The Issue of Ethics in a Work Setting - Essay Example

Final Essay Exam in BLE 215

Question 1A

The question whether a CEO has made clear to people reporting to him that he or she does not need to be covered from bad news as well as whether they can report anything to the leader, or whether a leader is concerned with his reports that come with unethical concerns is critical in promoting virtuousness as a leader. Other questions include whether the leader provides guidelines and training regarding ethical decision making to those reporting to him, together with whether one rewards moral conducts and disciplines unethical ones. These, as per this work are the most significant questions regarding the issue of ethics in a work setting due to their summative approach. With this regard, the first question is concerned with setting the standards on how a leader wants to relate to his or her juniors. As such, answering this question allows Robert to establish firm criteria that must be followed by those reporting to him and thus offer a baseline of action. Moreover, making one’s juniors learn that they can report anything to their leader helps in establishing openness and trust that goes a long way in creating good rapport that is key in the team playing. Notwithstanding, the first question also allows one to scrutinize his reports and remove any aspects of unethicalness. That way, a leader can only let his juniors to inform him when his reports contain unethical things. That thus presents the leader as a human who is concerned merely with virtues but who does not pretend to be perfect and irreproachable.

Question 1B

In the same token answering the first question also helps a leader to lead as an example as he shows his juniors how ethical reports ought to be. The second question on the other hand asking the second question, that whether a leader provides enough guidelines and training to the juniors on ethical decision making and reporting helps a leader to realize any weaknesses in the process of developing a system of ethics. As such, is the answer to this question is yes, the leader thus rests sure that he has set the basics by providing his juniors with the necessary skills that they need to act ethically. In other words, a yes answer to this question means that the leader has capacitated his juniors adequately to deliver what is required of them. Lastly, the question whether a leader has been able to appropriately rewards ethical juniors as well as punishes the unethical staff helps one realize whether he or she is providing the right consequences of one’s actions that ensure that he or she will not repeat an offense or one will maintain his or her good course. Such depicts to the juniors how serious a leader is and thus force them to comply as consequences to one’s actions are sure.

Question 1C

The blog that Robert received regarding their Bangladesh suppliers may end up affecting the Green Move success. That is more so while appreciating that a blog may readily go viral during the internet age. Moreover, the fact that the blog comes from an unknown individual who purports to be concerned with the state of the Bangladesh based company means that the Green Move is at a high threat of ‘cyber bullying’ that may end up tarnishing the company’s image.

Question 2A

Viktor ought not to heed to the bribe demands made by the Russian manager as that will tint the company’s. Moreover, the fact that the option of subscribing to the bribe requirement is unethical also explains why Viktor should even stop pursuing the Russian opportunity. Moreover, the provision of the Triple Bottom Line approach that many ‘green’ companies necessitates that a firm considers the three major Ps that include people and the planet, beyond the profits to be realized meaning that the Green Move should not compromise its values by giving bribe to receive profits in return. However, if in case the firm is to enter the Russian market, Viktor should try hard not to be through bribing of influential individuals. As such, the Green Move ought to only provide one envelop that is to contain the legal tendering fee. Moreover, the Green Move company’s appreciation that it has both legal and ethical obligations of fighting corruption means that they would rather fail to continue seeking the corrupt deal in Russia and instead look for an alternative expansion place in another fair nation.

Question 2B

It is clear that the Green Move is in a dilemma considering its different initiatives that can well be met by expanding to the Russian market. To begin with, it is Viktor’s wish for the company to operate in Russia to be able to provide employment opportunity to the scores of the unemployed youths in the nation. Moreover, expanding to Russia will also help the firm increase its investment volume and thus their profits. Moreover, taking the Green technology to Russia where it hardly exists will further help the group of investors spread the excellent environmental conservation initiative that forms the main objective of the entity. Notwithstanding, going into Russia will furthermore assist Green Move to utilize essential resources in the nation. However, the realization that the Russian market if full of corruption and not easily accessible to ethical businesses serves as the main drawback for the organization. As such, being a Green entity, the firm has strict principles that govern its operations, and which precede any projected monetary profits. That way, the Green Movement should not go to Russia but instead look for another nation where it can operate in accordance with its primary objectives.

Question 3

Businesses are like individuals and must relate well to humans for success. As such, the bid to bring people on board has forced businesses to always think about their clients as well as the communities surrounding them. With this regard, such consideration of the surrounding communities and clients has led to the development of the so-called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), one of the most crucial aspects of business. Consequently, Corporate Social Responsibility refers to responsibilities that exceed both legal and economic obligations, but which entities undertake to contribute to the society positively. In this respect, it is worthwhile appreciating that firms with excellent CSR initiatives always win big in the business world, hence assuring their survival and development. Moreover, there are different reasons as to why such organizations proceed past those that are less concerned with corporate social responsibilities. These include strategic advantages, ethical benefits, as well as pragmatic advantages. As such, businesses with excellent CSR initiative can adequately establish shared values with the surrounding communities who then become true stakeholders who treat the firm as their own. That thus allows the community within which the business is established to support it in all its initiatives, more so those regarding product development and profit realization. That is more so when appreciating that enterprises are opened for people, and thus it is these people who determine the entities’ survival and success. Having ready and supportive customers, suppliers, and the rest of stakeholders thus ensures that business is doing good by offering the required support for growth.

Equally important, corporate social responsibilities ensure that organizations can solve public challenges despite unassured returns. That way, community members can see and appreciate the organization’s initiative and then react by becoming more loyal to the entity hence leading an assured growth and development. In the same token, corporate responsibilities promote societal progress which in turn support business prosperity. For instance, a pharmaceutical company set in a remote area can educate the community to the level of acquiring excellent researcher and workers who help it advance. Notwithstanding, corporate responsibilities sensitive entities can promote their publicity by appearing more ethical to the community members and thus attracting as well as managing them more leading to business success. An excellent example of entities running CSR initiatives is the Merk & Co. pharmaceutical that treasures customer needs beyond profits. As a result, the business has managed to expand speedily and remain competitive in the highly competitive industry. With this regard, Merk & Co. exercises both the Triple Bottom Line and Stakeholder perspective initiatives of Corporate Social Responsibility. Consequently, the first approach allows the firm to appreciate three primary Ps, that is the planet, people, and profit, while conducting business. On the other hand, the second approach ensures that the firm incorporates views from all stakeholders in its operations hence giving it the competitive power. That way, Merk & Co. thus has an ethical responsibility of developing the expensive anti-River Blindness drug despite the fact that its clients are majorly based in developing nations as that will help in selling the company’s other brands to the international market.

Question 4

A business that hardly appreciates its stakeholders can be said to be digging its own grave. That is because stakeholders define the survival of a firm by determining many factors that affect a business. As such, stakeholders can be described as parties having interests or rights in an entity. These include employees, consumers, investors, neighboring communities, the government, and many other parties that can affect as well as be affected by the entity’s operations. With this regard, though all stakeholders have a significant effect on an entity, both the employees and consumers seem to play a more critical role in an entity’s success and deserve more sensitivity when being handled. For instance, it is employees who define the daily progress of business by performing essential tasks that the company has specialized in. Taking the example of a manufacturing enterprise, the failure by employees to produce commodities to be sold means that a firm will not be able to operate. Moreover, a company must also ensure that it hires employees with the right skills to achieve set goals as the failure to that means that the entity will not be able to grow. On the other hand, consumers play a significant role in that they are the chief financiers of a business’s operations and projects. With this regard, it is the rate of sales that determine an enterprise’s volume of production as any overproduction will lead to an excessive supply of the products in the market hence leading to losses due to lack of low purchase. However, the fact that there are ways of managing these crucial stakeholders makes the whole process manageable. In this respect, a company’s CEO can adequately manage a firm’s employees by treating them well. Such treatment includes remunerating them well, motivating them, establishing healthy personal connections with the employees, as well as taking care of all their concerns. Most importantly, a CEO can promote employees’ experience by treating them ethically and empathetically. Regarding consumers, a company’s COE can ensure good consumer experience through the utilization of the Due Care Theory guidelines. These include ensuring that the firm designs safe products comply government regulations, utilizes durable material that guarantees durability of the end products, as well as produces defects fewer commodities. Moreover, consumers’ experience can further be promoted by ensuring that products taken to them are of high quality and are also packaged and labeled safely. As well, establishing effective recalling procedures that ensure consumers do not use harmful products is also vital in developing good relations between the firm and its clients.

Question 5

Establishing a code of conduct that governs the interactions of different parties in an entity, as well as operations, serves as the first step in promoting ethicalness. As such, various organizations seem to have realized such long time ago and thus established adequate codes. These include international institutions such as the UN and many others that involve parties from all over the world, and whose failure of building code of conduct would lead to profound challenges. As such, this work feels that the most important core values to be included in any code of conduct include honesty, fiduciary, fairness, integrity, citizenship, transparency, responsibility, responsiveness, and dignity. With this regard, honesty helps stakeholders to adhere to the other set of codes by remaining true to self. Moreover, honesty further enables business leaders to adhere to the rules and regulations set by safety bodies as well as the government hence ensuring the delivery of safe products to the public. Notwithstanding, fiduciary promotes trust between the various stakeholders of an entity. That way, each party is required by the value of fiduciary to act within set boundaries that ensure their endeavors can be accepted by the other agencies. Integrity, on the other hand, requires people develop upright traits that are not only intended to comply with set laws but which can as well control one’s activities in the absence of regulations. Such is key in the business world where agencies overseeing compliance with different laws act in a reactive manner that exposes consumers and employees to high threats of misconduct in case an organization lacking integrity chooses to exploit its stakeholders. Fairness, on the other hand, ensures that firms, and more so multinational corporations, treat their employees and other stakeholders equally without any form of discrimination. That is similar to the value of citizenship that requires individuals from different nations to co-exist freely while tolerating each other’s differences. Transparency, responsibility, responsiveness, and dignity, on the other hand, require individuals working in a given entity to be through with each other with every member taking responsibility for his or her actions. Lastly, the value of responsiveness requires administrators and any other leader, as well as the entire entity to act speedily on issues concerning stakeholders. Consequently, the observation of these values, as well as other enshrined in other organizations’ code of conduct is key in establishing a healthy relationship that guarantees success.