The Most Important Driver of Business Ethics or Profit - Essay Example

What should be the most important driver of business ethics (responsibility) or profit? Every business today is destined to earn itself a profit. In fact, this is the main reason why it is in existence. The business ethical domains are also significant but these are not seen within the same perspectives. The corporate social responsibility premise is being observed as a growing phenomenon which has received much attention and praise from a number of quarters yet it has not been received in a manner that it should have been. Hence corporate social responsibility along with making a profit stands out as some of the most pertinent drivers of business (Kline, 2005). The need is to understand which one takes more significance over the other, and this shall be detailed within the following paragraphs. As far as business undertakings are concerned, any business depends on quite a few factors so that its processes and activities are run in a proper way. When this happens, there is bound to be differentiating factors which must always be understood. Ethics might not bring in the profits but can surely build positive word of mouth regarding the business and the industry under which it exists. The need is to find out where anomalies exist and how these could be resolved to bring about sanity within the business regimes. The ethical understandings are hard to have but what receives most attention is the fact that it grows positively with the passage of time (Brotherton, 2000). The people start talking about the business in an optimistic fashion which is indeed a pragmatic sign for the related concerns. It builds upon the growth and development ranks for the business and helps it to shape up in a correct fashion. When corporate social responsibility is the buzzword, then many actions start happening in the forward direction and it helps the people within the organization to understand what the external actors (customers, stakeholders and similar individuals) feel and thus act upon. It is a good measurement tool whereby the negativities are kept at a distance and the good signs for the business are detailed in entirety. It allows the people to find out where shortcomings arise and how these should be dealt with. When the consideration is on profit, then there are other important matters on how to have a business turn into a successful area. If the profits are drafted in such a way that there are only positives to be had, then perhaps these could be merged together alongside the corporate social responsibility debate. It will cater to the issues and matters which believe in taking the organization forward (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2008). It will also pertain to the important areas which were left unexplored in the past but now require more care and consideration. Hence it is an understanding that looks at the environment surrounding the business more than anything else, which indeed is a step in the right direction. Whenever a business is going through a difficult time, it is always to choose the corporate social responsibility angle because it ensures that the business is geared to achieve its results and move ahead at full speed, without much fuss. The difficult times call for drastic actions on the part of the people who matter the most within an organizational setting. These include the top management hierarchies who would go to any level to guarantee that the business is running smoothly and without too many issues at its end. It will also be the cornerstone of making a profit and having a good opinion about its existence, where the latter rests solely on the shoulders of the corporate social responsibility paradigm. It will save the business from a quick death yet the process will continue to bring in the much needed changes and alterations (Sims, 2003). It is a well-known fact that the corporate social responsibility domains shall always bank upon issues which are inclusive of the business though not being directly attached with it in one way or the other. The need is to discern how the business shall attain an advantage with the linkage available for the players who fall outside the line of business. Indeed the environment gets the benefit out of the related equations which speaks well for the business quite often. When such issues take place, it is always a good idea to get back to the drawing board and measures the shortfalls alongside the positives that can be drawn. How the top management concerns within the organizations see corporate social responsibility is another perspective. It is because corporate social responsibility aims to find the solutions to the business in the wake of its growing support as well as preparing for the bad times ahead. It is always a good idea to have a proactive approach towards the negativities that might encircle the business in one way or the other. The top management ranks are prepared to combat the difficulties and this is the reason why they always find a way or the other to make sure that the corporate social responsibility realms are managed in an effective and efficient way (Hawkins, 2006). This is the basis of knowing where the business can gain an edge and where it might just fall short of the expected count. The need is to comprehend how success comes about, and how this success can be translated into something substantial – coming directly from the ranks of corporate social responsibility. The top management must also make sure that their priorities are set in a proper way. What this implies for is the fact that profits must not take the precedence over the corporate social responsibility angle. The corporate social responsibility avenues must be given essence as they understand how the business will carry its own ship and hold fort in the wake of difficult times and even under normal circumstances on a regular basis. The ethical debates in the present times seem like a very normal thing especially with the ever-increasing competition. Nearly all businesses are bent upon making a profit in one way or the other, and there just does not seem any sense to ask them to do any different. However, if one such perspective is issued, it has a definitive purpose behind it. When such discussions are held, the premise of corporate social responsibility or business ethics goes away (Siegel, 2006). This is understandable since businesses have to bring the cash aspect back to their folds. They want to make profits so that their business entireties could be deemed as appropriate and also the fact that they have to pay out salaries of the employees as well as the middlemen involved at different levels. This indeed is a huge ballgame for carrying out many tasks under the auspices of the business domains that one is talking about here. The need is to know where the line must be drawn – between corporate social responsibility and making profits (Velasquez, 1998). Therefore the ethical debates might just not be understood in a manner they ought to be by the people who run the business regimes. They are more bent upon doing things which shall take the business forward and not change the very scope of the business. The corporate social responsibility understanding takes away the concentration from earning profits for the business to something else. Looking after the environment and the external publics inherently comes as a surprise, more so for a business that has not been able to do much in the recent times. Taking another viewpoint in mind, one should focus entirely on bringing in profits because these are the basis of finding out how successful the business enterprise is going to be at a given point in time within the future. But then again, emphasizing on the profit making exercise would not do much for the sake of building positive opinion regarding the business. There is just so much that the business can do to win the favor of the public and this essentially includes the corporate social responsibility debates (Lefkowitz, 2003). There is time to go back to the drawing board and explore the weaknesses related with the business operations and the strategic direction which is important to have. The business ethics will not subside if profits are forgotten in entirety (Husted, 2006). Finding out the priorities for the business in the long run will eventually solve quite a few issues which are affecting the business in one way or the other, as it will also tackle the shortcomings which happen from time to time, and which cannot be estimated earlier. Hence it is always a good idea to involve as much incorporation of corporate social responsibility as possible because it will set a precedent which was not experienced before by the business under consideration. It will also tell the stakeholders that the business looks up to the environment in which it survives and wants to serve the communities that remain significant to it in one way or the other. Since businesses have started to realize their ethical conduct, one can understand that this is indeed something that has come out as a positive in the present times. The ethical conduct ensures that the organization under consideration remains clean as far as its actions and undertakings are concerned. Also it spells out the exact process through which success shall be envisioned and eventually achieved within the related affairs. The ethical conduct has been directly linked with corporate social responsibility because both of these handle the same domains if seen within the relevant contexts. Therefore the ethical conduct must be given serious importance because it changes beliefs with regards to a business and gives it the much needed mileage that it richly deserves (Buchholz, 2000). This shapes up the profits which will eventually start pouring in with the passage of time. The need is to find out where shortcomings are and how to get rid of them at the earliest. It will be the basis of overall growth and development for the sake of the business from a strategic perspective. In the end, one can easily deduce from the above discussion that corporate social responsibility is much more important and necessary to have for a business than simple profit making exercise. This is because the business must have a good enough reputation on which people can depend and trust their monies. If this does not happen, the business will not be able to base its success for a long period of time. Profits will surely come in but what is more fundamental is to know that people trust and respect the organization because it has a good rapport with the people in the society and that it cares for them at all times. It would be fair to state that corporate social responsibility indeed plays a huge role within the dynamics of a business as it decides how the business will react to different situations, circumstances and events on a consistent basis. The corporate social responsibility aspect therefore takes the precedence over making a business profit, especially in these times where competition is at its strongest level. This highlights the basis of knowing how success can be envisioned for an organization – one that is heavily bent upon making its mark within the related industrial domains. The role of corporate social responsibility within the terrains of an organization is much appreciated by the people who matter the most – the customers and the stakeholders. Also the employees leave a lasting impression on these customers and stakeholders because they have a personal opinion of the business for which they work and hence tell everyone what they feel about the business and its different operations. It would be fair to comment here that all these individuals are quintessential in their own way because each one of them has a separate and unique outlook – a perspective that is the basis of bringing in success for the business in the long run. Bibliography Brotherton, P., 2000. HR Efficiency without the Hassles. Black Enterprise, 31 Buchholz, R., 2000. Rethinking Business Ethics: A Pragmatic Approach. Oxford University Press Ferrell, O.C., Fraedrich, J. & Ferrell, L., 2008. The Importance of Business Ethics. In G. Hoffman, ed. Business Ethics Ethical Decision Making and Cases. 7th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. pp.17-19. Husted, B., 2006. Corporate Social Responsibility in the Multinational Enterprise: Strategic and Institutional Approaches. Journal of International Business Studies, 37 Kline, J., 2005. Ethics for International Business: Decision Making in a Global Political Economy. Routledge Lefkowitz, J., 2003. Ethics and Values in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Hawkins, D.E., 2006. Ethical trading. In Corporate Social Responsibility. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p.76. Siegel, D.S., 2006. Three Lenses on the Multinational Enterprise: Politics, Corruption, and Corporate Social Responsibility. Journal of International Business Studies, 37 Sims, R.R., 2003. Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility: Why Giants Fall. Praeger Velasquez, M.G., 1998. Business Ethics Concepts and Cases. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Read More