General Electric's Ethical, Social, And Environmental Standards And Practices

In order to operate ethically in a global marketplace, corporations like Exxon Mobil need to define the conduct that they expect from their officers, executives, managers and employees. Without a defined code of conduct, employees feel forced to use their personal mores to determine what actions they should take in ethically ambiguous situations. Like children on a playground, employees need to know where the fences are so that they can work effectively.

The founders of the Lincoln Electric Company left a legacy of an organization culture that promotes high productivity through sound management policies which have stood the test of time. The exponential growth of the company after the death of James F. Lincoln was a direct result of the establishment of a rich culture mix based on values that were widely shared and accepted by the members of the organization. Management empowered employees to become part of the decision making process through the contribution of ideas through the Advisory Board which was elected by the employees from amongst themselves. Reward management systems and all the other artifacts of the Lincoln Electric’s distinguished strong organizational culture will be analyzed in greater detail in this essay.

Because corporations are established to profit and shareholders invest money with expectations of a greater return, managers cannot be given a directive to be “socially responsible” without providing specific criteria of checks and balances to which needs to adhere. Therefore, it is imperative to the success of a corporation for managers to not act solely but rather to act within the policies of the shareholders.

The most renowned company of the 20th century was The Edison General Electric Company. It was pioneered by Thomas Edison in the 1890. As we all know Thomas Edison invented the incandescent electric lamp by looking at the potential that can be created through the dynamo and other electric machines. The company was not able to grab the market because of its competitor The Thomas Houston Company. So in 1982, Thomas merged with his competitor and established a new company as The General Electric Company. It is now one of the largest conglomerates of the American multinational company. (Pearce II & Robinson, 2011)The Forbes Global 2000 graded GE as the 2nd largest company of the world in 2010 and as of May 2015, as the 9th largest company by comparing the total sales, market value and profit assets of various different MNCs with the market capital of $253.5 billion. (Forbes, 2015)

Many believe that business entities should have an ethical duty to be socially responsible, to work towards increasing its positive effects on society while decreasing its negative effects. Many organizations look for opportunities to be socially responsible while also creating shareholder wealth.

Business organizations today are socially and ethically responsible for doing the right thing, exercising good judgment in their business activities with employees, stakeholders, customers and the community. Business organizations emphasis should not only be on profits, but also on how business decisions impact society.

Finally, I believe is important for companies to follow ethical standards that could assist them to make responsible decisions. The ISO 26000 standards is a document that addresses responsible practices related to organizational governance, human rights, labor practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues and community involvement and development (Ajeti, S. R., 2016, para. 2-4). for example, When Chevron faces difficult situations, they try to resolve them by answering four questions: (1) is it legal? (2) Is it consistent with the company policy, including human rights policy? (3) is it consistent with the chevron’s core values? (4) if it were made public, would be I be comfortable? (Chevron, 2015, p.

We will look at the Enron Corporation and discuss its application of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or in actuality its irresponsible behavior as related to social responsibility. We will revisit what CSR is and discuss Enron’s philosophy regarding its use and function within the corporation. We will discuss the consequences of Enron’s irresponsible behavior and the far reaching effects it had on society.

Suncor Energy Inc. is a company that was founded in 1967; it is Canada 's premier integrated energy company, and the fifth largest North American energy company. Suncor provides thousands of well-paid jobs, puts millions of dollars in Canadian businesses every year, takes action on environment issues and supports our communities by funding local initiatives. (Suncor Website, 2012) Suncor is leading the way in oil sands operations and development while investing in technologies to improve environmental performance. A considerable part of Suncor’s portfolio is invested renewable energy

Lincoln Electric Company is a manufacturing company, which has been focusing on welding products for the recent 30 years. The company had outstanding brothers leading the company to success. John was a technical genius and he brought the best skills in production and James was good at management and he was working on the employees ' incentives. The company gained its reputation through the world war till present as the welding equipment supplier with higher quality and lower price at the same time. For the production aspect of welding equipment, it is an advanced production line with continuous flow with high flexibility and low idling time.

Also; Citigroup, Inc. another competitor for the GE Company made a total of $64.95 billion in 2011, and when we compare it with GE and SI its earnings where even less in the same year, making General Electric a leader in the industry. With this valuable information GE management can analyze its competitor’s financial statements results and from there they can evaluate their faults and create new ways to increase their annuals earnings and secure their place as one of leading companies in their industry. Another way GE can go forward in the industry is by adapting its services and products to other countries that need them.

Business ethics is a very extensive subject that is not easy to define. According to Andrew Crane and Dirk Matten (2004: 5), business ethics is the study of business situations, activities and decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressed. With an increasing globalization, environmental and social issues have amplified and therefore companies have to take full responsibility for the wrong impact their actions have. Gap pays a lot of attention to the social issues and challenges that large companies face, although it had some ethical issues in the past.

I chose to look into General Electric for this project because they are an energy supplier and multi-national company. Energy providers have a reputation as a money hungry companies that care about the bottom line more than people and the planet. It is easy for a person to assume that a corporation of GE’s size, money would be its only concern. What I learned was that GE has a public image problem more than a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) problem. The company has been working to make the people of the planet more Earth friendly by creating technology that has higher efficiency with fewer emissions and lower resource demands. GE has a well-established strategy for Corporate Social Responsibility. As a result of CSR the company

Background Information- General Electric Company, known as GE the world over, is an American-based, multinational corporation headquartered in Connecticut. In 2010, the company reported in excess of $150 billion in revenues, net income of over $12 billion, and almost 300,000 employees. It operates through four basic segments: Energy, Technology Infrastructure, Capital Finance and Consumer and Industrial Production. In 2011, GE was ranked the 6th largest firm in the United States as well as the 14th most profitable. Since its founding by Thomas Edison in 1990, and becoming one of the original 12 companies listed on the Down Jones Industrial Average in 1986, GE has been iconic in its relationship as an American innovator. In fact, GE founded RCA in 1919 to further the use and disbursement of international radio, just one example of their early commitment to innovation (GE Fact Sheet, 2012).

Crane, A. and Matten, D. (2010) ‘Corporate social responsibility’, (3rd edition) Business Ethics. Oxford: Oxford university press, pp.51-60