Business Questions: Privacy Issues and Effective Ethics Code - Assignment Example

Business Questions How effectively Wal-Mart addresses its stakeholders various interests? (Market and nonmarket stakeholders) Wal-Mart stakeholders can be classified into two groups; market and nonmarket stakeholders. Market stakeholders are The Stockholders, The Wal-Mart Executives, The Employees, The Communities where Wal-Mart is located, Consumers etc whereas the International Retail Stores, Labor Unions, the Politicians etc are the nonmarket stakeholders (Hayden et al, 2002). Wal-Mart pays a substantial amount of dividends to safeguard the interest of the stockholders whereas the executives and employees get a reasonable salary and other benefits from Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart offers jobs to the local people in order to safeguard the interests of the community in which it operates and it offers the consumers good quality products on cheaper rates. Wal-Mart is not interested in their workers getting unionized as they feel that even without unions, the interests of the employees are conserved in Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has opened many stores in international retail market and the politicians get a substantial funding from Wal-Mart for their election campaigns. Privacy issues for corporations today Current Corporations are facing lot of privacy issues today. The increased influence of computers in corporate matters and the human element required to store and retrieve corporate data made the privacy of corporations vulnerable. Because of the networked computer connections, most of the employees of a corporation are free to access even sensitive information. Corporations make every effort to conserve their sensitive data with the help of firewalls created around the sensitive data. Even then the absolute security of data cannot be guaranteed. Both the employee data and the corporate data are equally vulnerable for misuse. If the corporations get private data of the employees, they can use it for determining future approach to the employees whereas the employees can misuse the corporate data by providing the competitors the valuable information about the corporation’s future business policies. Is it businesses’ duty to help those in extreme need, such as victims of Hurricane Katrina, or is this the job of governments and individuals? How far should a company go to assist the community, their employees, and others affected by a natural disaster? Business does not have direct responsibility to help the victims of natural disasters like hurricane Katrina. It is the duty of the government and the individual to help the victims of disasters. At the same time, it is difficult for business to neglect the needs of the community in which it operates. In other words, corporate social responsibility is accepted as a major business function by most of the reputed companies. No community may like a company which stays idle when the community faces a trouble or problem. Business grows with the help of the communities and it is morally wrong for the business to provide at least a small percentage of their profit for the community wellbeing. In responding to problems in its contractor factories, do you see the Gap moving through all five stages of corporate citizenship? Why, or why not? GAP monitors all approved garment factories at least once in a 12-month period in order to ensure that neither of the factories violates their norms of corporate citizenship. Problems identified in the factories were quickly resolved with the help of the factory management. GAP representatives stay with the factory in which they identified the problems, till the problems were rectified completely. Violations of labor laws with respect to child labor, health and safety laws etc will be dealt seriously and around 136 factory licenses were cancelled in 2003 because of the violations of the norms set by GAP. Correct payment of the wages, voluntary overtime, at least one day off in a weak, prohibition of abuse at the workplace, protection of worker’s rights etc were some other major functions undertaken by GAP in their factories as part of their corporate citizenship. In short, GAP strictly observes all the stages of corporate citizenship in its factories (GAP inc. Social responsibility report, n. d, p.10). What constitutes ethics and how can generally accepted ethical theories assist you in making ethical decisions? Ethics is not a system of laws. But good system of laws incorporates ethical considerations. It is impossible for the humankind to lead an isolated life. Man is a social animal who needs the company of others for better living. In order to live in the company of others, man needs to follow certain moral laws which are the basics of ethics. There are many ethical theories like utilitarianism, Kantian theory, Virtue theory etc all tries to answer the questions “What ought I do and How ought I live?” (Ethical theories,2010). These theories even though differ in its principles, the intentions are the same; the betterment of human life. Virtue theory analyses an action based on virtue or reason whereas utilitarianism evaluate an action based on utility. Kantianism emphasizes more on religious values. All these theories are one way or other useful for human life. What makes an effective ethics code and program? Institute of business ethics proposed eight steps for preparing an effective ethics code and practice which are; “Getting endorsement from the Board, Find a champion leader, Understand the purpose of corporate social responsibility, Find out what bothers people, Be familiar with external standards and good practice, Monitoring and assurance, Try it out first and review the code or program developed” (Institute of business ethics, 2008). The process of formulating an effective ethical code or program is important for the implementation of healthy business behavior. No organization can sustain their activities for a longer period if it fails to do something for the community in which it operates. Community support is important for an organization for developing suitable business strategies for the future. Pros and cons “Globalization.” What do you think about it, and why? Make sure you address the opposite views and explain why you do not buy into them or why they do not matter. Globalization, when it first appears in the horizon, was watched suspiciously by the communist countries and the poor countries. China like communist countries thought that globalization is a strategy adopted by the capitalist countries to steal the resources of other countries. But for the time being, China is the number one exploiter of globalization which shows that the many of the concerns raised about globalization were not correct. At the same time, poor countries failed to develop properly even though globalization aimed at the mobilization of the resources of the poor countries. This is because of the fact that poor countries don’t have enough resources or infrastructure to utilize globalization. Which political strategies would you recommend Engskov pursue to enhance Starbucks’ likelihood of success? Why? Political support is essential for Starbucks to succeed in their future endeavors. Currently different states in United States have different local laws which cause big concerns to Starbuck’s future growth prospects. For example, “the lawsuits entitled Carr vs. Starbucks and Sheilds vs. Starbucks are challenging the status of Starbucks California store managers and assistant managers as exempt employees under California wage and hour laws”(Kembel et al, 2002). Even though the company denied all the charges, it agreed to the settlement put forward by the plaintiffs in order to settle the issues quickly. Political support is necessary for Starbucks to make laws favorable to their interests. As Starbucks import coffee beans from other countries, import laws can also cause problems to them which can be solved with political support alone. What is your stand on global warming and why? Global warming is not a scam, it is a reality. The atmospheric temperature is gradually increasing because of the injudicious activities of human. In my opinion, the world cannot survive for a longer period if it fails to address the problems caused by global warming. Global warming causes problems to all living things including animals, humans and plants or vegetation. Increase in atmospheric temperature causes the melting of huge deposits of snow at the Polar Regions and subsequently sea level may rise, which may sink many coastal cities and islands. So in my opinion, we must take every possible action to protect our environment. We must stay away from activities which can damage the environment. Do you think it is necessary for science to prove this before action is taken by US firms or do you believe there are other reasons to join the effort to convert from fossil fuel usage to another type? Fossil fuels are a non-renewable energy source. Considering the huge energy requirements we are facing at present, it is not wise to rely heavily on a non-renewable energy source for our present and future energy requirements. We must develop new technologies to capitalize the huge renewable energy sources available in the universe. For example, major share of solar energy is wasted because of the lack of technology available to utilize it for productive sector. Same way tidal energy and wind energy are also not exploited adequately even though we are facing severe energy crisis at present. In short, fossil fuels will be exhausted one day and it is better to prepare substitute options now. What do you believe needs to be done with regard to executive compensation in America? Why do you think that? How would you convince someone who thinks otherwise? Top executives in America are currently getting huge amounts as their salaries even though the business climate is not so good. Even amidst the unfavorable business conditions, the top executives are still enjoying the luxury of huge remuneration even though the ordinary workers have their salaries cut down drastically. It is unfair to punish the workers alone when the business shows negative results. In fact the top executives are the one who are taking core decisions in an organization. In most of the cases, poor executive decision cause problem to the organizations. It is ethically wrong to punish the workers for the faults of the top executives. In short, top executives should cut down their salaries when an organization faces troubles. When is corporate philanthropy necessary for you to consider a company as acting in terms of CSR? “Corporate philanthropy refers to the giving by a for-profit company directly to charitable organizations from the corporation or to individuals in need with the intention of improving the quality of life” (Corporate philanthropy, 2010). When organization grows enormously, it is their responsibility to share a small profit percentage for charity purpose. Government alone cannot solve all the social injustices and the problems. Corporations, irrespective of private or public, have moral responsibility to serve a community which is exploited by them for making profits. For example, the soft drink manufacturers like Pepsi and Coke are exploiting huge amounts of underwater resources of the community in which it operates. In other words the underwater resources belonging to a community is exploited by Coke and Pepsi and hence has the moral responsibility to pay something back to the community. References 1. Corporate philanthropy (2010). Retrieved from http://www.creatingloyalty.com/story.cfm?article_id=775 2. Ethical theories.(2010). Retrieved from http://www.medindia.net/education/familymedicine/biomedical-ethics-theories.htm 3. GAP inc. Social responsibility report, (n. d). Retrieved from http://www.gapinc.com/public/documents/CSR_Report_03.pdf 4. Hayden, P., Lee, S., McMahon, K. and Pereira M. (2002). Wal-Mart: Staying on Top of the Fortune 500. Retrieved from http://mike-pereira.com/subpage/docs/walmartcs.htm#ivsteakholder 5. Institute of business ethics (2008). Developing an effective code of ethics: process. Retrieved from http://www.ibe.org.uk/codesofethics/codes2.html 6. Kembel B, Hawks M, Kembel S, Perry L and Olsen L (2002). Catching the Starbucks Fever. Retrieved from http://www.academicmind.com/unpublishedpapers/business/marketing/2002-04-000aag-catching-the-starbucks-fever.html Read More