Ensuring Social and Environmental Sustainability - Assignment Example

Name Professor Subject Date Reflective Journal One I think that today, more than ever, businesses are embracing their social responsibilities and it is increasingly becoming one of the most important, if not the most important, activity in national and international business arenas. The resources provide me with very clear understanding as to why it is important, for businesses to engage in social and environmental sustainability activities. My thoughts are that, due to the speedy acceleration of globolisation, large companies have continually recognized the advantages that come with providing services that will see the sustenance of the social framework and the environment. Papers and journals on social and environmental sustainability introduced me to the wide definition of Corporate Social Responsibility and the roles to be played by businesses in fulfilling these responsibilities. On reading the articles my perception of what involved social and environmental responsibilities of a business changed. I realized that it did not solely mean the creation of employment and paying taxes. In Sadhu’s paper, for example, I came to understand that businesses today have ceased to be poachers of the environments and that most are gamekeepers of the same. My view of the consumer broadened as I continued reading the literatures. In my own opinion, I have always known a consumer to be that person that has business with the firm’s products and services only. The honest truth I got from the reading is that the consumer today is not the same as that consumer who existed over a century ago. Today’s consumer is very particular on which business he or she wants to relate to. This kind of relationship, unfortunately, does not revolve around what kind of products or services the business has to offer. Businesses today go beyond satisfying consumer needs in the products and services by incorporating social and environmental sustaining activities. These businesses find themselves several steps ahead of their counterparts who do not, and at advantageous positions. This way they are able to promote their products and at the same time give them a good reputation. The business is, therefore, likely to benefit from increased sales which turn into increased profit. These resources led me to understand that a business, in order to improve its organizational performance, needs to get involved in social and environmental sustainability. The article by Schwartz (41) was of particular interest to me since it emphasized on the importance of social activities on organizational teamwork. It became clear to me that employees in these businesses were able to work more as a unit. Such common courses instill a sense of unity in and employees work with minimal conflicts. This organizational cohesion translates into efficiency which may be reflected in the organisation’s overall performance. In Corporate Survival: The critical importance of sustainability risk management by Anderson (89), it became clear to me that, today, businesses are less ignorant of their environmental activities. Whatever they do to harm the environment and the society would eventually be traced back to the culprits and they would pay for the damages caused. Businesses concerning themselves with social and environmental sustainability activities are able to avoid the risks that would arise due to the rapidly changing rules of business. My understanding of such environmental responsibilities, relates to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of New Mexico led to Shell BP that led to months of continued oil spillage. Shell BP did not want to take blame at first but later on did and the company was fined £12.58 billion as negligence to control the amount of spillage into the ocean. This has shown me that taking the first step and doing as much as it can, a business can avoid such risks that may lead to monetary charges or, worse still, loss of market share to competitors. I have furthermore come to the realization that consumers will not relate with businesses that do not fulfill their social responsibilities including treating their employees well. Employees are the most important asset in a firm and what makes or breaks a business is the employee. Unfair treatment of employees could lead to litigation that would spin to billions of dollars in damages settlements and eventual loss of future revenues and reputation. Reflective Journal Two After waiting this long to fill my career work-book, I finally decided to settle and take the task as I had been procrastinating. It did not seem that important at first and it only dawned on me that it really mattered if I started my career planning early after talking to my career mentor. As I started the task of filling my workbook, it was becoming more understandable why early preparation for career was important. My perception that career choices could be made only after I was done with university education was extremely distorted. This was the opinion held with most college-mates and at this point I found myself disagreeing with them and me. As I continued to fill my workbook I realized that my interests and values were a very important bit of what I wanted to take as a career after my university education. This gave me the opportunity to think of what exactly my interests and values were. It became clear that the earlier one had an idea of what they were interested in, the better their chances of picking the right career path. Most articles point out that the best path to a fulfilling career is pursuing what one loves to do and what one would look forward to every morning. This part of the workbook allowed me the opportunity to scrutinize my activities and I realized I love doing projects. I love to see these projects grow from their infant stages through to their maturity and the fulfillment that I get from doing this is exceptional. My values were also brought into focus during my workbook filling session. This section highlighted the need to match values to probable employer’s organizational values. In doing this, it was apparent that knowing what my values were early would give me an idea of what organisations to approach during my job hunt. What I discovered as one of my values was independence. This I could explain from my desire to start my own business and not wait on employment offers to come my way. Such independence will ensure that I am liable of how long I work and that I am responsible for the people I employ. I will also be able to independently dictate how my social life turns out in relation to my career. This activity further made me realize why concentrating one specific line of profession was important. Prior to doing this, I had not thought what I was going to major in, in my field of study since there are several fields I could major in. However, the fact is that I cannot just choose that which appeals to me. The questions asked in the workbook enabled me matching my values in independence and interests in project work and I could easily conclude that I was into project management or events planning. With this information I am able go through my university life knowing that I have a plan. This would save me the time spent trying to figure out what to do after graduating as is the case with most graduates. I realized that this assignment was a blessing in disguise and I could not have done it at a perfect time, just a few years before my graduation. My wrong perceptions and conceptions were thwarted and replaced with the realities of career life. I was able to understand that I have to have a long-term career plan to avoid landing jobs that are motivated by desperation. I am now able to specify which field I want to specialize in and what organisations I would like to work for. I also have an idea of what my back up plan is in case employment does not come along. Reflective Journal Three While reading the paper by Cowton (177), on ethics and professionalism, it became clear that ethics and professionalism have to go hand in hand to be considered an ethical professional. In the British accountancy profession, for instance, accountancy is considered one of the qualifications that a professional must exhibit. I understood it is important for professions to always think of ethics and not during moral panic or sandals only. By doing this, professions would be able to instill ethics into their systems with ease. I became aware that professions have expert skills and questions arise as to what they are capable of doing with these high-level skills and how they can use them. I also came to realize that these high-level skills put professionals in positions of power with exploitation opportunities of the lay person. My opinion, before, was that people could not be that naïve to allow themselves to be manipulated by people with such positions. This perspective, however, changed when I realized that high-level skills put people in positions where they could control and dictate opportunities for their social and economic benefits. On further reading, it became apparent that professionals could self-regulate by maintaining higher standards of ethics than what the law and morality requires of them. This, to me, meant that upholding ethics is supposed to be an intrinsic and a personal endeavor and not driven by the law. As such, once ethics dominates, then professionals would definitely have a constructive impact on the quality of ethics on the functioning of the organisation. The assumptions I once held, that a business was purely a profit maximisation entity may have been echoed by some professions that would justify the prospects of gaining even the minimal of profits with whatever amount ethics sacrificed. Instilled in me was the financial obligation of the firm, and while ethics and morals ranked high they were second to the firms major responsibility to the stakeholders, financial accumulation. The reading highlighted a view that I had not always held, that ethics at times does not give way to money making scheme. I always thought that when ethics was pushed aside, then all manner of schemes of making money would be manufactures. This would be irrespective of how ethical or unethical such a scheme would be. In this matter, I have come to the conclusion that benefiting either socially or economically with little or no regard to ethics is immoral. However, what is ethical may cover a wider scope and what may be ethical to one firm may be unethical to another. I have for a long time been a proponent of the notion that being ethical does not pay a single cent. According to my understanding, being ethical revolved around just being good and following set rules to the latter. I was amazed to learn that being ethical, in some instances, has a positive link to financial performance and, Studies carried out by Margolis and Walsh (270) conclude this. For instance, corporate social responsibility has its benefits, which to some extent may be monetary in value from the promotion of healthy markets. The most important feature I learnt regarding this ethics and professionalism would be the creation and application of codes of ethics. These codes if applied to follow the top-down framework will definitely promote ethical behaviour. In my own opinion, practicing these codes of ethics by the top management is the missing link in organisations. It is from this that I understand that top management is the driving force in any organisation and the tone coming from the top is in most cases listened to. Leaders who make a point of making sure that everything they say is consistent with the organisation’s code of ethics steer such form to success, both socially and economically. The readings have really opened up my mind regarding ethics and professionalism. The question that I keep asking myself is if there is a possibility of one remaining professional while at the same time living short of his or her professional ethics standards. The article I have gone through has more than answered this and though it may seem strange, the answer will vary from one individual to the other. I have also learnt that human behaviour is a smokescreen and that members of a profession will always struggle to live up to their professional standards. This “falling short” is the link that connects the realities of being ethical and being professional. Reference Anderson, Dan. R. Corporate Survival: The critical importance of sustainability risk management, New York: iUniverse Inc., 2005. Print. Margolis, Joshua. D. and Walsh, James. P. ‘Misery Loves Companies: Rethinking Social Initiatives by Business’. Administrative Science Quarterly 48.2 (2003): 268–305. Cowton, Christopher. J. 'Accounting and The Ethics Challenge: Remembering the Professional Body', Accounting and Business Research 39.3(2009):177-189. Swartz, Jeff. 'Timberland's CEO on standing up to 65,000 angry activists', Harvard Business Review 88.9 (2010):39-43. Sandhu, Sukhbir. ‘Shifting Paradigms in Corporate Environmentalism: From Poachers to Gamekeepers'. Business and Society Review 115.3(2010):285-310. Read More