Business Ethics of David Jones Limited Company - Case Study Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Business Ethics Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Introduction Business ethics is the conduct that a company needs to stick to in its dealings. Though the ethics of a particular company might be different, they can be applied when the companies are globally interacting to each other and also when the companies are dealing with their customer. Managers therefore need to ensure that good ethics is practiced in their organizations since they not only build the company’s reputation but also they assist in the development of the company. Companies not only require good business ethics to develop but also the company’s management should be excellent. Through excellent management, an organization is capable of bringing its workers together so that it can easily achieve its anticipated goals and objectives by employing its available resources effectively and efficiently. Workplace ethics Though David Jones limited has been excelling in its operation across the country since 1830s, it is quite clear that poor work place ethics has been prevailing within the company. The management team, lead by Mark Mclnnes, has been concentrating on the growth and strong financial performance of the company while ignoring on the improvement of the employees ethics at work place. They ignored the fact that good ethics at work place is very important since it enables the managers to be able to manage the risk, attract and maintain top talent, strengthen their reputation and avoid legal trouble that might be caused by poor ethics at workplace. In David Jones limited company the management team is characterized by poor workplace ethics such as lack of support from higher management (Franzén, 2010). According to Carlopio et al (2008), one common myth that surrounds workplace ethics is the legal compliance that is equivalent to the organization with members that are morally sound. However, workers can operate within the law and still violates ethical standards, such as under or over emphasizing the information, or handling other employers without respect or courtesy. Understanding the differences between legal compliance and ethics is an important part of management. Always, when an organization has not complied with regulations and laws, causes can be tracked back to constant breaches of ethics norms that have left unnoticed or undisciplined (Brulez, 2011). For the case of David Jones limited, managers such as Mclnnes have been violating ethical standards. His moral behavior in the company has not been pleasing. Mclnnes made unwelcomed comments of sexual nature to her colleague, Fraser-Kirk. He also made unwelcomed sexual advances to her. His bad behavior was even witnessed by David Jones limited workers and the employees admitted that he has been behaving like that not only to Fraser-Kirk, but also to other female employees. The importance of good workplace ethics extend past simply keeping a company out of legal trouble. Organizations that have established ethical workplace surroundings enjoy an advantage in employing and retaining top actors, a good reputation and great trust among workers. In addition, offering ethics training assists workers resolve hard moral conditions on their own (Brulez, 2011). Though company’s ethical guidelines and provision of training, resources and guidance assist in creation of good ethics within the workplace, enforcement of these ethics is very essential. It has been recommended that one way of enforcing good ethics in any organization is through whistle-blower system. In this system, workers can report unethical habits to their managers. However, having simply a whistle-blower system in place is not enough in enforcing a good ethical behavior in an organization. Managers need to be committed to the enforcement activity and encourage workers to come forward minus fear of retaliation (Brulez C., 2011). Actions, skills and attitudes of David Jones limited managers According to Travis (2010), a good manager needs to have the correct behavior, skills and attitude to run the company. The manager must be a good organizer that is he or she has to work out on how to acquire a parcel from one place to another, how long it will take and who is supposed to do it or how many workers are required to achieve an order. A good manager also needs to get the employees to work overtime if necessary. In David Jones Limited, Mclnnes is good organizer. He brought a positive turn around in the performance of the company. He ensured that the company is committed in making valuable contribution to Australia society and to the safety, health and welfare of every employee, visitor and customer. A good manger needs to have excellent judgment skills. He must be very fast at decisions making and in taking actions, fast to spot what requires adjustments or changes, fast to analyze what is happening. A good manager needs also to be capable to calculate the person he can calculate and the person he cannot. The manager needs to know the deal that is worth taking and the deal that waste time and money. He or she also needs to know the contracts that need to be cancelled or recalculated (Travis, 2010). A good manager must be good at selecting the potential workers that are worth keeping on or the staffs that should be given a pay rise or the staffs that should be sacked. If the manager has a staff member who is trustworthy and skilled he might decide to train the individual or move the person to a different department. The manager needs to be capable of working these stuffs out without assistance from other people. In David Jones Limited, public relations general manager Anne-Marrie Kelly does not have a good judgment skill. Fraser-Kirk complained to her and Koch about Mclnnes bad behavior but she did not take any action. Anne-Marrie Kelly and other managers in the company told Fraser-Kirk, the company’s potential staff that was worth to be maintained, to stay at home, simply because the Mclnnes was making sexual advances to her. Managers need to have enough stamina that is, their stamina must be full. If he or she does not have good health, or if the manager is unfit or easily tires, he cannot keep up. He needs to capable of working long hours, often or sometimes they should work for seven days a week. If the managers gets exhausted, worn out or fed up then doing other things will be hard for him or her. Mclnnes has been a person full of stamina since he was employed. He managed to lead the management team that has been stable throughout the period of the company’s growth and powerful financial performance until June 2010, the time that he departs the company (Carlopio et al., 2008). A manager must be that person who places the work first. If he is that kind of a person who always take time off to go on holiday or spending a lot of time with their spouses, girl friends, family or pursuing his hobbies at the expense of the company, then even if he often work very hard while at work, he cannot be an asset to the company. He needs to agree that his girl friends, spouses and other interests depart on the back burner as he is concentrating on his tasks. If for any case they complain, he should not loosen and give in to their demands. It is always significant to the manager to succeed in business than it is for him to be popular. Mclnnes is not a person who puts his work first. He new very well the consequences of making unwelcomed sexual advances to his colleague, Kristy Fraser-Kirk, but he did not stop. He displayed his behavior openly without caring that he is being seen by other colleagues such as Kelly and Koch. Managers need to be friendly and easy at work so that clients, staffs and colleagues can like and respect him or her. This makes the workers to be able to listen to him and work as he had directed. Staffs need to have that feeling that the manager is approachable and that they can confide in him or her. The manager needs to have an air of liability and also blend in as though she or he was a friend. In David Jones Limited, public relations general manager, Anne-Marrie Kelly, is friendly and approachable. This is because when Kristy Fraser-Kirk got annoyed with Mclnnes bad behavior she felt free to disclose it to Kelly. The advice that Kelly gave Kristy depicted that she was friendly and ready to help any staff member. A good manager needs also to be responsible and reliable. David Jones manager, Mclnnes, is a responsible and reliable person. Even though, Mclnnes used to sexually harass his employees, he ensured that he was on time at any place that he is needed. He ensured that work is being done perfectly. This therefore, made other workers to respect him, even after being aware of his bad behavior towards female employees. A manager needs to be inventive. He needs to thick fast on his feet. In any case a problem arises he must see it coming before it occurs. Being capable to avoid the problem is much better that attempting to put it right after it has occurred. If the problem cannot be prevented, the manager must be capable of solving the problem very fast. If he is easily flustered or lack initiative then he might fail to succeed. Kelly, a public relation manager in David Jones limited, is not that inventive. Kristy raised a complaint to her about Mclnnes behavior but she was not able to work on the matter very fast until the matter was worsen up and caused the company to loose a lot of money. Management change Improvement in skills of management is principally the responsibility of the learner. To attain development, the principles of management skills need to be applied outside the class room. A good manager needs to know the importance of developing management skills on continuous basis. Many managers always find it hard to manage people. It is therefore important for managers to develop their skills towards people’s management. According to Carlopio et al (2008), senior managers need thinking time. This always assists them in creating a vision for the future and organizes how their company will achieve this vision. The management of David Jones Limited needs to change in a way that it can inspire its team, coach them, bring out their innate talents and search for opportunities for them to progress and learn. Effectiveness in management is very vital in any organization. The similar skills needed in managing people effectively are also required in effective management. The best manager always attain a given targets while making the best use of every relevant resources. Effective managers in any company always follow this fundamental principle. It is not just a matter of obtaining the results but also how the results are obtained. Management effectiveness involves efficiency, which implies reaching a destination with little cost. The only distinction between business leaders and simple self-management is the amount and types of resources entailed and the complexity of duties that need to be managed. The more complicated the task is, the more complex the planning, coordination and monitoring should be to attain success efficiently. Management of a wide range of individuals, huge amounts of money and working to fixed timeframes always creates a huge challenge for even the best business leaders. Leadership is quite different. Business leadership is all about supporting new directions but not about the execution of existing effective directions (Carlopio et al., 2008). Recommendations To correct the situation that occurred in David Jones limited company and to improve this organization, employees inclusive of managers need to be trained about work ethics. They need to be trained on how to stick to business ethics while at work. The company’s code of ethics should also be revised so that it can explain well the behaviors that the managers and the staffs of the company need to adhere to. It is important to provide this type of training to managers and employees because effective ethics training teaches workers sensitivity to ethical matters. It teaches them on how to identify possible conflicts and how problem situation can be resolved by following the policy of the company. Ineffective training programs is not advisable since they expect workers to follow common sense policy to resolve conflicts or scare workers by expecting them to interpret complicated philosophical or lawful guidelines on their own. Training need to be refreshed every now and then to address current issues brought about by technology or workforce changes (Brulez C., 2011). It is very important for David Jones limited to establish ethics program. Establishment of ethics program involves the input, cooperation, interaction, making of decision and the on going commitment of numerous individuals. Proper planning is significant, but the efficiency of any approach of association also depends on traits that are unique to the company’s culture, the management style of the managing director and the management team, the organization’s relationship with its board of directors. Managers should avoid discussing workplace ethics since its discussion can raise sensitive issues. Some individuals in the company might not find it easy or might uncomfortable in discussing these matters (Joseph, 2010). Ethics program are supposed to influence how individuals think about and attend to ethical matters that arise at work. David Jones limited need to provide workers with ethics standards, training and resources to acquire advice so that the organization can develop a work environment that is okay for workers to realize that they posses an ethical dilemma and also can easily avail the resources to guide workers when working through such dilemmas and before decision making. It is very important to have a structure in the company that informs individuals how to report when anyone does something wrong. Summary Good ethics within the workplace is very important. Employees need to work within the law and avoid violating the rules and regulations stipulated by the company. Managers such as Mclnnes, was operating outside the law thus violating ethical standards. His bad behavior made the company to loose a lot of money. Managers also should ensure that their actions, skills and attributes at work are excellent. Managers need to be organized, have excellent judgmental skills, friendly, inventive and enough stamina at work. In David Jones Company some managers such as Kelly did not have good judgmental skills. She was not able to spot where the problem was and could not able to fore see the consequence of Mclnnes bad behavior. Management change is very important especially in companies that are experiencing management problems. Management Change is a structured approach of transforming people, teams, and companies from existing state to a desired future state. It is an organizational procedure that aims at empowering workers to embrace and accept amendments in their existing business environment. Management change is essential in David Jones Limited Company. Managers in this company need to learn on how they can improve their management skills. They need to ensure that their management is effective that is reducing company’s cost as much as possible. Conclusion From our discussion, it is quite clear that the workplace ethics in David Jones Limited Company has not been good. The company has been managed badly by some managers who extended their love emotion to the workplace. The managers have not been good in handling problems that arise in the company. Though the company had code of ethics that was meant to control the behavior of both managers and other employees, the managers have not been working within the code instead the managers such as Mclnnes has been misbehaving at work. Mclnnes misconduct led to huge loss of funds by David Jones Limited. It is therefore very important for David Jones limited Company to change its management. The company needs to improve its management skills and should also make sure that its management is effective. Bibliography Sullivan-Marx, E. M., 2008, Leadership and Management Skills for Long-Term Care. Springer Publishing Company. Retrieved February 8, 2011 from Brulez C., 2011, Qualities of a good manager. Retrieved February 8, 2011 from Travis E., 2010, Good Workplace Ethics. Retrived February 8, 2011 from Dyck B. & Neubert M., 2008, Management: Current Practices and New Directions. Cengage Learning, New York. Carlopio, J, Andrewartha, G, Whetten, DA & Cameron, K., 2008, Developing Management Skills: A comprehensive guide for leaders, 4th edn, pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest Franzén H., 2010, Management Quality and "the good work-place" retrieved February 8, 2011 from < http://www.themanager.org/strategy/Management_Quality_2.htm> Joseph J., 2010, Ethics in the Workplace. Retrieved February 8, 2011 from Read More