Work Ethics and CSR Demand Maintenance of Professional Standards - Coursework Example

MANAGING SUSTAINABLY ETHICS AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Student’s name Code & Course Professor’s Name University City Date Introduction Companies and organizations function within and before the eyes of the public. Therefore, the public provides a reliable benchmark through which the operational principles and mechanisms of the organizations are scrutinized. Essentially, the public is considered as a factor that affects or determines the overall success of entities and their implications for the operational procedures cannot be overlooked. As a result entities strive to formulate or device strategic operations that are in the best interest of the public, rather, that would paint appealing images to the eyes of the public. As such work ethics and corporate social responsibility play a major role in achieving this public appeal or favorable public opinion (Whiteford & Pereira 2012). Work ethics stipulate professional standards through which employees should work within while corporate social responsibility refers to the overall role and impacts that entities exert on the society with regards to the immediate environment, cultures, social lives and economy. These factors are of significant importance in the projection of organizational success. It is, therefore, necessary to manage them effectively to maximize the performance and while gaining public acceptance. In the bureaucratic era, power and authority were seen as a crucial tool through which professional virtues were imposed to maximize on service delivery and productivity. However, with the transition, to the post-bureaucratic era, which was characterized by Human Resource Management values and norms were introduced through which people’s actions were judged in connection with their implicit standards is another control measure. Consequently, Human Resource Management helped achieve the setting of required ethical standards while promoting corporate social responsibility. Human Resource Management is significantly characterized by some attributes that are necessary for the fostering of efficiency in service and performance. Some of these attributes include trust, empowerment, shared responsibility and individual treatment. As such, this paper examines these attributes and their relevance and contribution to the sustainable and effective management of Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. Trust Basing on the post-bureaucratic point of view, trust refers to the application of normative control without reliance on a set of rules. Mckenna, Garcia-Lorenzo & Bridgman (2010) explain that trust works on the assumption that employees are self-driven and inclined towards doing what is right always in their areas of jurisdiction with minimal or without any supervision. A trusted employee, therefore, is reliable hence proving to be a crucial human resource feature. In the rare cases where total mutual trust is achieved between the employer and the employee, there is harmonious cooperation, coordination and effective service delivery in a conducive working environment (Karande, Rao & Singhapakdi 2002). Trust is solemnly reliant on personality, conscience, and individual human conduct, and most times can be easily compromised for selfish purposes. In the management of ethics and corporate social responsibility, the trust would also be a significant asset. Sharma & Jain (2013) postulate that trusting the employee to work within the set code of ethics stipulated by the profession or abiding by organizational regulations under minimum or no supervision, within or without the organization premises is an effective facilitator and promoter of ethical conduct. However, for trust to be granted, it must be earned by the employee. At least, it is important for the employees to know that they are trusted. Research has revealed that a booming 92% of employees who feel trusted, enjoy performing their work duties, while 74% of this number will always be motivated by this level of trust to being more resourceful and productive (Whiteford & Pereira 2012). Trust bestowed upon the employee would achieve he realization of ethical standards in the workers desire to appreciate the trust. However, while according trust, caution should also be taken by instituting particular monitoring or assessment measures that would be able to keep track of the employees’ performance over time. Since trust could be compromised, blindly relying on it could prove risky in organizational ventures (Hunt, Wood & Chonko 1989). Empowerment Empowerment is considered a representation of how organizations have awarded power and authority to the subordinates or those in lower ranks in an organizational hierarchy. As an HR feature, it entails the creation of an environment where the employees are granted adequate power within their area of jurisdiction to make decisions. For example, at the airports, the security team that checks luggage can decide on whether to allow a passenger to take his luggage to the plane or not. In a case where a risky item is spotted, the team can decide to dispose of the item or forbid the passenger from boarding the plane. They are empowered to make such decisions instantly as their role requires them to do so. Empowerment is a significant confidence booster to the employer and helps them develop a sense of personal identification and individuality with the organization. It is a personal motivator to the employee and improves the overall organizational performance. Seibert, Wang & Courtright (2011) postulate that empowering of employees directs their operations and decision-making processes therefore making them require lesser or no supervision at all. Considering this. Therefore, empowerment could be key in the management of ethics and CSR. Work ethics and CSR demand maintenance of professional standards and self-drive in working towards achieving the set organizational goals and objectives (Forsyth 1980). Empowerment is crucial towards attaining this. The flawless empowerment situation permits employees in organizations to work with minimal or without supervision to achieve set goals. Personal moral philosophies and personal ethical ideologies are major factors that impact upon the decision-making processes (Karande, Rao & Singhapakdi 2002). In the managing sustainably the corporate ethical values, using empowerment, the decision making of the employees could be scrutinized against standards of relativism and idealism and the overall impacts of the decisions made on performance (Forsyth, Nye & Kelley 1988). It is possible that analyzing their decisions, whether from the idealistic or relativism perspective, could determine the ethical standards demonstrated by the employees in their decision-making process. For example in running a ‘high traffic’ fast food restaurant, an attendant may prefer attending to the old persons first to prevent them from queuing for long which is ethically acceptable looked at by the idealist while another attendant may strictly follow the queuing system without considering the age and still be ethically appropriate. As such, empowerment would prove useful to the manager for the observance of the staff’s ethical standards in decision making (Hunt, Wood & Chonko 1989). Individual Treatment During the bureaucratic era, there was much emphasis put on impersonality by the Human resource organization, which changed to an emphasis on personal treatment in the post-bureaucratic times. Treatment of employees as reliable and valuable organization assets is significant in motivating efficiency and productivity that results to sustained good performance. Management focus on treatment of the employee is thus crucial in the managing of the ethics and corporate social responsibility of the workers. Sharma & Jain (2013) further posit that ethical values within an organization are a reflection of a shared understanding of the appropriate behavior and how ethical issues will be handled within the organization. These ethical values in an organization have the potential to influence the moral philosophy of the managers, thus controlling the treatment accorded to the employees. Corporate ethical values, for instance, influence the delineation standards of the thing worth doing versus the right thing to do. Regarding the personal treatment accorded to the employees, there is a necessity of ensuring that from the point of recruitment, the employee is made away of the required ethical standards that govern the work environment and the possible consequences in the effect of alienation from these codes. With this demarcation of what is right and what is wrong set in advance, the managers can control the workforce with better treatment (Durocher, Gibson & Rappolt 2014). This is enhanced by the fact that most employees would strive to stick within the stipulated ethical behavior and are content with the inside operations. The treatment of the workers will, therefore, depend on how effective they operate within the corporate ethical values, which will provide a benchmark for ethical performance against employee productivity. Besides the employee knowing the expected standards, unconsciously exercises control that in turn accords them a sense of freedom in the organization, which is an economic resource for economic prosperity. As such, most bureaucratic entities revolve around the freedom concept in the managing sustainable ethics and CSR. Shared Responsibilities The emphasis of the human resource management and that replaced bureaucratic era is decentralization and authority devolution. This involves the systematic allocation of duties and responsibilities to different employees that determine their roles in the organization (Laczniak & Inderrieden 1987). While others may be secluded in individual roles, others may be team players but at the long run all efforts and tasks are geared toward achieving the set organizational goals. By sharing responsibilities, managers can sustainably manage ethics and CSR. Delegation of duties imply that all the employees understand their different roles and the requirements they are required to fulfill within particular expected and acceptable standards of work (Forsyth 1980). In an attempt to post significantly positive performance, employers are forced to conform to corporate ethical values, eventually leading to overall company success. Besides, categorization into different roles of shared responsibilities breaks down the general structure of the company into smaller entities that are easily manageable, facilitating observation of ethics adherence with ease. Shared responsibilities could provide chance of growth of skills and expand the employees’ scope of knowledge but at the same time offer avenues through which ethical standards are established and sustained (Seibert, Wang & Courtright 2011). For instance, in cases where teams’ roles are assigned, each member would unconsciously crosscheck their performance with regards to ethical standards with regards to other colleagues. As a result, these shared responsibilities unknowingly set a certain behavioral code that governs performance. For instance, in an open office, one would not ask for bribes from clients because other workers are there too. However, there is always still the possibility that there may be negative influence within the same teams. As such, sharing responsibilities could be criteria for managing ethical behavior but it equally requires special monitoring to ensure its general effectiveness (Laczniak & Inderrieden 1987). Conclusion In conclusion, corporate social responsibility, and ethical standards are essential key factors in the achievement of organizational goals as established in this paper. Therefore, it is important for Human resource managements to manage them sustainably. In order to do this, the managers need to effectively device working strategies and plans that would confine workers within certain standards of ethical behavior for increased productivity and successful performance (Hunt & Vitell 1986). In this paper, trust, empowerment, individual treatment of the workers and sharing responsibilities are presented as some of the characteristic features of the post-bureaucratic era of Human resource management but can also go a long way to managing ethics and CSR. Workers, on their part, should also strive to observe ethical standards at all times. Reference List Durocher, E., Gibson, B. E., & Rappolt, S. (2014). Occupational justice: A conceptual review. Journal of Occupational Science, 21(4), 418-430. Forsyth, D.R. (1980). Taxonomy of Ethical Ideologies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39 (1), 175-184. Forsyth, D.R., Nye, J.L., & Kelley, K (1988). Idealism, Relativism, and the Ethic of Caring. Journal of Psychology, 122, 243-248. Hunt, S.D., & Vitell, S (1986). A General Theory of Marketing Ethics. Journal of Macromarketing, 8, 5-16. Hunt, S.D., Wood, V.R ., & Chonko, L.B (1989). Corporate Ethical Values and Organizational Commitment in Marketing. Journal of Marketing, 53, 79-90. Karande, K., Rao, C.P., & Singhapakdi, A (2002). Moral Philosophies of Marketing Managers: Comparison of American, Australian, and Malaysian Cultures”, European Journal of Marketing, 36(7/8), 768-791. Laczniak, G.R., & Inderrieden, E.J (1987). The Influence of Stated Organizational Concern upon Ethical Decision Making”, Journal of Business Ethics, 6(4), 297-307. McKenna, S., Garcia-Lorenzo, L., & Bridgman, T (2010). Managing, managerial control and managerial identity in the post-bureaucratic world. Journal of Management Development, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 128 – 136 Seibert, S. E., Wang, G., & Courtright, S. H (2011). Antecedents and consequences of psychological and team empowerment in organizations: a meta-analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(5), 981. Sharma, M. K., & Jain, S (2013). Leadership Management: Principles, Models and Theories. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies, 309-318. Whiteford, G. E., & Pereira, R. B (2012). Occupation, inclusion and participation. Occupational science: Society, inclusion, participation, 185-207. APPENDIX Reflexive response to Tutor’s feedback My paper consists of three major sections: Introduction In this section, I have the developed an overview of my argument. Since the bulk of the essay was to revolve around managing sustainable ethics and corporate social responsibility, I have included the description of the two terms and explained why it is important for manage them. To establish a linkage with what was done on essay 1; in the introduction I also compare the bureaucratic and post bureaucratic eras of employment and single out factors from the post bureaucratic era that could be used in sustainable management of ethics and CSR. Generally, I tried to synchronize all this to achieve cohesion and flow. Body I divided this section into the same subtitles like I did in essay 1. However, some subtitle names were slightly changed to suit my argument. I stuck to the characters of the post bureaucratic HR as identified in essay 1 and used them to exemplify management of ethics and CSR. Using a number of reference materials, I was able to build up on my arguments systematically. I tried to adjust my paragraph transitions appropriately. I avoided excessively long sentences that would at times have cumbersome tendency and diluted meaning and crosschecked my work for grammatical errors and poor sentence structure. Where needed I have included citations from reputable academic texts. In this section, I also attempted to achieve flow and cohesion. Conclusion For the conclusion, I chose to summarize the entire discussion. In a systematic way, I highlighted the four main points discussed as characteristic of the post-bureaucratic management and related them to the main theme of ethics and CSR. Besides, I mentioned the general significance of managing sustainably ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility and why it is relevant to observe them. Read More