The Essay On Corporate Business Ethics And Social Responsibilities Is Crucial.

Your essay should be between 1500 and 2000 words in length. In addition, you should:

• Ensure your main idea is clear (what is your insight?)
• Engage the reader by using personal anecdotes
• Effectively use dialogue to help the reader understand your subject
• Support your reflections with personal observations and reasoning
• Clearly document sources using Harvard referencing style

Conclude your essay by doing more than just summarizing what you’ve learnt so far. Revise to clarify and strengthen your reflections and edit to remove errors in spelling, grammar and mechanics so your writing is clear and readable.

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Comparative Business Values and Ethics

The essay is prepared to discuss the corporate business ethics and social responsibilities and how it can ensure successful business functioning. The corporate social responsibility means the responsibility and roles of the company to create positive impact on the environment and social well-being.

The comparative business values and ethics are maintained by considering the various aspects including the honesty and fairness, fixing of prices, deceptive advertising, billing issues, trade practices that are restrictive and misinterpretation of products and services too. The business organizations need to manage these processes and enable proper flow and control of business practices for becoming successful in the competitive business environment (Crane and Matten 2016). By following the business processes properly supported by proper controls and program development, honesty and fairness would be ensured and prices should be set appropriately for meeting the needs and requirements of the customers. This could also prevent product misinterpretation and restrict trade practices once the trade laws, rules and regulations were not maintained. From the video, I have understood the importance of corporate ethics and the social responsibilities can help to manage successful business all throughout. By studying the video, I understood that by maintaining corporate ethics, a business could achieve the highest level of profit, conduct sustainable business and improve the brand image and reputation. There are various ethical issues faced by companies, which can lead to legal implications, and should be resolved as soon as possible (Baumann-Pauly et al. 2013). The ethics and social responsibilities are widespread nowadays, so, according to me, the principles and standards present in the corporate ethics should be considered for guiding the behavior towards successful business management. The business performance is facilitated with the involvement of Board of directors and corporate governance that can safeguard the needs of stakeholders and allow the organisation to function properly by maintaining the corporate ethics too. According to my opinions, it is believed that corporate social responsibility can affect the business stakeholders positively by increasing the wealth creation through maintenance of laws, rules and regulations. Philanthropic responsibilities could benefiting the society (Brammer, Jackson and Matten 2012).

By managing the corporate ethics, I could make ethical decisions that might not be bound by rules and regulations, though unethical business conduct could be stopped. While making ethical decisions, legal obligations should be kept aside and I must focus on the various stakeholders who could be responsible for influencing the corporate ethics. The attitudes of staffs also could influence the business ethics. If staffs are threatened when unable to comply with the business requirements, then unethical business outcomes can arise (Crane, Matten and Spence 2013). Motivation of staffs should be done by keeping their needs and requirements in mind and providing them enough help and support to overcome the issues faced by them. Distribution and other external factors including suppliers’ involvement could influence business ethics too.

Importance of Ethics and Social Responsibilities in Business Management

When consumers gain positive mindset about the company, they will make purchases consistently. One example could be the mining industry that maintains high environmental impact standards to create positive mindset among the customers by reducing the carbon emissions. If the companies do not maintain these ethical practices, then the company may face loss due to sales decline. Other stakeholders are suppliers, legal bodes, Government, investors or shareholders. According to me, business focuses more on profit generation rather than their corporate social responsibilities (Kolk 2016). This should be stopped, because by maintaining the social responsibilities, not only the community would be benefited but also the business itself through maintenance of a positive image among the customers and influencing their buying behaviors too. By analyzing the various components present in the video, I have understood that corporate ethics can enhance the commitment level of workers, enhance the business performance and respect the decisions made by the customers. This would create trust and loyalty and place the needs of customers at first, finally ensure customer satisfaction too (Aguinis and Glavas 2012).

Here I will discuss about the relationships between stakeholders and corporate social responsibilities along with maintenance of corporate governance. The social responsibilities of the organisation mean contributing to the society and even benefiting the organization itself. Based on the video, I found that there are two types of stakeholders like the primary and secondary stakeholders. The primary stakeholders include Government agencies, customers, employees, suppliers, investors and community while the secondary stakeholders are trade associations, competitors in business, media and special interest groups who are not responsible for directly dealing with the business activities (Carroll and Buchholtz 2012). I feel that orientation of stakeholders is essential for understanding the demands and expectations of the stakeholders and promote responsiveness all throughout. One example could be the business organizations in Australia providing employment opportunities to many individuals (Hiller 2013).

I think that corporate citizenship is another major aspect for contributing benefits to the society through increase in growth of economy while the corporate governance allows for managing the corporate citizenship properly. From the video, I understood that the Corporate Governance system consist of accountability, control and oversight where the business decisions could be made by maintaining the strategic policies and make sure that the employees follow those properly.  The two theories are the shareholder and stakeholder model (Noronha et al. 2013). From the analysis, I understood that shareholder model could be used for maximizing the wealth creation whereas the stakeholder models could allow for fulfilling the legal, ethical and philanthropic aspects to meet the demands of stakeholders in business. One example of CSR could be Coles in Australia, which had supported the farmers in Australia and the local community by creating a sustainable future and even reduced the carbon footprints. I personally think that the CSR activities have created a positive impact on the environment as well as facilitated the partnership working for achieving the business objectives with ease (Hopkins 2012).  

Relationships between Stakeholders and Corporate Social Responsibilities

From the fourth lecture, I learned that the ethical issues arise due to unethical practices conducted and should be overcome as soon as possible. The decisions should be made properly by engaging the various stakeholders and ensuring the maximization of profit. Business ethical issues could also arise due to incorrect decisions made, remaining unaware about the ethical issues and practices that were conducted. I believe business ethics can be maintained by enabling integrity, saying the truth and managing trustworthy relationships. According to my response, the major causes of ethical issues are conflicts among the individuals working within the organisation based on difference in personal values and opinions, cultural differences, etc (Fransen 2013). The behaviors of individuals would be unethical when the goals and objectives might not be flexible, because of which, there might be tight schedule, pressure on work and lack of time. I have worked at different organizations and the unethical conducts include discrimination at the workplace, aggressive behaviors of individuals, fraud activities, bribery, dual relationships, etc (Ahi and Searcy 2013).

The intimidating behaviors are caused by physical threats, workplace bullying, false threats and discrimination within the workplace too. Information technology also supports different kinds of ethical issues at the workplace including lack of ability to monitor the performances of employees. When their performances are not monitored, their weaknesses cannot be identified, which results in ignoring the cases when their low performances deteriorate the business performance and productivity. Another major concern was related to the privacy of the customers and inappropriate online marketing, which could make customers provide negative opinions. This might damage the company’s reputation and reduce the trust and loyalty among the customers (Crane and Matten 2016). From my point of view, there could also be marketing, accounting and consumer fraud. One example of consumer fraud could be the inaccurate product advertising. A telecommunication industry might advertise free roaming calls for a bulk purchase, which might not be true after the purchase had been made. This could be a major consumer fraud (Baumann-Pauly et al. 2013).

Ethical issues could create negative impact on the global economy as well as hinder the management of international business. Thus, it is important to maintain corporate ethics to become socially responsible and manage business functioning properly too. From the video, I have come to know about the lack of ability of global business management due to lack of honesty, fairness and trust. Based on the video, I think that capitalism is a major aspect to shed limelight on the competition in the global scenario. Through capitalism, the customers want to increase the value and utility whereas the organizations want to enhance their production level and profit (Brammer, Jackson and Matten 2012). The bimodal wealth distribution was a major unethical conduct, because of which, there were many rich people while the poor people were found in less numbers.  I have understood the concept of rational economics where people spent money to fulfill their needs while according to the behavioral economics, people do not act rationally and their choices are dependent on their level of income, behavioral aspects and family related aspects. According to me, cultural differences should be prevented to ensure proper business functioning and maintain good ethics within the workplace. Corruption is a major ethical issue while dumping allows for selling the prices in the domestic markets at higher prices and selling those at the foreign markets at lower prices (Crane, Matten and Spence 2013).  

Corporate Governance and Corporate Citizenship

I have analysed various scenarios and found that people mostly start business outside their local places to generate more profit, though it has created various ethical issues related to labor. Not considering these labor issues could result in serious legal concerns and might even hinder the sustainable development. As a business executive, I personally believe in creating sustainable reports for gaining long-term success in business through relevant changes made in the ecosystem and strengthening the options to respond to changes (Aguinis and Glavas 2012). From the video, I studied the importance and role of World Trade organisation, which managed trade relations between more than 133 nations through trade related negotiations and implementation of trade policies. The social and economical issues are addressed properly, which has allowed me to overcome those and ensure successful business ethics management and global economic growth (Carroll and Buchholtz 2014).

Conclusion

The report was developed to focus on the corporate ethics and social responsibilities managed by the business organisation to remain ethical and become successful in business. The importance of business ethics was understood along with the relationship between the stakeholders and social responsibilities. The ethical issues could result in hindering successful business flourishing even prevent the companies to start international business. From the various lectures presented, I understood the concepts of corporate ethics and maintenance of corporate social responsibilities contributing to the successful business growth and development.

References

Aguinis, H. and Glavas, A., 2012. What we know and don’t know about corporate social responsibility: A review and research agenda. Journal of management, 38(4), pp.932-968.

Ahi, P. and Searcy, C., 2013. A comparative literature analysis of definitions for green and sustainable supply chain management. Journal of cleaner production, 52, pp.329-341.

Baumann-Pauly, D., Wickert, C., Spence, L.J. and Scherer, A.G., 2013. Organizing corporate social responsibility in small and large firms: Size matters. Journal of Business Ethics, 115(4), pp.693-705.

Brammer, S., Jackson, G. and Matten, D., 2012. Corporate social responsibility and institutional theory: New perspectives on private governance. Socio-economic review, 10(1), pp.3-28.

Carroll, A. and Buchholtz, A., 2014. Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education.

Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.

Crane, A., Matten, D. and Spence, L., 2013. Corporate social responsibility in a global context.

Fransen, L., 2013. The embeddedness of responsible business practice: Exploring the interaction between national-institutional environments and corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 115(2), pp.213-227.

Hiller, J.S., 2013. The benefit corporation and corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(2), pp.287-301.

Hopkins, M., 2012. Corporate social responsibility and international development: Is business the solution?. Earthscan.

Kolk, A., 2016. The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the environment to CSR and sustainable development. Journal of World Business, 51(1), pp.23-34.

Noronha, C., Tou, S., Cynthia, M.I. and Guan, J.J., 2013. Corporate social responsibility reporting in China: An overview and comparison with major trends. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 20(1), pp.29-42.