...otherwise confusing ethical issues. 1. Recognize that there is a problem. This step is critically important because it forces us to acknowledge that there is an issue that deserves our attention and helps us separate moral questions from disagreements about manners and social conventions. For example, being late for a party may be bad manners and violate cultural expectations. However, this act does not translate into a moral problem involving right or wrong. On the other hand, deciding whether to accept a kickback from a supplier is an ethical dilemma. 2. Determine the actor. Once we’ve determined that there is an ethical issue, we then need to decide who is responsible for addressing the problem. I may be concerned that the owner of a local business treats his employees poorly. Nonetheless, unless I work for the company or buy its products, there is little I can do to address this situation. 3. Gather the relevant facts. Adequate, accurate, and current information is important for making effective decisions of all kinds, including ethical ones. Details do make a difference. In deciding whether it is just to suspend a student for fighting, for instance, a school principal will want to hear from teachers, classmates, and the offender to determine the seriousness of the offense, the student’s reason for fighting, and the outcome of the altercation. The administrator will probably be more lenient if this is the offender’s first offense and he was defending himself. 4. Test for right-versus-wrong...
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...BUSINESS ETHICS AND CSR IN THE CONTEXT OF SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS 1.0 Introduction In the 21st century of business, there are number of factors apart from the financial figures that play a vital role for the success story of the business corporations. These factors include the culture adopted by the business, philosophy of the management of the company, code of ethics and standards followed by business. The presence of all of these factors in the business’s ethical guidelines has a significant impact on the ability of the business organisations to perform well on the long term basis. In this report the Samsung Electronics’ ethical issues are studied along with the importance of the business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices adopted by the business organisations. The upcoming sections of this report present information about the meaning and importance of business ethics which is followed by the description of the violations of the ethical issues by the Samsung Company and the also the role of Samsung management in promoting CSR and overcoming ethical issues. 2.0 Meaning of Business Ethics The primary objective of each and every business organisation is to run business for the purpose of profit as well as the maximisation of owners’ wealth. Profit can be maximized by selling goods and services at reasonable prices and as far as wealth is concerned this can only be maximized if business follows the required ethics. The term business ethics...
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...INTRO Business Ethics (also known as corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that studies the ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment (source: Wikipedia). This applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the behavior of individuals and organizations overall business. Applied ethics is a field of ethics dealing with ethical questions in many fields such as medicine, engineering, law and business ethics. Business ethics can be a discipline both normative and descriptive. As the practices of the company and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. The scope and quantity of business ethics reflects the degree to which its business is considered contrary to the social values of non-economic. , For example, today most major corporate sites put pressure on the commitment to promote social values of non-economic under various posts (eg code of ethics, social responsibility). In some cases, companies have to reformulate their core values in the light of considerations of business ethics....
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...Small business social responsibility: Expanding core CSR theory Laura J. Spence Abstract This paper seeks to expand business and society research in a number of ways. Its primary purpose is to redraw two core CSR theories (stakeholder theory and Carroll’s CSR pyramid), enhancing their relevance for small business. This is done by the application of the ethic of care, informed by the value of feminist perspectives and the extant empirical research on small business social responsibility. It is proposed that the expanded versions of core theory have wider relevance, value and implications beyond the small firm context. The theorization of small business social responsibility enables engagement with the mainstream of CSR research as well as making a contribution to small business studies in scholarly, policy and practice terms. Key words: corporate social responsibility, ethic of care, feminist ethics, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), small business, Carroll’s pyramid, stakeholder theory. Correspondence: Laura J. Spence, PhD. Professor of Business Ethics. Director, Centre for Research into Sustainability, School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK. Laura.Spence@rhul.ac.uk Acknowledgements: With sincere thanks to the special issue editors and reviewers, Kate Grosser and Dirk Matten for their insightful comments in the development of this paper. Introduction Small business social responsibility - whether it be a software...
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...Discuss the relationship between CSR and PR and analyze the ethical issues that arise. How may practitioners ensure their CSR programs are more than just rhetoric? CSR "Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large".(Lord Holme and Richard Watt-Making good business sense) CSR has become a relevent issue in the business field. Nowdays people judge a companys reputation with the way how they deal with their social and environmental responsibilities. Sevral studies revealed that responsible ativities are increasingly valued and demanded by stakeholders.(consumers, investors, community,journalist etc) who see in such activities the civic behavior of bussinesses, and which in turn influences their evaluation of the companies. According to study carried out by MORI in UK indicates that ,75% consumers while evaluating a company considers its level of social responsibility to be important, almost 90% of employees believe that their company should be socially responsible, almost 40% of analyst and investors consider it very important while evaluating the company and over 50 % of journalists consider social responsibility to be very important while judging the company. CSR can be better understood as a means of reinforcing both reputation and legitimacy, as it provides an...
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...The Gap Inc.: The CSR Evaluation of Gap Inc. Outline of the notable ethical decisions made by Gap Inc. and their impacts on the company In 2003, Gap Inc. was sued for its usage of child labor and sweatshop factories in its subsidiary in Saipan. The decision to use child labor and sweatshop in Saipan was made by the management of Gap Inc. that could either be seen as egoism or utilitarianism (Smith, 2004). On one hand, on the egoism perspective, Gap Inc. could have decided to use child and sweatshop labor to cut its costs and maximize its profits. On the other hand, on the utilitarianism perspective, Gap’s decision to use child and sweatshop labor, cruel and ethical as it might seem, provided the people in Saipan a source of employment and income. As a poor, third world country, Saipan could not create enough jobs to sustain the livelihood of all its citizens, so it the citizens could choose between starving to death and making a difficult living in Gap’s sweatshops, the sweatshop is apparently a better option. Hence from the utilitarianism approach, Gap’s unethical behavior was actually better than its doing nothing at all. However, this decision gave Gap an international lawsuit over ethical treatment of labor, which does not cost Gap considerable fortune and energy, but also severely harmed its international reputation as an ethical player in the apparel industry (Smith, 2004). It turned out that the public citizens and the media prefer to use the Kantianism when...
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...INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS WHAT IS ETHICS Ethics is a major branch of philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life. It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing right and wrong. A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or life that is simply satisfying, which is held by many philosophers to be more important than moral conduct. Simply put, ethics involves learning what is right or wrong, and then doing the right thing -- but "the right thing" is not nearly as straightforward as conveyed in a great deal of business ethics literature. Most ethical dilemmas in the workplace are not simply a matter of "Should Bob steal from Jack?" or "Should Jack lie to his boss?" (Many ethicists assert there's always a right thing to do based on moral principle, and others believe the right thing to do depends on the situation -- ultimately it's up to the individual.) Many philosophers consider ethics to be the "science of conduct." Philosophers have been discussing ethics for at least 2500 years, since the time of Socrates and Plato. Many ethicists consider emerging ethical beliefs to be "state of the art" legal matters, i.e., what becomes an ethical guideline today is often translated to a law, regulation or rule tomorrow. Values which guide how we ought to behave are considered moral values, e.g., values such as respect, honesty, fairness, responsibility, etc. Statements around how these values are applied are sometimes called moral or ethical...
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...1.0 Introduction Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become more important in the current business environment. CSR can be defined into action that are taken by organization that goes beyond making profit and legal obligation towards the society adapted from (Ghillyer, 2010) and (SCHWARTZ & SAIIA, 2012) (Brown & Forster, 2013)). More company also nowadays become more aware of CSR (Bondy, et al., 2012) and sees it as a positive tools (Harjoto & Jo, 2011) As an organization fail like in the case of Midland and Southern Bank people are become more interested in how is an organization going (Johnson, et al., 2009). The interest shift as problem hits, as organization rely on peoples trust to run the organization (Cohen & Dienhart, 2013). This cause the organization to have more moral obligation to the growing network on stakeholders (Polonsky, 1995). Management especially in the case of Midland and Southern banks are being judge by stakeholders morally. As organization obligation re managing stakeholders (Nicholson & Newton, 2010). Approaches that are taken to judge organization are shown in research by Carroll’s (1987) (Carroll, 1991) which will be further discussed below. However, Midland and Sothern bank in the end was acquired by HSBC after it failure (Lee, 2009). It also seems that based on the case government started to create more firm regulation after the issue happen. 2.0 Senior Management Role and Obligation: high salary justified or unjustified? Senior management...
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...Good morning everyone, today I would to talk about CSR, before I start , I would like to present some picture, @ P6 These are just a few example you may have heard about under the topics of @ Sustainability @ Business ethics @ Corporate Social Responsibility @ These pictures raise question about justice for current as well as for future generations. We want to ask corporate social responsibility, CSR for short, what is this? @ P7 The task of CSR is to prevent these and other morally reprehensible practices, which can weaken society @, damage companies @and hurt employees. More and more companies have realized the relevance of moral practices in their business, Concrete preventative measures are often labeled “risk management @”, a term more commonly used for avoiding financial crisis @ and damage to a company’s reputation. However, CSR is not just about preventing “bad practices”, like corruption and fraud and so on. how business activities operate is also improtant. @ P8 The more challenging question is: How can companies behave in a socially responsible way to contribute to a “good society” through “good business” practices? What about create a charity foundation or donate a lot of money, and thus, do good ? @ Wrong! That won’t hurt and may even help society, but it is not CSR.@ CSR is about how companies make profits, not about how they spend them, it lead to sustainability develop and long-run profitability. P9 this require a new role for the...
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...Ulla-Christel Götherström Abstract Master Thesis in Financial Accounting, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, fall semester 2012 Author: Ulla-Christel Götherström Supervisor: Kristina Jonäll Title: Corporate Social Responsibility and Accounting - A literature review. Background and problem: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an area which has gained much attention the last 10-15 years. To satisfy various stakeholders, corporate social responsibility has increased its importance and often constitutes a substantial part of the firms´ financial reports, in spite of the fact that there are no legal requirements. However, to perform strategic CSR-reporting has become more or less compulsory for firms. The research question is: What research has been performed in the area of corporate social responsibility and accounting? Aim: The aim is to provide a structured overview of the literature in the area of corporate social responsibility and accounting regarding the years 2002-2012. The overview will provide a basis for future research and constitute a framework for focused research question. Delimitation: The focus of this study is on research published in scientific journals from 2002 until 2012. Method: A literature review was performed including peer-reviewed papers published in scientific journals. Database search were performed in Business Source Premier (BSP) with the keywords “Corporate social responsibility” and “accounting”...
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... Topic 1: Business codes are the most effective instrument for preventing unethical behavior in the workplace. Business codes are widely used globally to prevent unethical means in the organization, an increasing number of companies have adopted business code ethics, 52.5% of Fortune Global 200 companies in 2004 (Kaptein, 2004) compared to 87% of Fortune Global 200 companies in 2008 (KPMG, 2008). Business codes are a set of official document disclosed by and for a business firm to guide the behavior of managers and employees (Kaptein and Schwartz, 2008). The business code prescribed are related to matters such as human rights, labor conditions, ecological environment, confidential information, conflict of interests, fraud, corruption, product quality, profits, sexual harassment and competitions (Kaptein, 2011). Business codes ethic (BCE) are the fundamentals for corporate social responsibility (CSR) which are used to appraise companies for ethical performances and citizenship. Organizations with excellent CSR are rewarded with fame and reputations (Patick M., 2011), thus leading to better sales and company’s stock price (Ron Robins, 2011). However, business code and CSR appraisal can only prevent unethical behavior in the organization to a certain extent. For example, 15% of Ernst & Young’s executives were prepared to commit unethical conducts to win businesses even though the company implemented business codes (Christopher M., 2012). In this context, business codes without...
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...Journal of Intercultural Management Vol. 3, No. 2, October 2011, pp. 113–125 Adrian Pyszka Michał Piłat Cracow University of Economics Applying trompenaars typology of organizational culture to implementation of csr strategy 1. Introduction Nowadays many authors declare Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in strategic terms as it is no longer seen as the invention of some social activist but important source of competitive advantage. However various researchers still struggle to figure out what shape and utility should the tools of CSR have and what implementation model could be the best to fulfill the business objectives. The study aims to demonstrate whether Trompenaars bipolar model of organizational culture could prove useful while implementing CSR strategy and to propose some good practice in this case. 2. Theoretical framework Culture A lot has changed in world of management since 80s and many leaders tend to ask a question whether corporate culture is still important. However high interest in that area seems to be a sufficient prove that it still is. According to a recent survey by management consultancy Bain & Company, 9 of 10 senior executives believe that corporate culture is as important as strategy for business - - - - - Electronic PDF security powered by www.IndexCopernicus.com 114 Adrian Pyszka, Michał Piłat success1. Corporate culture is described as general constellation of beliefs, mores, customs, value systems and behaviors...
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...Responsibility The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) over time has expanded its influence to many enterprises and concerned organizations, required those must consider how their activities affect the surrounding society such as communities (human rights, labor issues,...), environmental protection,… World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD, 1999) as cited in Wong & Ahmad (2010) gave the most common definition of CSR as: “the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large”. From Jamali’s (2008) perspective, CSR is concerned with the guarantee of corporations to contribute to the development, enhancement of society and stakeholder interests. There are also different views of CSR between the ownership concentration (Dam & Scholtens, 2013) and stakeholders’ welfare. CSR has become more and more important issue as the world is turning “flatter”, not only considering in developed countries but also in developing ones like Vietnam. However, there are some barriers to implementing an effective CSR program for an international organization operating in Vietnam (Tencati, Russo, & Quaglia, 2010). The Effects Of CSR On International Business Recent years, CSR has become an essential requirement for doing business for most of the companies in the world, especially those multinational...
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...a building block for ethics and corporate social responsibility. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 21(4), 275-277. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10672-009-9124-4 This article emphasises on keeping up of a good employee-employer relationship as the important element of maintaining ethics and corporate social responsibility. Employee as one of the inevitable factors of organisation should be considered as the most important stakeholder of business. Restrictive approaches towards employee will badly affect the organisation and the organisation may not be successful towards external stake holders like society as its basic duty itself towards the employee is a failure. At the same time, the employee has to be concerned about his duty towards organisation and should try to fulfil it in union with the employer. In conclusion, employee and employer relationship is an unavoidable element to secure ethics and social responsibility of the firm. This article gives a bird’s eye view about the requirement of maintaining a good employee-employer relationship, although it does not deal with the topic in a wide manner. The article consists of some relevant examples to prove the writers’ arguments. But, it does not put forward relevant suggestions to make the point practical. In spite of that, the writers have won in ascertaining employee and employer relationship as the requirement of time to secure ethics and social responsibility in this modern business world. Holme, C. (2010)...
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...Professor of Business Administration Box D-55 Stonehill College North Easton, MA 02357 June 2001 Phone: 508.565.1205 Fax: 508.565.1444 E-mail: glantos@stonehill.edu 1 The Boundaries of Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility Keywords Corporate social responsibility (CSR), Roles of business, Stakeholder theory, Ethical CSR, Responsibilities and duties, Altruistic CSR, Strategic CSR, Abstract Reviews the development of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) concept and its four components: economic, legal, ethical, and altruistic duties. Discusses different perspectives on the proper role of business in society, from profit making to community service provider. Suggests that much of the confusion and controversy over CSR stem from a failure to distinguish its ethical, altruistic, and strategic forms of CSR. On the basis of a thorough examination of the arguments for and against altruistic CSR, concurs with Milton Friedman that altruistic CSR is not a legitimate role of business. Proposes that ethical CSR, grounded in the concept of ethical duties and responsibilities, is mandatory. Concludes that strategic CSR is good for business and society. Advises that marketing take a lead role in strategic CSR activities. Notes difficulties in CSR practice and offers suggestions for marketers in planning for strategic CSR and academic researchers in further clarifying the boundaries of strategic CSR. Introduction It is no news that today’s business organizations...
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