Business Ethics: Organizational Culture, Diversity, and Practices

This essay delves into the multifaceted realm of business ethics, exploring the critical role of organizational culture in fostering ethical behavior and mitigating misconduct. It emphasizes the importance of corporate social responsibility, particularly in the context of millennials' preferences for ethical companies. The essay examines the impact of social media on consumer engagement and the need for businesses to align their actions with community values. It also addresses diversity and discrimination in the workplace, highlighting the significance of anti-discrimination laws, ethics training, and inclusive practices. Furthermore, the essay explores ethical considerations in employment relationships, including power dynamics, uncertainty avoidance, and cultural dimensions. It also discusses the concept of responsibility in the context of technological advancements and their impact on human actions and the environment. The essay concludes by underscoring the need for ethical frameworks that promote sustainability and long-term value creation.

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Business Ethic and Sustainability
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Organizational Culture and Ethics
Each and every business organization emphasizing on ethical behavior has the potential of
cutting down on any form of misbehavior in the organization. Several research activities also
show that when businesses develop culture emphasizing on performing the right deeds regardless
of such deeds being expensive, such organization’s leaders consider ethical consequences
regarding their own actions. Organizational leaders that have a moral compass are always there
to set the tone in relation to ethical dilemmas (Leonard 2017).
Basically, the desire to do business with, work for or invest in business organizations that
perform good things in the society happens to be strongest with millennials (Blades 2017). Such
individuals have gained counterintuitively, a reputation of being behavioral experts as well as
social scientists studying trends and demographics. On the contrary, it is evident that the advent
of platforms of social media gives consumers a voice they never had. Social media has also
ensured that consumers’ voices are heard more often; particularly in instances where business
organizations do the right thing. A study performed by Aflac International established that
approximately 51% of millennials link corporate growth to the use of social media. It is also
worth noting that social media’s impact constitutes access to information that is limitless. Social
media ultimately enables consumers to get more informed. Such consumers are considered to be
digitally engaged and have no issues with the provision of feedback to business organizations
that they believe aren’t responsible in their operations. Such customers are also aware of
differences between a community’s authentic concern and marketing ploy (Blades 2017).
As much as work flexibility and salary are major factors that determine where an individual will
likely work, approximately 77% of Aflac’s respondents confirm that they would seek
employment at business organizations that are ethically recognized. Companies, therefore, have a
number of things to put right. Business organizations should start by adopting business causes
that are vital for the communities they operate in as well as being relevant to their operations.
The business activities shouldn’t just be good; the activities need to be the right things to be
done. Taking the case study of an organization such as Aflac which has supported the fight
against cancer through time, it is worth noting that the community in which the organization
operates has benefited a lot. For almost 20 years since the inception of the same campaign, the
organization has donated more than $100 million. This money has been used for treatment and

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research activities on Cancer at several centers of the organization. Doing so is one of the good
causes this VoP exercise is advocating (Szolnai 2017). Good deeds are sustained and relevant for
every business operation. Such is also the proper thing to do. It is important to note, as
mentioned earlier, that consumers favor business organizations that are able to demonstrate their
abilities to handle social responsibilities. Corporate social duties are needed by generations of
today while the importance of the same is; as well, bound to grow. For those that do not consider
incorporating ethics, financial crises have certainly raised alarm for the need of including ethics
in major market decision making processes. Failing companies have also learnt; from their
mistakes, the extent to which corporate reporting has failed to determine risks that are systemic.
Shifting to a model for reporting that supports long-term investors’ information needs as well as
reflects the nature of environmental connectedness, societal factors and governance would be an
essential step in the construction of an economy that is sustainable (Szolnai 2017).

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Business Ethics, Diversity and Discrimination
Worldwide, there are laws that cover anti-discrimination and equal employment opportunities in
the workplace. Each and every law, with regards to the country they’re formulated in, should
ensure that every work environment is free from harassment and discrimination. The employers
are also required to be quite conversant with their rights and responsibilities with regards to the
anti-discrimination and human rights law. Through the placing of effective anti-harassment and
anti-discrimination procedures, business organizations are able to increase efficiency and
improve productivity (Szolnai 2017).
The maintenance of diversity and ethical practices happens to be vital to many small businesses
which would want to gain employees’ loyalty as well as the trust of customers. In the business
world, the ethics training has well become a trend. Training of business ethics has helped align
the staff to ensure that the broader vision of the organization gets achieved. The beginning of
ethics is the assumptions that each and every employee lives in accordance to the moral
guidelines as well as conduct themselves accordingly while in their work environments.
Regardless of how large and influential a company is, unethical behavior within the environment
of the company can cripple its ability to have customers attracted. Business organizations may be
faced with ethical issues as well as setting ethical standards of operation due to the fact that such
instances are common professional practices in several fields including psychology. Financial
officers, beyond professional practices, need to maintain responsibility that is fiduciary (Leonard
2017). Sales teams are also required to give information that is reliable and honest during the
sales process (Szolnai 2017).
Regarding diversity, business organizations need to ensure that their workplaces everyone
regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds. Diversity is also one of the ways through which
business organization are able to ensure that every employee accesses equal opportunities in
activities like getting hired. Micro and small business organizations ensure that they maintain
programs of non-discrimination as well as enforce non-compliance penalties. Apart from the
issues associated with legal compliance within the diversity of workplaces, business
organizations can as well benefit from encouraging tolerance as well as embracing differences.
By so doing, business organizations ensure that they open new horizons to access new customer
demographics, methods of internal performances and business partners. All kinds of businesses,

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small or big, are exposed to cultural diversity within the workplace, education levels and even
demographics. Handling such a situation in a manner that is appropriate has the chance of
improve the opportunities of the business in future. Ensuring cultural diversity and ethical
operations within a business organization, however, requires management training. Most
business organizations have established training programs that would exalt diversity and ethics.
For those organizations that are still on the rise, they need to have a small code of ethics written
or instead create a diversity standard as well as practices that are non-discriminating. The
writings should then be added to the handbooks given to the employees. Apart from just writing
out such policies, employers also need to conduct sessions of training for managers as well.
Having to provide managers as well as team members with tools for dealing with conflicts in
situations that are difficult is one way of reducing issues of diversity and ethics in future
(Leonard 2017).

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Ethics and Employment Relationships
Most business organizations try as fast as possible to address cases of workers either being
uncertain or uncomfortable to ensure that risks of conflicts are avoided. In other cases,
institutions that uphold certainty are employed to ensure that such instances of chaos are avoided
between employees (Harman 2013). To ensure that issues regarding employee-management
relationship are derailed, the following topics are worth addressing:
a) Power distance
This is the aspect of having the society and the employees agreeing that organizational power is
either equally or unequally distributed. Greater power distance is whereby; there is unequal
distribution of power. However, smaller power distance is whereby power is fairly or equally
distributed; and the employees conform to the distribution of such power.
b) Avoiding uncertainty
Regarding this factor, as mentioned before, employees’ uncomfortability level as a result of
ambiguity and uncertainty should be addressed. In business organizations, certainty supporting
beliefs should be upheld alongside the sustenance of institutions protecting conformity (Kader
2017).
c) Collectivism and Individualism
In this case, individualism is regarded as preferring a social model which happens to be loosely
knit in a given community. On the contrary, collectivism is termed as a social model’s choice
and of which is tightly knit.
d) Femininity against Masculinity
Regarding this context, masculinity refers to the preference of fulfillment, forcefulness and
materialistic success. However, femininity is all about the preference for modesty, relationships
and upholding care for each and everyone weak or strong (Kader 2017).

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With regards to the theory of cross-cultural management, there are different levels of culture. As
mentioned in this PoV, such dimensions are power distance, masculinity-femininity, long-term
against short-term orientation, individual collectivism and uncertainty avoidance (Kader 2017).
In another perspective, "The Idea of Responsibility" by Jonas provides evidence that a new form
of ethics that is vital for the current technological age is advocated for. Some of the theses that
the article is based on include:
i) The nature of human action has been enlarged with the novelty of nature’s works
such that it would impact on the global future (Harman 2013).
ii) Power and responsibility correlate and as such, responsibility needs to commensurate
with the scope and exercise of power.
iii) Ethics need to be underpinned by metaphysics. From that perspective, attempts are
made at the duties of man to himself and his posterity.
iv) Man’s objective imperatives enable the discrimination between illegitimate to
legitimate goal-settings with regards to Promethean power.
For some time now, human action has naturally changed that a call for changes in ethics needs to
be made as. In past ethics, any dealing with the world of the nonhuman happened to be ethically
neutral (Hamel 2017). The significance of ethics only came into play when dealings involved
humans alone; including aspects of man dealing with himself or herself. The traditional form of
ethics was anthropocentric. Action’s range also happened to be small and the time for goal-
setting, foresight and accountability also happened to be short; circumstances control also limited
(Hamel 2017). However, there has been the emergence of new responsibility dimensions since
nature turned to a subject of human responsibility. Such can be attached o the fact that man’s
impacts on living things are cumulative and irreversible. Having knowledge on such
circumstances as to which makes man responsible of the living world happens to be a prime duty
of everyone.

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