Business Ethics and Management for Ethical Behavior- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theBusiness Ethics and Management for Ethical Behavior. Answer: Ethical Behaviour and Corporate Social Responsibility can bring significant benefits to a business Ethics can be understood as the moral judgements about right and wrong. Ethics in business can be termed as the moral decisions which help in taking the decisions in the organisation. These decisions are taken under the influence of the culture of the organisation. The decisions taken either by the individuals or groups affect the entire organisation. The ethical behaviour of employees supports the growth and reputation of the company (Joseph, 2013). Unethical business practices are found in many organisations which do not last long and are not beneficial for the long term success of the companies. It hampers the reputation of the business which ultimately affects the overall profitability and market share of the company. As per Asemah, Okpanachi Edegoh (2013), Corporate Social Responsibility is the social obligation of the business which includes taking actions to improve the lives of people and society within the interests of the organisation. Nowadays, CSR is adopted by many companies because it only makes them socially responsible companies but also brings benefits in return in the form of customer loyalty and better reputation in the market. According to Horoszowski (2011), socially responsible businesses use sustainable business models and improve marketing, satisfaction of employees and customers and richer partnerships in the industry. Business ethics can be complicated at times when it becomes tough to decide whether the practice is right or wrong. For e.g. When the company lays off many employees but the salary of the CEO or employees of top management does not accept a cut in their salaries. This might be considered as unethical because the top management is responsible for the duties which benefit the entire organisation and its people. Ethical activities may vary from industry to industry like in a car manufacturing company; the most important concern is safety. Toyota, in 2010 had a huge unethical failure when they ignored safety concerns. The oil corporation companies have to maintain transparency in either transaction sand they are often criticised for corruption. In the opinion of Adda, Azigwe Awuni (2016), these two concepts of corporate social responsibility and business Ethics can bring significant benefits to the businesses. It is further added by Adda, Azigwe Awuni (2016) that Ethics is a good practice and it creates a shared value system which shapes the behaviour of people at work. There are several benefits which provided by business ethics to the business. One of the benefits is customer loyalty. Loyal customers create long term success for the business. If the customers are treated unethically, they will not make repeat purchase with the organisation. A loyal customer will do free marketing for the business through word of mouth which ultimately increases the chances of growth and development of business. If the business treats employees fairly by paying those fair wages and balanced work life, the business will be able to retain talented employees. Figure 1: Code Values for Business ethics Business ethics helps companies in setting up positive environment in the business. Positive relationships among the workers, management and stakeholders build trust and team spirit. It also helps in dealing with the legal problems. The companies should set up an ethical framework which ensures the involvement of key stakeholders in the business decisions and the positive outcomes for the business (Carroll Shabana, 2010). Corporate social responsibility is a concept which is understood as the voluntary social responsibility which is aimed at bringing social change and sustainability in the environment. There are many companies which are involved in the CSR activities. Some of the well-known companies practising CSR includes in Australia include BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Westpac Bank corporation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and many more (Arup, 2011). CSR benefits the organisation as it assists the organisation in avoiding the exploitation of labour and corruption and in setting up good behaviour in the business. It improves the profitability, growth and sustainability of the business and creates appositive impact on the business along with the society. There are theories which help in clearing the concept of social responsibility. The first one is the stakeholders theory which is based on the assumption that the organisations have the obligation towards the society. It says that the organisations have a moral duty to fulfil the interest of the organisation and to maximise the interests of the stakeholders. The organisation should invest in the society so that the benefits can be reaped by the society and by the organisation. Like the organisation could work on improving the environment by adopting environment friendly operations. It is cost effective and also in the interests of the society. The second is iron law of responsibility which says that the organisations which do not understand the power of society will lose its position. The organisations must fulfil their social responsibility so that they can earn goodwill and prosper in the market (Goel Ramanathan, 2014). CSR can be aligned with the corporate strategies with the help of some theories like Agency theory. Agency theory proposes that the trust is build when during a transaction one transactor designates the responsibility to other one. The theory suggests that CSR acts in the best interests of the firm. As per Ertop (2015), Successful corporations need a support of the society. The workforce of these companies should be educated and healthy so that the workforce can be productive. The business has to integrate society to bring more efficiency and innovation. The contribution of the companies in the societys welfare consists of the value creation process which is also known as Triple P bottom line. This includes Profit, people and Planet. Figure 2: Triple P Bottom line As per Harnrungchalotorn Phayonlerd (2017), in todays global and complex business environment, the businesses use lot of strategies to run its business even better and efficiently than before. The companies began to take their social responsibility as the integral part of the business. There has been a significant increase in the companies which are engaging themselves in the corporate social responsibility. This is helping the companies in increasing their brand value, reputation in the industry and society, sales volume and also proving competitive advantage to the companies over others. For e.g. Starbucks, a globally recognised beverage company is engaged in CSR activities. The company runs a campaign called shared planet in which it believes to develop a good workplace, encourages ethical business practices and corporate governance. The company believes in working for their stakeholders like customers, employees and environment. Another example can be taken of Microsoft which is engaged in charities and donations to the ones who need them. The company in its citizenship report stated that it gave more than $900 to non-profit organisations for good cause. The company reduced 30 per cent carbon emissions and made a huge investment in the employee compensation (Chan, 2014) Apple is another example of a company involving in CSR. The company make big charitable contributions. The company is also making efforts to use environment friendly technique and raw material in their final products. Sony is committed to maintain sustainable society for the future generations. It aims at preserving the environment by using the eco technologies. The common practices of CSR include recycling of materials, reduction of emissions, employee treatment, building infrastructure for society like schools, hospitals, etc. (Chan, 2014). Ethical Behaviour and CSR have a huge impact on the organisations. Business ethics benefits the company and spread positive message about the company. It enhances positive business relationships which brings additional customers and support for the organisation. The business should be socially responsible because the employees demand it. As per Horoszowski (2011), 83% of the employees consider leaving their jobs if their companies exploit labour and use child labour. Also, the studies conducted Society for Human Resource Management reveals that CSR practices increases the morale of the employees, builds loyalty and helps in recruiting top employees. It was also revealed that the consumers like to make a purchase from the companies who support a cause. An article by Forbes suggested that more than 80% of the customers think that the business should work on improving society and environment (Horoszowski, 2011). According to Harvard Business review, CSR can be a source of opportunity, i nnovation and competitive advantage for a business. The investors also like to invest in the companies which are socially responsible. It is believed that sooner the companies will shift to social responsibility, more successful they will be in future. The companies become increasingly popular when they use Corporate Social Responsibility (Nasieku,Togun Olubunmi, 2014). It can be concluded that CSR and Business ethics have become an important and indispensible part of the organisations because it provides many benefits to the companies in the long term. The businesses should take it as their responsibility that whatever they take from the society should be repaid back to them. There are many famous companies like Apple, Nestle, Unilever and more which are involved in the CSR activities and are contributing their revenue for the benefits of the society. References Adda, G, Azigwe, J B Awuni, A R 2016, Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility For business Success and Growth, European Journal of Business and Innovation Research, Vol.4, No.6, pp.26-42. Arup, 2011, Top 20 CSR companies in Australia. Retrieved from https://www.arup.com/news/2011_02_february/top_20_csr_companies_in_australia. Asemah, E S, Okpanachi, R A, Edegoh, L O N 2013, Business Advantages of Corporate Social Responsibility Practice: A Critical Review, New Media and Mass Communication, Vol.18. Carroll, A B Shabana, K M 2010, The Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility: A Review of Concepts, Research and Practice, International Journal of Management Reviews. Chan, L Y 2014, Corporate Social Responsibility of Multinational Corporations, Global Honors Theses. Paper 18. Ertop, D 2015, Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and importance of implementation of CSR at corporations, International Journal of Contemporary Applied Sciences, Vol. 2, No. 12. Foote, J, Gaffney, N Evans, J R 2010, Corporate social responsibility: Implications for performance excellence, Total Quality Management, Vol. 21, No. 8. Goel, M Ramanathan, P E 2014, Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Is there a Dividing Line?, Procedia Economics and Finance. Harnrungchalotorn, S Phayonlerd, Y 2017, Starbucks with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Faculty Board of Economic Sciences, Communication and IT. Reviewed from https://www.csringreece.gr/files/research/CSR-1443612056.pdf. Horoszowski, M 2011, 5 Reasons Your Business Should Be Socially Responsible, Moving Worlds. Joseph, L 2013, Importance of Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility, Udemy Blog. Nasieku, T, Togun, O R Olubunmi, E M 2014, Corporate Social Responsibility and Organizational Performance: A Theoretical Review, International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education, Volume 1, Issue 12.