Ethics and social responsibility

Sociology

Ethics & Social Responsibility

People begin to develop their internal beliefs from the time they are small children. Factors such as the conditions that a person grows up in affect the way that they see the world. If a child was raised in a household with a lot of violence, they might feel that fighting is acceptable. The beliefs of a person's peers may influence how they see things. It is human nature to want to fit in and some people are faster to give into peer pressure than others. People have a lot in common with their peers due to similar values in the first place. It is very hard to find two people that feel precisely the same about every situation. Some people would feel that if they found money that they should be able to keep it. Others would feel that they should turn it in to the lost and found area. Keeping money that one finds on the ground in a public place is not illegal, but some people would not be able to benefit from this circumstance because the person who lost it might be found. Powerful situational issues may cause people to compromise their values and turn to measures that they would not usually take. If someone is having financial troubles, then they are more likely to steal. A person who is very upset with another person may have a hard time being objective and reasonable (Griffin, 1993).

Many people feel that they won't be caught doing something wrong. An employee who steals a few dollars out of petty cash may in the end go on take large amounts of cash if they are never caught. A person who has lots of authority may feel like they can cover their tracks by lying to their subordinates. Some people are unethical because they can validate what they are doing. If an employee sees other people not being disciplined for unethical behavior, then they may feel like they should be able to do it to. Some people make a bad decision and instead of coming clean about it believe that they need to make more bad choices in order to cover it up. Once bad decisions are made, they tend to get worse until they are ultimately caught. The biggest reason people are unethical is because they feel that they can gain from it or that they need to conceal something that can harm them (Griffin, 1993).

Ethics are referred to quite frequently and attended to by the media when unethical decisions are discovered. Unfortunately, people do not hear much about ethics when others are partaking in ethical behavior on a daily basis. Things that are not illegal may still be unethical. Ethics is a personal belief structure that consists of knowing the difference between right and wrong. Ethics often vary from person to person. Ethics is an element that is used when analyzing decisions, beliefs, and procedures. Inside the business framework, businesses are likely to have excellent ethical values and act socially accountable. The difficulty lies in that the principles of a business are a combination of many individual sets of ethics. This is the reason why it is important to have good people as employees. It is also consistently important that when one goes to work somewhere that they feel like they share the values of those that they work with. Ethics does not just consist of talking about the right thing. It is carrying out what is right in every choice that is made (Griffin, 1993).

Social responsibility is often an example of ethical behavior. It is improving society in general. Yet, a business can't afford to just do good actions if there is no potential for a reward. If the business were to loose a lot of money, then it would go out of business, hurt customers, and leave employees with jobs. There are some experts that disagree that social accountability is shown only when companies go past what is elective, and really mean to generate an advantage for others besides the company. Additionally, some companies may not profit from these structures of social responsibility. These businesses should center on doing business and give back what and when they can. Some examples of socially responsible actions range from ventures that raise money for study on diseases, raising money for the deprived, necessitating employees to volunteer within the community, recalling products that may be hazardous, encouraging recycling, and offering free services to the underprivileged (Griffin, 1993).

There are immeasurable ethical dilemmas that may arise in a business background. Some of them are clearer while some of them are vaguer. There is a simple foundation that helps keep decisions in perspective. Businesses should function in a manner that is legal, profitable, ethical, and within social customs. Being within social norms means that one uses society in order to gauge if their decisions are proper. Some cultures would define what is ethical differently from other cultures. Due to the fact that all businesses have a need to be gainful, sometimes there is an over emphasis on making more money. Social standards should govern what is appropriate to compensate people as well as to charge customers. Profit expectations and goals should not require a business to cut corners in an unethical way or to misrepresent the facts (Griffin, 1993).

Ever since the 1970s, corporations have looked at business ethics in a number of different ways, including the introduction of compliance agendas and managers, the addition of board-level ethics committees, the advancement of codes of conduct, the putting together of and distribution of values statements, the hiring of corporate social responsible managers and training programs of all kinds. As the actions of the past few years in the United States have demonstrated, these efforts, unfortunately, have not prohibited U.S.-based corporations from participating in unethical behaviors that has lead to larger corporate scandals. As a consequence there is increased pressure for U.S. companies to offer more structured governance and ethics programs so that companies are more responsible to the societies in which they operate (Hurst, 2004).

Ongoing examples of doubtful actions by employees and executives have given rise to severe questions of how corporate ethics efforts can be enhanced and can address the fundamental causes of misconduct, as well as the growing burden for practical, socially responsible, and sustainable business practices. It is important to accept the idea that the setting of business beliefs can be difficult. The field is huge and often includes such apprehensions as corporate governance, reputation administration, accurate accounting, fair labor practices and environmental issues to name but a few. In reality, the field addresses the complete scope of responsibilities that a corporation has to each of its stakeholders. This includes those who have a vested interest in the choices and procedures of a company, like clients, employees, shareholders, suppliers and the community (Hurst, 2004).

There are a lot of things that a business can do to assist good ethical behaviors. One of the best things that can be done is to make sure that the fundamental culture of an organization endorses strong values. People should not be punished for coming forward with problems. As a matter of fact, workers should be permitted to communicate problems anonymously. Some businesses have a phone number to call or a suggestion box that can be used. Employees should always be allowed to share any ethical concerns that they have with power above them when there are uncertainties about the right thing to do. It is important to have a code of ethics as a written document for employees to read. A company should also develop brochures, mission statements, and other media in order to express the company beliefs. Higher authorities within an organization should acquire the beliefs and demonstrate the values that they want to see their employees have (Griffin, 1993).

Another technique for implementing ethical conduct is to make sure that unethical conduct can't occur. The ability to safeguard resources is an important function of internal controls. Instances of internal controls include making sure that more than one employee works with cash and accounting related resources. This way there is more than one person who knows what is going on and can recognize theft. Other methods are to necessitate signatures, to lock up valuables, use security cameras, have employees rotate jobs, and arbitrarily check employee work. The more secure a business is, the less likely that people within the organization will make unethical decisions (Griffin, 1993).

The arena of business ethics is further complicated by the detail that there are many expressions that exist in order to refer to corporate offices and programs that are proposed to communicate, monitor, and implement a company's values and principles. In theory, there can be made some rough distinctions among the various areas related to business ethics, like corporate responsibility, social responsibility, and corporate compliance. These differences are often distorted because corporate offices of compliance established many years ago may now function correspondingly to offices of corporate and social responsibility (Hurst, 2004).

Business ethics is a division of ethics that pertains to the interaction of business and ethics and applies ethical analysis to the business area. It is both expressive and normal. The five activities within business ethics can be delineated as follows:

1. Using general ethical principles to specific practices in business.

2. The analysis of whether moral terms related to individuals' actions may be applied to combined entities such as firms.

3. Analysis of presumptions of business.

4. Analysis of other related areas of information as guided by embedded problems in business.

5. Describing morally commendable and exemplary actions of firms (Barrett, 2009).

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) entails any activity that encourages the interests of any stakeholder of a business corporation. Occasionally CSR refers to philanthropic programs that target communities or employees. In other instances it refers to obligations to promote the welfare of suppliers. It also refers to an assortment of activities designed to enhance environmental stewardship or sustainability. In general, it refers to the blurred intention to better society. When used loosely, the term can be combined with common ethical practices in regards to customers, investors, or any other stakeholder. Basically, the term has an assortment of meanings and functions. Today, it can pertain to every business within all industries. The CSR concept of laxity and oversimplification allow it to include such a wide variety of ethical practices that have virtually become meaningless (Ludescher and Ahsud, 2010). Based on the beliefs of CSR, there are several implicit assumptions that are embedded in CSR. These include:

Normal business performances are unjust, unsafe, environmentally destructive, and unethical.

Ordinary firms essentially present no value to a community or society as a whole.

The profits of a firm accrue to their primary stakeholders only.

Common firms take something from society.

A critical stipulation of the usual business is a selfish and uncompassionate nature (Barrett, 2009).

Determining the appropriate courses of action that needs to be taken falls within the realm of a viewpoint known as ethics. The term ethical is often used universally used to mean a code of values used to guide actions with respect to human connections. It is by and large thought to be normal in temperament, but examination and synthesis in ethics also may be expressive. There are numerous ethical classifications, such as Judeo-Christian, Objectivist, and moral relativism. These systems are often in disagreement on definite matters, so the choice of ethics is generally entrenched in other perspectives of philosophy, specifically metaphysics, epistemology, and axiology. Based on the additional branches of philosophy, and their interdependent combination, ethical truths may then be derived (Barrett, 2009).

Corporate governance has traditionally specified the rules of business decision making that apply to the internal mechanisms of companies. This set of norms and laws has served to form the relations among boards of directors, shareholders, and managers as well as to resolve agency conflicts. Yet in the aftermath of Enron, corporate governance has emphasized issues that go beyond this traditional focus to touch on corporate ethics, accountability, disclosure, and reporting. As companies seek to assure regulators and investors that they are fully transparent and accountable, corporations have increasingly pledged their commitment to honest and fair corporate governance principles on a wide spectrum of business practices (Gill, 2008).