Business Ethics in Organizations Management Team - Saving the Turtles - Case Study Example

due Business ethics Introduction Business ethics is a major component of any organization’s managementteam. They are forms of professional ethics that deal with moral or ethical issues and ethical principles that may arise in any organizations’ business environment. They are used to guide the workers and the organization as a whole on how to conduct their duties responsibly in a workplace. It is also referred to as applied ethics which deals with questions that need ethical explanations in fields like legal, medical, business and technical ethics. It is also aimed at enhancing social values which are non-economical. In the case above, ethical values can be demonstrated where the law suggests that animals are to be given intrinsic value as well as their value of human welfare. It is therefore important to observe species such as the turtles which are known to be scarce thus should not be discriminated. Recent development in North American beaches has significantly reduced the existence of these species as that’s where they breed. Ethical dilemmas are a normal occurrence to many managers. Case presentation: Saving the Turtles Sea turtles in the US water have been an endangered species for a long time. Due to the growing number of endangered species in the US an act referred to as Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973. This was meant to protect the endangered and threatened animal and plant species. Turtle’s population in America has decreased in the past years as a result of many predisposing factors like beach development on their habitat, killing of females and taking away the eggs, leaking oil in the water basins, water pollution and extravagant fishing. Efforts have been set to protect the endangered species. These efforts include; after the female hatch, the eggs are taken to a protected marine environment where they would hatch, introduction of the TED, increase in the number of hatcheries and regulation of the inshore areas (Cruver 2002). Despite many challenges to save the turtle which included violence against the use of TED device, more efforts were put into place to enhance their safety. Anyone who violated the TED was fined depending on the circumstances. The TED device however faced many critics which followed with shrimpers protesting that they were forced to use TED. United States population consumes a lot of turtles and to save them they started importing from China and other countries where fishing of turtles is legal. Such kind of arguments showed that there was need for a law to protect the lives of sea animals and encourage them from reproduction. Business ethical obligations All businesses, organizations, workplaces and authorities have to have ethical obligations that guide them and play a major role in management. Ethics involves making of choices that at times do not seem correct but they finally they yield fruits. Saving of turtles is a very good initiative that the government of United States embarked on. Although the initiative was faced by many challenges, it was the obligation of the government and the concerned ministry to face the challenges and come up with solutions. It is an obligation of any organizations management to have policies and strategies will help them reach their goal. The goal of the Unites Stated government was to save the endangered species of animals and plants (Colvin 64-66). This turtle species have a right to protection as they are endangered. However, the government should also look into the case of the people who rely on the turtles for survival. They have rights too and they should not be forced into anything that will harm their bodies or families. All citizens, fishermen, shrimpers are entitle to fair treatment and provided with favourable working conditions. Business ethics and obligations enhance that there is mutual responsibility between and its workers. It involves the organization and the workers sharing common basic views and does their duties with lack of disrespect between them. On the other hand use of violence and protest is not an obligation of the workers. They should look for other ways of expressing their grievances to the concerned authorities. The authorities and the concerned fisheries ministries have a role to play in listening and attending to the fishermen complaints. This includes provision of workplace security, appropriate labor safety, medical services and acceptable salaries. Saving the turtles is an obligation of the government and the fisheries ministry but the fishermen have a role to play to by abiding by the laws and regulations set the government to protect the endangered species. Strategies of discharging the obligations For these ethical obligations to be discharged effectively to the parties involved there has to be power and influence which takes part in fostering the obligations to the required personnel. In this case the power and influence is the government. The fishermen, shrimpers and the society at large must also know and understand the ethical behavior they should portray to help in the success for this initiative of saving the turtles. The government can implement many policies, rules and regulations to guide the people on how to handle the problem of dealing with threatened and endangered species. This plays part in building a good relationship between the employees and the employer too. Business ethics is necessary to enhance organizations’ success. They enhance good relationship between customers, shareholders and investors, employers, suppliers, the authorities and the competitors. The ethics and obligations could be implemented first and then their results monitored to show their effectiveness. The government has put measures which include; fining fishermen and shrimpers going after endangered species, introduction of the TED device. This government can also work hand I hand with the ministry of fisheries and water and other organization working toward the same course to enhance success in setting the obligations and the ethics in protecting the endangered species. Many recommendations relating to implementation of strategies of discharging the obligations and ethic should be set aside by the government to be a tool in protecting and saving the sea turtles (McKay 1997). The government should also come up with a policy which outlines ways of behavior which could be used to provide moral and ethical behavior within the marine setting. These policies will play an important role in instilling the importance of safeguarding and protecting the endangered species in the marine setting. To make the fishermen and shrimpers stop their acts the government should provide to them another source of income. Provision of jobs will divert them from the fishing to other jobs that will keep them busy and occupied (Lynch 1998). Stern measures should be taken to people caught fishing for sea turtles and other endangered species in both water and land. This would serve as an example to all the other fishermen involved in this kind of job. Leadership Essay: Not a Fool, Not a Saint Leadership skills can be illustrated in the case shown about a factory known as Malden Mills. This case involves a manager who thought that treating his workers in the right manner was a good idea of improving his business position. He therefore paid them though his factory was not in operation due to fire. Aaron Feuerstein, the owner of the factory had been criticized by many saying that his ethical acts represented those of a foolish saint. These acts show that the managers were devoted and that they would not take on downsizing their workforce as this crush their spirits. Other people argued that the managers could have claimed for compensation from the insurance company, sell the premises and use the profits for his other needs since he was old enough to report to work daily. The insurance option would have made him rebuild faster as all the costs can be compensated. The other option was to advertise the factory as it had earlier been famous. Relocation the factory would have been the last option since his target was to concentrate more on quality of products and not costs incurred. At Lawrence where Feuerstein relocated, his search for skilled manpower who would work effectively made him earn more as costs were reduced and customers increased thus building the company’s image. This strategy was however criticized where it was said that to succeed in his business for a long time, Feuerstein would have concentrated more on building customers value. This method involves practicing ethical values by producing the products that customers are pleased with, encouraging good relationships within the company and finally offering better services to clients. This will improve technological skills thus motivate the employees to offer better services. The business then introduced research and development strategies which enabled the company to grow significantly. Quality was also improved and this resulted to attracting more customers into the business thus gained a competitive advantage over other businesses in Patagonia, North Face etc. The other strategy was employee retention and building customers’ loyalty. All this improved the productivity and Feuerstein was justified to have retained his employees since the risk occurred. This shows that business ethics is very important as it represents a genius to a successful business. The above case of saving the employees can be linked with the case of saving the turtles. This case was based on recognizing the need to save the lives of sea animals by protecting their breeding areas. Studies show that around 10,000 turtles die annually due to lack of air in the contaminated water. Sea foods have been some popular food and it is therefore important to improve reproduction. The industry also creates job opportunities to fishermen and the processing industries. The introduction of (TEDs) turtle excluder devices are used to hunt for shrimps and exclude entry of large sea animals was meant to develop the sea industry. However, the use of these devices was abandoned as studies showed that it was reducing the number of shrimps caught. It was discussed that animals meant to be protected as they develop an economy both socially and economically but the extent of protection is not known neither it has not been discussed who should be responsible to offering the right kind of protection to these species. Strategies: Leadership ethics Leadership ethics are very essential traits for a leader. Leaders should know the significance of ethical behavior in any organization. Effective leaders show their values and ethics in their styles of leadership, actions and the judgment they make when handling an ethical issue. Leadership ethics and values should be seen clearly as they play a part in all day to day activities and actions (Gentile et al 1993). Lack of trust in workplace could be a problem when it comes to handling of any ethical issue. This is because leaders who cannot be trusted can never be understood. There are many leadership values that we can learn for the case of saving the Turtles, the government and the other organizations concerned with saving and protecting the endangered species are the leader and they should portray good leadership. To start with, the have showed that they are dedicated leaders who are after the saving the turtles. This is evident after facing many challenges in their task. They also showed signs of determination, optimism and friendliness towards achieving their goal of saving and protecting the sea turtles. There are other leadership values portrayed by the government and the organizations working towards saving the sea turtle include ; collaboration, wisdom, efficiency, challenge, influence, generosity, empowerment and accomplishment to mention just a few. Leaders must be chosen according to the values and the ethics they uphold. They help in determining a leader’s character, influence others to be efficient leaders too (Seglin 75-77). Conclusion Business ethics is quite vital in the success of any organization. The initiative of the government to save the sea turtles is a very good initiative as it will also assist in saving all the endangered species of animals and plants (Colvin 64-66). In some instances organization and companies and authorities have make sacrifices for the sake of the country. Business and leadership ethics and obligation play a major role in determining the success of an organization. The government is a powerful body and it can play a very effective role in making sure that the obligations and ethics are met in any organization or work place. Works cited Colvin, G. Between right and right. Forbes, vol 146 (9) (2002) 64-66 Cruver, B. Anatomy of Greed.  New York: Carroll & Graf. (2002) Gentile, M., Parks, S., & Piper, T. Can Ethics be taught? Boston: Harvard Business School. (1993).  Lynch, J. Corporate Compassion: Succeeding with Care.  London: Cassell. (1998).  McKay, Q. Is lying sometimes The Right Thing for An Honest Person To Do?  Provo, UT: Executive Excellence. (1997) Nelson, K. & Trevino, L. Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk about How to Do It Right. New York: John Wiley & Sons. (1999).  Seglin, J. Good for Goodness’ Sake: What We Mean When We Talk About Ethics: CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives, vol. 18 (10) (2002). 75-77. Read More