Ethics

Ethics Reflection Clyde Pritchett STR/581 06/30/2010 Doctor Kocharyan Abstract In the business world you have rules and several of guidelines that you must abide by in the workplace. There are other guidelines and factors to abide by which determines the personality of the company. These factors are ethics and social responsibility which play an important part in planning your life or for the well being of your business. As a company or companies develop their strategic plan, they must take in consideration of how ethics and social responsibility will impinge on the strategic plan keeping the needs of the stakeholders at the forefront. People and companies make decisions everyday based off of certain actions such as ethical behavior, perspectives and beliefs. In overtime as people and companies continue to practice their ideal ethics and social responsibilities would eventually define the person or the company. Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility in Strategic Planning In management ethics are like rules or guidelines to help employees display proper conduct according to the company’s personal standards and values that the top level management has chosen to define the company. The company should incorporate their chosen beliefs and values within the strategic plan. This will guarantee that their employees will comprehend the rules and be able to make sound ethical decisions. The company’s values and beliefs are mainly outlined in the mission statement, vision, and philosophy which will give the employees their guidance, purpose, and clear comprehension of the company’s behavioral belief and decisions decided by the company’s stakeholders. When the company complies with the overall mission and vision statements it can really assist in setting company goals and strategically plan for the future while maintaining the integrity of the ethics of all core decisions. Pearson and Robinson stated “central to the belief that companies should be operated in a socially responsive way for the benefit of all stakeholders is belief that managers will behave in an ethical manner,” (Pearson & Robinson, 2004,p60). Although a company has certain ethical guidelines there is always a chance for unethical behavior amongst the employees or management. Throughout the years many of top level executives of huge corporations have displayed unethical behavior and violated many of their company policies. These companies’ executives that have displayed unethical behaviors are Enron, World Com, and sometimes individuals such as Martha Stewart with her insider trading scandal. All employees of a company are obligated to uphold the company’s image but top level management are held in real high regard to practice all the ethical statutes and social responsibilities of the company. They top level executives are the face of the company so they have a higher responsibility to maintain ethical standards for the stakeholders comfort. When top level management fails to practice ethical behavior; the board of directors reserved the right to vote to have that executive or executives removed from the company. This will view in the public eye that unethical behavior will not be tolerated by anyone whether it be Chief Executive Officer or bottom level manager. In 2002 the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was designed to hold Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer accountable for reports of the company and to recognize that all the information is true and accurate to the best of their ability. If the information on the reports are found to be inaccurate or fraudulent; then the CEO and the CFO have obligation to report the infraction to the auditors or fraud examiners. The authors of the text state “social responsibility is a critical consideration for a company’s strategic decision makers…” (Pearson & Robinson, 2004,p.23). When hiring managers you need to be insured that they are going to be able to act and voice their opinions as you would in your absence. As we know some managers will make decisions based on their self interest instead of the managers and stakeholders interest. The decisions that are made by your managers must be done with the sole interest of the company and the stakeholders to gaurantee profit and the company’s ability to survive in a competitive market. Company’s usually put certain parameters in place to give managers more of incetive to make decisions for the overall company such as bonuses and profit sharing. With these incentives being awarded to managers of the company the stakeholders and also stockholders are able to hold managers accountable. Stockholders are just as important than the everyday stakeholder. The stockholder is on of the many owners of the company because their montarey investment entitles the stockholder a share of the company. The stockholder and stakeholder want good returns on his or her investment, job satisfaction, satisfied vendors and suppliers, goverments seeking law abiding companies, competitors seeking strong competition, responsible citizens and the public seeking a good quality of life (Pearson & Robinson, 2004). The manager also has social responsibility that the consumer is getting impecable service, sensible prices for goods or services, and career openings a fairly advertise to the public. Company’s ethical and social responsibilities should be practice from top to bottonm on a consistent basis. If everyone is not on the same page or ethical practices are unconsistent your company could be skewed as untrusted and fraudulent. Ethical Perspectives The Phoenix MBA program has really enlightened on the importance of ethics, values and social responsibility play in the corporate society. It helps create ownership of decisions and gaurantees that employees conduct during business is ethical by the company standards. When asked to be part of groups throughout the program University Phoenix also place ethical parameters in place such as learning team charter, team log, and university honor code. These rules and standards are applied to every student in the programso that their performance is ethical throughout the MBA program. Unethical behavior and dishonesty would result in probation or dismissal from the program because these stern consequences comfort the stakeholder to assure that University of Phoenix ethical standards are respected by consumers and employees. Conclusion Company’s and individuals must follow some level of ethics and social responsibility to remain successful. The company’s profits and logevity rely on the ethical and social decisions that are made by the mangers. The improper behavior and self inflicted decisions will stain company’s image and destroy stakeholders and stockholders interest. In all perspectives we know as individuals or as company values, integrity, positive ethical behavior and social responsbility defines the character of the person and the company. Bibliography Pearson, J. A., & Robinson, R. B. (2004). Strategic management: Formalation, implementation, and control (9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.