Personal Experience in Business Ethics - Essay Example

Name Student Id Lecturer’s Name Date Individual Reflection Studying the subject has equipped me with problem solving skills. I have been able to apply the acquired knowledge in appropriate scenarios. This has helped me with skills to identify the problems in a certain scenario. This has also helped me to apply the information available to me. This has greatly been enhanced by reading Cohen’s chapter which has equipped me with skills and ethics about business and how it should be handled. The study has helped to develop both written and oral communication skills which are very important to the business community (Cohen 2004). The subject equips me with skills so as to help me to have a critical analysis on scenarios and to apply the most appropriate business ethics to such a scenario. Through interaction with classmates and working on individual presentations has ensured that I can work under minimum or no supervision. The subject has equipped me with skills to be responsible to protect and conserve the society aspects. This will lead into developing ideas and decisions that will result to sustainable development in conserving the environment (Cohen 2004). Personal experience I work as a part-time employ in company dealing with many business transactions. It was a time when I was in a busy night in one of the company’s hotel, at this time I found one of the senior managers who was my supervisor allowing a guest to bring into the hotel something which was illegal as per the hotel policies. When this came to my attention I approached the employee reminding him that this was against the company’s policy because it was illegal. The employee was very rude to me and even threatened that I would lose my job if I dared say anything about the issue to anyone. To me reporting him would be the right thing to do but this would lead him to losing his employment. Therefore, ignored the issue but I could not concentrate because I was in a dilemma to do as required by the hotel or to cover for the senior employee (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell 2013). My inner person was highly at war with me because of the ethics acquired because I was supposed to do as per the hotel policies. The reason behind this is that ethics is all about doing what is required by taking the responsibility given to us on protecting the environment and society at large (Bowie 1999). The ethics requires any decision taken to be beneficial to the majority of the stakeholders and should not cause harm in any way to the people. The effects of an action should result to happiness of all the people affected because they are right (Freeman 2007). These calls for justice while making the decisions because individual have the right to enjoy this obligation restored in them. The duties of an individual should not be violated by taking them for granted. This means that ethical relativism ethics should be present at all times because they the right things are socially acceptable in the culture (Ghillyer 2012). Therefore, ethics would have helped me in doing the right thing to report the other employee without any thought on how the individual will suffer as a result of the decision made by the hotel management. The employee should be punished for not observing the set hotel ethics. Social and environmental sustainability In my business profession social and environmental sustainability are becoming increasingly important because the business community has become a member of the community. The business is being charged with the responsibility of attaining sustainability in the environment so as to have economic development (Sandhu 2010). A sustainable environment will mean that the business community will have a continuous source of their raw materials meaning they will continue to be in production. The business community ensure that their present choices and actions do not affect the generations that will come in the future. Given the business profession through business organizations is charged with production of products there is a high reliance on environment as the source of raw materials (Arnold, Beauchamp & Bowie 2013). Therefore, it is important to ensure that the rate at which these raw materials are used for production is not more than the rate of their regeneration. This will mean that regeneration will always remain high and there will be ac continuous production of the products. This will be sustainable development because the present action of production does not affect the regeneration of raw materials and other renewable resources. The business community can also ensure that the resources which cannot be reproduced or which are non-renewable are not used at a higher rate than the one of producing their substitute products (Hartley 2005). This means that production of substitute should always be high so as to ensure that production does not stop. This will also mean that the non-renewable resources are not exhausted from their original source; this will be aimed at attaining a sustainable environment. The non-renewable resources deplete the natural resources if there is excessive use without equal or even high production of their substitutes so as to maintain continuous level of production (Sandhu 2010). In the business profession it is also important to reduce on the pollution. This can be done by ensuring that the level of the companies pollution emissions does not exceed the level at which the environment absorbs these emissions. This means that the business organizations are working towards reducing or preventing pollution. This environmental initiatives will help the business organizations to be popular among the community and this will help on cost cutting through competitive advantage this means that the company has achieved some economic payoffs (Sandhu 2010). This will lead the company towards sustainable development. The business organizations have moved from just complying with the set standards towards introducing their own ways of attaining sustainable development. Personal experience My personal has been highly been influenced by the management and the owners of the organisation where I work. The company has a lot of waste products from most of the activities this led to a lot of dumping so as to dispose these waste products. The company was incurring a lot of expenses in such activities in day to day running of the business. This reduced on the company profits. The company introduced a policy to recycle all the waste products. The company would sell the waste products that they could not recycle to other companies that would make the waste products useful (Trevino & Nelson 2011). The company recycle policy has saved the company a lot of costs in terms of disposing the waste products. The company has used the recycled products in their activities this has helped the company to reduce on the pollution emissions. This has helped the company maintain sustainable development because the policy has helped the company to reduce the use of their primary raw materials as a result of recycling their waste products. This has helped the company to increase their profits (Velasquez 2006). Through this policy the company has contributed towards social and environmental sustainability. The company has also introduced a policy to give back to the community by starting a mobile health clinic that will offer free services courtesy of the company. The services will be given to the general public who live around the company. The company is contributing towards social sustainability by ensuring that the community around benefits from its activities (Jones, Parker & Bos 2005). Cultural understanding In my business profession I have come to realise that cultural and ethical understanding is very important for one to be successful. This understanding helps those in the business profession to make the right decision when it comes to investing in a certain society. This is to ensure that I follow the society culture so as not to oppose their norms (Rachels1993). I have learnt that it is important to take into consideration the culture, ethics and norms of a given society before making any decision that affects them (Arnold, Beauchamp & Bowie 2013). This calls for understanding of the society’s culture so as to know their beliefs and why they do things in a given way. To business organisations this is very important because when it comes to investment there is need to know the products which are used by a certain community as per their culture. The culture and ethics differ from society to society and therefore, this calls for understanding of all the cultures a business organisation deals with (Des Jardins 2001). There are some cultures which believe that some raw materials are sacred and should be used for production of any products. Therefore, as a professional in the business world I need to understand that culture so as not to go against the society’s cultures during investment. Cultural and ethical relativism asserts that universal truth in ethics is absent, and that the good thing is socially accepted whereas the bad is always unaccepted in any given society or culture. Different societies and cultures have and apply different codes, according to cultural and ethical relativism (Hartman & De Jardins 2011). Right and wrong are seen as just a matter of opinion varying from culture to culture hence; there exists no truth in morality. What is wrong in one society might be right in another society according to their culture and ethics. It is true that right and wrong are just a matter of opinion as portrayed by the decision of different people (Kotler & Lee 2005). My personal experience My personal experience comes from my dad who works for a company called BHP which operates in Papua New Guinea. The company deal with mining was contracted by the country’s government to help in mining of coal. The area where the mining was to take place was in an area occupied by a very hostile community that was ready to oppose anyone trying to enter into their mines. The company was not aware of such hostility when they took the contract. The reason behind this hostility is that the community believed that these mine products belong to their ancestors and should not benefit any other community. These mines have stayed idle for a very long time because of this hostility. The community is also opposed to any mining because they believe that it will cause environmental damage. BHP had to enter into negotiations with the community so as to allow the mining to start. The company had first to understand the culture of the society that has led to the strong stands to oppose mining. Understanding of these cultures, norms and ethics will help the company to enter into negotiations so as to start mining. These arguments including delaying the opening of the mine for storage facility to be built to dilute the wrong of operating without minimizing environmental damage and made it right and socially acceptable. After negotiations the community allowed the company to start mining because they agreed to their demands. Conclusion Ethical theory is complicated and difficult because of its many sides and the different opinions and interpretations attached to it. The diversity of cultures, opinions, different situations involved and the selfish as well as the calculating nature of human beings give rise to the different interpretations and understanding of ethic (Carey 2013). This is because, in most cases, the interpretations and codes are twisted to fit the situation at hand, as well as to serve human selfish interests. Ethics which are considered to be the ‘science of conduct’ is what acts as a base to judge what is morally right or wrong. This is what gave rise to the different ethical theories like utilitarianism, justice, rights or even cultural and ethical relativism, so as to judge the actions of human in the manner they deem best suited to them. Therefore, cultural relativism holds more water when it says that what is morally right or wrong is just a matter of opinion, and that there lacks any universal truth in ethics. The ethical theories have been the bases for conduct in the society because they are seen as the laws that say what is right and wrong. References Arnold, D. 2013. Ethical Theory and Business (9th ed.). Pearson: Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Bowie, N. 1999. Business Ethics: A Kantian Perspective. Blackwell Publishers: Malden, MA. Carey, L 2013. Business Ethics Managing Values and Corporate Responsibility. Pearson: Frenchs Forrest, Sydney. Cohen, S. 2004. The nature of moral reasoning: International management ethics and values. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Des Jardins, J. R. 2001. Environmental ethics: An introduction to environmental philosophy (3rd ed.). Wadsworth: Belmont, California Des Jardins, J. 2011. An Introduction to Business Ethics (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill: Boston, MA. Ferrell, O. Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. 2013. Business ethics ethical decision making and cases (9th ed.). Houghton Mifflin: Boston. Freeman, S. 2007. Rawls. Routledge: New York. Ghillyer, A. 2012. 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Business ethics concepts & cases (6th ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall: New Jersey. Read More