Ethics and Integrity: A Multitude of Dilemma in the Global Economy - Essay Example

Executive Development: Week Five Assignment Ethics and Integrity: A multitude of dilemma in the global economy Management 587 erased Texas A&M-Commerce In partial fulfillment of the requirements for MGT 587 Professor April 26, 2012 Table of Contents Page Abstract 3 Ethics and Integrity: A multitude of dilemma of employees in the global economy 4 Ethics and Integrity: the success behind a company 5 Ethics and the marketing strategy 8 Factors affecting Ethical and Integrity behavior 8 In Conclusion 11 References 12 Appendix 13 Abstract Ethics has been a global trend since the advent of globalization and modernization. Many companies have sprouted like mushrooms in all four corners of the globe wanting to sink in into the global economic arena and earn their actual place. Since a lot of companies will try various ways to succeed in the global market the importance of ethics comes in to set aside companies in conquering the economic world by means of unjust ways. Ethical codes were made by companies to safe guard the integrity of their organizations. Not only did ethics direct and guide companies in making decisions that are morally acceptable by the society it also opened doors for companies to be marketed and patronized by the society. But ethical decisions are not always as easy to attain for there are factors that could affect decision making skills of an individual whether an ethical or unethical decision is being made. This paper will cover ethics and integrity, ethical marketing strategy and the factors that affect ethics in a work place. Key word: ethics, integrity, factors, companies, marketing strategy Ethics and Integrity: A multitude of dilemma of employees in the global economy Every person spends almost half of his life learning. Parents invest and send their children to school so that at the very end of the school years a new breed of educated people is set loose along the adult world. Have people ever wondered that it is not just out of love but of security that parents make sure their kid gets the best education there is? And what could be the bottom line? Better education gets better job opportunities. And after setting loose in the vast world of economic arena the aim is now to find a better job, if not the best all parents have dreamt of for their children. Some say getting the best job feels even longer than the years spent in education. And it seems that the best jobs are like elusive prize after a hard fought battle in the job hunting arena. And then there it goes the end of the rainbow is the job hunters ever coveted. The hunting stopped but the making a mark and finding a personal meaning in the job, and eventually conquering, has just started. A good job requires a field of action wherein a person can put his best capacities to work and that there is essence in what he does; there is an effect in the world. People value work for the many wonderful gains people get from working or doing their job just right. Work brings food on the table, work pays the bills, work provides budget for leisure and other fun activities, and work gives personal and social satisfaction to a person. All these things are just a few of the many positive things a person can attribute to having a particular work. In the global economy today different kinds of work have sprouted from all kinds of fields of industry- textile, food, manufacturing, computer technology and many more. The world is a vast economic arena with many competitors and stakeholders participating in its global performance. The success of every company lies in the best marketing strategy to make it sell like hot cakes in the middle of a variety to choose from. And the best marketing strategy is something that helps a company achieve a sustainable movement towards the economic stress. And amidst the many choices of companies and industries to choose from every company must put their best foot forward in order to have the edge over the rest. Some companies stick to what is right while others stick to their goals no matter how to achieve it. Companies tend to do what they ought to do—that is to earn profit. The good thing is that companies are not purely made of profit directed machines but are amazingly, the profit generation and labor utilization are actually from labors of man—man being a spiritual being contributes the part where the ethical and moral aspects of a company somehow came from. Employees or workers of an organization serve as a moral check for a company guided by the principles of business and work ethics. Being responsible members of the society company employees directed to serve the customers make sure to give the best service to people in a clean respectable way of earning. By this the company and its laborers are directed to a profitable and moral path. Since the competition in the global market is very strict and very tight, companies all over the globe brought the competition into new heights by bringing out all their best efforts to make it big in the global economic scene. The tough competitions paved way for companies to try every single way to survive hence other results in activities away from the norms set for business activities. The question of ethics and integrity at stake is where conflicts arise. What are factors and influencers that are contributing to the Ethical and Integrity dilemma within employees in the Global Economy? Ethics and Integrity: the success behind a company Ethics in today’s business environment is an issue becoming more and more relevant to individuals, companies, and customers alike.  Ethics and the way people see and understand the world has been evolving. People no longer tolerate unjust acts of social class and deemed every person as equal for the world has seen social awakening after social awakening and changes are warranted and felt already (Business Ethics in a Global Economy). According to an article written by Czimbal & Brooks, an organization’s success depends on the integrity of its employees. Truly a multiple of problems are encountered in the business field when someone acts out of integrity. But what does integrity in business world connote that people often hear corporate species to be protecting their company’s integrity. Most importantly companies are being watchful of their reputation because a good reputation means more costumers and a pool of reputable employees that work better for the integrity of the company (Czimbal & Brooks, 2006). Thus integrity and ethics play an important role in the sustainability of a company. Ethics is defined as the study of right and wrong and of the morality of the choices individuals make. An ethical decision is one that is right according to some standard of behavior. Thus ethics in the field of business is the application of the moral standards to business situations (Pride et al. 2011, p. 39) meaning the companies decisions are of right moral choices and based on the acceptable norms people believe in. The more people believe in the choices and decisions the company makes the more they are to patronize the organization for they share the same values. The same issue runs for its employees, to avoid ethical conflicts a company must be one with its employees. Employees on the other hand should have belief in the morals of the company that the morals of the company should not be contradicting to the one of its employers. Otherwise employees are working against their own personal ethics and conflicts may arise. For example an employee thinks and deems upper level management to be corrupt hence that person wont abide by the rules provided by those top level management people for the employee does not believe in the way the superiors are running things around the business. Or the worst case scenario is that employees will also commit in corrupt ways and wrongdoings since the top level management members are also involved, thus the bottom line then is that the credibility of the company is at stake. In a similar context, ethics is also defined as an internal system of rules and laws (Czimbal & Brooks, 2006). Usually there are rewards when people follow the rules and on the contrary punishments when they are broken. Many organizations have developed ethics that employees are obliged to obey being under the rule of the organizational law. Integrity on the other hand is an internal system of principles which guides a person’s behavior. The rewards are intrinsic and are on a personal account because integrity is regarded as a personal choice rather than an obligation for it conveys a sense of wholeness and strength. Integrity is important in an organization for it implies that a company with integrity acts rightly on the basis of societal norms. When a company is operating with integrity customers rest assured that they are doing what is right even when no one is watching (Czimbal & Brooks, 2006). Ethics is unarguably an important organizational term for ethical decisions are part of everyday life for people who work in organizations. It is a part of the decision making skills in all levels of work and management. Though the decision depends greatly on the discretion of a person still ethical guidelines influence greatly how a person decides for the better (Ferrel et al., 2012, p. 5). There is a dynamic relationship with integrity and ethics, where each strengthens and reinforces the other. Integrity is the foundation for ethics. Good business ethics encourages integrity. A company that has worked hard to develop a high standard of integrity will likely transfer these principles to the whole of the organizations and their stakeholders. Possessing a high degree of integrity, a company and a person’s word and deeds will be in alignment with the ethical standards of the society (Czimbal & Brooks, 2006) and people will deem the company good and will be a target of public praise and support. Ethics and the marketing strategy Companies all over the globe must be able to keep up with the fast global trends in the global market. Innovations and strategies are to be made to be able to go with the race of modernization and technology. Effective internal marketing must be matched by a strong sense of ethics, values and social responsibility. Since today is the time of reforms—social, environmental and even health, people seek ways of advancing in many fields but without compromising the society, the environment and even health and safety. All these can be achieved through socially responsible marketing strategy. According to Kotler and Keller (2009, p. 675), majority of people now believe that satisfying customers, employees, and other stakeholders and achieving business success are closely tied to the adoption and implementation of high standards of business and marketing conduct. Companies and firms are finding that one important benefit of being seen as a socially responsible organization is the ability to attract increasing number of employees who want to work for a company they believe so much in and feel good about. This explains why today the most admired and most successful companies abide by the code of serving people’s interest and not only their own for these kind of companies have the largest market of believers to cater for (Kotler and Keller, 2009, p. 675). Factors affecting Ethical and Integrity behavior Ethical conflicts and conflicts of integrity of companies have become a significant priority in the twenty-first-century companies. A number of well publicized company scandals about deception and fraud in business have been brought about by a number of customers and even ex-employees that have caught public scrutiny and subsequently demanded improved business ethics and greater corporate responsibility to take into account. Companies must have the ability to recognize and deal with ethical issues prying over the company for highly visible business ethics issues influence the public attitudes towards the business and can eventually or abruptly destroy trust (Ferrel et al., 2012, p. 5). There is a strong possibility that a person with strong moral values can make ethically questionable decisions in a business setting because some factors can affect the person’s decision within the organizations to make it either ethical or unethical. Pride et al. have cited three general sets of factors to influence the standards of behavior in an organization (see figure 1) (2011, p. 41). The first set of factors comprises the Individual factors affecting ethics. First is the person’s individual knowledge of an issue. An individual can not totally make a definitely good decision out of scarce information regarding the matter. A decision maker with a greater amount of knowledge regarding a situation will be able to make steps and find a decision that will avoid ethical problems (Pride et al., 2011, p. 42). Other factors in this group are the person’s personal moral values and personal goals. Most people join organizations to accomplish personal goals and if a person feels that the job is not goal satisfying the degree of employee performance is highly affected. The types of personal goals an individual aspires to and the manner in which the goals are pursued have significant impact on an individual’s behavior in an organization (Pride et al., 2011, p. 42). The second set of factors that affect ethical behaviors are termed Social factors. Cultural norms are one of the social factors affecting ethics. A person’s behavior in the workplace is determined by cultural norms to some degree and these social factors vary from one culture to another. For example in some place it can be acceptable and ethical to receive something in return for a job well done in a government firm whereas in other countries these practices may be viewed as unethical and worst is that it is illegal. Co-workers are included in the factors that affect ethics in a work place. In a company where most of the people accept under the table transactions, a good employee might be attracted to do the same thing for it will be deemed “okay” hence acceptable within the environment since everybody is doing it already. Same thing with significant others for the morals of friends relatives can affect the perception of what is ethical or not in the workplace. Use of internet is another factor, because an employee’s behavior online can be viewed as offensive to co-workers and access to web sites not appropriate for work while actually at work affects employees’ performance and focus in meeting company goals. Lastly the third set of factors that affect ethics according to Pride et al. (2011, p. 42) is the opportunity factors. The presence of opportunity refers to the amount of leeway or freedom an organization permits its employees to behave unethically if the employee makes that choice. In some companies and organizations certain policies and procedures reduce the opportunity to be unethical. Given as an example is a fast food chain where one employee takes an order and another employee takes money as payment. This procedure reduces the risk of being unethical since the one handling the order is not the one handling the money and the one dispensing the product is not the one handling the money. Another factor is the presence of ethical codes so that people in the company have an idea of whether something is acceptable within the ethics of the organization. By this the employee is given an opportunity to decide under the guidelines of the organization and at the same time the integrity of the company is safeguarded from unwarranted unethical decisions. Enforcement therefore is another factor; the degree of enforcement of company policies, procedures and ethical codes affects majorly the opportunity. Company must have religious check and reinforcement of the organization’s policies and procedures regarding work ethics so that employees are reminded every now and then of the rightful ways of acting within the organizations. And most importantly through checking and reinforcement early phase of unethical decisions can be detected and dealt with at once before the company is caught off guard. In conclusion With all these in mind, companies will be able to set and achieve their goals without feeling guilty for not considering everyone around. These factors were distinguished one by one by business geniuses not for people just to know but most importantly to be aware of it and use the knowledge of it to target unethical ways in an intellectual way. The code of ethics in business puts things in the right perspective. It does not only direct companies to decide better also ethics provides ways of spreading goodwill to the society. In the context of the business world, ethics does not only provide higher profit opportunities - the greater gain lies in the satisfaction that companies have earned and yet they have helped at the same time. References: Business Ethics in a Global Economy (2012) Hubpages Inc. Retrieved from http://chezfat.hubpages.com/hub/Business-Ethics-in-a-Global-Economy Czimbal B. & Brooks M. (2006) Ethics and Integrity. The abundance company. Retrieved from http://abundancecompany.com/ethics_integrity.htm Ferrell O., Fraedrich J. & Ferrell L. (2012) Importance of business ethics. Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making 9th Edition. Cengage Learning, pp. 1-22 Kotler P. & Keller K. (2009) Managing a Holistic Marketing Organization for the Long Run. Marketing Management, 13th Ed. Pearson/Prentice Hall, pp. 665-702 Pride M., Hughes R. & Kapoor J. (2011) Being ethical and socially responsible. Business 11th ed. Cengage Learning, pp. 37-70 APPENDIX Factors affecting ethics Factors affecting the ethical decision making skills of a person within the work environment (Pride et al., 2011, p. 39) Read More