Responsibility Project
Responsibility in Business: No Bad Brownie
The importance of business ethics has been sharply and repeatedly highlighted by many event s over the past decade or so, from the series of scandals at the turn of the century (Enron, WorldCom, etc.) to the more recent financial meltdown precipitated by nefarious lending practices and trick bookkeeping. While negative outcomes from unethical behaviors seem to be the most headline-grabbing means of encountering ethical dilemmas and decisions in business today, they are far from the only means of investigating such issues. A video on Liberty Mutual's ethics-dedicated website, The Responsibility Project, highlights many different instances of positive ethical outcomes, and of ethical struggles that companies have had to contend with. The brief video of Gresyton Bakery, a commercial brownie manufacturer that is involved in both wholesale and retail distribution, shows how positive ethical choices can also have profound impacts on business and the community n which a business operates.
The Benefits of Ethical Brownies
As the head of Greyston Bakery notes in the film, not only do the company's brownies taste good, but they also provide a means for community improvement. Providing jobs for those with difficulties finding employment, wholesome products for other manufacturers...
These are the kind of efforts that build stronger communities and stronger businesses (French & Granrose, 2004).
Social pressures can have a great deal of influence on influencing business ethics, and perhaps surprisingly these effects can be larger for smaller companies that tend to have more transparency and less name recognition than larger competitors (Kokemuller, 2012). Businesses can create a name for themselves by openly and strongly applying strict business ethics to their operations, achieving above and beyond the expectations of the community in which they operate (Kokemuller, 2012). This does not really appear to be a motivating factor behind Greyston's success or its ethical directives and actions, however; though there is a clear social benefit to the actions and the sheer presence of the bakery, there is also not a strong brand push and indeed most of the company's sales go to manufacturers such as Ben & Jerry's, leaving the company largely anonymous (Liberty Mutual, 2012). In other words, though social pressures might exist, they are not always the primary or the best ethically motivating factor.
While social pressures might not exert…
