Personal and Organizational Ethics for For-Profit and Not-for-Profit Organizations - Essay Example

Analysis of Personal and Organizational Ethics and Values between For-Profit and Not-for-Profit Organizations Scenario of the of the University Part 1 Organizational ethics are some certain ways which indicate how an organization should respond to external and internal stimulus. This is basically interdependent with organizational culture. An organization’s behavior and psychology will depend on organizational ethics. Values and ethics are correlated with each other in the context of organization. Generally organizational ethics express the values to its shareholders, employees, suppliers and other related entities including government and society at large. In this essay the selected non-profit organization is Oxfam which is a reputed international organization in the world. It has expanded its operation in 94 countries worldwide. Oxfam is focusing on the poverty eradication, policy research, disaster relief and advocacy. It finds the probable solution to remove poverty and raise their voice against any kind of injustice throughout the world. One of the major goals of this organization is to enable people exercise their rights in proper way. Again the organization directly works with communities. It ensures that the poor people can improve their present status. Each branch of this organization works in a collective way to achieve a greater success from the world (Muhr, Sørensen and Vallentin, S2010). The mission of this organization is to build a structure which will be helpful to remove poverty from some selected region. It is working with the help of local accountable organization. When local capacity will not be enough to help people Oxfam will assist those organizations to provide benefit to the local people. Core values of this organization are depending on right based approaches. The organization recognizes individual and universal human rights which are as follows-The right to be heard, the right to security and life, the right to a sustainable livelihood, the right to basic social service, the right to an identity etc. The organization believes that powerlessness and poverty can be eliminated from the society by political will and human action. According to this organization’s activities this can be said that peace is the essential requirement for developing the society and nation. Capacity and right to participate in society, right to sustainable livelihood etc can make positive changes in people’s lives. Oxfam works on health, HIV/ AIDS, conflict, gender equality, debt and aid, livelihood, fair trade, trade justice, education, democracy, education, human rights, natural disaster and climate change. Some ethical standards are maintained by Oxfam and those standards are protect health, safety, security for people including the staffs, employees and volunteers of Oxfam, promote human rights, oppose unethical and criminal activities, protect the environment, treat all people with dignity and respect, challenge any form of harassment, exploitation, discrimination or intimidation (Peterson and Ferrell, 2005). Few ethical dilemmas are also faced by this organization. Oxfam has raised their voice regarding food producer’s attitude towards their workers. Many times this can be observed that food producers do not take proper initiatives to protect the interest of workers. They exploit the workers and earn huge amount of revenue. Again they use the earned revenue for their own purpose and the purpose of business. But the workers are not getting any kind of benefits from that amount of revenue. Oxfam has raised their voice and volunteers of this organization have taken initiative to find out the problems and few corrective steps against such kind of injustice. The organization highlighted few reputed branded companies in this regard and Nestle Kit Kat was one of the companies mentioned in that list. Oxfam also implemented few guidelines and policies which have to be maintained by those companies to protect farmer’s right, women’s right, transparency, and water and climate sustainability. Oxfam has asked those companies to change their practices and it has done several campaigns at various regions to create awareness about these facts (Johnson, 2011). For the past few years Oxfam has been working with Gaza’s USAC [University College of Applied science] to develop business ideas in the market by providing support to IT graduates. But the recent bombing incident badly hit to the USAC and as a result the progress of work has been hampered in a significant way. In this respect Oxfam called all the states to stop the delivery of arms and immediate suspension was imposed on transferring the arms to any Palestine states or Palestinian armed group and Israel. From this initiative political condition may get stable than the current scenario. Social life of Gaza will be hazard free. Developmental work can be started which will be helpful for the growth of nation (Garsten and Hernes, 2008). Part 2 Wal-Mart is an America based retail organization. The organization has 2.2 million employees around the world. According to the annual report of the company Wal-Mart has registered staggering revenue of US$ 468.651 billion in the year 2013. The main objective of the organization is to do the retail business in the lowest possible price. In the year 1962 the organization was founded by Sam Walton. The organization is listed in the New York stock exchange. The organization is one of the world’s most valued firms in terms of the revenue. In 2013 the organization has registered net income of US$ 16.999 billion and it is easily indicating that the organization always tries to maintain their profit margin at any cost. The organization has a basic business strategy to provide lowest possible prices to the customers. Earning profit and managing the cost leadership is a significant ethical dilemma for the organization. The whole business strategy of the company is significantly dependent upon the economies of scale. In 2005 the organization came up with a scandal of bribery in Mexico. The organization has offered bribe to spread their business chain across the country. According to the lawyer of the organization Wal-Mart paid $24 million for the sake of the bribe. The top most executives of the Wal-Mart Mexico were totally aware of the fact but intentionally they have concealed it from the head quarter (Grojean, Resick, Dickson and Smith, 2004). During the course of this scandal the whole organization tried to suppress the whole issue instead of the any disciplinary action. The organization did not take justified steps after the issue. According to the findings of F.B.I. both American and Mexican laws were violated during the course of this scandal. The organization was advised to investigate further into the matter. But according to the report of the New York Times, the organization did the opposite thing and tried to block the investigation. The organization did not inform any of the American or Mexican law enforcement officials. The main driving force behind this ethical problem was the chief executive of the Mexico division, Eduardo Castro-Wright. Instead of disciplinary action the executive was promoted as the Vice- Chairman of Wal-Mart in 2008. This move created lots of social outrages in America and Mexico (Garber, 2008). Over the years Wal-Mart Mexico had been the significant success story for the company and the organization was trying to portray Mexico business performance as the role model for the rest of the world’s business. When the scandal broke out the organization tried to control the damage instead of punishing the wrong doers. When the organization tried to respond with their actions of damage control, political fraternity of the USA were shocked because they did not expect this kind of step from the side of a company like Wal-Mart. Lots of critics commented that with help of the size of the business and the power of the money the organization tried to increase their profit and on the way they have compromised their business ethics. Part 3 Non-Profit Organization Food produced companies should consider the situation of their workers because the productivity of business will depend on the efficiency of workers. If human rights of those workers will not be protected by the owner of business then that will be an injustice to them. Oxfam has implemented certain guidelines to change the practice of food produced companies. They have launched a campaign regarding this issue in the month of February, 2014. After launching the campaign the organization has asked the companies to change their practices more than 4, 00, 000 times. The organization also requested social media and print media to publish the mission and vision of this campaign. As a result 10 biggest food and drink companies in the world have changed their practices within last 12 months time period. It indicates a positive sign for improving the present situation of workers. From the above analysis this can be said that Oxfam responded in morally responsible way. The organization has analyzed the problem which may be turned into a worst situation if Oxfam could not take initiative. Oxfam has taken enough steps to prevent such kind of practices and save the interest of workers. Some famous companies such as Unilever, Coca Cola and Nestle were responsible for this scenario but they have taken quick steps to overcome such kind of unethical behavior. This practice will provide competitive advantages to those companies in the market. Again this can be said that Gaza incident was an unforeseen situation to this organization. Oxfam has taken few awareness programs to stop the arms transfer procedure but they have to take more initiative in this regard. Few political groups are responsible for this disaster. Oxfam is also helping the general people of Gaza by providing food and medicine, emergency health care, clean water from their end (Kolb, 2008). For-Profit Organization I feel the organization did not respond in ethical ways. The reason behind my feeling is the lack of disciplinary action against the chief executive officer of the Wal-Mart Mexico. F.B.I asked the organization to conduct more investigation to get to the bottom of the issue but the organization intentionally ignored the advice of the agency and tried to manage the situation at any means instead of going deep into the matter (Derr, 2004). Offering bribe was criminal offence from the side of the company and when the company tried to suppress the whole issue for the sake of profitability then it became morally irresponsible. The organization created this ethical dilemma intentionally it was not an unforced error. The company was earning high profit from the Mexican markets. They tried to expand the profit further and for expanding that profit they intentionally chose that unethical step of offering bribe. Top level management of the organization did not take any disciplinary action against the main culprit i.e. chief executive officer of the Wal-Mart Mexico. Rather he was promoted as the Vice-chairman of the organization. All these factors are clearly indicating that the organization created an ethical dilemma and it was not at all an outcome of unforeseen error. The company easily could have done more. It could have taken disciplinary actions against the Eduardo Castro-Wright for choosing the unethical path to increase the profitability. It could have gone more deep into the problem instead of trying to control the damage. Part 4 Non-Profit Organization In case of Oxfam, two psychological theories can be applied in the above mentioned ethical dilemma. These theories are Moral relativism theory and deontological ethics theory. Deontological theory judges the morality of an action based on the other action. Food producing companies were ignored the human right part and also the part of climate change, save water resource etc. Ethical business will be that kind of business which will protect the interest of all the related parties such as employees, suppliers, government, society etc. Organization should make profit after providing benefits to the above mentioned parties. If any of them will suffer from the organizational activities then that will be an unethical issue (Verbos, Gerard, Forshey, Harding and Miller, 2007). Oxfam runs their operational activities as an ethical business because it promotes human rights, environmental standards, green house gas emission reduction etc. Again according to Moral relativism theory this can be said that several philosophical positions dependent in different moral judgment across different culture and people. It can be applied in the incident of Gaza where Oxfam has taken several initiatives from their end to control the situation. The Israel and Palestine are not maintaining ethical issues and fight against each other for their own benefits and profit. In this case, Oxfam is doing their activities after considering the ethical issues which are related to human rights and protection for living life in a peaceful way (Zahraa, Gedajlovicb, Neubaumc and Shulmand, 2009). For-Profit Organization In this ethical dilemma case the organization has followed deontological ethics. The main duty of the chief executive officer was to expand the business in Mexico and he tried to do that. According to this theory failing to do the duty means immoral behavior from the side of the employee. The theory was not at all the best at any means. Due to this ethical theory the organization faced significant problems lots of outrage raised in the US market. Wrong messages were communicated across the world and brand image was tarnished. The organization should have used the utilitarianism theory. This theory gives emphasis on the maximizing the benefits for most of the people related with company (Bentham, 2009). This theory could have provided maximum benefits to all stake holders of the company instead of making profit for the own business. The ideal relationship between the suffering and profit is to make profit out of the suffering. It is significantly important to find the way of profit through the suffering. If the organization tries to make profit without the suffering then that profit will cause certain ethical dilemmas and the profit cannot be realized for the long term basis. To run an ethical business means doing the right things. It means to run a business honestly, openly, fairly and managing all the legalities of the business. The retail industry is full of competitions and it is important for Wal-Mart to maintain the position in the market. Utilitarianism theory will allow the organization to maintain competitive advantages with the help of overall goods (Mill, 2007). The main aim of this theory is to create maximum benefits for most of the stakeholders. This theory will focus towards the happiness of the workers and customers of the company. In this way the organization will be able to maintain their competitiveness in the retail industry. References Bentham, J. (2009). Utilitarianism. New York: BiblioBazaar. Derr, L. C. (2004). Ethics and leadership. JOURNAL OF LEADERSHIP, ACCOUNTABILITY AND ETHICS. Vol. 9, (6). Garber, P. R. (2008). The ethical dilemma. New York: Human Resource Development. Garsten, C. and Hernes, T. (2008). Ethical dilemmas in management. London: Routledge. Grojean, W. M., Resick, C. J., Dickson, W. M. and Smith, D. B. (2004). Leaders, values, and organizational climate: examining leadership strategies for establishing an organizational climate regarding ethics. Journal of Business Ethics. Vol. 55, (3). Johnson, C. (2011). Organizational ethics: a practical approach. London: SAGE Publications Kolb, B. (2008). Marketing research for non-profit, community and creative organizations: how to improve your product, find customers and effectively promote your message. London: Routledge. Mill, J. S. (2007). Utilitarianism, liberty & representative government. New York: Wildside Press LLC. Muhr, S., Sørensen, B. and Vallentin, S. (2010). Ethics and organizational practice: questioning the moral foundations of management. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Peterson, R. and Ferrell, O. (2005). Business ethics: new challenges for business schools and corporate leaders. New York: M.E. Sharpe. Verbos, A., Gerard, J., Forshey, P., Harding, C. and Miller, J. (2007). The positive ethical organization: enacting a living code of ethics and ethical organizational identity. Journal of Business Ethics. Vol. 76, (1). Zahraa, S., Gedajlovicb, E., Neubaumc, D. and Shulmand, J. (2009). A typology of social entrepreneurs: motives, search processes and ethical challenges. Journal of Business Venturing. Vol. 24, (5). Read More