Ethics, Social Responsibility and Sustainability in Business

Ethics, Social Responsibility and Sustainability 1
ETHICS, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
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Ethics, Social Responsibility and Sustainability 2
Introduction
It goes along way for any particular organization to be considered as either successful or not
(Shah 2014, p. 59). All this depends on the management strategy and the culture of the business
fabricated within its ethical standard. Ethics in relation to business can be referred to as code of
conductor or a system of moral principles which affect how decisions are made and executed
within the constraints of any organization. It can also refer to application of ethical values in a
business environment. A successful business need to be guided by asset of principles and code of
conduct. This paper will focus on evaluating the ethics, sustainability, and social responsibility in
businesses.
For business to successfully carry out its activities and be able to achieve its vision, it must set up
ethical standards that will guide the way it deals with its clients and stakeholders (Farias 2016). It
thus calls for the organization to go beyond its own interests and put into consideration the needs
of the general community as well as the environment. Success does not just come through
making lots of profit (Wu, Kwan, Yim, Chiu, & He 2015, p. 820). On the contrary a business
requires to maintain its reputation within the society and its stakeholders for it to flourish longer
and outdo its competitors in the market. With this in mind, managers need to be aware of the
constitutes of ethical conduct and pass it down to their employees and be made known to the
general public. Building ethical standards in the organization can take many forms. For instance,
ensuring that employees are aware of and understand the cooperate value of the company by
making clear the behavior that it seeks from employees that is for the good of community and
environment.

Ethics, Social Responsibility and Sustainability 3
Wu et al. (2015) denotes that behaving ethically and maintaining the corporate social
responsibility significantly helps to flourish a business. It has the power of attracting customers
to the firm’s product and also enables the company to get the most talented employees and
keeping the share of the company high thereby protecting it from turn over.
Managers can further plough the value of ethics in their organization by educating the staff on
what is at risk if they fail to perform ethically (Shah 2014, p. 59). This involves offering training
programs to all workers so that they become aware of the value of ethic and how they can apply
it for the good of the organization and the society. Encouraging a corporate culture in which
employees feel free to speak the truth holding integrity to those in authority thus creating
commitment from all corners of the organization (Thomas 2016). It being a pillar to ethical
standards, encouraging openness to other people’s view and being diverse and open minded to
all opinions whether popular or not will facilitate the success of the business. In addition to this,
passing down the art of transparency about finances also plays a rudimentary role in building a
conducive environment for a business. Going further to rewarding solid ethical behavior that will
trigger other staff members to enumerate the same and leading by examples plays major key
roles in building ethical standards within the business.
Every manager should adopt effective approaches to help in evaluating and deciding on ethical
dilemmas. It requires going beyond the interest of the business to that of the community involves
shifting values of the organization from those of compliance to virtue-based. Ferrell (2016)
denotes that it includes taking responsible to all the activities that occur internally and externally
around the business. Environmental responsibilities and the need to care for the workforce for
instance treating waste products prior to disposal and controlling the gasses released to the