Business ethics is a form of the right and proper practices and policies concerning possibly provocative matters in a business environment. It applies to all structures of business conduct and it is relevant to the behavior of all persons and the whole organization. It mostly deals with issues such as organization management, corruption, business social responsibility, employee discrimination among others. Business ethics guarantees a certain level of trust exists between the customer and various suppliers with the business. For example, if an organization is having problems with their social responsibility, employee work schedule and employee benefits the human resource department develops policies that help solve this issues. These policies are discussed in the following essay.
A.1 Rationale behind policies
Policies that should be employed include employee benefits policy, societal responsibility policy, and employee working schedule. These policies would help the human resource department to be able to handle company problems easily. The employee benefits policy will enable the organization to set benefits such as health benefits that will help the employee and will make them feel safer and it would motivate them in their work. The managers should come up with befits that will help both long term and short term employees (Goodpaster, 2015). The managers should also employ the societal responsibility policy; it will enable the organization to keep their promises to the community and their customers. By doing this it will help the organization to stay on the good side of the people and it will boost its sales. The last policy is the employee working schedule. This will enable the organization to assign the employee the hours they can actually pay them for. This will help the employee from being overworked. By employing these policies, an employee will be encouraged to work harder since they needs are being considered. It will also enable the organization to be on the good side and maintain a good name in the society.
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A.2 Difference between ethical and legal issues
When problems arise they are questioned according to their different nature. Ethical and legal issues are mostly found in business organizations. These two terms are mostly used together in different occasions but they have discerning characteristics which include; ethical issues are not published by law which means they are not governed while legal issues have a set of rules which are punishable if they are broken or not followed (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). The other difference is that legal issues can be unethical for instance terminating an employee from work is legal but unethical and ethical issues can be illegal for instance euthanasia can be viewed as ethical but it is considered illegal in any jurisdiction. Lastly, ethics are morals standards that help in decision making while legal stuff controls what people can do and what they cannot do.
A.3 Ethical and unethical issues
Ethical and unethical issues are divided by a thin line depending on the options being viewed (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). However, in this scenario, it has been mentioned that the top managers receive huge bonuses while other employees and the general company morals are suffering. The employees are not being paid enough money, there are limited working hours and they don’t have any benefits. The company morals of giving back to the society are also not being met. Organisations strive to be a good and an accommodating place to work at. The ethical issue is being created since in this scenario the company is giving their bonus to the top managers instead of funding their company. It is unethical since the money that is desperately needed by the employees, for employee’s benefits and good society stand is being used to give bonuses to top positioned people who might not even need the bonus because they get high salaries.
A.4 Ethics officer
The purpose of the ethics officer in an organization is to create a chance for employees and other staff a safe way to seek guidance or report violations (Goodpaster, 2015). They respond to offenses and take action against them. They also encourage the staff and employees in an organization to comply with the guidelines.
B. Corporate social responsibility
Corporate social responsibility is an organizations initiative to take accountability for the effects of the company on the environment and wellbeing of the society. In this scenario, the residents of the city were excited about the company’s investment and the opportunity for jobs for the people. However, the company did not fulfill its promise to the residents and even employees started complaining about wages (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). If the company does not fulfill its responsibilities to the people then it will not have a market for its product since its customers are not happy.
B.1, 2, 3
From the scenario, the company’s employees have had issues that include low wages, lack of benefits and reduction of working hours. The employee complained about these issues and the company should work on resolving them so that they can maintain a good reputation. The company should use the bonuses that they are giving the top positioned managers to pay the employees and also include employee benefits and also use the money to fulfill their social responsibility (Goodpaster, 2015). By doing this it will be ethically, socially and environmentally responsible. It will help the organization to have a good image and productivity will increase due to having satisfied employees and staff.
In conclusion, business ethics are essential to an organization. They enable the organisation to maintain a good image, and satisfied employees and staff. It also enables the business to thrive well in the market when it fulfills its societal responsibility.
References
Goodpaster, K. E. (2015). Business ethics. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1-6.
Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson Education.
