Business Ethics - Company Scholastic - Research Paper Example

? Business Ethics Paper – Scholastic Corporation Contents Business Ethics Paper – Scholastic Corporation Contents 2 Scholastic Corporation 3 Does your organization have a published code of ethics? If so, how do they promote this code? 3 How would you classify your organization’s ethical orientation? 4 What is your organization’s social responsibility philosophy and how might it compare with other organizations in the same industry? 5 What factors have shaped your organization’s ethical orientation and social responsibility philosophy? 6 What roles have leaders played in forming and maintaining the social responsibility philosophy? 7 What is an example of an inconsistency? 8 How does the organization consider both the means and the ends? 8 How do generational differences affect the ethical climate in your organization? 9 What steps is your company taking for integrating a multigenerational workforce? 10 Reference 12 Scholastic Corporation Scholastic Corporation is a global publishing company which publishes books for educational purpose mainly for school, teachers and including parents. For about 90 years parents and teachers have recognized Scholastic as a trusted brand name in terms of learning. The company remains focused on providing and encouraging children to read as well as love to learn. Scholastic was founded in the year 1920 by Robinson and in the current fiscal has revenue amounting to $2billion and is recognized as the global leader in children’s brand and has distribution with more than 9500 employees globally (Scholastic, 2012). Does your organization have a published code of ethics? If so, how do they promote this code? The Scholastic has a published code of ethics for its employees. The Scholastic code of ethics is based on the company’s Credo and Editorial Platform which also sets the company’s belief of how the children, teachers and parents must be treated by the company. In order to carry out its beliefs the company requires the highest standard of integrity which is reflected in relationship among the employees and also with the suppliers, vendors and with the competitors. The reputation also depends upon the dedication of the employees and employers to maintain a high standard of behavior with the respective clients. Thus the code of ethics is designed in a manner to explain the conduct which is expected from each of the members of the organization as they are representatives of the company (Scholastic-a, 2010, p. 2). The Board of Directors of Scholastic has set a high standard for the employees, directors and officers. The philosophy is to have sound corporate governance and it’s the duty of the directors to act as a prudent fiduciary for the shareholders. To fulfill the company’s responsibilities and act accordingly, the Board of Directors follows a standard and the procedures which are set forth in the guidelines issued by the company (Scholastic, 2012). Scholastic promotes its code of ethics by applying it into practical life and the result can be determined as it’s the global leader in publishing books and the most trusted publishing company. Scholastic believes in dignity and worth of individual For example the company Scholastic, organizes thematic lessons in order to welcome students and to build a community. As a part of their code of ethics the company is trying to promote through creative lessons which are a perfect means to warm the skills required after summer vacation (Scholastic-b. 2012). How would you classify your organization’s ethical orientation? Ethics is classified under two broad headings which are termed as normative ethics, which means how principles, values and beliefs should be determined and descriptive ethics which includes beliefs, morals and principles which people abide by. Normative ethics refers to the norms and guidelines; it signifies an ideal behavior so that it can be termed as proper. This form of ethics tends to answers moral queries which concern the act of people and their behavior. The normative ethics helps in deciding the moral standard which aims to regulate the code of conduct. The normative ethics have been further classified into four schools of thoughts which include Utilitarian view of ethics, rights view of ethics, theory of justice view of ethics, integrative social contracts theory. The next type of ethical orientation is descriptive ethics. This type of ethics takes into consideration the behavior and the moral standards that the organizations tend to follow. Descriptive ethics helps to understand how a person makes moral choices in reality and also in assumption. They are also termed as comparative ethics (Ghuman, 2010, p.83). The Scholastic Corporation thus follows the ethical orientation under normative ethics. The reason is that Scholastic aims to determine the values, principles and beliefs. The company also aims to signify an ideal behavior and has issued a code of ethics to take into consideration about the factors. The company in order to sustain and keep earning the respect of the fellow employees, suppliers, vendors, shareholders tends to operate with its highest standard of ethicality and with accordance to laws and regulations. What is your organization’s social responsibility philosophy and how might it compare with other organizations in the same industry? Scholastic has been into business since past ninety years with one motive that all children should get the opportunity to become a strong reader along with lifelong learners. The company’s mission and credo is one of the guiding force in creating the corporate social responsibility and strategies. Scholastic aims to provide a meaningful and effective program which helps to create literacy and learning environments in schools, homes and also communities and also values collaboration with private, public and even nonprofit organization. Scholastic social responsibility includes equity in education, literacy and achievement gaps, long term disaster response and support of cultural and education and participation. Rebuilding for learning initiatives aims to build the capacity of the district and state leaders in order to develop a proactive system so that the company is able to address barriers in course of learning and teaching and to bring back students who became disengaged from classroom. This initiative provides professional development along with technical assistance. Scholastic’s read and rise is another social responsibility, it’s a systematic and sustainable literacy program which is designed to bring in the families, communities and schools together so to support literacy development of children and to celebrate the positive impact of culture and tradition. Since all of the organization perform social responsibility and its one of the essential part of their activities. Scholastic is known for its Corporate Social Responsibility and has won many awards for its CSR activities. It’s the company which has been able to stand ahead from its competitors not only in terms of its general activities abut also in its social responsibilities. Scholastic has won about 25 AEP awards for its outstanding educational resource, Golden Lamp Award, Beacon Award for Scholastic to name a few (Scholastic-c, n.d). The company is able to differentiate from other organization in the same industry is through its corporate social responsibility. Companies like Pearson are one of the biggest competitors for Scholastic Corporation. But it’s the only company which has won several awards and is the most trusted publishing company globally. What factors have shaped your organization’s ethical orientation and social responsibility philosophy? Scholastic is a company that has already taken up many steps to help the children read and continue learning in the future. The main reason for ethical orientation is, so that all the members can act in a similar way and provide trust to its members, shareholders and other bodies related to Scholastic Corporation. Scholastic aims to deliver respect for all the groups involved in the company’s multicultural society. In order to do fulfill its motive which is to help children globally to be able to read and learn. The company has issued some guidelines to be able to perform their motive effectively and also perform its social responsibility. The code of conduct is a reference tool to help the employees recognize and responds accordingly to certain issues that might take place in day to day performance. These are the main reason for Scholastic ethical orientation and philosophy of social responsibility. The company has issued certain guidelines for every section so that the employees could follow it and act accordingly. One of the major strength of Scholastic Corporation is its corporate social responsibility and by following the code of ethics the company is able to sustain in the competitive world. What roles have leaders played in forming and maintaining the social responsibility philosophy? The company was founded by Robbie Robinson who was the father of the current CEO and chairman, Richard Robinson. The founder of the company along with the present CEO plays a major role in the formation and maintaining the company’s social responsibility. These are the leaders who have initiated the program and today it has been able to achieve the topmost position in terms of its social responsibility. Richard Robinson the president of Scholastic since 1974 and CEO since 1975 has helped the company reach its goal and vision. Scholastic publishes books for the children with a motive that all the children should be able to read and continue the process of learning. Under the leadership of Robinson, the company has become the largest publisher and also the distributor of children’s book. The initiative taken by the leader has won many awards for its social responsibility as Scholastic under the guidance of Robinson was able to encourage and recognize the need in the field of literacy. Scholastic also sponsors few awards such as Art and Writing Awards, the Bilingual Teacher Award and the Early Childhood Professional Award. According to Robinson, the best organization tends to share a common understanding of the mission and the leaders are there to take away the obstacles so that the employees are able to fulfill the goal and the mission. It is important for a leader to look at the future and remind the employees about their goals. Along with Robinson, there are other leaders who have played an equal role in developing the social responsibility (Scholastic-d, 2012). The Board of Directors has worked together to form and maintain the social responsibility of the Scholastic Cooperation. Some of the initiatives taken up by the leaders include equity in education, support for cultural and civic education, literacy and achievement gaps and response towards disaster. All these initiatives were introduced with a motive to provide education to all the children across the globe. What is an example of an inconsistency? The company does the best act in order to deliver the best to all its members who put their trust on the company. The company has been a consistent performer since its inception and till date it has been recognized as the top publisher globally. Scholastic has issued in its guidelines that the committee is liable to correct any omission, any inconsistency that might be prevailing in the mode of operation. Thus it can be said that Scholastic has taken up plans to reduce the inconsistency. The only inconsistency that was found in one of the book of Scholastic was since the words in the respective books was written by hand thus there was some inconsistency in the spacing and shapes of the letter which would make some problem for the child to understand. This statement of inconsistency was stated by Amazon (Amazon, 2012). Apart from this inconsistency, the company did not have any drawbacks or inconsistency which would hamper the company’s performance and from doing its work. How does the organization consider both the means and the ends? It is essential for an organization to both the means which is the action and the sole purpose of the organization along with the ends that is to achieve something different from the main purpose. Organizations are often heralded as means which the organizations uses to reach a desired end. The motive can be to maintain a competitive edge against the company’s competitors, obtain a larger market share. Thus organizational learning is an effective means to reach organizational goals. Both means and ends are subject of learning which can result in redefining the goal of the organization. But it has been mentioned that redefining the end sometimes occurs as a side effect but it can also occur as one of the objective which could be helpful for organizational learning. It has been said that system which is operated by human beings is often jeopardy when members of an organization view themselves mainly responsible for means and leaving it for others to clearly determine the specific goal towards which the means are said to be enacted. Therefore, means and end are linked with each other and organizations continuously re-examine it. One of the dangers that organizational is subject to allowing means to become ends. The responsibility of the members is to be cognizant of the goal, the end which is served by their work and when the employees notices that the goals are questionable it becomes the responsibility of the members to engage themselves to challenge or question it (Dixon, 1998, p. 2). Similarly Scholastic Corporation considers both its means and ends in a positive way. The goal of the company is to make all the children read and learn on a continuous basis. The company so far did not shift its focus from its mission every step taken by the company is for the fulfillment of its mission and goal. Means and end are a source for the company to remain strategically fit in the competitive world. For example, in an interview when Robinson was asked about the challenge faced by the company in diversifying the company’s original goal and mission, Robinson commentated that just as people want same thing in their lives which is to improve their future and similar is the case with the company whose aim is to help children, teachers and families but on a different and broader scale (Scholastic-d, 2012). How do generational differences affect the ethical climate in your organization? Every organization is affected by generational difference which also affects the ethical climate of the organization. Since the attrition rate has increased and with a poor survey result the organizational structure is being affected as new employees are hired which has immensely gave rise to generational difference in the organization. With an increased number of Millenials who have already entered the work force and with the retirement of baby boomers often leads to an argument concerning the mission of the organization, new policies regarding work and executives role in the respective organization. Therefore, it is suggested that to maintain a work culture attention should be paid particularly to the issue of generational difference. Generational difference tends to affect the ethical climate of the organization (Cross, 2008, p.112). Generational difference tends to affect each and every organizational and so it has also affected Scholastic Corporation. A manger must be aware of the fact of diversity in the workplace. Diversity may include age and along with generational difference has gained notoriety with ageing workforce and other such issues. The baby boomers, Millenials and the Gen X always require something different from each other. Thus it is important to take into consideration the generational difference so that this issue does not affect the ethical work climate of the Scholastic Corporation. What steps is your company taking for integrating a multigenerational workforce? Multigenerational workforce is a common trend and has gained popularity in recent years. The multi generational workplace means many changes for those set f members who have been working and are content with the way they do or perform respective work. Change is often regarded as hard but it I also sometimes good if applied properly. It is one of the most significant changes in the 21st century. Multigenerational workforce may often lead to unwanted situation in the organization and due to difference members might not mix up properly. Scholastic Corporation has also has a multigenerational workforce and to keep it effective and motivated to work, the management follows some basic principles so that the generation gaps between the members are reduced and the members are able to work freely and with a friendly attitude which is an important factor in organizational workplace. As the Radio Babies approximately aged between 62 to 70 along with the Baby Boomers who belongs to the age group of 43 to 61 years tend to retire and the Gen X members cannot fulfill all the required work and fill up the gaps. Therefore, to increase interaction among the employees belonging to different age group, the management of Scholastic Corporation takes into consideration the following steps. Scholastic establishes relationship which pairs older workers with the younger ones and encourages them to meet on a yearly basis and discuss about the career goals which are set by the younger employees. Next the company creates focus groups which comprises of mixed generation to brainstorm ideas to achieve the company’s goal and mission. The project teams are made of age diversity along with diversity in factors such as race, level and also gender. Lastly the company conducts in house training for the elder workers concerning new technology and pairs them with younger employees who have a better knowledge and experience with new technologies (Business & Legal reports, Inc. 2009, p.22). Therefore, Scholastic undergoes these steps to integrate multigenerational workforce and has achieved the desired success and continuous to be the most popular publishing company for children. Reference Amazon. (2006). Bob Books, Set 1: Beginning Readers. Retrieved on January 25, 2012 from http://www.amazon.com/Bob-Books-Set-Beginning-Readers/dp/0439845009. Business & Legal report, Inc. (2009). Top 10 Best Practices in HR Management for 2009. Business & Legal Reports, Inc. Cross, R. E. (2008). Discovering how perception and experience influence executives when engaging employees: A grounded theory study. ProQuest. Dixon, N. M. (1998). The responsibilities of members in an organization that is learning. Retrieved on January 25, 2012 from http://www.commonknowledge.org/userimages/article_responsibilities_of_members.pdf. Ghuman, K. (2010). Management: Concepts, Practice & Cases. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Scholastic. (2012). About Scholastic. Retrieved on January 24, 2012 from http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/peoplehistory.htm. Scholastic-a. (2012). Code of Ethics. Retrieved on January 24, 2012 from http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ABEA28S6DN/1651240402x0x374249/09c5d56-bb90-443f-913a-764ac76b7f02/codeofethicsrevised0610.pdf. Scholastic-b. (2012). “Let's Get Acquainted!" Lesson Plans. Retrieved on January 24, 2012 from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/let39s-get-acquainted-lesson-plans. Scholastic-c. (No date). Media Room. Retrieved on January 25, 2012 from http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/node/467. Scholastic-d. (2012). Meet the Executives. Retrieved on January 25, 2012 from http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3747277. Read More