Ethics, Responsibility and sustainability Assignment

Ethics, Responsibility and
sustainability

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1) Analyse theories related to duties, morals and sustainability.................................................1
2. Assessing the potential for leading and implementing sustainability and governance
policies........................................................................................................................................3
3. Stakeholders and strategic collaboration opportunities in organisation..................................4
4. Impact of current organisation practices on sustainable development for future ..................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Every organization faces some challenges while going at global level. These challenges
may be related with ethics, corporate social responsibility or sustainability. Ethics can be defined
as the principles related with moral values that guides the behaviour (Waddock, 2018). Business
ethics means, the study of correct practices and policies in respect of various subjects like
corporate social responsibility, corporate governance etc. The objective of firm is not only
maximizing revenue but also to protect the interest of society like consumers and community as
a whole. Sustainability means the ability to upheld. Business should make efforts for controlling
the negative effects of activities on environment. The Report is based on Woolworth Group. It
belongs to retail industry. It was founded in year 1924. Headquarter of company is located at
South Wales, Australia. It operates supermarkets, hotels, Woolworth online etc. The Report will
outline theories related to ethics, responsibility and sustainability. The potential of business for
leading sustainability and governance policies in organization. It will also describe stakeholders
for business and determine the impact of organizational practices on sustainable development in
the future.
MAIN BODY
1) Analyse theories related to duties, morals and sustainability.
Corporate Social Responsibility : It refers to self regulated model for the business that assist the
firm to remain socially accountable to itself, public and other stakeholders. With the help of
CSR, business provides various benefits to society as well as it also helps to boost the brand
image of firm (Purvis, Mao and Robinson, 2019).
There are various CSR challenges that Woolworth may have to face in diverse global-
local context such as lack of transparency, ignorance of main areas of the society etc. Woolworth
should use the following model of social responsibility of the firm. It is described below -
The socio-economic model of corporate social responsibility -
The traditional view of social responsibility of company is based on economic model.
Whereas, modern authors of corporate social responsibility believes that organization have a
responsibility not only towards shareholders but also towards customers, suppliers, employees
and public etc. This view of modern proponents is based on socio-economic model of CSR.
According to this theory, the activities of business also have an impact on the society. Therefore,
Woolworths should consider the impact of activities before taking decisions. Nowadays, there
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are various firms that are using this model due to various reasons. Firstly, it will be in the
foremost interest of the company because of challenges in global local context. This will also
help firm to avert any type of problem that may arise due to legal action taken by the
stakeholders.
Ethics : It refers to the branch of moral beliefs that includes defending, ordering and suggesting
the concepts of right or wrong. Ethical behaviour of the business helps to attract large number of
clients towards the product of firm therefore, it helps to increase sale and profit of the
organization (Mudrack and Mason, 2019). The areas of business in Woolworth will be affected
by global perception of socially, ethical and moral responsible behaviour. Such as ethics and
management, corporate social responsibility, ethics and corruption etc.
There are various types of ethical theories that Woolworth may follow such as
Deontology, Utilitarianism, rights and virtues etc.
Deontology -
The theory of deontology says that, people and business should comply to their duties
and obligations when they are involved in decision-making when ethics are involved. The theory
involves various positive attributes but, it also involves various flaws. One limitation of this
theory is that, there is no rationale for deciding duties (Davies, 2016).
Utilitarianism -
This theory is based on the power to forecast the impact of various actions. For
utilitarian, the option that offers the greatest advantage to most of the people is ethically correct.
The theory is divided into two categories that are rule and act utilitarianism. These theories also
have certain limitations. Firstly, no one can accurately predict the consequences of their actions.
Further, comparing material gain is very difficult because their qualities differ at large extent.
Sustainability :
It refers to ensuring that the health of human beings is being protected, and they will have
access to basic resources and enjoy better quality of life. Sustainability has three different
elements such as economy, environment and society. Woolworth may use different models for
sustainable development. These are as follows -
Three pillars model :
This model is also known as triple bottom line. It is the most widely used model for
sustainable development. Here, term pillar means change in different versions include social
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capital, environmental resources, environmental protection etc. The model takes the dimension s
of social resources, environmental and economic and all these things are the basis for sustainable
development. Some authors argue that, humans are various types of resources that are used by
human beings are in the form of ecosystem services.
Prism model :
Like three pillars model, this model also defines a set of interrelated elements. The prism
includes social, economic, institutional and environment. But, the model suffers from various
limitations as similar to three pillars model. This model assumes different types of pillars which
are independent and there is no time dimension involved in the model (Schaltegger, Hansen and
Lüdeke-Freund, 2016).
2. Assessing the potential for leading and implementing sustainability and governance policies.
Global companies and societies are facing increased risks from more resources and with the
greater impacts on climate change, unsafe supply, potentially dangerous products, global
poverty, premature death and illness, consumer reactions and child labour. With the rapid
development of international communication but also as organizations able to achieve more
global reach, operate with global networks, apply financial instruments and use of new
technologies. Ignoring these issues cause some devastating consequences for companies and for
equity and debt holder (Boström and et.al., 2015). Woolsworth believed that for moving
forward becoming sustainable is the way to get succed . Their approach towards sustainability is
the customers, communities and team. They understand their responsibilities and commitment
while working with shareholders for creating better experience with them,which made the lives
of people's better. They are providing reliable and safe product to their customers. Maintaining
trusted and long term relationships with the suppliers. They achieved the status of Gold Tier
Employer in Australian Workplace Index for removing plastic bags from their all stores situated
in Australia. Equally, in other areas which are in respect of improving the representation of
women in their organisation.
Corporate governance policies become an essential part of managing modern sectors and
organizations (Crane, Glozer and Spence, 2019). Today's global business world is not just
business governments. Corporate governance best practices which address sustainable business
development and corporate responsibility help in securing organization's long term future and
making organization a part of solutions for pressing human challenges. Governance should focus
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on implementing the values of transparency, fairness lead to further corporate governance
reforms. The leadership of company required modification in governance improvement plans
which fit with the current working framework. Boosting board performances with corporate
governance best practices by developing strong understanding of and successfully implementing
corporate governance plan to provide a strong leadership structure. The adaptation and
implementation of governance practices increasingly demanded by regulators, shareholders and
the market become challenging. Practical comprehensive training for enhancing, introducing and
updating governance policies in organisations in the emerging and developed markets. Certified
governance trainer and governance consultants guide the leaders through the complexities of
implementing and developing good governance policies which ultimately lead to more effective
organizations. These principles enclose framework and standards with which an organization's
leader able in doing more than executing effectively with using a well-developed strategic plans.
Corporate governance standards established the expectations and needs of stakeholder. That not
only effective but it is also responsible in order to meets stakeholders needs (Ghauri and et.al.,
2016). The willingness of organization is to apply corporate governance policies which impact
more than short term performances and strategic planning. Adherence of best practices of
corporate governance is in itself a form of risk management which can also prevent from
unwanted legal issues. Wools worth group has followed the polices recommend by ASX
Corporate governance council's which enhances their principles and rules to be followed
throughout the year. It is the duty of the directors and other team members act ethically and
responsibly at all times. The board received assessment including both quantitative and
qualitative factors, in respect of Group's relationships with and feedback from their team
members, customers and suppliers. A comprehensive review over complaints and whistle-blower
reports managed and reported. The purpose is to create better experiences to enhances tomorrow
learning and shapes for better commitment to meet needs of customers, teams and key
stakeholders.
3. Stakeholders and strategic collaboration opportunities in organisation
The ability to collaborate becoming an important source of competitive advantage. Effective
stakeholder engagement create more customers, better formulated policy, innovation and well
managed projects (Kolb, Fröhlich and Schmidpeter, 2017). Employees, customers who am
involved with an organization has responsibilities towards success of organization. Organisation
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by finding the best strategies to engage and communicate with each group helps in constructing
stakeholder engagement strategy. Managing involvement of stakeholder in appropriate way -
working together, keeping them satisfied, informing them, showing consideration. By improving
ability to design effective alliance, and acquire frameworks for partner selection, alliance design
and ecosystem development(Davies, 2016). Collaboration and strategic partnership are
fundamental in improving business outcomes. Strategic collaboration benefited to every one;
employees, businesses and customers. Customers benefit from the offerings and strengths each
organization, businesses can increase their addressable market and broaden their relevance and
employees can expand their development opportunities. Stakeholders provide vast opportunities
for innovation. organisation need innovations in stakeholders situational analysis.
Communicating effectively with stakeholders is linked to their motivation. Strategic alliance play
a crucial role in success of any business firm. Through strategic alliance risk and knowledge
sharing happened between firms which boost their business growth (Kopnina and Blewitt, 2018).
Global companies have many alliance on inland market and global partnerships, which leads to
challenges. Managing an alliance focuses on leveraging the differences for creation of values for
the customers, managing daily competition, dealing with internal changes and risk management
become a wide concern. Collaboration become effective when assessment team clearly defines
the objectives, processes and roles.
Wools worth by strategic collaboration provides the vital resources and extend their skills set
into new areas:
 forming economies of sale: partnership nationally and internationally generate
economies of scale in the business which means cost saving happened. This happened
because firm receive technology transfer through strategic alliance.
 Enhancing competitiveness: this increase the technological and administrative
complexity, improvement in their learning (Kudłak and Low, 2015). They are adopting a
strategy of maintaining their core competencies(Waddock, 2018).
 Dividing global business risk: As mentioned above business risk is divided between
business firms through strategic alliance partnership. Under this model firms collaborate
run strategic alliance and mutually share research and development expenditure. Thus, if
loss happened in project it get divide between both firms.
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 Setting new standards: By the development of new technologies create new market
opportunities. Creation of new technologies might set the standards for competitors of
same industry .
Strategic alliance will offer various benefits to the company such as it will help Woolworth to
enter into new foreign market. Partners will be able to establish new distribution system and
marketing channels for distributing the products or services to the customers. Further, another
organization can also provide advice to Woolworth for improving the features of the product that
will help to attract large number of customers (Osagie and et.al., 2016). As a result, it will help to
increase revenue of the company. Another major advantage of strategic alliance is that, company
can easily compete with other companies by entering into strategic alliance with other firm.
Therefore, it will be easy for Woolworth to gain competitive advantage over other companies.
Moreover, other firm may also provide support to Woolworth in respect of various issues such as
translation of the documents. Further, strategic alliance is useful when conditions of the market
or policies of the government present barriers to firm for entering into another market. Wools
worth can overcome these barriers by partnering with other company. By forming alliance, firm
will gain better opportunities for supplying products in international market as well as in local
market(Davies, 2016).
4. Impact of current organisation practices on sustainable development for future
Modern economies focus on economic development and obligations for preserving ecosystem
and natural resources. Sustainable development aims to include core competencies which are
collaborative decision-making, critical and systematic thinking and become responsible towards
present and future generations. Voluntary and regulatory approaches become more effective in
changing firms behaviour to be sustainable. Considering the different stakeholder groups those
influencing organisation's strategic decisions related CSR (Quarshie, Salmi and Leuschner,
2016). It is observed that from past time period more focus is on sustainability of the business
and natural environment. This topic is gone popular in domestic and international platforms. It is
important for firms and general public to understand concept of sustainability development.
Term sustainable development reflect the situation where economic development will happened
but not at cost of natural resources. Means that care will be taken of natural resources and
environment and it will be ensured that business operations are not negatively affecting natural
environment. In recent years, regulators emphasize on inclusion of principle of sustainability in
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policy making and to the alternatives as a measure of social progress. Influence on the national
and international policy framework for sustainable development. United nations conference on
sustainable development works on organisation for economic development and cooperation,
international monetary fund and world bank, Australian government's intergenerational reports,
intergenerational actions on climate change ans measuring sustainability programme (Rendtorff,
2019). Discounting and cost benefit analysis which are determined in respect of the future
impacts had to examined through current plan. Sustainability is undertaken to combine the latest
environmental aspects and enhances the sustainability concepts such as green GDP and provides
growth measures. Improving or maintaining well-being over generations helps in determining the
weaker section wherever possible and adopting strong sustainability in stocks that are not
substitutable. For making effective trade-off, requires focusing on alternative courses of actions.
Future generations' technology and preferences are not known and familiar with its usage not
resulting to bring positive impact of future perspective.
Wood worth adopt some practices on sustainable development for future generations are :
 Empower you employees :
When implementing change in their organization, communicate with the employees. Encourage
employees for providing leadership which brings more sustainability and providing them
opportunity to share their ideas.
 Organization commitment in respect of sustainability:
In respect of bringing sustainability in organisation, they bring various aspects which is
demonstrate that they are committed to make official statement to this. Regarding sustainability,
they become more responsible and aware about the social and environmental aspects as compare
from yesterday (Davies, 2016).
 Switch off lights when not in use:
The best way to save environmental and energy is to turn off lights when they not in use.
The best way adopted by organization for doing this through involving all the employees in this
initiative.
 Conserve water:
This methods is most easiest method and also they can save cost and energy in respect of saving
water. Through this procedure they can reduced the container of water and this procedure also
helps in maintaining the high water pressure.
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 Recycling the use of paper:
Encouraging employees to identify the wastages of paper before printing any documents
(Storey, Killian and O'Regan, 2017). To save the paper, there are various methods which is to be
used such as the document can be printed on both the sides of paper.
 Saving cost in respective of business travel:
Travelling prevented by raising video conferencing. Its major objective is to reduce the
business travel which indirectly save environment but also save money too(Schaltegger, Hansen
and Lüdeke-Freund, 2016).
Investing in digital filing system:
They consider digital filing systems because of this they used to reduce the need of paper
documents but also they are safer, easier to access and taking up less physical space.
 Organising the supporting team:
By organising the supporting team which is elected among employees who present their
thoughts and ideas at the time of discussion. Their duty is not only to give power to employees
not to share ideas in business meetings but also bring new results to sustain in business for longer
time period.
CONCLUSION
The above Report has outlined that every firm have to face certain types of challenges in
global local context. Corporate social responsibility provides benefits to both stakeholders and to
business. Socio-economic model described that activities of the business also have impact on
people living in the society. Further, Report has explained that, all the models of ethics suffers
from certain type of limitations. There are two major theories for sustainable development like
three pillars model and Prism model etc. Corporate governance policies has become an essential
part of modern organization. Implementation of governance practises has been demanded by
shareholders and regulators. Stakeholders like customers, government etc. offers various benefits
to the company. Strategic alliance offers various opportunities to the business. It helps to expand
the market and increase sales.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Boström, M. and et.al., 2015. Sustainable and responsible supply chain governance: challenges
and opportunities. Journal of Cleaner Production. 107. pp.1-7.
Crane, A., Matten, D., Glozer, S. and Spence, L., 2019. Business ethics: Managing corporate
citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Davies, P.W., 2016. Current issues in business ethics. Routledge.
Ghauri, P. N. and et.al., 2016. Corporate social responsibility in international marketing: review,
assessment, and future research. International Marketing Review.
Kolb, M., Fröhlich, L. and Schmidpeter, R., 2017. Implementing sustainability as the new
normal: Responsible management education–From a private business school's
perspective. The International Journal of Management Education. 15(2). pp.280-292.
Kopnina, H. and Blewitt, J., 2018. Sustainable business: Key issues. Routledge.
Kudłak, R. and Low, K. Y., 2015. Special issues dedicated to CSR and corporate sustainability:
A review and commentary. Long Range Planning. 48(3). pp.215-227.
Mudrack, P.E. and Mason, E.S., 2019. Utilitarian traits and the Janus-Headed model: Origins,
meaning, and interpretation. Journal of Business Ethics. 156(1). pp.227-240.
Osagie, E. R. and et.al., 2016. Individual competencies for corporate social responsibility: A
literature and practice perspective. Journal of Business Ethics. 135(2). pp.233-252.
Purvis, B., Mao, Y. and Robinson, D., 2019. Three pillars of sustainability: in search of
conceptual origins. Sustainability Science. 14(3). pp.681-695.
Quarshie, A. M., Salmi, A. and Leuschner, R., 2016. Sustainability and corporate social
responsibility in supply chains: The state of research in supply chain management and
business ethics journals. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management. 22(2). pp.82-
97.
Rendtorff, J. D., 2019. Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, and Stakeholder
Management. Philosophy of Management and Sustainability: Rethinking Business
Ethics and Social Responsibility in Sustainable Development. pp.43-52.
Schaltegger, S., Hansen, E.G. and Lüdeke-Freund, F., 2016. Business models for sustainability:
Origins, present research, and future avenues.
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Storey, M., Killian, S. and O'Regan, P., 2017. Responsible management education: Mapping the
field in the context of the SDGs. The International Journal of Management Education.
15(2). pp.93-103.
Waddock, S., 2018. Beyond CSR to System Change: Creating a New Socio-economic
Narrative', Corporate Social Responsibility (Business and Society 360, Volume 2).
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