Marks and Spencer Business Ethics

There are many social factors that affect Marks and Spencer such as level of education, lifestyle, mobility of population and income distribution. To keep up with the social affect Marks and Spencer has now a shop online selling its food, clothing and any other product they would have in stores. This is part of their plan to become a multi-channel retailer. It is obvious to us all that the real factor is to keep up with its competitive market such as Dunnes Stores. Marks and Spencer appeal to different markets in terms of social class and other demographics. Also to keep up with the social change Marks and Spencer bought their clothes range up to date to keep up with latest trends and to keep their customers interested. Consumer purchases are influenced by many factors like cultural, social, and personal. Marks and Spencer cannot control these factors but they must take them into account, which they have done as they are a well-positioned and a competitive player in their market.

Basic standards that Walmart’s suppliers are expected to meet have to be in the compliance with applicable

Ethics in business addresses the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ behaviours of business practises, and how these practices impact the employees, shareholders, the general public and the environment.

Analyze three of the punishments that corporations undergo when they have acted unethically (i.e., name them, define them, explain what they are). In addition, explain three threats to running an ethical corporation. Finally, from your own perspective, explain whether or not a corporation should have to function by the same codes of morality that individual people in society have to abide by or if they should be allowed to get away with certain actions that people in society cannot get away with.

Target has suggested that its vendors create special products or prevent price comparisons to help decrease consumer show-rooming (Kinicki & Williams, 2013). Pressure of this sort could create opportunities for vendors to participate in unethical practices and could create a negative image for Target (McKay, Nitsch, & Peters, 2015). Although laws, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, are basic frameworks that business operations must comply with, there is no guideline that businesses have to follow when making business decisions. Furthermore, ethical behavior can be perceived by customers, investors, and society as corporate responsible while creating additional value for products or services (Kinicki et al., 2013). Target should ensure that it ethically follows all constraints of the law while considering the impacts its decisions will have on its stakeholders, and while fostering an image, responsibly by corporate.

Marks & Spencer is a large company listed on various stock markets, which a widely spread operations in many countries. The size of operations of the company and high reputation in the

M2(Unit 37) - Assess the social implications of business ethics facing a selected business in its different areas of activity

Marks and Spencer face many ethical issues in their daily activities and these affect the public and their business in different ways.

The problem to be investigated is the application of business ethics. In the business world, ethics are extremely important. Ethics are prime elements that help a business to grow and to become more productive. It is by applying proper business ethics that a business can operate in a moral or ethical business environment and managed to conduct all activities in a manner that maximizes profits while not compromising all other non-economic concerns(Schwab, 1996). Businesses have over the years failed to nurture business ethics in order to fulfill shareholders' interests and to have a culture that is oriented towards profit maximization and high performance(Jennings, 2012; Sims & Felton, 2006). This has led business to have gray areas in their activities. Gray areas are those situations or problems that do not fit exactly into any ethical analysis. These are the activities which may be represented to be immoral as a result of lying and false representations on the part of the business.

However, today, the focus on stakeholder’s (apart from the shareholders, these are customers, suppliers and employees) expectations has also grown radically. Accordingly, ethical behaviours such as meeting stakeholders’ expectation objectives, environmental objectives and corporate social responsibility, which is accountability to the society and social responsibility, have resultantly become very important. Failure to comply with ethical behaviours can causes a business to damage its brand value and its reputation, which in turn could lead to reduced profits or even losses (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2014).

(Panza & Potthast, n.d.) Ethics is very important to a company’s success. Ethical behavior can bring benefits to a business. They can attract customers, which can lead to a boost in sales and profits. It can attract the right employees and increase productivity. It can also attract investors and keep the company’s share price high. Unethical behavior on the other hand can damage a company’s reputation and make it less appealing to stakeholders. It could also result in lower profits.

a. Identify the ethical dilemma faced by the CIO in this situation using the three normative theories of business ethics. Identify all stakeholders involved. How will each stakeholder group be affected by the decision taken by the management?

Businesses should have certain ethical guidelines to enforce manufacturers to adhere to or refuse to do business with these manufacturers if certain standards cannot be met. However, the only thing Wal-Mart is interested in is making a profit and apparently at any cost and in any conditions. There should be more follow through with government regulations and importing of said merchandise to discourage such participation in such practices. While other retailers have assisted to make conditions better in finding solutions to make these factories better for their workers and want to contribute financially to improve the environment, “but Wal-Mart declined to participate in the 2011 in relation to the fire related deaths and injuries, because it would increase the company’s cost documented by Senior Official of Bangladesh’s ministry of Labor and Employment” (Sethi).

Even though M&S undertakes social responsibility and tries to gain focus of people,distant community will have very low interest and low power on M&S’s operations and industry bodies like British Retail Association and Confederation of British industry might have very low interest and low power.

Ø Give some specific examples of ethical issues that confront businesses and how these might be addressed.