Managing Business Responsibly - Coursework Example

Organisation Responsibility Organisations are responsible for their actions in different areas ranging from corporate social responsibility, treatment of people and activities within the organisational operations. Issues that are related to ethical perspectives and corporate social responsibility have led to many debates in the resent times where organisations are often analysed and evaluated on their responsibility. Organisations also have discourses within their operations where different organisations demonstrate different discourses in relation to their line of operations. There is prevailing orthodoxy on the role of conversations and language in organisations. This paper will attempt to discuss the main discourses, alternative ways that information can be presented, and how they change my understanding as well as knowledge on responsibility in organisations while challenging the prevailing orthodoxy on role of conversation and language in organising. Knowledge of Organisations on Responsibility Organisation responsibility mostly entails issues to do with ethical principles that form the foundation of various modern concepts in the work place. Business organisations which aim at broadening the individual and corporate priorities beyond their traditional business objectives focus on increasing their profits and enriching the shareholders. Ethical factors are significant in organisations since the organisations must ensure considerations that affect the commercial and corporate issues. The modern ethical issues in organisations involve the following issues; Corporate social responsibility Ethical leadership and management Globalisation Sustainability Corporate governance (Hatcher, 2010).  Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a critical requirement in the organisational programs and operations which has compelled many organisations to comply with the current trends. Corporate social responsibility is a process where companies embrace a role and responsibility and action which can enhance positive impact in the society on customers, employees, stakeholders and the environment. There are critical issues that are considered when a company plans on how to undertake a corporate social responsibility action. The main and core elements that should be considered include the environmental aspects and the social welfare. The CSR strategy is used when companies divert from their core businesses of making profits and achieving other objectives to meet the obligations that can improve the social welfare as a course to give back to the society (Leonard, 2010).  Ethical leadership and management entail incorporation of various ethical issues in leadership and management in organisations. Organisations shape certain behaviours among individuals based on the code of ethics that they apply in their areas of leadership and management. Ethical issues in organisation are clearly based on various aspects like: Situation ethics - rights are granted on context or basis of the situation. A right in a certain situation may be considered a wrong in another situation. Cultural relativism – is based on the cultural values and beliefs of a certain culture where no one can question the ethics of another society or culture. Professional ethics – different professions have their own set of values and ethics and specific code of ethics determine how members adhere to ethical practices in such fields. Value-based ethics – entails the fact that every member has his value that shapes his or her behaviour. Rule-based ethics – these are ethics that are based on adherence to the rules or law thus shaping a certain behaviour in an individual (Menzel, 2007).  Globalisation entails the globally accepted standards of application on ethics and how people should be treated in organisations. Different corporations in the world have set values and standards to follow on certain issues like treatment of employees and how to undertake CSR in relation to their objectives. Mostly, professional ethics are applied by such organisations because many organisations engage professional standards in their operations (Hatcher, 2010).  Sustainability involves such issues like maintaining certain ethical aspects in the organisation that will ensure benefits to employees, organisation management, and the community around the organisation. If ethical standards are strategically formulated, they ensure sustainability within the organisational environment. It is critical to find the best code of ethics that will be fair and just for all parties involved in the activities of the organisation (Robbins, 2009).  Corporate governance involves the system under which organisational systems are controlled and governed. The formation of the organisation leadership and management team enhances the system under which the activities are run in the organisation. The code of corporate governance included responsibilities and duties of board of directors on influence on firm performance. This would be a good platform to determine the strategic plan and organisation’s internal control systems for effective management and leadership. The directors and the managers in the organisation play a huge role in determining the ethical aspects of an organisation because they are more concerned in the welfare of the organisation on making profits and they consider employees as part of the organisation (Menzel, 2007).  Discourses in Organisation Discourses in organisation involves such issues in mainstream methodologies and theories in the organisation that usually underpin the organisational studies and thus causing the scholars to engage in alternative ways to describe or analyse theories due to the increasing changes in the organisation processes and practices. Organisation discourse has recently emerged as one of the increasing focus with significant interest. It is difficult to find organisations that have open management and are not involved in the discourse-based activities of research and study on the resent trends and a collection of books on certain topics which serves as centre of discourse (Leonard, 2010).  The resent growth and interest in organisation discourse has led researchers and scholars to engage in study activities that will enhance the discourse analysis approaches that are mainly based on language as well as other symbolic media that lead to discourse in the organisation. Once they engage in such activities, they have been able to analyse and interpret various organisation-related issues in certain ways that would not have been achieved. However, the growth has led some members to criticise the broad and widespread use of definitions that are non-specific and also a bewildering collection of approaches, methods and perspectives. This means that there is a considerable variation in relation to what people talk about in organisation discourse analysis (Hatcher, 2010).  The variation based on what researchers and scholars talk about concerning organisational discourse is more related or attributed to disciplinary and theoretical backgrounds that are as a result of broader domains in the discourse analysis. The information derived from social-psychological, sociological, philosophical, communications, linguistics, and literary-based studies form main composition of discourse analysis (Treviño, & Nelson, 2011).  Alternative Discourses There are different alternatives that are involved in the organisation discourse. For one to be able to accept the alternative, appearance of the alternative has to be viewed and the organisation discourse be analysed. The alternatives of the discourse largely entail the positivism and optimism of the idea used in the organisation. When analysing the past literature, it has been discovered that hegemony of positivism has been related to quantitative methods that took place in the 1970s and 1980s. Though this alternative dominated in the 1980s there was struggles that were still experienced in the process as the perspectives were more uneasy in application but led to workable peace (Menzel, 2007).  Optimism involves organisation discourse that largely depends on the use of language to form the part of organisation cultures, systems and structures. The language used is meant to improve the understanding of various concepts in the organisation. The use of vocabularies may be preferred in order to ensure that a new understanding of the organisation aspect takes place. Organisation discourse is involved in comprehending the process of social construction of the underling reality in studies conducted by researchers as well as conventional methodologies. Organisation discourses thus does not involve the replacement and change from traditional approaches but engaging in them and complementing them too (Heracleous, 2006).  What I Learnt about Discourse in Organisations Interest in the study and analysis of organisational discourse has grown tremendously and has led to discovery of various approaches to organisation discourse. It mainly involves the social construction of various issues in relation to factors like linguistic approaches and social construction is one of the most important processes involved in organisation discourse. Since discourse involves formation of new aspects in relation to linguistic approaches, language has been considered as the mirror of the society in ensuring organisation discourse. Communication is also vital in the process of organisation discourse since communication of new meaning and structure of words is done through language. Organisations discourses are based on the use and understanding of various aspects within the organisation. It also entails the culture and systems of the organisation because it is carried on to other generations thus forming the traditions of the organisation. Organisation discourse also entails the management and leadership of the organisation as many traditions and cultural practices are initiated or approved by the management of the organisation (Heracleous, 2006).  In conclusion, organisations are responsible for their actions on the employees and other activities that relate to the community surrounding the organisation. Ethics, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance are the main elements involved in organisation responsibilities. Organisation discourse also entails the activities of the organisation where the organisation develops theories and methodologies to interpret certain perspectives in the organisation. References Hatcher, T.G. (2010) Ethics and HRD a new approach to leading responsible organisations, [Richmond, BC?], ReadHowYouWant. Heracleous, L. (2006) Discourse, interpretation, organisation, Cambridge [u.a.], Cambridge Univ. Press. Leonard, P. (2010) Expatriate identities in postcolonial organisations: working whiteness, Farnham, Surrey, Ashgate. Menzel, D.C. (2007) Ethics management for public administrators: building organisations of integrity, Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe. Robbins, S.P. (2009) Organisational behaviour: global and Southern African perspectives, Cape Town, Pearson Education South Africa. Treviño, L.K. & Nelson, K.A. (2011) Managing business ethics: straight talk about how to do it right, New York, John Wiley. Read More