Peter Robinson, CEO of Mountain Equipment Co-op, was correct when he said that “Ethics is the new competitive environment.1” Honesty, integrity, and transparency consistently rank at the top of qualities that employees and the public desire from corporate entities1. Matters of integrity and responsibility in multinational corporations are often complicated and, when poorly implemented, can be potentially damaging to a firm. Practically applying ethics and corporate social responsibility to business practices is a multifaceted challenge that requires both awareness and vigilance. Execution of ethical and responsible business practices necessitates consideration of international standards such as the UN Global Compact as well as structuring of company policy in order to best address the most pressing issues and violations. However, the application of the Compact can often be complicated and confusing. Expectations for firms emphasize attention to four major areas: human rights, the environment, labor practices, and corruption. I will be outlining business’ responsibility in these four areas, as well as analyzing the most important human rights, environmental, labor, and corruption issues and the potential challenges to implementing responsible practices in these areas. In order to look at these theories in practice, I will be considering how these issues apply to the diamond industry. Companies in all places, regardless of their size or sector, have the standard obligation to respect human rights. Respecting human rights is the basis for responsible business practices, and human rights issues affect all other actions taken by firms. The first and second principles of the United Nations Global Compact address human rights... ... middle of paper ... ...o benefit businesses and consumers alike by leading to lower costs. Companies must look for possibilities within their own supply chain to develop cleaner processes. This leads to the last environmental call of the Compact: to develop sustainable technologies. These are technologies that make the business process less polluting, protect the environment, use resources sustainably, recycle more, and produce less and or cleaner waste2. Pursuing sustainable technology can be costly, but it is an investment into the future of the company, giving it a reputation as a company that is innovative in looking for opportunities to better the world around them for future generations. These technologies can also be beneficial to people at the beginning of the supply chain, who benefit economically and health-wise from initiatives to use less pesticides or grow organically6.
Our team chose to discuss a case written by Krista Barbrey. We will utilize resources set forth in the ethical decision-making process presented in our text, Corporate Social Responsibility: An Ethical Approach, by Mark Schwartz, and in the Santa Clara University website.
In today’s global society, a Code of Ethics policy is used to label established, acceptable behaviors among that industry’s business associates, potential investors, and the corporation’s executive officers and employees, and most important, the consumer (Ethics Resource Center, 2003). In an attempt to promote an increased efficiency and productivity potential level, among employees and prospective clients, a corporation’s standard Code of Ethics should guide its members toward a more in-depth examination of their personal moral activity, and how these actions affect the people or acquaintances they encounter. A company should utilize this strategy as a model for the professional behaviors and responsibilities of its constituents, and proves the occupational advancement of that business. Ethics are important in every level of a corporation, but specifically in the day-to-day actions of its members, and the image the company broadcasts to its associates is fundamental in building a stable business foundation. These pledges are a vital communication tool used to covey the firm’s standards for business operations, and predominantly, its relationships with the surrounding communities (Ethics Resource Center, 2003).
After news of the scandal of Enron, one of the hottest items on e-Bay was a 64-page copy of Enron’s corporate code of ethics. One seller/former employee proclaimed it had “never been opened.” In the forward Kenneth L. Lay, CEO of Enron stated, “We want to be proud of Enron and to know that it enjoys a reputation for fairness and honesty and that it is respected (Enron 2).” For a company with such an extensive code of ethics and a CEO who seemed to want the company to be respected for that, there are still so many unanswered questions of what exactly went wrong. I believe that simply having a solid and thorough code of ethics alone does not prevent a company from acting unethically when given the right opportunity.
Allen Kaufman, Lawrence Zacharias, and Marvin Karson, Managers vs. Owners: The Struggle for Corporate Control in American Democracy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
“Only about half (53%) of employees trust their organization’s senior leaders – the people who set the tone for organizational culture and need to inspire high-performance and commitment. In contrast, three in four (75%) of employees trust their immediate managers” (BlessingWhite, 2008, p. 2). Senior leaders have the difficult task of aligning organizational culture and ethics and it has been determined that it is impossible to demonstrate trustworthiness without a personal relationship. This finding is consistent among all generations in the workplace, throughout the different business lines, and at every level. Employee engagement is dependent on the manager-employee relationship. This is important as BlessingWhite (2008) stated that bad managers are the third most common reason for leaving, behind lack of career growth and actually disliking the job (p. 2). Contributing employee are employees who trust their managers. For leaders to be effective, they need to know what engagement means, they have to experience engagement, and they need to lead engagement. “They need to be able to help their team members believe in the value of full engagement and inspire them to pursue it on a personal level” (BlessingWhite, 2008, p. 21).
The importance of ethics and values in business sustainability is undeniable. Ethics has been defined as, “Moral principles that govern or influence a person’s behaviour”- Hornby. Ethics is different from business ethics however, business ethics is defined as “Written or unwritten codes of principles or values that govern decisions and actions within an organisation”. Therefore we can see that the ethics, moral standards and behaviour of the consumers, employees, entrepreneurs or management teams does not concern business ethics.
Corporations are often major violators of human rights. "As human rights advocates begin to address corporate crime, they often do so in the absence of any serious government support. As a result, they are tempted to fall back on voluntary codes of conduct adopted by the corporations themselves. At best, this self-monitoring represents "enlightened self-interest" by companies looking for a stable investment climate. At worst, it is nothing more than a public relations ploy which can set back human rights by providing corporations with cover from public scrutiny. In either case, companies are usually more motivated by their bottom lines, than humanitarian interests. And that makes the free market and its corporate agents rather dubious guarantors of human rights." (Light 1999) Large companies often use or lobby for conditions that result in manipulated international trade pacts and agreements, in order to maximize profits, via things such as cheap labour. (Vander Stichele 1998) This can be seen in the form of sweat shops or child labour in th...
This research paper is aimed towards understanding the corporate ethics and accountability at the Co-operative. The reason which gives this research a place is due to the ideologies and principles set out within the companies policies, the importance of corporate strategy and the goals and objectives give rise to this topic. When looking into a global company with a single reality its shareholders and staff should all share a similar sentiment to its core values and purpose, although whether acting as part of a tertiary sector or emphasizing fair trade the ethical foundation could be easily compromised from a differed opinion. The aims of this investigation is to compare and contrast the Co-operatives policies with another company of high sustain-ability value and decide from this whether it is extensive enough, also to apply some attention to how precise staff follow ethical policies from other companies to form a more in depth view. The reason for using these methods to gain the information is due to the reliability of forming an external view which can be applied to all companies, also with primary data being absent due to the companies recent losses being of focus it is the best available form of data.
A company's code of ethics is very important to establishing the expectations and quality of its brand. The code of ethics are concrete expectations for employee behavior, accountability and communicates the ethical policy of a company to its partners and clients. A good business practice is to have sound ethics. Having good ethical practice is knowing the difference between right and wrong and choosing what the right thing is. Though good ethical behavior is something that should be done automatically, a company needs to have a set of rules in place that holds everyone accountable. Over the last twenty years, the country has been bombarded with company scandals and unethical behavior; though morally wrong, the punishment does not fit the crime. The punishments have been overkill. A murderer, rapist, or child molester commits violent crimes and potentially is out of jail in 10 - 20 years. The CEO’s that commit white collar crime receive 25 years to life; this paper will discuss how this punishment for committing nonviolent crimes, such as breaching a company’s code of ethics, are disproportionate to violent crimes that plague the country today.
The notion of ethics deals with people’s behaviors within a company. Social responsibility involves a company’s moral obligations and the manner in which the organization makes its decisions. Although ethics and social responsibility are similar on a conceptual basis, each has its own unique characteristics that express their differences and its independence of the other. Ethics and social responsibility have to be present and coincide with one another for a business to be ethically sound.
This paper discusses the role of ethics in corporate governance. I seek to show the application of moral and ethical principles in corporate governance. Ethics is a topic that has generated a lot of interest in the last decade especially after high profile scandals. The failures of prominent companies such as WorldCom, Enron, Merrill lynch and Martha Stewart portrays the lack of corporate ethics. The failure of such business has seen an increased pressure to incorporate ethics in corporate governance. The result of corporate scandals has been eroding investor and public confidence. The entire economic system has experienced some form of stress from loss of capital, a falling stock market and business failures.
The next, major international business issue is human rights. In many nations today basic human rights are not respected. In much of the developed world are basics rights are taken for granted such as freedom of speech, or freedom of movement. It is often questioned by the international business world if we should...
According to Carol Padgett (2012, 1), “companies are important part of our daily lives…in today’s economy, we are bound together through a myriad of relationships with companies”. The board of directors remain the highest echelon of management in any company. It is the “group of executive and non-executive directors which forms corporate strategy and is responsible for monitoring performance on the behalf of shareholders” (Padgett, 2012:1). Boards are clearly critical to the operation of companies and they are endowed with substantial power in the statute (Companies Act, 2014). The board is responsible for directing and steering the company. The board accomplishes this by business planning and risk management through proper corporate governance.
Ethics is the study of right or wrong and the morality of the choices that individuals make. That basicly means the set of morals or responsibility that a person, group, or field have. Ethics can also be classified as code of morals. In business there are ethics that portray to business. These are called business ethics, business ethics just happen to be the application of ethics, morals, into the business field. Some examples of business ethics are obeying all rules and regulations even when nobody 's looking, which is pretty self explanatory, you shouldn’t be breaking rules. Even if it is as simple as washing your hands after you use the restroom or straight up lying to your customers, they are the ones making you money so if they find out
Business ethics and social responsibility are two concepts many individuals believe go along together for corporations in the business environment. Business ethics are the moral values a company uses to ensure all employees action in a standard manner when completing business functions. Social responsibility is typically a conceptual theory that governments and the general public hold, believing that businesses should not conduct themselves in a manner counter to cultural or societal norms. The connubial of these concepts happens when companies introduce a written code of ethics to demonstrate that the company only acts in its greatest interest so long as it does not damage the company’s social responsibility.