Ethical Awareness Issues -- Sun Microsystems Sun

Ethical Awareness Issues -- Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems was a company that sold computers, software and information technology -- including the popular Java programming language and the UNIX operating system. In 2010, they merged with oracle, but prior to that had a business philosophy that was pro-open systems, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethics. For the focus on ethics, this is the idea that any organization now has a responsibility to not only produce products in a sustainable manner, but to make sure that all aspects of the company work in an ethical way.

Sun knew that it was facing pressure from competitors and public opinion of larger corporations, particularly after the Enron scandal. The company decided to provide ethics seminars. These seminars became more and more intense - and finally evolved to include all managers in every office globally to undergo ethics training. The company would bring in experts to present information, and then have groups break out to discuss ethical situations and problems. Once the employee finished the seminar, they were given a larger binder that explained how this information should be shared and used in daily business activities. Sun continued the program with refresher courses, and also had managers take online courses that were available in eight languages. The idea seemed to be that using ethics within the workplace was so important that it need to become a "way of life" and a part of the corporate culture. Overall, it seemed like the idea was to show everyone in the company that management was behind ethical behavior for Sun, that each individual contributed to the overall idea of ethics in the workplace, and that the company was ethically only as good as its weakest link.

Part 1 -- Microeconomics is the study of small economic units -- like consumers, families and smaller businesses. Particularly now, in the 21st century, businesses must understand that consumers have the Internet, they can research, shop, and communicate with other people and businesses. They also have higher expectations of services and transparency in business; as well as the "want it now" mentality. As the world becomes even more globalized, there has been a shift to microeconomics driving consumer preferences, which then means those preferences guide production of goods and services.

Part 4- Planned economies are economic ideas that use a central authority (government, etc.) to make decisions about investment, spending and production. Planned economies were usually associated with socialism; supposedly, planned economies are able to more efficiently make all aspects of the economy work together quicker. This does, however, tend to have a negative effect on consumer preferences. Command economy and administrative economy are systems that were used in the Soviet Union and China. In the 21st century global economy, though, developed and developing nations are communicating better, stakeholders have a higher degree of expectation, and consumerism seems to be driving the global economy -- none of which work well for planned economies.