Ethics and Responsible Management

This report discusses the ethical issues faced by Southern Water and the role of business in society. It also covers good and bad ethical practices, recommendations, and theories like utilitarianism and deontological ethics. The report concludes with a reflective essay on ethical leadership management.

Ethics and Responsible
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Part 1-A Report...........................................................................................................................4
Explain the ethical issues with support of relevant sources........................................................4
Five Stakeholders........................................................................................................................5
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................6
Part – 1-B....................................................................................................................................7
Part-2 ..........................................................................................................................................9
Reflective Essay(Ethical leadership management).....................................................................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Ethical responsibility refers to the ability to recognise, interpret and act upon principles of
multiple level and values according to the standards within a given field or context. Ethical
responsibility is very important from the organisation point of view because accordingly
employees work towards it in ethical manner towards their goals. Employees can take better
decisions within less period of time when business ethics have been followed with a guiding
principle(Agag and Colmekcioglu., 2020). As a result it improves the employee morale and
increases productivity as well. In the present report, a case study is taken into consideration on
Southern Water. The case study highlights that Southern water has received a fine record for
polluting coastal areas in parts of Hamsphire, Sussex and kent where they operate. Southern
water is basically a private utility company which is responsible for public waste water collection
and treatment in Hamsphire. The present report will cover discussion about ethical issues an role
of business in society. In addition to this, the report will cover analysis about the particular key
stakeholders and also about good and bad ethics as well along with recommendation. Moreover,
the report will cover discussion about different theories related to case study along with
recommendations. The report also consist of reflective essay on ethical leadership management.
MAIN BODY
Part 1-A Report
Explain the ethical issues with support of relevant sources
Ethical issues refers to the given decision, scenario or activity creates a conflict with a
society's moral principles. In these conflicts, both businesses and individuals are involved since
any of the activities might be put to question from an ethical standpoint. In context to case study,
it has been observed that company has admitted 6971 illegal spills from seventeen sites in
Hampshire, Kent and Sussex between the year of 2010 and 2015(Bapat.,2020). These spills have
been occurred due to result of negligence due to which company has been fined with record of
£90m for deliberately dumping billions of litres of raw sewage into the sea. This kind of activity
by the company has crossed the ethical manners of an organisation and also contribute towards
making the environment dirty and crosses the limits of environmental guidelines as well.

It is important for an organisation to follow rules and regulations of the environment so
that business activities can't harm the environment into negative manner. It is necessary that to
follow guidelines of environment into positive manner so that an organisation work into ethical
manner.
Role of business in society
The role of business in society is that they produce and distribute goods and services in
order to satisfy the public needs or demand. Society also exist or run on the basis of different
kinds of businesses and without any kind of an economy there is no existence of
society(Bonsu.,2020).In context to case study, Souther water role is that they are responsible for
public waste water collection. They are also responsible for treatment in Hampshire, the isle of
Wight, West Sussex and Kent. They also take care about public water supply and distribution in
approximately half of this area.
Five Stakeholders
According to case study, there are five main stakeholders of Southern water company
which includes owner of the company named as Justice Jeremy Johnson. In addition to this,
consumers, investors, local communities and government as well (Brinkmann.,2019). It has been
observed from case study that with these ethical issues the owner of the company has to sacrifice
the image of company into the marke(Collins., 2018). Owner has to face large amount of loss
and consumers do not take properly services of the company. Investors also get affected by these
issues because they can't no more trust the company and not interested in the company for future
investment. The local communities and government also affected by this action of the company
because now they have to plan and take initiative towards resolving this issue and have to give
proper answers to the environmental communities as well.
Examples of good and bad ethical practices
The two examples of good ethical practices has been defined into following manner:
Sainsbury's: It is the company who is committed towards ethical trading and sourced their
products with integrity (Cunliffe., 2021). They have followed proper guidelines and rules and
regulations and work into ethical manner in terms of executing their tasks into positive manner.

HSBC: It is the company or bank which has different dimensions and elements of code of ethics
(Estelles-Migue and et.al., 2021). They also respect the law into positive manner and respect
each other in terms of competition, company and assets as well.
The two examples for bad ethical practices and it is defined into following manner:
AMAZON: It is a company which is not very fully supportive in terms of following the business
ethics into positive manner. They get somewhere careless in terms of executing their tasks and
responsibilities into ethical manner.
COCA COLA: It is a company who does not follow proper ethics because their drink products
are not healthy from the point of view of health spectrum of an individual. In their drink products
sugar content is very high and the materials from which this drink is made up are not healthier.
Recommendations
It has been recommended for Southern water company that they have to be careful in
terms of their working. As they are basically involved in terms of providing water services to the
public which is related environmental aspect so they have to be more careful about their working
procedure. It has also been recommended that any of the activity does not harm the environment
into negative manner. For that purpose they have to make proper strategies and planning so that
it will not affect the environment on large scale. According to case study where these spills have
negatively impacted the environment and sea water also got contaminated which has affected
aquatic life as well so company has to be well aware and sincere about their further steps so that
it will not hurt any kind of aspect of environment into negative manner. It is suggested that
company has to made strict rules and regulations and need to be evaluated into practical manner
so that any of the activities of the company will not harm the environment.

Part – 1-B
As per this case study of Southern Water, it got penalized for polluting coastal areas in parts of
Hampshire, Sussex and Kent when they functioned. This pollution caused because billions of
raw sewage being discharged in the sea. They got punished for deteriorating the precious eco
systems that affected the environment negatively. They have been ranked worst water companies
for pollution incidents according to environmental agency data. The two theories which are
adopted to reduce the negative environmental impact are utilitarianism and deontological theory.
Utilitarianism focuses on right and wrong of outcomes. As per this theory, it concludes the
ethical choice is the one that will do good to the society. It is version of consequentialism that
entirely focuses on the outcome for considering it right or wrong. The purpose of this theory is to
make life better by increasing the amount of goodness such as, by improving the quality of life.
And decreasing the amount of bad things such as by reducing the reasons of unhappiness.
Another ethical theory which an organisation can use is Deontological Ethics which focuses on
following the right rules than achieving the right results. It considers all human beings equal
doesn't discriminate in any way. Actions which align with the rules are ethical, while actions that
doesn't are unethical. So, in this theory focus is on ethical process than ethical results. Moreover,
application of all these theories are crucial to resolve all the issues of the business concern. As
utilitarianism theory can be applied in organisation, it should be mentioned in the guidelines
what is morally right and wrong. This will clarify employees every aspect of what needs to be
done and how. It also helps in decision making which is based on social welfare that will help
business to behave ethically. Deontological theory needs to applied in an organisation. This will
ensure company to follow ethical process. Here, the outcomes of actions are irrelevant in this
model but the entire focus is on process. Application of utilitarianism is good in certain ways for
instance, it looks at the well being of people. It is best suitable when large number of people are
affected by an unethical action. Furthermore, it promotes positive consequences that leads to
happiness and contentment among people. Whereas, it has some weaknesses as well for instance,
it is challenging to predict the consequences and defining what actions are morally right and
wrong. There are chances what is morally right for one might be wrong for others. So,
concluding something morally is quite difficult. Other than this, it describes certain action as
wrong even if their results are positive. Its negative is it doesn't take into consideration the aspect
of happiness and public utility. There is no logical basis of deciding individual obligations. So,

all these factors will help to frame the guidelines that will best suit the society. Implementation
of these theories would help the organisations contribute more to the society and will enhance its
performance. It is crucial to design framework that has ethical values, codes and standards to
work in the most effective way. Additionally, an organisation has to follow ethical processes,
procedures in order to keep activities in coordination. It helps to build a positive work culture
and will boost the morale of the workers. When employees are clear and happy while performing
their jobs. This will boost up the productivity of the concern and employees feel satisfied.
Therefore, southern water aims to provide water for life that will enhance health and well being
of entire ecosystems and will protect the environment and sustain the economy. So, these
methods will help southern water to improve the performance irrespective of the challenges it
faced in past. It will improve the goodwill of the organisation, create healthy environment for
employees as well as it enhances customer loyalty. In short, organisational ethics concerned with
following the principles and practices that do good to the society and prevent from any unethical
behaviour. It includes trust, respect, fairness, integrity, justice and many more. It explains an
organisation what is good and what is bad which clarifies the terms and practices to employees in
order to well serve the society. It helps the organisation to create strong public image which
would ultimately help to earn more customers. When these theories will be used in the
organisation it will assist the management in understanding uncertain situations and it will help
to resolve all the issues. (Naseer and et. al., 2020)Besides this, it will help management to frame
long term strategies in order to capture large market share as well as it help them to face the
challenges due to competition. So, maintaining ethical policies and practices will help the
organisation to improve its productivity. Well improving the plans and policies will help to gain
competitive advantage and help them stand apart. (Hove and Paek, 2017)Customers also prefer
the organisations which has strong ethical values. Hence, violation of these principles will
negatively impact the organisation and will reduce its profits. Clarifying all the rules and
regulations to them will help to attract and retain more number of people. Ethical violation leads
to attrition rate of employees and reduces overall cost inefficiency. Following these theories will
help the organisation maintain high integrity, help organisations to become socially responsible.
(Agag and Colmekcioglu, 2020)This will reduce the stress of the employers and employees.
Therefore, complying these principles will help an organisation to get free from stress, this
creates happy and healthy environment. This helps in framing long term strategies, deal with

global ethical issues and maintain high degree of efficiency in the organisation. So, following
these ethical theories will help the organisation to deal with the uncertain issues and make profits
for the organisation.
Part-2
Reflective Essay(Ethical leadership management)
Ethical leadership management refers to the leadership which demonstrates and promote
normally appropriate conduct through their personal actions and interpersonal relations. Ethical
leadership is also defined as the leadership which is directed by the beliefs and values and for the
dignity and rights of others. As an ethical leader, I will lead the organisation in a very positive
spectrum and do the business according to all standards of ethics. As an ethical leader, I have
always lead the team with proper transparency and do not take favour of any particular person. I
always give equal weight age to each and every team member. I always tried that to be honest so
that people can develop faith on me and company as well so that business can also create
positive brand image into the market. I always give equal respect and opportunity to each team
member so that they can positively grow in terms of their career. This kind of behaviour always
supportive for me in terms of understanding team members into positive manner. I always guide
my team member that the focus should be always on value of products and services given by our
company because the positive image of the company has been created on the basis of quality of
services given by the company. As an ethical leader, my focus is on setting an example into the
market so that people get motivated and work accordingly in terms of achieving their targets and
objectives as well. As a ethical leader I always treat people with kind nature whether its is from
senior position or from junior position because this kind of behaviour gives a comfort zone to the
employees tos hare their point of views into positive manner.
For leading the business into ethical manner, I always try to observe each and every
activity of an organisation so that I can analyse that whether the employees are following proper
code of conduct or not. As an ethical leader, my focus is also on the proper code of business
ethic so that it can be analysed that the organisation is not crossing any limits of ethical standard.
I also ensure that whatever the goods and services provided by the company follow the quality
standards as well so that it will not harm health of any kind of their consumers. When I set an
example of ethical leader into the organisation then it will give inspiration to other people as well
to behave in an ethical form.

Becoming an ethical leader is also important from point of view of personal level as well
because it will contribute in terms of building a positive credibility and reputation as well. I will
always tried to be fair with every employee as an ethical leader so that team members have trust
on their organisation and retain into the organisation for longer period of time. I never give
importance to one individual person at professional level because it will lead towards conflict
situation at organisational level. A kind of comparison has been started which i don't want at
organisational level. I want to create a positive culture within an organisation as an ethical leader
because it will not deviate employees from their goals and objectives they will work with their
full potential into positive manner.
As an ethical leader, I will share the credit of success with every team member and share
the profits into positive manner with other people as well. I will do the business in such a manner
that my words, values and actions are aligned with my business results so that it will not create
any fake image into the market with respect to the performance of the company. As an ethical
leader I always tried that I also take initiative towards environment as well so that it will create a
different image into the market with respect to the company. When I take interest towards
environment and the ethical practices then it will lead towards a kind of inspiration and
motivation to other team members so that they will also take interest in terms of environment
protection and concern as well.
CONCLUSION
The above stated report concludes that ethics and their related responsibility plays a very
important role at organisational level. It has been concluded that when ethical practices have not
been followed by the organisation then it will lead towards ethical issues and problems as well.
There are certain organisation who follow good ethical practices and there are also certain
organisations who do not follow proper ethical practices. It has been determined that
organisations has to follow proper guidelines and rules and regulations into positive manner so
that it will not deteriorate the brand image of the company into negative spectrum. It has been
concluded that an organisation has to take proper responsibility so that proper ethical standards
can be followed into positive manner. It has been concluded that ethical responsibility is very big
responsibility that needs to be followed with proper business ethics so that it will not hurt the
brand image into negative spectrum.

REFERENCES
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