This article discusses the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility and Utilitarianism in Business Ethics. It also highlights the role of individuals and organizations in the workplace.
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Running head: Applied Business Ethics Applied Business Ethics Name of the Student Name of the University Author Note
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1APPLIED BUSINESS ETHICS Companies have a responsibility towards the environment and the community in which it operates. This is called Corporate Social Responsibility. It entails conservation and preservation oftheenvironment,sustainableuseofresourcesandbeingethical.CorporateSocial Responsibility refers to how an organization manages their business keeping the environment and society in mind and produces a positive impact on society (Cherney & Blair 2015). It refers to a commitment by companies to behave morally and ethically and contribute towards the development of society and the local community. According to the narrow views on corporate social responsibility, all businesses fulfill their social obligations by providing employment to people, which in turn helps them to procure products, which in turn helps to drive the economy (Cherney & Blair 2015). The goal of business was to maximize profits and social obligation was superfluous and taxing to the profit margin. According to the broader view of corporate social responsibility, apart from the primary objective of making profits, organizations also have a social responsibility and commitment towards the environment, society and community and it is the responsibility of the companies to prevent and mitigate the negative impact their businesses may have on society (Cherney & Blair 2015). Coca Cola has always adopted a broader view of corporate social responsibility and the company attaches a lot of importance to corporate social responsibility. They give back two percent of their company’s operating incomes every year to various social causes and programs(Ccamatil.com, 2018). The money is invested to create healthy living conditions for the underprivileged sections of society, education, empowerment of women, humanitarian and other disaster relief programs (Epstein 2018). Coca Cola has been focusing on the environment, issues relating to water, poverty, gender equality, educating and empoweringworkers,labourrightsamongothers.CocaColatakesitscorporatesocial responsibility seriously and refrains from advertising its products to children who are below twelve years of age. Morality refers to a set kind of behaviour in regards to standards of right or wrong behaviour. Morality is synonymous with goodness, rightness and ethics (Liang & Renneboog 2017).A professional code of practice can entail and should entail ethical conduct. Without adhering to the principles of morality, all professional organizations are bound to collapse. Both organizations and individuals have certain roles to perform in the workplace. Organizations should ensure employee satisfaction and should give benefits to employees. Every organization has a set of rules and regulations, which the employees of that organization are expected to follow. Individuals should incur a plethora of responsibilities and ensure that they perform all their duties and responsibilities keeping in mind the vision, the mission, the principles and objectives of the company. An individual contributes to making decisions for the welfare of the
2APPLIED BUSINESS ETHICS organization and solves problems. The Director of an organization creates business plans (Liang & Renneboog 2017). The Managing Director of an organization organizes and controls the resources of an organization. The supervisors of an organization work with managers and ensure that the junior employees do the work. Every member of an organization should work hard, perform the roles that are given to them and should work towards the welfare of the company, keeping in mind the vision, mission and the guiding principles of the organization (Liang & Renneboog 2017). Organizations, in turn should reward their employees for all their hard work and give them appraisals and benefits. According to utilitarianism, the action that is morally right, is the action that produces the most good (Misiak 2016). According to utilitarianism, one should perform actions that maximizes the overall good, that is consider the goods of other and not just one’s own good. Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill were classical utilitarians who believed that one must bring “the greatest amount of good for the greatest number.” (Misiak 2016). It is also distinguished by agent-neutrality and impartiality. When one maximizes good, it benefits everybody. According to utilitarianism, an action is deemed right if it provides happiness and wrong if it fails to do so. It should provide happiness not only to the person who performs the action but also provide happiness to those who are affected by that action which is performed. Utilitarianism will work well in an organization because if everybody performs the right action, then it will benefit everybodyandproducethemaximumgoodforboththecompanyanditsemployees. Adherencetorulesandregulationsofacompanywillachievegreaterresultsandifall employees maximize good then it would benefit the organization (Misiak 2016). Utilitarianism is also synonymous with ethics and what is morally right and hence, if a person is honest and transparent in all his or dealings, then the organization in which the person works, will also benefit from it. There are two kinds of utilitarianism which is practiced at the workplace. They are act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism (Tai & Chuang 2014). Rule utilitarianism is done in order to benefit most number of people by using the fairest rules and methods. Act utilitarianism on the other hand, tends to make the most ethical and moral actions possible for the benefit and welfare of the people (Tai & Chuang 2014). An example of rule utilitarianism in the workplace is the practice of having tiered seating arrangements in airlines (Tai & Chuang 2014). The airline business provides seats in first class, seats in business class and seats in economy class to its customers. People who fly first class or the business class shell out a very high price as compared to people who fly in economy class. However, people who take first class seats or business class seats are also provided with better amenities than those people who take economy class seats. The higher price paid for first class seats or business class seats helps to
3APPLIED BUSINESS ETHICS alleviate the financial burden incurred by an airline by creating economy class seats. This is an example of rule utilitarianism (Misiak 2016). An example of act utlitarianism is a pharmaceutical company who decides to launch a medicine which has side effects but since it is beneficial to people, it has been approved by the government. Act utilitarianism believes in the policy that the end justifies the means.
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4APPLIED BUSINESS ETHICS REFERENCES: Cheng, B., Ioannou, I. and Serafeim, G., 2014. Corporate social responsibility and access to finance.Strategic management journal,35(1), pp.1-23. Chernev, A. and Blair, S., 2015. Doing well by doing good: The benevolent halo of corporate social responsibility.Journal of Consumer Research,41(6), pp.1412-1425. Epstein, M.J., 2018.Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge. Liang, H. and Renneboog, L., 2017. On the foundations of corporate social responsibility.The Journal of Finance,72(2), pp.853-910. Misiak, M., 2016. Corporate social responsibility. In“Business and the Environment”, eds. T. Dorożyński, A. Kuna-Marszałek, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2016;. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego. Ni, A. and Van Wart, M., 2015. Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing Well and Doing Good. InBuilding Business-Government Relations(pp. 175-196). Routledge. Tai, F.M. and Chuang, S.H., 2014. Corporate social responsibility.Ibusiness,6(03), p.117. Wang, H., Tong, L., Takeuchi, R. and George, G., 2016. Corporate social responsibility: An overview and new research directions: Thematic issue on corporate social responsibility. Weber, J. and Wasieleski, D.M. eds., 2018.Corporate social responsibility. Emerald Group Publishing. Ccamatil.com. (2018).Community – Coca Cola Amatil. [online] Available at: https://www.ccamatil.com/en/our-contribution/our-community [Accessed 29 Oct. 2018].