Akram Hussain
Unit 37 – Assignment 3
Social implications of business ethics
Introduction
In this assignment I have been asked to describe the social implications of business ethics facing a selected business in its different areas of activity. I have then been asked to assess these social implications of business ethics.
The business organisation I have chosen for this assignment is ‘Boots’.
Social implications (P3)
Social implication is a term used to describe the actions of a business that will have an impact on society as a whole. These could be ethical practises or unethical practises.
There are many different social implications a business might have, these social implications are highlighted by the way a business will chose to operate. The different social implications a business might have are related to different areas or departments of activity within a business.
These different areas of activity are:
• Ethics in finance
• Ethics in production
• Ethics in human resources management
• Ethics in sales and marketing
Ethics in finance
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.
Ethics in finance can be broken down into different factors such as, bribery, payday loans, insider
. Explain what is meant by the “social contract” between a business and the society in which it operates.
The author Robert Solomon argues that ethics has to an integral part with regard to business management. He does not believe that business management must include unethical or illegal methods to be able to succeed. Solomon preaches that business management is not as simple as obtaining revenue. “Businesses need to abide by fair policies and their owners have to be ethical in dealing with their customers” (Shaw p. 37). The author acknowledges that while illegal practices in business management could bring positive results at first, eventually the business is bound to fail. This is why Solomon recommended eight important policies that can help businesses in integrating ethics into their operations.
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.
M2(Unit 37) - Assess the social implications of business ethics facing a selected business in its different areas of activity
And according to Davis, 1973 (Carroll, Shabana 2010) the business has enough responsibility, and there are no reasons to have another responsibility. And it will make the business less competitive in the global market. (Carroll, Shabana 2010). Making people poor, according to (Henderson) there are consequences for social responsibility, and he believes it will be harmful. By adopting the social responsibility in business, it will bring higher costs.
Social forces are part of the four macro environmental forces that affect effect industry (Parnell, 2014). “Social forces include factors as societal values, trends, traditions, and religious practices,” that communities and society tends to hold high (Parnell, 2014, pg. 79). The decision that the supermarket made in choosing to back the community’s input in not to sell alcoholic beverages at their store was a social environmental decision that created a challenge for Bob’s possibly. This decision could have an impact on the financial aspect of the business. The brothers felt like more could be gained from the faithfulness by not selling alcohol.
Every business has a social responsibility toward society. That means to maximize positive affects and minimize negative affects on the society. Social responsibilities includes economic-to produce goods and services, that society needs at the price, that satisfy both-business and consumers, legal
With the globalization in world budget, business ethics became essential necessity for companies. Business to business ethics of applicable behaviors in the long-term achievement of businesses in a positive direction, otherwise it has been the supremacy to adversely affect the behavior. As a result, the breakdown of ethical scandals has emerged released in the United States of America and Europe. Business, which
Business ethics refers to the consideration of moral decisions and responsibilities in the process of operating a business. Business ethics, practiced throughout the deepest layers of a company, become the heart and soul of the company 's culture and can mean the difference between success and failure. Values drive behavior and therefore need to be consciously stated, but they also need to be affirmed by actions. Ethical business environments are created with foundations of integrity, accountability and commitment.
On the contrary, social responsibility applies only to an organization or business, whereas ethics applies to people’s behaviors and how the obligations determine whether an action is right or wrong. Social responsibility is the application of a set of ethics to a business or organization. Edwin Epstein’s definition of corporate social responsibility supports the idea that corporate responsibility is ethically based in its decisions with the agents associated with the company. Epstein stated, “Corporate social responsibility relates primarily to achieving outcomes from organizational decisions concerning specific issues or problems which have beneficial rather than adverse effects upon pertinent corporate stakeholders” (Carroll, 1996). Social responsibility contains both the responsibility to discover employee misconduct while also maintaining good relationships with those outside of the business. According to Berenbeim, it is the corporation’s responsibility to maintain those good relationships with the agents of interest paramount to the obligations to minimize the risk of employee misconduct (Berenbeim,
Ethics has been a topic of discussion for many years between scholars, professors, students, companies, and many other living in this century. According to a Santa Clara University business student, ethics could not be defined the same by individuals. Ethics cannot be “pinned down” to a certain definition, meaning that people perceive the word “ethical” in many different ranges. According to the business student, “ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.” Meaning, ethics comes down to how you perceive right and wrong, based on your values and upbringing.
(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.
Social responsibility is built on a system of ethics, in which decisions and actions must be ethically validated before proceeding. If the action or decision causes harm to society or the environment then it would be considered to be socially irresponsible. Being socially responsible means that people and organization must behave ethically and sensitivity towards, social, cultural, economic, and environmental issues. Striving for social responsibility helps individuals, organization and government to have a positive impact on development, business and society. Often, the ethical implication of decision/action are overlooked for personal gain and the benefits are usually material. This frequently manifest itself in companies that
This quote by J.W. Goethe focuses on the impact that human decisions have on their surrounding environments. Goethe’s view is that everyone, no matter their status in society, has the ability to make choices that determine their actions which inevitably affect other people either positively or negatively. This can be projected onto the social corporate responsibility context through the various decisions made by business personnel based on their ethical values which directly or indirectly affect their employees and other people in the society as well.
Ethics in finance matters because it can help the market to develop and it brings trust for the investors. There are many cases in history involving people from desk brokers to top management involved in unethical behavior. One of the most famous cases is the Wolf of the Wall Street. Jordan Belfort committed many unethical behaviors during his short career in Wall