Sustainability and Ethics - Essay Example

 Sustainability and Ethics Civil Societies As Brown (2008) points out, civil societies play a big role in regulating the business environment. With their power and influence, they are able to force businesses to operate in a responsible manner especially with social responsibility of the business. However, while these organisations should be applauded, it is also important to comprehend that there is a possibility for them to involve themselves in unethical actions. It is good to understand there could be areas or situations where their contribution to the business environment may be interfered with by the some issues. Ethics can play a very big and important role in the way these civil societies operate and how they are able to contribute to the regulations of the business environment. There are for instance two specific areas where ethics can play a big role. For instance, civil societies are non-profit organisations, and they do not have revenue streams of their own. Because of this, it may be possible for some of these organisations to compromise their values in the attempt to get funding. Most of these organisations get their funding from the same businesses that they are supposed to monitor and regulate. This avails a conflict as it is not easy for such an organisation to be able to be firm in its decision about its funders. The fact that these organisations depend on businesses for funding makes them toothless dogs that cannot bite anyone and they may only be there as ceremonial organisations. This can be increasingly so if the people mandated to run these organisations are not competent in matters involving how to create an environment that does not lead to the civil societies to be powerless against the businesses. Funding by the businesses may at the same time mean that businesses may be bought out by the organisation (Bernard, 1998). These civil society organisations are most likely to be compromised if one organisation contributes a significant amount of money in the organisation. In this kind of a scenario, the civil society organisation being given the funding by the organisation may not only be unable to admonish the organisation but could be used by the business to target and harass other organisations. Competition among themselves The very issue of fuddling may also lead to the civil society organisations competing with each other for funding and therefore render it impossible for the civil society organisations to work in concert to have creative and constrictive regulation of the business environment. Given the fact that these organisation can be manipulated by the very businesses they are supposed to regulate, it becomes clear that they may not work for the good of the public but may seek the good of the individual people running them. In this kind of scenario, it can be said that their value to the society is not only reduced but that they are actually harmful to the very public they are supposed to protect. However, it cannot be assumed that all civil societies are easily manipulated by private business through funding. Some of them are well managed and are able to retain their authority and are run with integrity. These few civil society organisations are most likely to be helpful to the public and help in protecting the public from other organisations that may be unethical in the way they operate. 2: Sustainability definitions and implications There are a number of issues that affect the way a business is run. Sustainability has become a major beacon in the development of business strategies and it is important for any business manager to be able to know what business sustainability is in order to carefully and effectively include it in the business model and ensure that the business has a good sustainability plan (Brockett and Rezaee, 2012). However, the challenge to its is that there are various definitions of sustainability, and although they are all similar, they all defer from each other in at least one critical way. Definitions Definition 1 Sustainability is the long term strategy that helps a business to achieve the three bottom line factors such as profits, people, and the environment (Galea, 2004). There are a number of issues that emerge from this definition of business sustainability. To begin with, although it considers the three major pillars of sustainability, it focuses on the wrong aspects of sustainability. Sustainability for instance is not just about making the business to be successful but should be taken as a way to make sure that the business is not involving itself in unsustainable operations. Many mangers may misunderstand sustainability as cantered towards helping the business. However, while there is nothing wrong with this, this is the wrong understanding of sustainability. For instance, it should not be misunderstood that sustainability is the way to help the business to be successful, rather, sustainability is the responsibility of an organisation to do its business in a manner that it does not tamper with the environmental and social order. In the long run however, it is important to note that when a business does this, it helps to increase its chances of future survival. Definition 2 Sustainability is the resilience of a business to be able to endure economic, environmental and social forces and emerge successful in the end. This definition also gives a proper glimpse of sustainability of the business. In the long run, sustainability strategy should help a business to be able to survive in the long term. This delimitation of sustainability, just like the first one, fails as to fully capture the essence of sustainability. For this reason, it fails to be the best definitions of sustainability that a business should model its strategy. Definition 3 A long term growth strategy that encompasses future profits growth by taking care of the environmental and social issues and incorporation them into the business strategy. This is probably best definition of sustainability. Not only does this definition consider the three pillars of sustainability which is corporate growth, people issues and environmental issues. This definition of sustainability creates an awareness that shows that sustainability is about business models that do not interfere with the social and environmental order. It stresses the need to understand that sustainability is about having a business model that improves the society and promotes environmental resources. The importance of this understanding is that it separates itself from the internal business strategy and understands that sustainability is a collaborative effort that requires all business to participate in order for each to reap the benefits. Reference list: Bernard, A. (1998). Civil society and international development. London: OECD Publishing. Brockett, A. a. (2012). Corporate Sustainability: Integrating Performance and Reporting. Boston, MA: John Wiley & Sons. Brown, L. (2008). Creating credibility: legitimacy and accountability for transnational civil society. Sterling, VG: Kumarian Press. Galea, C. (2004). Teaching Business Sustainability: From Theory to Practice. Austin, TX: Greenleaf Publishing. Read More