A. Purpose of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Corporate social responsibility entails an organizations ability to conduct its business operations ethically. The goal, therefore, is to ensure that it takes into account the economic, environmental and social impact on society. Primarily, it is the realization of the intricate relationship between company success and community enhancement. The ability to ensure ethics are adhered to in all the company operations often translates to increased customer satisfaction, positive brand image as well as gaining a competitive edge within the market.
Customers are the company's primary stakeholders. The duty of the company to this group is to ensure that they receive quality and safe products. The fact that they have financial transactions with the company, it is essential to put in place necessary safeguards that will ensure client information. Another primary stakeholder is the company's suppliers who provide the raw materials required for the company. Secondary stakeholders to Paradigm Toys include environmental activists. This particular group strives to ensure that company operations are ecologically safe. Another secondary stakeholder is the media through which the company's products and services are advertised to the general public.
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Effective and meaningful relations between a company and its stakeholders often results in goodwill and cooperation that is necessary for company growth. Meeting the needs of this company’s stakeholders is dependent upon ethical interactions as well as through philanthropic events. Meeting the company’s corporate social responsibility needs of its primary and secondary stakeholders, the company needs to ensure that all its operations are conducted with honesty and integrity. This means developing policies and regulations that reflect these values. Compliance with stipulated company policies and regulations by partners, suppliers and employees are vital if the company goals and responsibility to stakeholders are to be realized.
Relying on policies and regulations will translate into the collection of safe and quality raw materials as well as company processes. For the customers, it means attaining the best value in terms of quality of the product; for the suppliers, it means, timely and competitive prices for their raw materials. For secondary stakeholders, ethical behavior translates into a safer environment. It also means that the company can contribute to the environmental enhancement programs and campaigns by funding or through other forms of facilitation. For the media, whose role is to inform the public, the company can allow the coverage of its processes and procedures, in an effort to ensure that the public is made aware of how the toys are produced and that all safety and quality requirements are met.
B. Reflection on the Importance of Ethical Leadership
Ethical cultures are vital in the business environment. Conducting business requires an individual to ensure that the needs of all the stakeholders are well met. In this endeavor, therefore, it is essential to engage in business practices with honesty and integrity, and more importantly appreciate the correlation between business practices and their social, economic and cultural impacts on a community. Ethical practices are reliant upon the leadership of an organization in that they set the baseline of business operations within an organization. The management team at Paradigm Toys should be able to demonstrate what ethical conduct entails as the only way through which such a culture can be reinforced within the organization. One practical way through which the company can reinforce its culture is through reward power such as the use of bonuses and recognition of team members that strive to address ethical problems within the organization (Roach, 2007). It is also possible to consider the use of coercive power in instances where an employee gets involved in the breach of the company’s ethical code of conduct (Trevino, & Nelson, 2016).
An ethics audit entails analyzing the extent of employees' conduct and behavior relative to the company's established policies and procedures. In this case, therefore, it is necessary for Paradigm Toys to develop a highly descriptive and specific guideline of company ethics-related policies and procedures if it is to conduct an effective ethics audit. Ethics audits are vital in highlighting a company's strengths and shortcomings in relation to ethical business conduct. It also essential to providing an organization with a new perspective. While most company audits are often financial, they fail to capture vital aspects of a company's totality. An ethics audit, on the other hand, allows for a comprehensive understanding of that factors that influence its reputation through the analysis of the conduct of its employees during various business operations.
C. Ethical Framework that You Would Use If You Were Faced With an Ethical Dilemma
As a toy manufacturing company, one of the most significant and notable dilemmas is likely to arise in matters to do with the safety of the products they produce, considering that the target consumers are children. The development of safe products begins with the raw materials, which means a company might be forced to increase its prices in realizing high safety standards. The dilemma, therefore, is choosing between cheap raw materials that compromise on safety but increase company revenue or using quality raw materials with minimal returns for the company. In such a case, it is vital for the company to rely on its long-term strategy as well as its policies and regulations. The safety of toys is paramount. In this case, therefore, it will be more important to rely on the best raw materials.
It will be necessary to find the right suppliers and ensure that comply with the company’s stipulations regarding the quality of products. While this is likely to increase the cost of operations for the company, and translate to expensive toys, in the long run, it safeguards the well-being of its consumers as well as that of the environment. The high toy prices will be compensated by the high quality of the toys and as such consumers will pay for the added value. This particular approach contributes to a stronger brand image within the community. Safe and quality materials are also consistent with environmental enhancement and improvement, a factor that is highly valued in the contemporary business environment. While the short-term cost of maintaining product safety and quality may be high, it translates to immense benefits for the company and society in the long-term.
D. Proposal for Implementing an Ethics Training Program
Ethics training can be an effective way of introducing and sustaining an ethical culture for Paradigm Toys. In this case, therefore, it can develop an ethics training program that focuses on product quality, Discrimination and conflict management (Zhu, Treviño, & Zheng, 2016). Discrimination tends to be one of the most significant challenges that organizations face. Addressing this particular element will be vital for Paradigm Toys as it will allow company employees to gain an understanding of what discrimination entails. Conflict management will be another crucial element in the ethics training program. Most of the ethical dilemmas within an organization often come about as a result of some form of conflict of interests. This particular tenet is vital to ensuring that employees understand the best approaches that can be utilized in addressing various dilemmatic situations. Lastly, discussing ethical concerns in relation to product quality will also be crucial.
In a business world profoundly influenced by cutthroat competition, most companies are opting to use harmful and cheap materials to remain afloat. For Paradigm Toys, however, its stakeholders are vital players and such it is essential to instill proper approaches and practices regarding the quality and safety of its products. The best delivery method of training would be through personal training, where a group of 20 to 30 individuals is trained under a head trainer. This particular approach is highly interactive and such allows for the effectiveness of communication and clarification. The training will be conducted twice a year, to allow for comprehensiveness as well as ensure that emergent issues are included in the training program. The training will be held in three weeks before certification can be accorded. Constant updates on the raining will be done on a monthly basis using EBooks that will be sent to employee emails.
References
Roach, D. R. (2007). The Board of Directors' Role in Compliance and Ethics. Journal of Health Care Compliance , 9 (6), 49-52.
Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2016). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Zhu, W., Treviño, L. K., & Zheng, X. (2016). Ethical leaders and their followers: The transmission of moral identity and moral attentiveness. Business Ethics Quarterly , 26 (1), 95-115.
