Business Ethics And Corporate Social Responsibility

The Cheesecake Factory has been one of the more successful chain restaurants in recent years because they have provided great food and outstanding customer service in a fun atmosphere. The cheesecake factory employs a high standard of general conduct and moral aptitude. As a chief executive officer in today’s society, it is my responsibility to ensure The Cheesecake Factory abides by the laws and ethical duties that are mandated by today’s society. There is a copious amount of benefits to being a chief executive officer, however there is an equal amount of risk as chief executive officers are held liable for almost any action or infraction that their company has induced.

The notion of ethics deals with people’s behaviors within a company. Social responsibility involves a company’s moral obligations and the manner in which the organization makes its decisions. Although ethics and social responsibility are similar on a conceptual basis, each has its own unique characteristics that express their differences and its independence of the other. Ethics and social responsibility have to be present and coincide with one another for a business to be ethically sound.

Corporate Social Responsibility (C.S.R.) is a theory practiced in the business sphere since fifty years. It refers to the duty of business organizations to adopt certain activities that will benefit the society in some way. Charity, health-awareness campaigns are few examples that a business undertakes to fulfil its objectives of C.S.R. According to this ideal, it is important for various corporations today to undertake such social activities, apart from merely focusing on their objective of profit maximization. But, is it an obligation that is most important than other objectives of business? This thought further leads us to another significant question – In contemporary settings, should corporations be guided by the concept of C.S.R.?

Ethics in finance is a very important factor to consider when dealing with social implications. There are lots of unethical behaviour within finance. The main aim for most business organisations is to generate profit, if something stands in the way of this, a business may chose to use unethical practises to get around the issue.

Behind every successful company there is a strong foundation of ethics. Their vision, mission, behavior as a company, beliefs, and convictions all stem from their ethics. Not all companies have this foundation. To some, it is not believed to be essential for success. Ethics is important in business because our day-to-day life involves these businesses. The places we go to buy clothes, food, cars, computers, and services are all different kinds of businesses that we support financially. How many of the businesses around us have a strong foundation of ethics? How do we know that these companies don’t have workers working excruciating hours behind the scenes to produce the things that are seen on the shelves? How do we know that they are treating their workers with kindness and respect, as well as customers? Business ethics are important for not only the workers of those companies, but for their consumers. There is a domino effect that is caused when a consumer from a company with good business ethics recognizes it. As a result, the consumer returns, bringing with them more consumers, resulting in more profit for the business and a healthy work environment for its workers.

The work of setting a positive ethical climate starts at the top of the organization as positive ethical attitudes filter down to employees. Ferrell et al. (2015) states, “the more employees perceive an organization’s ethical culture to be the less likely they are to make unethical decisions” (p.134). Business ethics is not only about knowing what is right and wrong, or doing the right thing, ethics involves acting with responsibility, being objective when making decisions, putting honesty in all relationships, and maintaining employees’ fairness. According to Hughes, Ginnet, and Curpy (2012), “conflict over values can arise even when an organization has clearly published values because leaders and employees have divergent perceptions of whether the leader’s behavior embodies important corporate values” (p.177). Unfortunately, GM’s ethical organizational culture has been seriously disconnected from the policies stated in their company. In the past GM’s culture has favored cover-up over openness and legal contemplation over customer safety. The values embedded in GM’s organization were not put into practice. Product defects were concealed from top management as well as the public, not only hurting General Motor’s reputation as a quality customer driven culture, but also the owners of GM vehicles who were injured or died. A culture of secrecy seemed ingrained at General Motors, which can be blamed on former CEO leaders, the organizations structure, and organizational

Apple Company is one of the largest manufacturers of computers and electronics. “Apple Company was founded on April 1, 1976, by college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who brought forth a new company vision of changing the way people, viewed computers” (Library of Congress, 2008). The ethical and social responsibility of Apple Company should have started with its inception; however, it did not. It was not until years later with the advent of social media and the power of worldwide communications, did Apple Company focus on ethical and social responsibilities regarding the treatment of its employees in their factories overseas. The international reports of employee maltreatment; the use of underage employees; and, documented instances of wrongful disposals of toxic matter into the environment, forced Apple to take immediate action and establish safeguards which would protect its employees, the environment and more importantly the brand name that is Apple Company.

Since its implementation in 1989 there has been some amendments done to it to make it more effective these include; involvement of enforcement authorities and have come up with new settlement tools, another change is that they have over time advocated for more permanent solutions and innovative technologies in combating hazardous waste, they have also put other states and federal environmental laws consideration into superfund actions, the act also as recently included an

Business ethics and corporate morals have been evolving over the years, and continue to do so. These guidelines are constantly molding and vary as businesses become more integrated. Costco Wholesale Corporation, is a very successful multinational business, but has had issues in following along with social responsibility trends that come with advancements in domestic and worldwide partnerships.

Corporate Social Responsibility is essentially the idea that corporations should and have the responsibility to act outside of their own interest of profits and interest of shareholders. That a majority of the responsibility to fix economic, environmental, and social issues somehow weighs more heavily on corporations shoulders than our own. I am not in favor of this notion for several reasons to which I will argue. The definition and idea of CSR sets up more unanswered flaws and questions than it supposedly answers. It becomes a masquerade that highly profitable businesses can hide behind to gain customer loyalty and favor in the eyes of society,

Raymond James is a financial service holding company with subsidiaries specializing in investment banking, financial planning, investments, and asset management. The company was founded in 1962, has been public since 1983, and was founded in St. Petersburg, Florida. In June 2016, Raymond James joined the Fortune 500 list for the first time. This paper will address the corporate social responsibility and ethics of this financial institution (Raymond James).

Business ethics are a set of moral standards or guiding principles for the conduct and decision making of employees and managers. In a business environment, ethics are a key factor in responsible decision making.

ITC Ltd has worked exremly hard to start several procedures that have led to compliance of the standards of social responsibility. ITC’s dealings within the tobacco industry have contributed to the increase in company revenues and the company has worked towards following the triple bottom line and giving back to society. Most, businesses pay little attention to their social responsibilities and make it part of their overall strategy, instead they concentrate more on financial benefits from the sales of products. Consequently, managing business in a socially responsive manner contributes to the best combination of business success and societal acceptance, trust and loyalty. Giving back to the community in ways that benefits only society such as planting trees to curb pollution and help the environment or using biodegradable materials in packaging can reap financial benefits to a company by building loyalty among the community. The notion of business ethics and corporate social responsibility is becoming a defining concept in all industries worldwide. ITC believes in the Triple Bottom Line philosophy where the performance and perception of a corporation should not be judged only on the basis of its financial statements or revenues, but its environmental and social performance as well. ITC is one of the only companies in the world to be carbon positive, water positive, and conduct solid waste recycling. ITC provides water to areas where water is very

Individual factors helps to understand the reason for some people perceive specific action to be unethical whiles others do not. However, the decision-making cannot simply be explained in terms of these individual factors, because after all several people seems to have ‘multiple ethical selves’ (Trevino and Nelson 2007:180) – that is, they make different decisions in different situations. Situational factors accepted to be the most important.

Campbell (2007, p. 952) based on the review of CSR proposes that firms are less likely to perform in a socially responsible way when when they are facing weak financial performance and are operating in the environment where there is limited likelihood for short term profitability.