Business Ethics and the Internet - Essay Example

?Critical Discussion of Business Ethics and the Internet Table of Contents Introduction 3 Facebook and its Ethical Performances 4 Brief Overview of Facebook 4 Ethical Performance of Facebook 4 Ethical Challenges Faced By Facebook 6 Recommendations to Resolve Various Ethical Issues 8 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction Ethics has been observed a growing concern for the modern day organisations which is significantly altering the strategic directions of the global firms. In relation to the present fiercely competitive scenario of the international business environment, it has been apparently observed that the organisations seek to develop or restructure their business strategies in order to protect their operations from facing various types of potential ethical constraints. Moreover, it is widely accepted that the organisations often tends to improve their range of social responsiveness activities to reduce or to protect themselves from various external hindrances (McGraw-Hill Education n.d.). Emphasising upon the changing phase of the organisational policies associated with business ethics, the primary objective of this report is to briefly analyse the ethical performance of a Social Networking Site (SNS) named Facebook in the global social networking industry. The discussion of this paper will incorporate the core ethical practices that perform by Facebook along with different issues are likely to hinder its overall business performance. Additionally, the report will provide adequate suggestions intending to protect the organisation from encountering various ethical dilemmas. Facebook and its Ethical Performances Brief Overview of Facebook By providing exceptional experience of social media service to the millions of global users, Facebook has recognised itself as one of the leading and dominating organisations throughout the globe. It was established in the year 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg through his unique thoughts of connecting a range number of global users on a single platform. According to the present day context, Facebook has been able to acquire nearly 1.1 billion of Monthly Active Users (MAUs) across different parts of the globe. Moreover, the company is also renowned for its transformational growth since its commencement in the global social media network. The company basically earns its revenues from advertising amounted to US$1.46 billion which has surpassed the rate of 38% growth as compared to the year 2012 (Facebook, 2013). Ethical Performance of Facebook An effective practice of business ethics can significantly increase the performance of the organisations which ensures to enhance their credibility in the competitive business environment. In this regard, the practice of adequate code of ethics can assist the organisations to deliver quality products or services to the customers enable them to attract as well as retain a huge group of loyal customers (Brimmer, 2011). Moreover, adequate quality assurance of the organisational offerings can also facilitate the organisations to meet the desired expectations of the customers. Moreover, practicing a well-built set of business ethics can also ensure to improve the organisational productivity that can be considered as one of the major beneficial factors for the present business environment. Additionally, an appropriate ethical performance of the organisations also brings different advantages and enables it to gain competitiveness in the growing global business environment (Dimitriades, 2007). In order to determine the ethical performance of Facebook, it has been viewed that it incorporates a wide practice of ethical conducts which ensures protecting from various ethics related concerns. In relation to the ethical practice of Facebook, the company broadly adopts as well as executes well-built ethical guidelines with regard to its independent nature in the global social media services. An effective governance system enables the company to efficiently perform its business operations in different global nations. The code of business ethics of Facebook has been viewed to constitute adequate guiding principles ranging from privacy of user account to social responsiveness activities (Facebook, 2013). Moreover, Facebook seeks to practice adequate principles relating to its intellectual property rights, transparency of conducting effective reporting and auditing activities along with other related concerns. In order to protect its independent and dominant nature in the growing social media web, Facebook tends to possess range of protective guidelines and procedures supporting it to maintain competitiveness in this competitive landscape of business market (Simmons, 2011). Additionally, the corporate governance initiatives can also be taken as a major consideration in terms of focusing on the ethical performance of Facebook in the global social media market. The corporate governance framework of the company merely depicts the transparency concerning its deliverance of different social services through the medium of internet media which is strengthening its sustainability in the global market. In this regard, it has also been viewed that Facebook tends to perform various social and community development programs which further enable the company to gain its credibility in the respective industry (Facebook, 2013). It can be identified that the various ethical principles that follows by Facebook are comparatively different as compared to other social media companies. The code of business ethics of the company significantly increases its dominant nature and also ensures to enhance the amount of its credibility in the fiercely growing social media domain (British Medical Association, 2012). In this regard, it can be proactively stated that the code of ethics formed by Facebook improves its social media services and it further enables the company to gain a large number of global users across the different regions of the globe. In addition, the ethical performance of the organisation also tends to empower its capabilities in order to effectively address potential constraints associated with its dominant social media services (Williams, 2010). Ethical Challenges Faced By Facebook Although Facebook maintains following well-built principles and standards for developing its overall business or operational performance, the company has also faced certain critical challenges creating a big question to its ethical considerations in providing social media services to the worldwide customers. In this regard, it can be identified that different challenging factors hinder the ethical performance of Facebook in the global social media industry by a significant level. A few of the major ethical issues that the company faced have been discussed hereunder. Online Privacy Facebook has been facing various types of online privacy related challenges with regard to its deliverance of social media practices. The security of the users’ accounts has been identified to be a major privacy related challenge for Facebook which considerably creates different constraints towards its dominant nature in the social media domain. In this regard, the organisation lost a huge figure of users which were affected due to the security concern. The security concern was mainly cropped up as the fortification of users’ data and information and security setting of the users. In this context, the social media giant has faced the issue of changing user’s privacy setting without any notification which created a major drawback for Facebook in the similar industry (Mui, 2011). Security and Customisation of User Accounts Moreover, Facebook is often criticised for its continuous customisation and security related concern which also crops different ethical dilemma for Facebook. In this regard, the development of user accounts and their inherent data often faced with vulnerable circumstances in terms of sharing personal information with other unknown users. Therefore, it can be stated that the products or services that offers by Facebook can also generate significant ethical issues concerning its customisation and security of user accounts (Stone, 2008). Patent Disputes In relation to patent related concern, Facebook have also faced the issue of scamp regarding its unauthorised use of ‘Like’ button which generally used by the users to recommend their own opinion through its personal online site. In this context, it has been observed that Facebook faced lawsuits against its integration of ‘Like’ button in the user profiles (BBC, 2013). Inadequate Customer Support Lack of providing online support to the potential customers is also viewed to be a major ethical issue for Facebook in the social media environment. In this regard, it has been apparently observed that the users of Facebook often face different problems relating to their security setting or any application relating to their user accounts. Therefore, it can be further stated that the lack of customer support is also growing as an unfavourable factor for Facebook to practice its ethical performance in the social media web (GIL Community, n.d.). Recommendations to Resolve Various Ethical Issues Due to the fiercely growing technological advancements especially in the social media domain, it is widely accepted that Facebook has been significantly facing privacy related issues. In order to effectively address different privacy related issues, Facebook must need to develop an efficient privacy concerned principles that reflects the notion of legal and philosophical attributes (Infosys Limited, 2011). The practice of adequate legal guidelines concerning patent and other related governing attributes can effectively ensure the organisation to minimise various potential issues concerning business ethics. Moreover, the organisation should also need to adopt, execute as well as to maintain strong legal based mechanism or policy integration initiatives for strengthening the level of privacy in individual accounts (Simmons, 2011). An effective and well-built ethical guideline regarding its patent rights can also facilitate Facebook towards lessening different potential ethical constraints which may hinder the organisation to achieve its competitiveness. In this context, the organisation should highly prioritise practicing adequate guidelines regarding its patent rights and other related activities. The organisation should therefore highly emphasise upon making incessant innovation regarding its product or services which can further enable it to independently operate its dominant role in the global social media internet industry (Duquenoy & et. al., 2010). In relation to the increasing competition in the social media market, Facebook should also need to highly prioritise offering adequate customer support initiatives in order to mitigate security concerned problems. In this similar context, the organisation should provide adequate instructions and guiding techniques to each user account which can facilitate its customers to easily resolve various account related difficulties. The practice of adequate support to each user of Facebook can enhance the credibility of the organisation and it can also enable the organisation to sustain its dominant position in the social media industry (Eid & Ward, 2009). Conclusion The code of business ethics can be considered as one of the effective and benevolent set of guiding principles that empowers an organisation to reinforce its global position. The principles within the business ethics considerably involves affective policies, norms as well as guiding principles that further enables the marketers to strengthen their long-term sustainability in the competitive business environment. In relation to the present business scenario, Facebook has been recognised to be one of the widely used social media sites which enable the global users to communicate and interact with different users belonging to different regions throughout the globe. Although the company possesses adequate ethical responsibility in order to ensure its user possessing an elevated level of security, it has been viewed that the company faces certain critical issues relating to ethical concerns. Therefore, it can be affirmed from a broader perspective that the company should highly focus upon developing its privacy and security related concerns in order to sustain its long-term competitiveness in the fiercely growing social media industry. References BBC, 2013. Facebook Sued Over 'Like' Button. Technology. [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21411622 [Accessed May 10, 2013]. Brimmer, S. E 2011. The role of ethics in 21st century organizations. Publications. [Online] Available at: http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/lao/issue_11/brimmer.htm [Accessed May 10, 2013]. British Medical Association, 2012. Using Social Media: Practical and Ethical Guidance of Doctors and Medical Students. Department of Medical Ethics. 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