Whether or Not Corporations Can Be a Force for Social Sustainability - Assignment Example

Reflective pieces Name Instructor Institution Course Date First reflective essay On whether (or not) corporations can be a force for social sustainability. In my opinion, corporations can indeed be a force for social sustainability. People need social sustainability as a way of providing not only equality but also a good quality life especially to less fortunate communities. It revolves around identifying and managing both positive and negative impacts on the business. Corporates would not be able to survive without the people in the community. Corporates that enforce social sustainability usually means that they are doing well businesswise since their products sell more because the company is respected and reputable which means less risk for the company. I have noted that corporates that tend to ignore social sustainability, opens themselves to human rights issues and future liability. Likewise, corporates that implement social sustainability have a high likelihood of tapping into new markets, become innovators for new products or services and are able to attract and retain business partners. I have witnessed the never ending Nike controversy that has put Nike factories under fire since they have been offering their employees poor working conditions. Nike Company started in 1964 as imported and distributed Japanese track shoes initially made by Onitsuka Company in Japan. The lack of social sustainability I believe is what also led to the bad reputation of the company. For example, there were accusations of child labor in the soccer balls production in Pakistan. Children between the ages of four and five make almost half the number of soccer balls in the world. An inspection report showed that some employees in the factories suffered respiratory problems due to the high levels of carcinogens. In addition to this, employees had to work 65 hours per week to earn $10 a week. I share John Mackey’s sentiments that business leadership is to not only make profits but also produce positive impact particularly on the stakeholders (Mackey, 2013, p.34). Thus, Nike was wrong to put profit maximization first before its employees. To make matters worse it took advantage of employees in the developing countries, which means it is setting these countries back. A report done by Ernst & Young gave a depressing picture where young women under the of 25 worked 10 hours a day in six days per week under a lot of heat, reeking air and excessive noise for only $10 a week. Additionally the report showed workers experienced breathing or skin problems, as they did not have access to protective masks or gloves (Banjo, 2014, p.1). Because of not practicing social sustainability, Nike Company has gone through a lot of ridicule and its reputation is now tarnished. Companies that treat their employees harshly do not maximize their profits since the employees; do not work to the best of their abilities. A company’s asset it its employees and hence they should be treated with human dignity. It is extremely inhumane to treat people without respect and dignity. Each employee deserves safe and clean working conditions with decent wages (Banjo, 2014, p.1). The habit of giving employees poor working conditions as a way of maximizing profits, goes way back and in many times nothing is done until tragedy strikes. Luckily, Nike cut its business relationship just before the Rana Plaza disaster, which killed more than 100 people in Bangladesh. Nike is now practicing social sustainability by trying to rectify the working conditions of its employees mainly in Asia. This shows that corporations can be a force for social sustainability as opposed to just focusing on making huge profits. I believe that when corporations enforce social sustainability, the parties involved benefit. The employees have favorable working conditions, which mean they are able to perform at their best. The employers therefore get to maximize on profits due to the employees good work, while the community benefits from getting the best goods or services provided by the organization. Second reflective essay Whether or not 'business and ethics' is an oxymoron From my perspective, business and ethics cannot be an oxymoron. Companies work hard in order to follow the law and it is obvious that they care about the ethics of both their employees and managers. Embezzlement of large amounts of money destroys a firm, employees claims of sexual harassment might lead to legal settlements of millions of dollars (Johnson, 2007, p. 28). Despite the fact that firms may want to maximize of profits, they will not want employees who may want to lead them to incur losses. I believe that businesses must consider ethics as they part of a human community. Just like Aristotle states, a human being that does not have ethics is less a human being and more of a wild beast. There may be desperation that people will always break outlined rules but experience shows that for many people their behavior is flexible. Companies that uphold integrity as a principle that runs their business enforce it with ethics and compliance programs, fraud, and misconduct greatly decline. From personal research, I can attest that Starbucks is one company with great ethical qualities. Starbucks Corporation is based in Seattle, Washington and is an American worldwide coffee company with an Italian styled coffeehouse. It boasts to have the biggest coffeehouse chain with 19,972 stores in approximately 60 countries. It makes an effort to ensure it is responsible and it conducts its business ethically. It prides itself in conducting its business ethically through sourcing, community, environment, wellness and diversity. Through Starbucks, I can prove that it is not an oxymoron where business and ethics exist. Instead, a company achieves profitable growth as well as enhanced shareholder value. Customers are usually willing to purchase a good or service at a higher price while utilizing the products especially if they aware that they are supporting a socially responsible company. Through good ethical practices, it has made it in the list of most admired companies based in the United States along with being in the world’s most ethical companies list. CEO Howard Schulz, states that this has come about because of their commitment to social responsibility. Their main company values include Environment, community, diversity, customer wellness and ethical sourcing. While conducting my research, I saw a few websites that criticized Starbucks Company however there were no criticisms of unethical behavior. I believe ethics responsibility is not only for the managers but also for the employees at every level in the company. Since they also make decisions that have ethical implications, they should know they are accountable for their actions. Nevertheless companies have to prepare them for such responsibilities through training and resources that enable them be aware of the right to speak up confidently and truthfully when need arises (Johnson, 2007, p. 36). Additionally, companies should shield their employees from reprisal every time they blow the whistle on any misconduct. Organizations should always act quickly every time a misconduct issue arises. Every time there is a breach, appropriate disciple must be accorded regardless of how talented, valued or senior the employee is. My take is that business and ethics have to go hand in hand. Focusing on profit maximization without considering having a positive impact to the community will most likely lead to the downfall and bad reputation of a company. People will have a hard time relating to a company that does not practice ethical behavior, which will lead to them foregoing the products offered and looking for a better company with social ethics. Third reflective essay The relevance of cultural awareness in your future professional life I am aspiring to get a career in public relations once I graduate from school. I have always admired how people in this line of work are able to interact with people from all over the world and tell the story of the company’s brand. People working in public relations are able to manage crises so that the company may maintain a good reputation. They are also able to plan upcoming events for the company in order to sell their brand and lastly they pitch their stories to the media so that they may get more publicity. This and many more roles that public relations employees have are what fascinate me and hence I would like to venture into this career. A public relations officer should uphold many ethical values in their profession. One has to be honest when representing the company, and therefore maintain the highest accuracy standards when talking to the public. Secondly, one has to be loyal and faithful particularly to the people they represent. They also have to be fair which whomever they deal with, be it fellow employees, peers, vendors, media, clients and the public. These are just a few of the many ethical values a public relations professional must live by. Professionals in the public relations field have a few guidelines they should follow. One they have to preserve integrity of the communication process (Johnson, 2007, p. 53). Second is that they have to be honest and convey accurate information always. Distortion of messages can lead to serious repercussions to the organization. Thirdly, they should be able to act quickly in the event of erroneous communication, which they are responsible. This means that the public relations practitioner should own up their mistakes and be ready to rectify them as quickly as possible. Fourth guideline is that they should preserve free flow of unprejudiced information especially when receiving or giving gifts. They should make sure that the gifts do not come frequently and they are legal. Culture is a strong influence to our beliefs, thoughts, behaviors and attitudes (Molinsky, 2012, p.140). It affects how we interact with others, the manner in which we care for not only ourselves but also those we love. Therefore, having cultural awareness is extremely important when dealing with people who hail from different backgrounds. Cultural awareness is imperative in public relations as there are certain roles like translating messages than need one to be cautious. Recognizing cultural diversity while understanding the diversity as way of enriching ones communication is major challenge to many public relations professionals. In an organizational setting, having diversity in public relations is extremely important as most organizations function in multicultural societies. Practitioners should go for having diversity of all types in the organization. I have interacted with students from different cultures at one time, at a student’s forum and to be honest I had a tough time interacting. I often misinterpreted what they said and gestures did not seem to help at all. This challenged me to go and learn as much as I could about different cultures, their languages and mannerisms. I also make it a point to attend such forums that hold students from different cultures to work together in order to address issues affecting students. Today I am more aware of many different cultures in regards to how they dress, talk and behave and this has made me appreciate cultural diversity. Having cultural diversity at the workplace helps organizations to have improved organizational performance. However, there are challenges that arise and the first is being able to comprehend exactly what diversity means. Cultural diversity in many organizations raises heated emotions; for instance there is a concern that the majorities will displace the minorities and likewise. Cultural diversity brings problems because there are variations in individual orientations and perceptions (Molinsky, 2012, p.141). However if the challenges are thoroughly considered, there will be an increase in organizational productivity. I look forward to being in the public relations career and interact with as many different cultures as possible. However, I will exhibit cultural awareness in order to avoid conflict at work. Cultural diversity in my opinion is a good thing if people embrace it. People get to learn from one another new and interesting ideas. You also get to put aside the differences and become united thus bring peace to the world. Respecting each other’s cultures is important to any relationship whether business or personal and it prevents conflicts of all kinds. There are many wars taking place in different parts of the world today due to differences in culture. Nevertheless, I believe it can end if everyone took some time to understand each other’s culture. References Johnson, C. E. 2007. Ethics in the workplace: tools and tactics for organizational transformation. Thousand Oaks, Calif, SAGE Publications. Mackey, J. 2013. What kind of capitalist you want to be. Harvard Business Review, 91 (1), p 34 Banjo, S. 2014. Inside Nike’s struggle to balance cost and worker safety in Bangladesh: The wall street journal: Available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303873604579493502231397942. [Accessed 21 October 2016]. Molinsky, A .2012. Code switching between cultures. Harvard Business Review, 90 (1), p 139-143. Read More