Techfite Company should create three policies to address the identified issues that affect its ethical standards. One of the policies is fairness in the workplace. The policy addresses monetary issues with hourly employees as well as excessive bonuses paid to the company’s top executives. The employees of the company are lowly paid and this might affect their productivity and the performance of the entire organization. Employee satisfaction is critical to the success of the company. Once the employees are aware of the discrepancies in the pay system, they will develop negative perception against the top executive which will jeopardize team spirit and the achievement of the goals and objectives of the company (Crouter & Booth, 2009) . The company desires to develop a culture of workplace collaboration as well as leadership development. However, budgeting constraint can significantly affect the achievement of this goal. The company should restructure its salaries and remunerations program to harmonize its salaries across different groups (Wood, Logsdon, Lewellyn & Davenport, 2015) . Policies that limit the achievement of equal pay like limiting the number of hours should be changed. Similarly, the excessive bonuses paid to the executives should be scaled down and spread in the entire organization to provide equal pay.
Another policy that should be formulated by the company is compensation. It should clearly identify the paydays, overtime and compensation time and also classifies employees for example as exempt or nonexempt and provide the salaries range. It should also indicate how the company is maintaining competitive salary information and promotional increases. Similarly, the policy should cover how positions are reclassified and salary review. Additionally, other factors that should be included are increases in withholding salary due to performance and leave of absence. This policy will allow the company to deal with ethical and legal issues surrounding compensation by ensuring that all employees are paid uniformly as per the policy and there are no discrepancies in the pay structure (Ivancevich & Konopaske, 2013) . Despite the cultural differences in the UK and U.S., the policy recognizes the need to harmonize the compensation of its employees to ensure that they are satisfied and the performance of the company is enhanced.
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Corporate social responsibility policy is the third that should be formulated by Techfite Company. The company should operate in a responsible and sustainable manner where its operations are in line with the expectations of international stakeholders and corporate responsibility to manage potential risks and maximize the available opportunities. The policy intends to create a framework for the management of community events, rebuilding Dellberg and supporting the local youth. The company is committed to fulfilling its promise to the City Council to be able to contribute positively to the society and its wider development goals (Goel & Ramanathan, 2014) . The commitment should be ingrained in the company’s core values and such actions must be demonstrated in the different spheres of the company including budgeting and commitment of the top management. Techfite should, therefore, conduct its business in a socially responsible as well as ethical manner. Similarly, it should enhance the well-being of the society and protect the environment and engage in activities aimed at rebuilding the city, learn from the surrounding community and respect its culture. The company should ensure that all issues of corporate social responsibility are recognized and supported in its administrative as well as operational matters and are consistent with the interest of the different stakeholders. The company should, therefore, strive to be the leader in CSR activities and recognize the benefits of such activities in adding value to the stakeholders of the company.
The three policies address some of the pressing issues that affect the entire company including fairness in the workplace, employee compensation and its commitment to the community. The three issues are critical to the success of the company and have been identified as lacking a comprehensive framework that ensures that they are practiced in the company. The implementation of the three policies will ensure that the company not only deal with internal issues that affect its performance but also addresses the society which is critical to its success in the American market. The policies will help to deal with the ethical issues and dilemmas faced by the management on the best approaches to deal with the conflicting issues and ensure that the company succeeds in its operations. Despite addressing ethical issues, the adoption of the three policies will also ensure that the company avoids legal issues which might be brought against it by the employees or members of the community for its unfair business practices. It will also be able to maintain a positive image which is important for the success of the company. The policies must address diversity and ensure that cultural differences are considered in their formulation and how the company can foster such practices for its benefit.
There are significant differences between cultural, ethical and legal issues in the US and UK. Issues like hours and benefits, employment contract, and equal pay are addressed differently by the two countries and it is the responsibility of the management to determine how best to balance between ethics and legal issues to avoid any conflicts. Ethics are based on what is right or wrong whereas legal standards are based on written law. Ethics plays a critical role in the success of a company by facilitating the development of systems and processes that reinforce labor behavior. It enables organizations to determine what is right or wrong as they make their decisions in their daily operations (Gokmen & Ozturk, 2012). It is worth noting that just because some of the practices of the company are legal does not imply that they are ethical.
The management does not have to maximize the profits of a company simply because it is operating within the law. The role of an organization is simply not to maximize the shareholders' values and company profits within the legal parameters. Companies have a social responsibility of conducting their activities ethically even though such decision might affect its profit. The company should, therefore, conduct its operations in a way that reflect their culture and mission depending on whether they are inclined to maximizing their profits or ethical concern. They are supposed to operate according to their code of ethics and core values (Baldelomar, 2016) .
The main ethical issues, in this case, are the misuse of resources and exploitation of the lower level employees. The company has a high salary for its executives whereas its employees are lowly paid. Similarly, the company has established policies that ensure that employees do not work the maximum number of hours required to benefit from bonuses and other benefits.
The purpose of an ethics officer is to ensure that the company operates ethically. The officer is responsible for policy issues to ensure that they are not in conflict with ethical standards or they do not promote unethical practices. The officer will also advise the management on best practices and how to promote ethics.
Corporate social responsibility is the practice of an organization to give back to the society. According to this case, the company had promised to sponsor community events, rebuild the city in addition to supporting youth leadership development programs and invest in infrastructure. From the ethical perspective, it is important for the company to improve its reputation in the community. However, it failed to fulfill its promises of rebuilding the city, supporting young development programs or even offering appropriate pay to its employees.
An ethical, social and environmental responsible course of action that the company should engage in to address the above issues is by corporate social responsibilities as promised to Dellberg City Council. Similarly, it should develop employee welfare programs that enhance their well-being and align its operations with the culture of the company.
The above courses of action are ethical, social and environmental in the following ways. Ethically, the company will engage the neighboring community while improving the pay program to enhance the pay and benefits of its employees therefore doing what is right not only to the community but also to its employees. Similarly, the culture of the company will promote ethical practices throughout the organization.
Socially, the course of action will address important issues affecting the community by rebuilding the city and supporting youth development programs. Similarly, the company will help to improve the wellbeing of its employees which will contribute to improved living standards and the wellbeing of their families. The culture of the company will recognize the need to promote social programs that enhance the wellbeing of the employees and surrounding community.
Environmentally, Techfite is concerned about the surrounding environment by refraining from using hazardous materials that can harm the surrounding environment while ensuring that there is sustainability of the company’s operations the community programs and youth leadership programs will also promote good practices that ensure environmental concern and preservation. The company will also engage in production activities that ensure that safe materials are used while over exploitation is minimized.
Engaging in corporate social responsibility and enhancing the welfare of the employees ensures that the company operates in an ethical manner by eliminating the identified unethical practices and helping the youth groups and the surrounding community while utilizing resources in a sustainable way.
References
Baldelomar, R. (2016). Where Is The Line Between Ethical And Legal?. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/raquelbaldelomar/2016/07/21/where-is-the-line-between-what-is-ethical-and-legal/#6d5eb037250b
Crouter, A., & Booth, A. (2009). Work-life policies . Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute Press.
Goel, M., & Ramanathan, M. (2014). Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility – Is there a Dividing Line?. Procedia Economics And Finance , 11 , 49-59. doi: 10.1016/s2212-5671(14)00175-0
Gokmen, A., & Ozturk, A. (2012). Issues of Business Ethics in Domestic and International Businesses: A Critical Study. International Journal Of Business Administration , 3 (5). doi: 10.5430/ijba.v3n5p82
Ivancevich, J., & Konopaske, R. (2013). Human resource management . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Wood, D., Logsdon, J., Lewellyn, P., & Davenport, K. (2015). Global Business Citizenship . Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
