Understanding Business Ethics and Social Responsibility PDF

1 2 3 4 Ethics are beliefs about what’s right and wrong or good and bad. An individual’s values and morals, plus the social context in which his or her behavior occurs, determine whether behavior is regarded as ethical or unethical. Business ethics refers to ethical or unethical behavior by empl...

1 2 3 4 Ethics are beliefs about what’s right and wrong or good and bad. An individual’s values and morals, plus the social context in which his or her behavior occurs, determine whether behavior is regarded as ethical or unethical. Business ethics refers to ethical or unethical behavior by employees and managers in the context of their jobs. 5 Ethical behavior is behavior that conforms to individual beliefs and social norms about what’s right and good. Unethical behavior is behavior that conforms to individual beliefs and social norms about what is defined as wrong and bad. 6 Behavior toward Employees - This category covers such matters as hiring and firing, wages and working conditions, and privacy and respect. Behavior toward the Organization - Ethical issues also arise from employee behavior toward employers, especially in such areas as conflict of interest, confidentiality, and honesty. Behavior toward Other Economic Agents - Ethics also comes into play in the relationship of a business and its employees with so-called primary agents of interest — mainly customers, competitors, stockholders, suppliers, dealers, and unions. 7 What distinguishes ethical from unethical behavior is often subjective and subject to differences of opinion. So how can we decide whether a particular action or decision is ethical? The following three steps set a simplified course for applying ethical judgment to business activities. 1. Gather the relevant factual information. 2. Analyze the facts to determine the most appropriate moral values. 3. Make an ethical judgment based on the rightness or wrongness of the proposed activity or policy. 8 To fully assess the ethics of specific behavior, we need a more complex perspective. Ethical norms also come into play. Consider four such norms and the issues they entail: 1) Utility: Does a particular act optimize the benefits to those who are affected by it? (That is, do all relevant parties receive “fair” benefits?) 2) Rights: Does it respect the rights of all individuals involved? 9 3 Justice: Is it consistent with what’s fair? 4 Caring: Is it consistent with people’s responsibilities to each other? 10 Figure 2.1 provides mechanisms for dealing with unique circumstances — those that apply only in limited situations. 11 Many companies have written codes that formally announce their intent to do business in an ethical manner. The number of such companies has risen dramatically in the last three decades, and today almost all major corporations have written codes of ethics. 12 Figure 2.2 illustrates the role that corporate ethics and values should play in corporate policy. You can use it to see how a good ethics statement might be structured. Basically, the figure suggests that although strategies and practices can change frequently and objectives can change occasionally, an organization’s core principles and values should remain steadfast. 13 Ethics affect individual behavior in the workplace. Social responsibility is a related concept that addresses the overall way in which a business attempts to balance its commitments to relevant groups and individuals in its social environment. 14 Organizational stakeholders, who are groups, individuals, and organizations that are directly affected by the practices of an organization and, therefore, have a stake in its performance. 15 Major corporate stakeholders are identified in Figure 2.3. 16 Most companies that strive to be responsible to their stakeholders concentrate first and foremost on five main groups: (1) customers, (2) employees, (3) investors, (4) suppliers, and (5) the local communities where they do business. They may then select other stakeholders that are particularly relevant or important to the organization and try to address their needs and expectations as well. 17 Businesses that are responsible to their customers strive to treat them fairly and honestly. They also seek to charge fair prices, honor warranties, meet delivery commitments, and stand behind the quality of the products they sell. Businesses that are socially responsible in their dealings with employees treat workers fairly, make them a part of the team, and respect their dignity and basic human needs. To maintain a socially responsible stance toward investors, managers should follow proper accounting procedures, provide appropriate information to shareholders about financial performance, and manage the organization to protect shareholder rights and investments. 18 Price gouging—responding to increased demand with overly steep (and often unwarranted) price increases. 19 20 21 Businesses and managers should also manage their relations with suppliers with care. For example, it might be easy for a large corporation to take advantage of suppliers by imposing unrealistic delivery schedules and reducing profit margins by constantly pushing for lower prices. Most businesses try to be socially responsible to their local communities. They may contribute to local programs, such as Little League baseball, get actively involved in charitable programs, such as the United Way, and strive to simply be good corporate citizens by minimizing their negative impact on communities. 22 23 Air pollution is a result of several factors combining to contribute to lower air quality. Carbon monoxide emitted by cars contributes to air pollution, as do smoke and other chemicals produced by manufacturing plants. Air quality is usually worst in certain geographic locations, such as the Denver area and the Los Angeles basin, where pollutants tend to get trapped in the atmosphere. For this reason, the air around Mexico City is generally considered to be the most polluted in the entire world. Water becomes polluted primarily from chemical and waste dumping. For years, businesses and cities dumped waste into rivers, streams, and lakes with little regard for the consequences. Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River was once so polluted that it literally burst into flames one hot summer day. Two key issues characterize land pollution. The first is how to restore the quality of land that has already been damaged. Land and water damaged by toxic waste, for example, must be cleaned up for the simple reason that people still need to use them. The second problem is the prevention of future contamination. New forms of solid-waste disposal constitute one response to these problems. Combustible wastes can be separated and used as fuels in industrial boilers, and decomposition can be accelerated by exposing waste matter to certain microorganisms. 24 Consumerism is a form of social activism dedicated to protecting the rights of consumers in their dealings with businesses. Interfering with competition can take the form of illegal pricing practices. Collusion occurs when two or more firms collaborate on such wrongful acts as price fixing. 25 26 The first formal declaration of consumer rights protection came in the early 1960s, when President John F. Kennedy identified four basic consumer rights. Since then, general agreement on two additional rights has emerged; these rights are described in Figure 2.4. The Consumer Bill of Rights is backed by numerous federal and state laws. 27 Unethical managers might project profits in excess of what they actually expect to earn, hide losses and/or expenses in order to boost paper profits, or slant financial reports to make the firm seem stronger than is really the case. In 2002, the U.S. Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires an organization’s chief financial officer to personally guarantee the accuracy of all financial reporting. 28 As Figure 2.5 illustrates, the four stances that an organization can take concerning its obligations to society fall along a continuum, ranging from the lowest to the highest degree of socially responsible practices. 29 The few organizations that take an obstructionist stance to social responsibility usually do as little as possible to solve social or environmental problems, have little regard for ethical conduct, and will go to great lengths to deny or cover up wrongdoing. Organizations that take a defensive stance will do everything that is legally required, including admitting to mistakes and taking corrective actions, but nothing more. Defensive stance managers insist that their job is to generate profits and might, for example, install pollution-control equipment dictated by law but not higher-quality equipment to further limit pollution. 30 A firm that adopts an accommodative stance meets and, in certain cases, exceeds its legal and ethical requirements. Such firms will agree to participate in social programs if solicitors convince them that given programs are worthy of their support. 31 32 33 The government most often directly influences organizations through regulation, the establishment of laws and rules that dictate what organizations can and cannot do. This regulation usually evolves from social beliefs about how businesses should conduct themselves. To implement legislation, the government generally creates special agencies to monitor and control certain aspects of business activity. Other forms of regulation are indirect. For example, the government can indirectly influence the social responsibility of organizations through its tax codes. In effect, the government can influence how organizations spend their social responsibility dollars by providing greater or lesser tax incentives. 34 Companies themselves cannot legally make direct donations to political campaigns, so they influence the government through political action committees. Political action committees (PACs) are special organizations created to solicit money and then distribute it to political candidates. Lobbying, or the use of persons or groups to formally represent an organization or group of organizations before political bodies, is also an effective way to influence the government. 35 Legal compliance is the extent to which the organization conforms to local, state, federal, and international laws. The task of managing legal compliance is generally assigned to the appropriate functional managers. Ethical compliance is the extent to which the members of the organization follow basic ethical (and legal) standards of behavior. 36 Finally, philanthropic giving is the awarding of funds or gifts to charities or other worthy causes. Target Corporation routinely gives 5 percent of its taxable income to charity and social programs. Omaha Steaks gives more than $100,000 per year to support the arts. 37 Some businesses occasionally conduct an corporate social audit, a formal and thorough analysis of the effectiveness of a firm’s social performance. A task force of high-level managers from within the firm usually conducts the audit. It requires that the organization clearly define all of its social goals, analyze the resources it devotes to each goal, determine how well it is achieving the various goals, and make recommendations about which areas need additional attention. 38 39 40 41