Ethics, Social Responsibility and Sustainability

This article discusses the importance of ethics, values, corporate social responsibility and sustainability in an organization. It elaborates on managing ethical standards, going beyond organization’s interests and the challenges faced by managers in an organization. The article also talks about the ways through which managers can promote ethics in organizations and the basics of ethical standards being sustainable and socially responsible. The relationship between upholding ethical standards being sustainable and socially responsible is also discussed. Finally, the article concludes by discussing the challenges faced by managers in managing ethical standards and going beyond organization’s interests.

Running head: ETHICS, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
Ethics, Social Responsibility and Sustainability
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ETHICS, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
Ethics, values, corporate social responsibility and sustainability plays an important role in
an organization. The ethics, values, social responsibility and sustainability are considered as
ethical standards for an organization. These guidelines are interconnected to provide a balance
between economy and working environment (Klettner, Clarke & Boersma, 2014). The below
paragraphs elaborate on managing of ethical standards, going beyond organization’s interests and
managing of ethical standards are easy or challenging for managers in an organization.
The ethical standards in an organization help to promote honest and valued relationships
of employees with organization, clients and external stakeholders. The major ethical dilemmas
faced by professionals in an organization are as follows. The first one is challenges in integrating
ethics into organizational cultures and practices among employees. The second one is issues
related to trust and integrity that are faced by businesses. The third one is diversity issues related
to enforcing equal opportunities among the employees in the business environment (Zheng, Luo
& Wang, 2014). The fourth one is decision-making process should ensure fair decision making
that protects customer rights and their beliefs. These ethical dilemmas should be taken care
properly to contribute to business success. The various approaches taken by managers to employ
in evaluating and deciding on ethical dilemmas are as follows. The first approach is to
understand ethical behavior of employees to implement ethics practices. The second approach is
to keep documentation layout of expectations and guidelines for ethical standards. The third
approach is to ensure that all employees who report to the manager understand the rules of
ethical standards. The fourth approach is to make a set of framework to make right decisions in a
situation of ethical dilemma (Guerci et al., 2015). However, there are some drawbacks of these
approaches and that is important issues will arise that are not specifically addressed in the ethical
standards code.
The approaches taken by managers require them to promote ethics in organizations. The
ways through which managers can promote ethics in organizations are as follows. The first step
is to ensure that employees have respect for their managers. This step is critical as it helps to
enforce business ethics in the organization (Huang & Paterson, 2017). The second step is to set
the tone through reward and punishment practices where employees do not oppose the guidelines
given in the ethics code. This is done by having a strong leader in the team. The third step is to
choose the staff carefully in the recruitment process. This is done through interviewing the staff
on moral development, personal values and other behaviors. The fourth step is to train employees

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ETHICS, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
on ethical behaviors that they need in the business environment. The training process will help
them to understand the ethical standards of the company. The fifth step is to take actions against
any unethical behaviors in the business environment to prevent any future occurrences. This
ensures that employees do not repeat their unethical behaviors. The sixth and final step is to give
rewards to employees who follow ethical behaviors in the working environment. This will
influence other employees also and they will also follow ethical standards (Neves & Story,
2015). The challenges faced by managers while promoting ethics in their organizations are
inadequate education and knowledge, inconsistencies in administration, lack of committed
leadership and ineffective reward/punishment system.
The ethical standards being sustainable in the organization and outside the organization
has six basics and they are as follows. The first two are business continuity plan and risk
management. The other two are responsibility, and conformance and compliance. The last two
are performance and continual improvement (Schminke et al., 2014). The ethical standards being
socially responsible in the organization and outside the organization has five basics and they are
as follows. The first two are human resource management and risk management. The other two
are relationship with suppliers and triple bottom line (people, planet and profit). The last two are
presence in global market and reduced interference in businesses. The relationship between
upholding ethical standards being sustainable and socially responsible is through economic,
social and environmental factors (Wang, 2013). The combinations of these factors influence
relationship between socially responsible and sustainability to uphold ethical standards in an
organization. These factors are based on organization’s regulations, norms, code of ethics and
code of conducts.
The achievements of organization’s interests beyond the organization to wider
community are as follows. The first one is increasing probability of behavior in people in certain
ways towards organization (Shah et al., 2014). The second one is that good ethics will help
employees to do right things in the right way. The third one is that code of ethics and code of
conduct do not take away an individual’s moral values from the duty of reason in the
organization. The fourth one is that code of ethics can function as a statement that professionally
expresses commitments to moral values. Thus, the above benefits will help to reach to the wider
community.

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ETHICS, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
The implementation of ethical standards and being socially responsible are the factors
which are faced by effective managers and they should be taken into account. The managers
need to look after investments of resources, company integration and communication. These are
the causes of the above factors that add to the challenges faced by the managers (Wu et al.,
2015). However, managing of ethical standards and going beyond organizations’ interest are
sometimes not valuable. This is due to legal issues faced by company because of government
rules and regulations. Lack of business ethics among the employees due to competitive
environment also contribute to the negativity of managing ethical standards. The relationship of
employee with manager is also a concern if it is not in a good terms. Hence, there are negative
points related to managing ethical standards in an organization.
Therefore, from above paragraphs, it can be concluded that implementing, promoting and
managing ethical standards in an organization is challenging. Managers face lots of challenges in
managing ethical standards and going beyond organization’s interest. This is due to different
functioning and behavior of employees and internal working environment. Hence, managers
should be able to manage the ethical standards in the work environment effectively for business
growth.

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ETHICS, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
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