Business and Law Ethics - Essay Example

Question A Business ethics refers to the correct set of principles or values for carrying out business. Many entrepreneurs use their own conscience or refer to their religion while carry out their business activities in a moral manner by differentiating between the right and wrong behaviours. However, due to constant pressure from immediate colleagues, superiors or even due to high level of competition in business environment, people end up employing unethical practices of reaping more profits. Some of these ways include: employing child labour, utilizing copyrighted resources, bribery and likewise. A business involves financial and non-financial costs. Labour and equipment are financial costs that any business entails. On the other hand, an ethical business also incurs non-financial costs of environmental impacts like noise. Thus, such ethical businesses also strive to minimize non-financial costs by taking up the responsibility of causing little or no harm to the people and environment (Kreng 11). The case of product default as explained to me by Doug is of great concern to the general public, and even the employees at Green Moves. The products of the company have to be environmental friendly. I fully understand as a new employee that I should abide by the policies of this given company. However, my position should not be compromised by intimidation. In business, ethical responsibilities include actions and activities that are certainly not systemized in the law, and do not directly serve the company’s economic needs. The moral incentives that guide the business are associated with doing the right things and prevent any harm without any external force or legal restraints. Every organization should have the responsibility of taking part in society in a cooperative manner. Business people recognize their self-presence in the society based on the fact that, business and societies go hand in hand. Business cannot progress without society and society cannot move ahead without business. Hence, every company must realize the presence of the society, which will in turn be important in increasing demand for amorally responsible business. For being ethical, organizations need to have good decision makers who perform their duties with justice, equality, fairness, neutrality, and value the rights of other people. Ethical behaviour requires the organization to treat individuals with fairness in their dealings relevant to the goals and objectives of the organization. Immoral and unethical actions take place when a decision leads a person or firm to benefit at the cost of another person or the society as one. Ethical responsibilities comprise of those practices and actions that are prohibited by the society even if the law has not stated it. It represents the standards, norms and criterion that invoke a thought of concern for the customers, employees, shareholders, and all stakeholders including the community. Therefore, ethical responsibility should be carried out in line with the desired ethical standards and the expectation of the societal customs and values. It is also important to accept and acknowledge the new, dynamic and developing ethical norms and values that have been adopted in modern societies today. However, companies should not in any way use the ethical norms to achieve their own goals. Ethical standards should not be negotiated or compromised in any way for the achievement of corporate goals (Kreng 45). Organizations also need to ensure they do not cause greater damage to the environment they are operating in, as well as employ strategies for minimizing any sort of damage to the societies. This is referred to as the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), with many of the businesses today adopting its use in achieving their long term goals. Henceforth, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be best defined as a business obligation to contribute towards prolonged economic development, operating with workers, their families, the immediate communities, and society as a whole in a known bid to gear towards improving their living standards. Furthermore, it also encompasses forces like provisions for workers, involvement in local communities, conducting ethical business dealings, green-working practices, and good corporate governance (Kreng 29). In the past few years, many companies and industries have been putting in place efforts that are aimed at developing codes of conduct in order to facilitate easy and ethical decision making for the managers and business owners. Although it is difficult to develop an accurate code of conduct for the perfect ethical practices, organizations need to strive to treat their employees in a fair manner, maintain good return for the shareholders of the company while, at the same time, contributing to the social and economic issues facing the members of the surrounding communities. Among the various aspects of implementing corporate ethics include; Codes of Behaviour An organization needs to have its statement outlining the principles that dictate the conduct of the management and the employees. These principles should be the core values to which the business should abide. These codes of conduct can be formulated through discussions that are carried out by the management together with employees, government institutions, immediate communities, and the stakeholders for the organization (Kreng, 2011). Stakeholders Involving the stakeholders enables a company to better comprehend the views and concerns of external forces that can be affected by the activities of a business. This will in turn translated to an easier decision making process that is to be followed by both the management and the business owners. Socio-economic Issues The government bodies in developing countries around the world face a lot of social and economic troubles. Thus, ethical businesses can cater for these issues by actively taking up the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) such as setting up educational campaigns against AIDS, Drug Abuse, and so forth. This will help to reduce the issues that the government bodies are facing. Total Corporate Responsibility Business organizations have a share in the society and the national economy. Many firms engage themselves in various environmental and social activities. They take responsibility of any effects the business activities carried out may have on the environment and on the social welfare of the entire community. Social responsibilities outline the basis on which a company shows concern for the society. These responsibilities are aimed at helping the business organization deal with various problems such as scandals and cruelties in business, globalization issues, and many other suspicions present in the business world (Kreng, 21). The company should ensure that the products they have do not harm the society. Despite basing on the profits that they postulate to have, there is need that they consider the cost/ benefit issues. Question B The contract should be a legally binding covenant involving more than one person as a witness during the agreement. There is a need to consider some necessary factors towards both sides before signing a contract. Generally, the fist factor to be provided towards the deal is certainly the readiness. The readiness is basically, an important factor for both sides involved in the deal. These factors must assure the legal binding of the covenant on both sides. Additionally, the second factor to be considered is called the agreement of an offer. The basic role of this factor is to depict the apparent legal binding agreement on both sides in line with the various terms in the offer. Here is an example of the case which involves the signing of the contract. The contract is regarded to have been signed in bad faith. The uniform commercial code section 2-306 states that, when two parties make a legal business deal for instance delivering products, one party has to be responsible for delivering the products to the other party and the other one is obliged to foot the bill. The fund managers predicted wrongly how the market would behave and also had less liquidity than the size of their debt. They should have made sure they had enough liquid assets that would cover their debt obligations. They should have studied and predicted the market correctly and they would have not met the fate they met. They would have survived. I would have been more reserved and conservative in the giving out of loans. When dealing with the mortgage market I would have been very strict and serious about standards of underwriting and I would also not over- rely on ratings. I would listen and consider the many forecasters who were constantly warning of an overheating market. I would put reasoning and good business ethics before greed. This would have ultimately saved the bank from its ultimate bankruptcy. Blog would greatly market the products of the company, since it reaches to a wider audience. Marketing entails selling out the known policies of a given organization. It always depends with the existing scenario; whether a company is setting up or expansion of its business is its goal. Competitive advantage greatly alludes to the setup where an organization has the ability to create benefits above the industry normal. If this capacity perseveres over the time the organization is said to have a reasonable focused point of interest. It might be characterized as the key advantage that one business substance has over its opponents inside the same focused industry. Accomplishing an aggressive playing point puts a business in a stronger position in relation to its context. Question C Viktor should provide a bid on the property lease. Any organization, in light of the many strengths and opportunities as outlined above, can keep on growing if they apply their advantages into practice. The company may ensure that their clients are always updated on any new developments within the company. This may include a promotional campaign on their products and even in the social media. Their website can also contain a column for its stakeholders to give their views. In response to the many outcries by their employees especially in Africa, they should move in quickly to ascertain whether the problem lies with management or the production phase. This brings about investment funds for the client and additionally speedier receipt of things buy, as they frequently do need to travel exceptionally far. It likewise implies that bundles are less inclined to arrive harmed or in poor condition, as they don't must be in travel as long or switch hands as ordinarily. Next, there are stores that you can stroll into and request from their presentation stock. This calls for nearby dissemination focus that is discovered in an alternate part of your city or state. This system permits stores to eliminate transportation sets back the ol' finances as things don't must be delivered in extensive amounts to every singular store. They are recently housed at a focal conveyance warehouse rather. The reserve funds that the organizations always see in their own transportation, warehousing, work and also different expenses, always decipher to investment funds in the last case. They likewise ordinarily imply that satisfaction courses of action are more solid moreover, as the system for taking care of circulation isn't as intricate and inclined to issues of tests. Question D The company failed to uphold the calls for ethics in its call for corporate social responsibility, as Green Moves is a company that has a calling to reach a great mass. It is important for a company to know where it financially stands in order to carry out a social responsibility. For example, a company should prepare an affordable budget that will be able to cater for different provisions in terms of material, support staff, give some money as donation or volunteer during the working hours. Therefore the company should make ensure that their funds are in line with the requirements in order to have a financially achievable responsibility. Thirdly, the company can involve its employees in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. The organizations that successfully implement their programs engage their employees. The employees have their own skills, knowledge and talents. For example, an employee specialized in marketing may be engaged in the promotional activities that benefit the people and the society. Thereafter, the message needs to be communicated to the stakeholders, who include other business partners, employees, customers, community, government, and other external groups in a bid to letting them understand the success of the corporate social responsibility. The company takes up a corporate social responsibility (CSR) so as to benefit the employees, the customers, the disadvantaged people of the society as a whole. The same given company that promotes its cause by informing people, advertising on media and using all possible network methods has a good opportunity of being viewed with positive comments by the entire society. Work Cited Kreng, Vain. Corporate Social Responsibility: Consumer Behavior, Corporate Strategy, and Public Policy. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 39(4), 529-541, 2011, Print. Read More