Ethics in Workplace Relationships: Case of Marks and Spencer and Shell - Essay Example

A Moral Agent is defined as an individual or a living entity that endeavours to operate based on evaluating the right and wrong behaviours. Thus the Moral Agent is held accountable in terms of the decisions or behaviours generated relating to a specific issue or case. The moral agent thus acts as an Ombudsman that has specific rights and responsibilities and also reflects essential powers in helping individuals take on the correct choices and decisions relating to day-to-day conducts. The idea of Moral Agency thus confers the rights on a moral agent to act in an ethical and moral fashion such that the moral agent comes to be identified as being accountable or responsible for the decisions generated. Thus moral agent is an entity or individual that both has rights to conduct duties and generate decisions and thereby is held accountable or can necessarily be blamed or appreciated for the conducts displayed. Further a moral agent apart from being a living creature is also identified to be an entity that is ruled by the power of consciousness that helps in taking of reasoned decisions involving rationale and justification based on set moral standards and value sets. The above potential thus helps the moral agent to rightly evaluate potential alternatives before taking on a concerted decision (Erhard, 2012). Some potential examples of moral agents are like the Clergy in a Church, custodian of Law and legislative systems in different regions, parents of children and also like the business or organizational leaders (Ronnegard, 2007). Marks and Spencer as Moral Agent Marks and Spencer, a retailer based in United Kingdom is identified as a moral agent such that the management of the organization constituted by rationalistic and responsible people is identified to work for the betterment of the social and environmental good. Operating in an ethical fashion, Marks and Spencer reflects effective responsibility in protecting the existing social and environmental structure thereby helping in adding value to the customers. Products and branding initiatives taken by the company are observed to be tested over time to reflect on its usability in enhancing the social and environmental good for the citizens (Weinstein, 2006). Launching of campaigns like Plan A Campaign generated during 2007 reflect greater accountability and responsibility of the company in serving its customers in a moral and ethical fashion. Similarly the brand slogans carried out by the company from time-to-time like ‘Look Behind the Label’, ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ reflect on the generation of social awareness among the consumers to lead a healthy life. Similarly another slogan generated by Marks and Spencer that encourage customers to donate their old clothes for a reward of GBP 5 is also observed to help contribute in the growth of social betterment in the region (Bouckaert and Zsolnai, 2011). Employee Involvement and Empowerment The concept of employee involvement is observed to be broader concept that is narrowed down to empowering people in taking key organizational decisions. Employee involvement activities tend to vary from organization to organization such that in some it reflects on the encouragement of participation or involvement of employees in managerial decision making activities. In some cases the employee involvement activities are undertaken as an effective collaborative mechanism that has emerged relating to the agreement between the trade union bodies and the management. Though effective collaboration or involvement of employees relating to different organizational departments and levels the management aims at resolving of disputes gained with the trade union bodies. Similarly in other cases the management of the organization aims in involving employees to take effective decisions to enhance the parameter of product quality and business productivity. Involvement and empowerment of employees within an organization tends to gain greater impetus through delegation of power, sharing of knowledge and expertise and also through helping and encouraging employees to act based on the right quality of information and also in generating apt rewards. Provision of the above parameters in effective amounts is taken to help contribute in the enhancement of productivity of the people in the organization and thus help in the development of quality of work life in the organization (Cummings and Worley, 2014). Employee involvement and participation is taken to encourage the employees in effectively conducting their tasks entrusted to them by the management. Employee participation is generated in times when employees are encouraged to generate voices about the decisions taken in the workplace while empowerment of employees in generating solutions to potential problems and also in taking quality decisions based on authority and responsibility delegated to them (Griffin and Moorhead, 2013). Employee Involvement in Marks and Spencer The management of Marks and Spencer aims in generating employee involvement through effectively sharing of information along different organizational levels in the form of generating internal memos like newsletters and also through the use of internet mediums like electronic mails, intranet mediums and also generation of blogs. Generation of information on the above accord contributes in encouraging the employees to work in a productive and collaborative fashion to help in the meeting of the stated objectives. In addition to the generation of videos in the intranet mediums reflecting information pertaining to best practices the management body also aims in generation of stated incentives to help in encouraging the employees to work in a productive fashion. Generation of effective incentives financial or non-financial is taken to help in enhancing the level of commitment and responsibility of the employees to work in a productive fashion in meeting of business objectives. The incentive plan of Marks and Spencer focuses on the identification of champions in the organization that contribute in the enhancement of quality of work life in the organization through helping in energy efficiency and reduction of wastage in the different units. Champions are also identified as such that enhance team productivity in terms of sharing of potential ideas and thoughts (Murray and Barthel, 2013). Shell Introduction About Shell Shell operates as a global conglomerate of energy and petrochemical companies that operate based on a large number of employee groups of around 92,000 people operating in around 70 different nations. The company works based on the use of innovative approach to help generate effective energy solutions for the future. Shell focuses on the generation of sustainable energy resources and also strategizes to enhance its leadership potential in the global oil and gas industry. The company aims to generate effective returns to shareholders through working in the enhancement of profitability and productivity. It also aims in the meeting of energy demands in the global context in a highly responsible fashion. Shell that started its operation around 200 years ago currently operates as a global market leader in the energy industry (Shell Global , n.d.). Recent Scam in Shell In recent times, the performance of the global energy conglomerate, Shell is taken to be largely affected owing to the payment of bribe by the Nigerian unit of Shell to a Swiss Freight Company like the Panalpina World Transport Holding Limited. This rise of the bribery event in Shell is reflected to generate a corrupted work culture in the organization. As a mark of corrupted work culture it is observed that the employees of Shell working in Nigeria requested the employees of Panalpina to generate false and erroneous invoices relating to the different items such that the same would contribute in masking the bribes paid by the Nigerian Shell employees. The total amount of bribes paid by Shell to Panalpina Nigeria is estimated to amount to around $2 million to help in concealing the nature of the transactions conducted from the auditors. The emergence of the bribery scam is observed to potentially impact the operations of Shell in Nigeria that required the company to not only change people employed in senior management positions in Nigeria and settlement of the corruption but also required the company to wind up its Nigerian wing by the end of 2007. The above issue thus not only affected the international operations of Shell but also tarnished the international image of the company as being an ethically responsible organization (Voreacos and Calkins, 2010). Similarly the issue of bribes that rocked the operations of the Shell in Nigeria is also observed to largely deter the investors from making any potential investments. Owing to the issue of bribery and scam, Shell was required to pull out from Nigeria which in turn affected its competitive position in the international markets (Global Witness, 2014). Objectives of Shell The performance and operational objectives of Shell is to encourage the growth of engagements through generating integration of different types of companies relating to oil, gas, chemicals and also of other companies pertaining to oil products such that they work in a collaborative fashion to help in conducting research and development activities and also in the meeting of the needs of its customers on a global scale relating to demands of energy resources. Extraction of the oil and gas products would be conducted by the company in a responsible fashion such that the same contributes in meeting the social and environmental objectives. The company also focuses on operating in an integral and ethical fashion such that the same contributes in generation of effective performance to help develop effective relationship with its potential stakeholders like customers, employees, policy makers and regulatory parties (Shell , n.d.-a). Current Employer-Employee Relationship The current employer-employee relationship of Shell reflects that the company operates based on contractual employment policies where workers or employees are recruited and employed for contractual periods to help in the meeting of stated project objectives. The current employer-employee relationships also reflect of unfavourable wage and employment conditions generated for the employees which in turn generate considerable dispute (Lombos et al., 2014). Improvement of Ethics in Shell Shell is observed to encourage in the growth of whistle blowing activities by encouraging the people to whistle blow any type of potential issues in a confidential and secretive manner by generating the information to a potential website of the company. The company in addition to generation of a potential website is also observed to generate a 24 hour helpline encouraging the people to generate potential information about issues faced by them relating to the business operations in Shell (Royal Dutch Shell plc.com, 2006). Shell is observed to promote the growth of regulatory practices and legislative standards such that it encourages the staffs to gain effective training from courses taught in the European Universities. Attending such courses is taken to contribute in the expertise and efficiency of the people in generation of regulations and codes of conduct (Royal Dutch Shell plc.com, 2006). Code of Conduct of Shell The Code of Conduct of Shell contributes in guiding the employees to operate in an environment of considerable integrity and honesty that contributes in generating value to the employees and the customers. The Code of Conduct of Shell contributes in the providing guidance to the corporation to help in meeting of rules and regulations in fulfilling its performance and business objectives. Similarly it also focuses on generation of code of ethics to help in integrating the activities of different stakeholders like customers, employees and other social communities. Similarly the Code of Conduct of the company also contributes in generation of Health and Safety standards and also in countering the rise of corruptive practices (Shell , n.d.-c ). Suggested Code of Conduct The suggested code of conduct for Shell needs to embrace the following objectives. The company is required to effectively train, educate and empower individual workers to generate needed productivity. The company is required to reflect needed diversity through employing and respecting people pertaining to different age, nationality and interest groups. The company management is also required to interact potentially with its supplier communities. The organization is also required to generate a safer work environment for the people to thrive and excel. The operations of the organization are required to be carried out to help in meeting of environmental and social objectives and also in generating equal opportunity for growth. Reference List Bouckaert, L. and Zsolnai, L., 2011. The Palgrave Handbook of Spirituality and Business. United Kingdom : Palgrave Macmillan. Cummings, T. and Worley, C., 2014. Organization Development and Change. United States : Cengage Learning. Erhard, N., 2012. Moral Habitat: Ethos and Agency for the Sake of Earth. United States : SUNY Press. Global Witness, 2014. Shell’s Nigeria investments at risk from corruption scandal, investors warned. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 11 September 2014]. Griffin, R. and Moorhead, G., 2013. Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. United States: CengageLearning. Lombos, D., Leberstein, S. and Mendez, E., 2014. The Shell Game of Contingent Employment. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 11 September 2014]. Murray, B. & Barthel, M., 2013. Engaging colleagues on product sustainability. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 11 September 2014]. Ronnegard, D., 2007. Corporate Moral Agency and the Role of the Corporation in Society. United States : Lulu.com. Royal Dutch Shell plc.com, 2006. Shell Whistleblowers Helpline (perhaps a bit late in the light of recent events). [Online] Available at: [Accessed 11 September 2014]. Shell Global , n.d. About Shell. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 11 September 2014]. Shell , n.d.. Shell Code of Conduct. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 11 September 2014]. Shell , n.d.-a Our purpose. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 11 September 2014]. Voreacos, D. and Calkins, L.B., 2010. Shell Bribes Among `Culture of Corruption, Panalpina Admits. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 11 September 2014]. Weinstein, D., 2006. Equal Freedom and Utility: Herbert Spencers Liberal Utilitarianism. United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press. Read More