Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
A. Purpose
of Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility can be defined as a form of business approach
contributing to sustainable development in an organization through delivering
social, environmental and economic benefits to all stakeholders (Crowther,
2008). The main purpose of CSR in the company would make sure that it carries
out its businesses transactions and activities in an ethical manner. The
company following CSR concept would be expected to take into consideration
economic, environmental as well as social effects of its activities and
consider an issue related to human rights. Therefore, the purpose of CSR to the
company would make sure it engages in activities that are social,
environmentally and economically sustainable Griseri and Seppala, 2010).
For example, ensuring its manufacturing activities does not contribute to the
pollution of the environment.
A1. Primary and Secondary Stakeholders
The primary stakeholders can be said to be those who might have some direct
interests in Paradigm Toys, while secondary stakeholders are those who do not
have any direct interests within Paradigm Toys (Crane and Matten, 2016).
The company’s primary stakeholders include management, strategic partners,
staff, shareholders, and strategic clients. These groups of stakeholders have a
direct financial interest in the company; hence their well-being financially is
dependent on the ability of the company to remain stable and record improved
financial performance always. On the other hand, the secondary stakeholders
include customers, competitors, government, creditors, and community. These
stakeholders do not have a direct interest in the company but are indirectly
affected by the decision taken by it.
A2. Responsibility to Stakeholders
One of the key responsibility of the company’s board of director towards its
primary and secondary stakeholders is playing the oversight management role,
thereby, making sure that the company has systems put in place to aid in
effective management of major risks that might end up harming the reputation of
the firm and ones that can bring legal liability on issues related to adverse
environmental and social effects (Crane and Matten, 2016). For instance, the
board of directors of Paradigm Toys is supposed to make sure that the senior
management always acts in the best interest of the stakeholders, ensuring that
various risks that might harm the reputation of the firm are fully managed.
Secondly, the board of directors in the company has social responsibility of
ensuring that the senior management of the firm has financial and other types
of resources needed to meet the changing needs and expectations of the stakeholders
in a way that is in line with the values as well as strategic priorities of the
firm. For example, the board of director is supposed to allocate adequate
financial resources that would help to implement certain investment strategies,
such as acquisitions with an objective of enhancing the ability of the firm to
generate more income in the future.
B1. Importance of Ethical Culture
There are several
benefits that are associated with an organization having an ethical culture.
One of the benefits of Paradigm Toys having ethical culture is that it ensures
that employees act in a moral way, whereby they act with honesty as well as
integrity while serving customers, leading to overall satisfaction of the
target customers. Also, ethical culture plays a great role in ensuring that the
company always acts in the best interest of the majority of the people in the
society in all the decisions that it takes (De George, 2011). For example,
ethical culture would ensure that the company does not sell toys with defaults
to the customers. Additionally, ethical culture plays a central role in
ensuring that the organization's leadership take ethical decisions, so as to
build the reputation and the image of the firm (De George, 2011). Finally,
ethical cultural helps a company to achieve the goal of building a workforce
that is highly motivated and satisfied with its work.
B1a. Fostering Ethical Culture
The leadership of Paradigm Toys can foster an ethical culture in different
ways. The leadership can develop ethical standards and policies that are
supposed to be followed by the employees with an objective of ensuring that
they act ethically (Griseri and Seppala, 2010). For example,
leadership having employees code of conduct and ethics, outlining ethical
principles to guide their work. Additionally, the company's leadership can
build ethical culture through their actions, whereby, they are supposed to make
decisions that demonstrate ethics. For example, always making sure that any
product sold to the customers is safe. Furthermore, the leadership can build
ethical culture through ensuring that there are accountability and transparency
in the operations of the firm. The leadership should also foster ethical
culture through employing hiring and retention policies that help the company
to employ individuals who meet certain ethical standards and this would make
sure that the workforce is made up of individuals who behave ethically at all
times (De George, 2011).
B2. Ethics Audit
According to Griseri and Seppala (2010), ethics audit can be defined as
investigations concerned with determining how well an organization comply with
industry or societal, ethical standards in its operations. Ethics audit is
therefore concerned with understanding whether an organization is engaging in
ethical practices, which have positive social, environmental and economic
impact on the society and other stakeholders. The audit is essential in today's
business environment as it helps an organization to comply to engage in ethical
business practices.
B2a. Value of an Ethics Audit
Ethics audit would be
valued to Paradigm Toys in different ways. First, the audit would play a major
role in ensuring that the company understands its weaknesses when it comes to
complying with societal, ethical standards; hence making appropriate actions to
make improvements in building an ethical culture in all its transactions and
activities (Crane and Matten, 2016). Also, ethics audit would help to
understand the expected ethical standards by the industry and society, making
sure that the company can develop ethical policies, standards, and principles
to guide its employees by what is expected of it by the industry and the
society in general. Ethics audit would also be beneficial to Paradigm Toys by
making sure that it put in place internal control measures directed towards
helping it employees and managers to act always in an ethical way. For example,
using the audit to develop an ethical code of conduct to guide employees while
interacting with customers at all times, to ensure that they act in a manner
that is in line with ethical expectations of the customers.
C1. Ethical Dilemma
One of an ethical
dilemma that a person can experience in a business setting is a situation where
a product is faulty and poses a risk to the safety of the customers. In this
dilemma a person will be faced with a situation to decide on whether to allow
faulty product to be sold to customers or not on the basis of protecting the
financial interests of the company or not to allow the sale of faulty products,
such as toys with an objective of protecting the interests of the customers.
C2. Potential Solutions
There are two
possible solutions that a manager in the company can use to solve the ethical
dilemma presented above. The first solution would be to allow the sale of a
faulty product with an objective of protecting the organization's financial
interests, as a lot of financial resources have been used in development and
manufacturing of the products at hand. The second solution would be for the
company manager to recall the sale of all the faulty products. The main
disadvantage of this solution is that it would cost the company financially, as
it will have to lose all the finances used in the manufacturing of faulty
products.
C3. Explanation of Choice
Based on utilitarian
ethics and action should be taken by an organization that has benefits to the
greatest section of the society (Crane and Matten, 2016). In this case, the
best ethical decision would be one that is aimed to benefit the biggest section
of the society. Thus, the best solution would be to recall the sale of the
products with an objective of protecting the customer's interest. Selling of
faulty products would put the safety of the customers at risk, and this would
damage the long-term reputation of the firm. The best course of action would be
one that is aimed at protecting the business reputation and the interests of
the customers.
D1. Key Components
One of the elements that would be included in the company’s ethical training
program would train the employees by various judgment philosophies associated
with ethics. The second element is ensuring that the training program is based
on industry-specific ethics and rules. The last element that would be included
in the training program would be aimed at providing organization rules and
ethics.
D1a. Explanations of Key Components
The element of
training by different ethical judgment philosophies would be included in the
organization's training ethical training program for purposes of helping the
employees to understand various schools of ethics; theories that can be used to
guide the ethical decision-making process (Crane and Matten, 2016).
Additionally, training employees by industrial ethics are included as the basis
of helping the trainees understand various ethical standards that guide the
operation of the company within the industry it operates and this form the
basis of empowering them to make ethical decisions in future which is in line
with industry ethics. Finally, ensuring that the training program empowers
employees with organization rules and ethics, tries to make sure that employees
engage in behaviors that are in line with organizational standards and rules
related to ethical practices.
D2. Justification
The simulation would
be the best method for delivering ethical training program in the company. The
simulation method would allow the trainee an opportunity of having a real life
ethical situations simulated to them so that they can acquire skills of solving
them. This approach is the best as it provides evidence and skill based ethical
training to the company's employees.
Corporate social responsibility
represents one of the most research topics in the arena of contemporary
business. So important is this topic that it has attracted research and related
investments from across the globe. Abbreviated simply as CSR, corporate social
responsibility is also known as sustainable business, corporate sustainability,
responsible business, corporate conscience, or corporate citizenship. During
its inception and initial development, sustainable business was designed to
exist as an initiative by private business across the global market and
business arenas. However, there have been developments that have taken place
with regards to the traditional setting of corporate social responsibility. One
such development is the establishment and constant growth of the legal
framework attached to corporate sustainability. Today, countries across the
globe have designed and instituted laws which have transformed corporate social
responsibility from an initiative of private business to government backed
legal expectation of corporations and businesses across the globe. Although
corporate social responsibility exists differently from one setting to the
next, there are unique activities and investments that stand out in the myriad
of investments and activities. Corporate social responsibility may be designed
as the sum of activities and investments through which companies focus on
furthering some form of social good which exists beyond the corporate or
business interest required by law and outside the interests of the institution.
The common usage of this term is employed in referring to the initiatives that
are designed to ensure a company’s activities and the effects birthed thereof
are effectively assessed in order to provide the institution with information
and a background through which it can maintain and constantly improve social
wellbeing through being responsible for its activities. Challenges in corporate
social responsibility range from those birthed in the process of integrating
corporate responsibility initiatives into the business model to the legal
interaction between in-house CSR initiatives and laws designed to govern
business activities. One of the universal challenges in CSR is coming up with a
universal yardstick through which the investments and activities shaping up
corporate social responsibility are effectively reported, measured, and
represented (Okpara, Idowu, & Springer-Verlag GmbH, 2016, p. 97).
Founded during the first quarter of
2006, Toms Shoes might not feature in the Fortune 500 companies, but the
company has an approach and attitude towards corporate social responsibility
that sets it apart. Founded by Blake Mycskie and Alejo Nitti, the company is
headquartered in the Santa Monica area of California and is part of the global
retail industry. The company specializes in shoes, shirts, eyewear, clothing,
and coffee. The company’s uniqueness is not presented in its product line, but
in its approach to corporate social responsibility and how it has affected its
business model. When the company was founded, its main aim was to introduce the
famous Argentine alpargata show design into the United States retail industry
and profit out of it. However, the administration of the company adopted a
corporate social responsibility initiative that brought international
recognition to the company. The company has a unique business model which is
represented in the phrase – One for One. For every pair of shoes a customer
purchases in any Toms outlet across the globe, the company goes on to provide a
pair of shoes to an impoverished child. Whenever a sale is recorded for
eyewear, the company directs part of the amount received to initiatives aimed
at improving and restoring eyesight in developing countries. Whenever there is
a coffee sale made by the company, part of the profit realized thereof is
directed towards providing clean and safe water to people in need across the
world. For every bag collection sold by the company, there are investments made
in light of maternal health in different regions of the world. The company
ensures maternal mortality is constantly being addressed through straining
maternity nurses and providing birth kits across the globe in a bid to improve
childbirth safety (TOMS, 2018).
After information about the
corporate social responsibility of Toms became public, there were a number of
unique changes experienced by the company. The company begun when the founder
sold a company he had in order to secure funds for the shoe company. Proceeds
from the sale of driver education – an online-based business – amount to $500,000
and were sufficient for the company to order to 250 pairs for a start. When
sales official began in the 5th month of 2006, the company
experienced the slow movement of sales characteristic of start-ups. However,
this changed drastically when the Los
Angeles Times ran an article about the company’s corporate social
responsibility. When the world got to know about the sustainable business
initiatives by the company, overwhelming orders were made and the company found
itself at a point where it had to deal with nine or ten times the stock that
was available. At the end of the first year in business, the company had
already sold over 10,000 pair across the globe. A year after is founding, the
company was attracting partnership from global players in raising awareness
about the impact shoes have the life of children across different regions in
the world. Five years after it was founded, the company was approached by over
1000 retailers across the globe and 500 of these were already stoking and
carrying the brand across the global marketplace. 6 years since its
establishment, the company had expanded its product line and distributed over
2.5 million pairs to needy children and people across the globe (TOMS, 2018).
Measuring the nature and level of
effectiveness attached to corporate social responsibility is one of the most
sought after business tools in the global business arena. There is hardly a
company across the globe that is not presented with a fair measure of
challenges in light of quantifying the effect of corporate social
responsibility. Some of the most conspicuous benefits attached to corporate
social responsibility are an improved reputation and customer loyalty. The lack
of tools and techniques to effectively quantify and or assess the value
attached to corporate social responsibility is the main reason behind the
growing difficulty in attaching value to the various activities and investments
shaping up a corporate social responsibility initiative. However, there are new
approaches being designed to provide grounds through which corporate social
responsibility can be effectively assessed. The three measures employed in
analysis and quantification of corporate social responsibility are; disclosing
the important of corporate social responsibility activities and investments to
customers and stakeholders, improving decision making activities in corporate
social responsibility over the long term, and aligning the business activities
with the activities and investments shaping up corporate social responsibility.
Some of the tools and techniques that incorporate these principles in their
measurement techniques include the Community Mark Standard, the Global
Environment KPIs, and the CR Index Insights (Pompper, 2017, p. 76).
The CR Index Insight CSR measurement
tool is designed to function through focusing on five unique elements; the
values and vision within the internal environment of a company that drive and
sustain CSR, the leadership, administration, and culture within an organization
and how it is designed to enhance CSR practices, the supply chain collaboration
in light of CSR sustainability, investment and innovations on corporate
responsibility, and the investments geared towards mitigating climate change. The
company has a uniquely excellently score in each of these principles. For
instance, in light of how the leadership and culture enhances CSR business
practices, the company was founded for and sustained through a CSR culture. The
founder of the company has extensively invested in ways through which he can
constantly improve the company’s corporate social responsibility business
practices. This is evident in the birth of new products in the company and how
they immediately get integrated into the company’s business model while
focusing on corporate social responsibility. In light of collaboration with the
entities that shape up the company’s supply chain, it is important to
underscore that the success being achieved by the company in its corporate
social responsibility – especially the one for one shoe initiative –is the
product of sustainable and effective supply chain management and relation
investments. The visions and values driving internal change and corporate
social responsibility in the company have expanded as the company grows over
the course of time. The values and vision by the founder of the company are
still in place to date and have played a monumental role in ensuring the
company is able to effectively maintain and expand its corporate social responsibility
across the globe (Okpara, Idowu, & Springer-Verlag GmbH, 2016, p. 156)
References
Okpara, J.,
Idowu, S. O., & Springer-Verlag GmbH. (2016). Corporate Social
Responsibility: Challenges, Opportunities and Strategies for 21st Century
Leaders. Berlin, Germany: Springer Science & Business Media.
Pompper, D.
(2017). Corporate social responsibility, sustainability and public
relations: negotiating multiple complex challenges.
TOMS. (2018, May 1).
TOMS® Official Site | The One for One® Company. Retrieved from
http://www.toms.com/
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