmental benefits. Which is based on the concept of the three Ps (People, Profit, Planet). (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2002:130)
2.2 Triple Bottom Line
2.2.1. People (Social)
According to (Chamberlin 2013) The business in which one operates in should be involved with fair and beneficial labour practices by being involved in the community by implementing programs such as CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and CSI (Corporate Social Investment). Businesses profits are calculated through human profits by the use of the social bottom line and the position you are with within the local community. It is important to have good relationships within the community as they are the main people supporting the business and any bad relationship would lessen the amount of supportive customers.
As stated by (Timothy F.S and Tanya H) there are measures of sustainability that occur in the social bottom line that can include education, and there is more examples listed below that can affect businesses sustainability:
• Poverty
• Crime
• Unemployment rate
2.2.3 Profit (Economical)
The Economic bottom line in the business measures the economic capital in terms of how much your business has an influence on the economic environment a business that helps the economy back by giving back some money is a business that will continue to flo...
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...ase for corporate sustainability. Business Strategy and the Environment, 11(2), 130-141.
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Timothy F.S., Tanya J. H.,(2011). The Triple Bottom Line: What Is It and How Does It Work?. Indian Business Review, Available at: http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2011/spring/article2.html. [Accessed 20 April]
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Establishing and implementing a strategic approach to improving organizational ethics is based on establishing, communicating, and monitoring ethical values and legal requirements that characterize the firm's history, culture, and operating environment” (p. 129). Ethics programs ensure satisfactory relationships with all stakeholders by aligning with all of their demands and needs, and determine conduct with customers and relationships with regulators, shareholders, suppliers, and employees (Ferrell, 2004). Values are a core set of beliefs and principles, one or many. A number of factors contribute to the development of values. These include membership in a community or culture, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
Business ethics is a diverse field that cannot be defined with a single definition. This area addresses numerous issues, problems, and dilemmas within the management of businesses. Does this through numerous perspectives and methods. Of course, in order to present the complexities of business ethics, we must explore the types of issues that business professionals are continuously confronted with. To understand one must
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7). Their definition was as follows: “ It is in the hands of humanity to make development sustainable… to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. (SHRM, 2011, p. 7).” Sustainability is the organization’s commitment to balance financial performance with contributors to the quality of life of employees, society at large, and environmentally sensitive initiatives (SHRM, 2011, p. 2). Workplace sustainability requires observation of the following: work force diversity, environmental impact, bribery and corruption, community involvement, ethical sourcing of goods, human rights, product safety, and product usefulness (Epstein & Roy, 2001, p. 588). Creation of a stable, sustainability culture can support the company’s efforts to reach its long term goals; however, sustainable practices are more often found in medium and large staff-sized organizations, publicly and for-profit companies and multinational companies (SHRM, 2011, p.
Sustainability could be defined in many ways. It could be defined as the process to sustain a process or develop new technologies to reduce environment pollution. It also means a measurement how badly the environment is being polluted by other factors. I have to admit that sustainability is a great idea related to many fields such as healthy, economy, food, social, and etc. However, I still remember the first day of “Sustainable Business” class, Professor Laverty showed to my class an example of sustainable product with the idea of “produce more with less waste”. This example narrows me down to one idea of “Sustainable Business”, which is producing the product and services in an efficient and sustainable way without causing harms to environment. In this essay, I want to emphasize into impacts of businesses on environments, profitability of sustainable business, and responsibility of business.
Environmental sustainability is making decisions and taking actions in the interest of protecting the natural world, preserving the capability of the environment to support human life and ensuring that humans use the environment in a way that does not harm the environment. It also questions how economic development affects our environment vice versa.
Ethics are the morals principles that we obtain through various means, such as religion, culture, etc., that people live by. Values are the way we feel about honesty, wrong-doing, etc. Ethics and values help determine the way employees and members of the business should act and how they should act to show how what the business stands for. The business has a number of ways in which it helps employees can use ethics and values to show the importance in business sustainability.
Harris. J.M. 2000 Basic Principles of Sustainable Development, Global and Environment Institute Working Paper 00-04, USA
The quality of a company’s relationships and engagement will directly or indirectly “affect what happens to employees, workers in the value chain, customers and local communities” (Wynhoven). This definition focuses on the importance of sustainable relationships. It focuses on the social aspect, which can be helpful in determining what social sustainability looks like. The UN definition makes it clear that it is important to manage the corporation’s impact proactively so that employees, customers, and local communities all benefit from a corporation’s presence. BMW is an excellent example of a corporation that focuses on social sustainability.