Ethics Reflection Paper Free Essays

Before WorldCom and Enron, many organizations unconditionally placed social and ethical responsibility with administrative legal and compliance obligations, regulations and rules. Today, a company’s ethical behavior is vital to the success of the company. Consumers not only expect but demand that a company is visible in their practices and are held accountable for their actions; be it through internal regulations and rules through the involvement of the government. We will write a custom essay sample on Ethics Reflection Paper or any similar topic only for you Order Now In this paper, there will be discussions of the social responsibility and role of ethics as it relates to the development of a strategic plan and how the ethical perspective of the author’s perspective has evolved through the studies of the Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) program. In business strategic plans, the management team of the company should integrate ethics and by also asking three basic questions, â€Å"What values do we have†, â€Å"What is our purpose† and â€Å"What do we stand for† according to Robert Finocchio, Dean’s Executive Professor of Santa Clara University. Ethical behavior cannot simply be written /noted in a mission and/or vision statement and should not just be something that a company should declare on the front steps of their offices. Customers and shareholders demand much more from organizations as ethical behavior is very vital. Ethical behavior should be considered the cornerstone of organization cultures and is crucial that all levels of management appropriately communicate the business policies and procedures and the ethical stance the organization takes to the employees. According to the Ethics Awareness Inventory, ethics is identified as moral principles and rules that promote the behavior of individuals that live in society (Fisher, 2008). Business ethics is referred to as the principles that organize the behavior of employers and employees (Hartman, 2004). Without imposing on the ethical boundaries of business or society, a company is expected to organize their practices. In regards to Social responsibility, this can be identified by the current oil spill brought on by BP. The issue with the oil spill surrounding BP Oil Company has been all over the news over the last couple weeks. There has not been one television, newspaper, news program station that has not centered their focus on the amount of damage caused throughout the waters of North America. The oil spill has been addressed by the current president Obama and the steps the government will take to ensure the organization BP appropriately handles the spill accordingly. The public relations department along with the CEO has made media appearances and implemented commercials to advise the world that funds have been set aside to aid in the areas directly affected by the spill. By BP recognizing and responding to the legal and social responsibilities and obligations, the organization can carry out the actions as currently outlined above. This shows that the organization took ownership for their actions and demonstrated a collaborative effort to include the employees of BP’s their communities and suppliers in which they operate as well as the extent the company many attempts to clean up the spill and protect the environment. During this course, it appears that the author’s ethical perspectives have evolved over the past year. When completing the DQ’s due for this week, Enron was one of the companies that was first to come to mind when ethics was the topic of discussion. One might even say that Enron is the â€Å"most discussed company† for all things done unethical. During this program, the author’s perspective evolved as a result of the author being discovered that the end-result of Enron failure was motivated ethically, the company itself was unsound ethically in the mere beginning. Some may question how could this be; however, from the readings on the organization, Enron was unethical from the start. Enron was in the business to sell natural gases and electricity. The purchasing and selling natural gas and electricity is not something that would necessarily be considered an ethical business. How this organization was handled was very strange on unprofessional. Strategic planning taught valuable lessons such as ethics, honesty and trust in which should be incorporated into the core foundation of the organization which to includes conducting business in an ethical way. Being transparent is another concept learned in the chapters of ethical behavior. From the information gathered on Enron, the organization was anything but transparent to the shareholders and its customers or stakeholders. Communicating the ethical stance of the company to all level employees is one of the most important concepts learned about ethics. Obviously, the ethical behaviors would not be on Enron’s list of ethical behavior list. While the Enron scandal unambiguously is the most popular figure of obstinate corporate corruption and fraud, there were some good tips that came of this for all organizations. As a result of the misuse of the organization mission/vision/value statement for Enron, this caused the organization to go under; hundreds of employees losing their jobs, jail time, criminal records and fines to be paid. When the organization started to report large numbers, the employees were encouraged to buy shares of Enron. The executives of Enron were considered bullies to the investment companies as they would pay someone to get rid of a firm that would question their stock. From this big corporate disaster, the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 was formed. The SOX act made it an obligatory practice for all companies, small and large to comply with accounting practices to restrain accounting and corporate scandals. This act does not apply to privately held companies. Social responsibility and Ethics in businesses are very vital in the world today. There are many factors that encourage businesses to function in a socially and ethical manner. These reasons are currently included in the belief system within an organization, government regulations and everyday frequent sense of intelligence. Consumers of an organizations product and shareholders are demanding ethics and social responsibilities. Currently, in today’s organizations, the expectation now is to interact, react and act in a manner that is positive with their customers and go over and beyond the call of duties to sustain simplicity. How to cite Ethics Reflection Paper, Essay examples Ethics Reflection Paper Free Essays When explaining the role of ethics and social responsibility in developing a strategic plan, the stakeholders need to be considered. So it’s not just customers and employees now you have these people who have invested in your company. â€Å"Each of these interest groups has justifiable reasons for expecting (and often for demanding) that the firm satisfy their claims in a responsible manner. We will write a custom essay sample on Ethics Reflection Paper or any similar topic only for you Order Now In general, stockholders claim appropriate returns on their investment; employees seek broadly defined job satisfactions; customers want what they pay for; suppliers seek dependable buyers; governments want adherence to legislation; unions seek benefits for their members; competitors want fair competition; local communities want the firm to be a responsible citizen; and the general public expects the firm’s existence to improve the quality of life. † There are two kinds of stakeholders the inside ones and the outside ones, the issues are that they both look at the company mission for a social responsibility towards society and at the same time the financial interests of the stockholders. For example an outside stakeholder may demand that an insider would be subordinated for the well being of the society and vice versa. This starts to get complex by thinking you’re running a company that needs to make a profit to succeed but at the same time must answer to a social responsibility and particular ethics point of view. An example of a company being socially responsible while making a profit is Toyota. They make the top selling Prius which is the hybrid that leads in developing efficient gas-electric vehicles. There are four types of social responsibilities for which strategic planners must plan, which are: economic, legal, ethical and discretionary. In economic is assumed that the company is providing goods and services at a cost that’s reasonable. In legal responsibilities the company must adhere to the laws that regulate it. In ethical responsibilities the company must have a notion of right and wrong that’s well defined and most of all ethical. In discretionary responsibilities are those that voluntary and throughout those sometimes the company tries to enhance their image. Ethics â€Å"refers to the moral principles that reflect society’s beliefs about the actions of an individual or a group that are right and wrong. † The perception of ethics in business has currently hit a all time low, this could be due to the never ending recession and others. Throughout the program my view of ethics in the workplace has evolved and is no longer so black and white anymore. I have learned that the ethical perspective of a individual not necessarily is the same view of a organization. The company has to think about the whole company and also the impact on society. While the individual’s perspective come from him alone, and how he vies society. References: Casio, W. (2005). Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits 7th Edition New York Mac Graw-Hill. University of Phoenix. (2010). InterClean Scenario [Computer Software]. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, Simulation, HRM/531 Mondy, R. (2008). Human Resource Management 10th Edition Prentice Hall. How to cite Ethics Reflection Paper, Papers Ethics Reflection Paper Free Essays Ethics Reflection Paper Patricia Holt SRT 581 February 25, 2013 Jill Hagist Ethics Reflection Paper The purpose of writing this paper is to reflex on the issues of ethics in strategic planning. Another purpose is to explain how ethics and social responsibility in developing a stategic plan for a company. Lastly, the paper will consider how both ethics and social respnsibility considers stakeholder(s) needs. We will write a custom essay sample on Ethics Reflection Paper or any similar topic only for you Order Now The Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility in Strategic Plannig Knowing that ethics is a major fundamental principle in people or groups of people, such as businesses, importance of this awareness these groups have to achieve working knowledge of ethics so that they do not upset others around them. Socially businesses have to also take in their responsibility in the stategic planning because businesses have a responsibility to do their activities to meet bigger commitments towards the society and the environment (Abdullah, 2013). Strategic planning is very important and is a primary action in the corporate world which the company uses their upper level management to articulate the organization’s strategy, direction, and in deciding important elements for the organization (Abdullah, 2013). Stakeholders Needs Stakeholders are part of strategic planning because they hold a major part of influence in how a company will do things to satisfy their needs. Stakeholders are basically everyone that has a stake in the business. The stakeholders view of a compay responsibility are Stockholders, Creditors, Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Government, Unions, Competitors, Local communities, and the general puplic (Pearce, 20110). Personal Ethical Perspective Evolved As requested from the class syllabus Patricia Holt retook the Ethics Awareness Inventory for better understanding of her personality traits. After taking the Ethics Awareness Inventory she found that she was high in the ethical perspective of Character (C). This showed her that she tended to base her perspectives on what is considered the right thing to do. Also in the Character perspective she believes that ethics should focus on ways to help achieve moral excellence (Pearce, 2011). That she looked for virtue in people such traits as honor, justice and benevolence, considering virtue as a concrete aptitude and not an abstract principle (EUI, 2012). The summary of the EAI SCORING SUMMARY — 2/25/2013 The Williams Institute for Ethics Management Ethics Awareness Inventory – Gain New Insight Into Your Ethical Perspective C-O-R-E Categories: C – CHARACTER O – OBLIGATION R – RESULTS E – EQUITY Most Likely Scores: Character = 8 Obligation = 8 Results = 3 Equity = 5 Least Likely Scores: Character = 2 Obligation = 2 Results = 8 Equity = 12 Combined Scores: Character = 6 Obligation = 6 Results = -5 Equity = -7 Ethical Profiles: Most Likely = Character Least Likely = Equity Conclusion Organizations have obligations to individuals and communities as a whole to behave ethically. Ethics are principles that one considers as right or wrong and after taking EAI Patricia found that she has not changed in her views and concepts. She still considers a person’s character is based his or her ethical perspective on â€Å"what it is good to be, rather than what it is good to do† (EAI, 2012). References Abdullah, A. , (2013). Five Important Issues of Ethical and Social Responsibility in the Strategic Planning Process, eHow Contributor. Retrieved from http://www. ehow. com/info_8618109_five-responsibility-strategic-planning-process. html Ethical Awareness Inventory (2012). Ethical Awareness Inventory, Gain New Insight Into Your Ethical Perspective. Retrieved from https://ecampus. phoenix. edu/secure/aapd/Vendors/TWI/EAI/ Pearce, J. A. , II, Robinson, R. B. (2011). Strategic management: Formulation, implementation, and control (12th ed. ). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. How to cite Ethics Reflection Paper, Papers