The Role of Ethics in the Expansion of Organizations - Essay Example

ETHICS Ethics in its simplest and most basic terms can be defined as the motivation based on the ideas of what is wrong and right. Therefore, ethical considerations in organizations can be described or defined as adherence to accepted standards of professional or social behavior. In an effort to adhere to ethics in the corporate world there are organizations that have developed their systems of principles governing morality and acceptable conduct in the organization’s relations with its employees, competitors and the community (Robbins, Judge, Millett & Boyle,2013). These principles are described as code of ethics. Ethical issues in an organization are determined by how the organization relate with its employees, fellow competitors, customers and the community or the environment in which the organization is located. Some of the ethical considerations that businesses have to put in mind in their dealing include; observing human rights to avoid infringing on the freedom of individuals within or outside the organization. Working conditions of the employees is also another ethical issue that organizations need to take note of. When dealing with their competitors ethical issues arise when competing for customers and markets. Ethical issues are also bound to arise when dealing with the customers or clients of the various organizations. Issues that are likely to arise are quality of services delivered and exploitation of the clients or customers. When dealing with the community or the environment ethical issues that are likely to arise are issues of tax payment by the organization and pollution or management of waste products from the company. National expansion of an organization refers to the increase in the size or scope of the organization’s operations. This can be in the form of giving rise to other outlets so that it is found in various regions of the country or can as well increase in size and accommodate many people from across the country. Therefore, for a business to realize success in its expansion plans it has to take note of the ethical issues surrounding its operations. The questions that are bound to arise when an organization is expanding and at the same time supposed to observe ethics in its operations are; how does it relate with its employees? How does it relate with the local competitors? How does it relate to its customers? And finally its relationship with the community or the environment in which it is located. The hiring practices of organizations need to be ethical for them to achieve their dream of expansion or increasing their operations nationally. Whenever an organization is expanding employment opportunities are likely to surface. The process of hiring employees will only be ethical if the exercise is free of discrimination based on ethnic background, sexual orientation, disability, and religion. Offering and taking of bribes in order to secure a position in an organization should also be avoided whenever hiring of employees is being done. Nepotism is also another evil that needs to be dealt with whenever hiring is taking place. Favoritism to relatives and close friends by those in the human resource department should be discouraged to realize ethics among professionals (Sekaran, 2006). Hiring workers or employees based on their skills to the various positions in the organization is one of the ethical issues an organization ought to consider to maximize it operations and improve service delivery. Working conditions of employees in the organization is also another factor that needs to be observed by the management in its expansion plans. When organizations increase their operations, the work environment is bound to be stressful and this ought to be considered. The welfare of employees in terms of the salaries paid should reflect the working conditions. Employees should be well compensated. Occupational health and safety of employees should be management’s priority in order to ensure that the employees are protected from any risks arising from the work environment. This could also be reflected in the number of hours in the work week of individuals working in the organization. Taking care of employee’s welfare is also another ethical consideration that organizations need to take note of in their expansion plans. Quality service delivery to their clients and customers is also another moral obligation that organizations are charged with in their expansion plans. During expansion, organizations are destined to increase their service delivery and if not checked lapses in the system are bound to occur leading to oversight issues. The client or customers are likely to complain of quality and quantities as being substandard. Organizations should therefore ensure that services delivered to the customers or clients offer them value for their money. This includes proper and accurate marketing and advertising of their products. Paying taxes to the local government is also another ethical obligation charged on organizations. Evasion of tax is unethical because it will be frustrating the local governments’ effort to deliver public services which the organizations stand to enjoy like infrastructural development including construction of roads. Enjoying services offered by the government without contributing to its kitty is unethical. Therefore, organizations ought to pay their corporate taxes in order to achieve one of the ethical goals of local expansion. Waste management or pollution is also another ethical issue that tends to arise when organizations are expanding their operations. Ethical considerations when dealing with the pollution will be to ensure that the organizations operations do not have harmful effects to the environment or local community that lives around the organization. This ensures that the welfare of the community living around and are most likely to be employees in the organization is safe and free from pollutants. Ethical dilemma in an organization results when the demand of the organizations or company’s culture contradicts or conflicts with ethical behavior. In most cases when ethics is breached, it is always for the benefit of the organization. This occurs when the management has to compromise ethics and realize it goals. Normally the aim is to increase their profits and further increase the organizations scope of operations. One of the ethical dilemmas that organizations face locally is employee’s welfare. During expansion the organizations operations increase amid constant numbers of employees. This will prompt pressure on the part of the employees who are supposed to fill the new gap. In an effort to fill the gap the management usually finds itself compromising the welfare of employees in terms of salaries, working hours and even health and safety of employees. Another dilemma arises when dealing with customers and clients. This occurs when advertising or marketing of products. Amid a business environment faced with strained finances and competition, organizations are usually caught in a dilemma and are left with no choice but to dupe the public to counter the stiff competition posed by their competitors. This may lead to them exaggerating their adverts. Another dilemma is dealing with pollution. Proper waste management is costly. In the center of a business environment faced with stiff competition, financial strains, and increased costs of operations very few organizations will be willing to apply costly anti-pollution measures hence ending up polluting the environment. International expansion on the other hand refers to the increase in the scope of the organization’s operations (Ting & Chung, 2012). This will be in the form of giving rise to outlets in the international arena and other countries. When expanding internationally the following issues are likely to surface when dealing with ethical considerations abroad; employment, corruption, human rights, pollution, marketing and taxation. The ethical issues faced are more or less similar to those at the national level except that the international level involves different cultures and backgrounds. One of the ethical considerations that need to be addressed at the international level is employment of employees. Employment at this level is likely to be different from that at the national level as it involves people of different races and cultures. Therefore, the organization should ensure that there is no discrimination during hiring process. The management should be in a position to tolerate, accommodate and acknowledge diversity among individuals and focus on the skills of the employees rather than their physical characteristics. Corruption is another evil that organizations have to battle in their expansion plans. Paying bribes in order to win contracts or tenders is a bad business or organizational culture. Organizations ought to abstain from engaging in such corporate malpractices as this is bound to breed a corrupt business society where favors are the order of the day. At the international level this might deny small or upcoming organizations in the foreign market opportunities hence leading to their closure (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2014). Ethical considerations at this that ought to be applied by organizations is refraining from bribes and promoting fair competition. Pollution or degradation of the environment is another issue that needs to be considered when establishing or expanding operations in the international arena. Most foreign countries lack legislation on pollution or industrial waste management. The moral obligation in this case will be to ensure that the operations of the organization do not emit substances that are harmful to the citizens of that country. The organization should also be at the forefront advocate for anti-pollution measures. This way the organization will be demonstrating social responsibility. Taxation is also an organizations corporate responsibility in the foreign market. Most countries in the foreign market usually avoid taxes by adopting the strategy of transfer pricing. In this strategy organizations operating in the low-tax jurisdiction often transfer high costs to the home country’s organization hence holding back the local revenue. In this case the foreign outlet will end up generating high profits and paying less tax while the home outlet realizes low profits due to transferred costs. Organizations operating foreign entities need to deliberate on the distribution of costs and revenues to avoid underpayment or evasion of tax. When payment of tax is adhered to, foreign recognition of the company will be improved and its operations will be smooth. This promotes the expansion of the organization. Marketing in foreign markets is also another issue that needs to be taken into account. When in the foreign market, the organizations tend to interact with different cultures that observe certain values. The advertisements and marketing strategies applied in the foreign market should not be offensive or invasive to the foreign values and norms. Strategies that undermine the values of the people in the foreign market may frustrate the expansion of the business in the foreign market (Crane & Matten, 2010). This is because people may develop negative attitude on the marketing strategies and if not checked can lead to forced termination of business conducted by the organization or closure. Therefore, organizations need to observe the values of the society in order to realize their expansion agenda in the foreign markets. Ethical dilemmas likely to arise when organizations are expanding their scope internationally may be influenced by conflict between maintaining ethical behavior and maximizing their profits and reducing their costs of operations. On employment the dilemma that is most likely to force the organization into discriminating the hiring process is competency. The skills of the foreign labor force may not satisfy the organizations requirement forcing them to import their nationals. Another dilemma that is also likely to face the organization is advertisements. The stiff competition present in the business environment may force the organization to be aggressive in its marketing strategies leading to display of content not allowed in the foreign country (Afsarmanesh & Matos, 2005). Anti-pollution measures in an environment where there are no legislation may also present dilemmas to the organization. The dilemma here may be whether to observe ethical environmental practices or ignore and increase profits as waste management involves costs to the organization. One way to resolve the many ethical problems arising in the corporate world is to provide education to the staff on the particular code of ethics of the organization. This will give them skills to handle ethical dilemma encountered in their lines of duty. Rewarding employees who display exemplary ethical behavior will be a good way to nurture ethics in the organization while coming up with penalties to those ruining the organization ethically. In conclusion, it is evident based on the findings of this paper that ethics play a crucial role in the expansion of organizations. Ethics determine how organizations interact with its employees, customers and clients, competitors and lastly the community or the environment in which it is located. Therefore, application of appropriate ethical considerations in the business community can see the organization thrive and expand its scope internationally. Good ethical practices translate to good business relations which in turn influence the success of an organization. References Afsarmanesh, H., & Camarinha-Matos, L. M. (2005). A framework for management of virtual organization breeding environments. In Collaborative networks and their breeding environments (pp. 35-48). Springer US. Carroll, A., & Buchholtz, A. (2014). Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Cengage Learning. Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2010). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press. Robbins, S., Judge, T. A., Millett, B., & Boyle, M. (2013). Organisational behaviour. Pearson Higher Education AU. Saunders, M. N., Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2011). Research methods for business students, 5/e. Pearson Education India. Sekaran, U. (2006). Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons. Ting-Toomey, S., & Chung, L. C. (2012). Understanding intercultural communication. New York: Oxford University Press. Read More