DECA - Commissary - Research Paper Example

? DECA- Commissary Table of contents Introduction 3 DECA Commissary - investigation of practices 3 Company Overview 3 Establishing an Ethical Environment For Others 4 Projecting a Positive Ethos 5 Conclusion 7 Works Cited 8 Introduction One of the most important requirements for the development of successful organizations is the existence of an ethical environment that will be used as the basis for all organizational activities. In practice, such projects are often proved difficult to be promoted, either due to the lack of sufficient funds or due to the lack of experience in designing/ establishing plans of this type. DECA Commissary is an organization that had to face such challenge. The particular organization operates in the context of the US Department of Defense. Since its first appearance, DECA Commissary had to face the following problem: ethics related to the organization’s activities were often not appropriately promoted. For addressing this issue effectively, the organization’s managers decided to establish an ethical environment for others and introduce a plan for developing Positive Ethos across the organization. These efforts are described below using relevant literature, where necessary, for evaluating the appropriateness of the measures taken. It is proved that the organizational initiatives for the incorporation of ethics in the organizational culture have been successful but minor improvements would be made so that the high performance of the organization in regard to ethics is standardized. DECA Commissary - investigation of practices Company Overview DECA Commissary is an organization aiming to promote a particular plan: the provision of grocery to American Military, not only to the active members of the Military but also the retirees, at cost prices (DECA Commissary Overview). In this way, the Commissary helps the members of the Military to make a plan of living and to be released from stress related to the costs related to the particular type of food. According to the organization’s website, ‘the authorized patrons purchase items at cost plus a 5 percent surcharge’ (DECA Commissary Overview). As a result, the members of American Military and their family can enjoy a life of high quality, as possible, a fact that helps them to increase their readiness towards the challenges that they have to face daily (DECA Commissary Overview). The organization’s success up today is highly based on its ethical environment, which is based on certain principles, such as ‘excellence in quality, sense of urgency, high standards and innovation’ (DECA Commissary Mission, Vision, Values). Establishing an Ethical Environment For Others The promotion of ethics within organizations has a series of benefits for stakeholders; reference is made in particular to those individuals who support the organization’s plans, i.e. employees, suppliers and shareholders, but also to those affected by the organization’s activities, such as the state and the public in general (Brown 2005). In practice, it has been proved that establishing an ethical environment in organizations can result to a series of benefits, such as ‘the improvement of society, the increase of productivity and teamwork and the promotion of ethical education as part of the organization’s strategies’ (Fernando 393). For Collins (2009) the criterion for considering a behavior as ethical is the following one: the particular action needs to have ‘an ethical motive and ethical consequences’ (Collins 5). In the context of organizations the above view would be translated as follows: a business plan would be ethical if the motives of its designers are ethical and if the consequences of the plan are expected to be ethical. In business environment, ethics is a concept related not just to society, i.e. morals, but also to business, i.e. ethical conduct. DECA Commissary has managed to establish an ethical environment for others through the following practices: a) at a first level, the organization tries to ensure that the members of the military will enjoy ‘a great shopping experience’ (DECA 2012 Annual Report 4); b) moreover, the organization emphasizes on the style of its governance, meaning especially ethical governance and promotion of ethical decisions (DECA 2012 Annual Report 4), c) also, the organization focuses on ‘the provision of a safe shopping environment’ (DECA 2012 Annual Report 4). Furthermore, the organization’s patrons are offered appropriate education in regard to healthy diet, so that they are able to assist consumers in choosing food products that promote health (DECA 2012 Annual Report 10). In according to the above, the organization promotes the development of ethical environment for others by securing the safety and quality of shopping environment, the quality of products offered and the training of its employees in regard to healthy diet. These initiatives indicate the high performance of the organization in regard to the promotion of ethics; still, these initiatives would be combined with a Positive Ethos; only in this way, the firm’s performance in regard to ethics will be remain high in the long term. Projecting a Positive Ethos There are certain criteria that can be used in order to understand the performance of organizations in regard to ethics. According to Fernando (2011) ethical organizations tend to have specific characteristics, including ‘a high corporate excellence and an ability to meet all needs of stakeholders’ (Fernando 393). In practice, this means that ethical organizations do not harm or threaten the interests of their stakeholders, a fact that should be taken into consideration for evaluating the performance of DECA Commissary in promoting a Positive Ethos. At this point, reference should be also made to the study of Menzel (2012). The above researcher states that when trying to promote ethics the administrators of organizations need to use ‘both formal and informal ethics management strategies’ (Menzel 25). This means that introducing a specific mode of employee behavior is not sufficient for promoting ethics within an organization. Using informal practices, such as meetings and other group activities, would be a practice quite helpful for transforming the culture of the organization so that ethics are incorporated in all organizational activities. Through such plan the promotion of Positive Ethos would be secured, even in the long term. Brown notes that the promotion of ethics within organization can be a challenging task (7). According to Brown, an organization can be ethical only if corporate integrity is fully established (7). Corporate integrity is a term used for showing ‘the existence of consistency in regard to the decisions taken’ (Brown 7), meaning especially the decisions of critical importance, i.e. the strategic decisions of the organization. From this point of view, an organization where corporate integrity has been successfully established is characterized by Positive Ethos. DECA Commissary is an organization where Positive Ethos has become an integrate part of organizational culture. This view is verified through the following fact: the organization has focused on the both the quality of its services and the quality of the products offered to the public; this practice indicates the respect of the organization to ethics. The organization could focus only on the price of the products offered to the public. It would be not necessary for the organization to emphasize on the shopping environment, the quality of products and innovation since consumers would be given an important advantage: cost prices of the products offered. The above practice could be also used for evaluating the level of the organization’s integrity: by emphasizing on the shopping experiences of its customers and the quality/ variety of its products the organization proves that its integrity is high. In the context of the issues discussed above, corporate integrity is related to Positive Ethos. Therefore, in DECA Commissary Positive Ethos would be considered as being highly developed, showing the importance of ethics for organizational plans. Conclusion The value of ethics for organizations in all industries cannot be ignored. For DECA Commissary also a similar assumption can be made. In the above organization, the promotion of ethics is reflected in the following two practices: the promotion of ethical environment for others and the establishment of Positive Ethos. The success of the organization in regard to the above two an initiative has been secured through specific practices: the emphasis on quality of services and products, the promotion of innovation and the establishment of ethical governance. In the organization’s Annual Report emphasis is also given to excellence, as a criterion for the development of the organizational plans (2012 Annual Report 11). The literature published in regard to this subject seems to verify the firm’s strategies for securing ethical environment for others and establishing a Positive Ethos. The only concern that would possibly appear would be the following one: in the long term, can DECA secure its high performance in regard to the above sectors? The answer depends on the potentials of the organization to secure the resources that would be necessary for such effort. Works Cited Brown, Marvin. Corporate Integrity: Rethinking Organizational Ethics and Leadership. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Collins, Denis. Essentials of Business Ethics: Creating and Organization of High Integrity and Superior Performance. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Defense Commissary Agency. 2012 Annual Report. Web. 2012. . Defense Commissary Agency. Organizational website. Web. 2012. . Fernando, A. Business Environment. New Delhi: Pearson Education India, 2011. Menzel, Donald. Ethics Management for Public Administrators: Leading and Building Organizations of Integrity. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2012. US Department of Defense. Organizational website. Web. 2012. . Read More