Ethics and Stakeholders Benefits

This article discusses the importance of ethics and stakeholders benefits in decision making and operations of business organizations. It explores the impact of ethical breakdowns and ways to promote sustainability. The article also highlights the significance of circular economy and corporate social procurement in promoting sustainability.

Running head: ETHICS AND STAKEHOLDERS BENEFITS
Ethics and Stakehokders Benefits
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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ETHICS AND STAKEHOLDERS BENEFITS
Session 2:
I can reflect that ethical theories play important role in decision making in the business
organisations. The managers consider ethical factors like impact of their decisions on the
stakeholders like the consumers and the society while making decisions. Individuals working
with teams are also expected to consider the ethical effect of their decisions on the other team
members and the organisation on the whole while making decisions or executing actions. For
example, industries like grey hound racing and live bating are immoral. The environmentalists
question the legality and the ethical grounds of these industries because they effect the health of
the greyhounds. These sports involve use of live baits which is again unethical. I have
understood from the discussion that ethics help public take decisions when trapped in ethical
dilemmas. However, ethics are not universal and vary from situation to situation. This makes
passing of legislations and laws important to ensure ethical behaviour within a given population.
For example, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 in Australia
ensures conservation of environment (environment.gov.au 2018). This ensures benefit of the
environment and the society as a whole. I have also learnt that the business organisations should
operate ethically to benefit the stakeholders including the shareholders. Milton Friedman in his
shareholders’ theory mentions that shareholders should be socially responsible. He stresses that
shareholders should engage in socially useful activities directly instead of doing it through the
top executives, their nominated representatives (Ferrero, Michael Hoffman & McNulty, 2014).
Session 3:
I have understood from ethical breakdown are rampant organisations due to various
factors like opportunities to earn huge profits in unethical ways and power to face legal
consequences. People often enter into unethical practices like taking bribes and passing out

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sensitive business information to illegitimate groups (hbr.org 2018). I can also point out that this
breakdown of ethics in business organisation has led to immoral and illegal practices like
corruption and money laundering. I can also point out that business organisations evade paying
taxes by shifting their operations from high tax jurisdiction to low tax jurisdiction to decrease the
tax expenditure. These tax avoidances harm the economies as a whole because they result in
lowering of revenue the government uses to provide the citizens with basic benefits (Jacob and
Schütt 2015).
Session 4:
I have learnt and can point out that giving voice to values or GVV refers to the approach
of developing a value driven leadership in business organisations. The managers should
emphasise on developing an ethical organisational culture and manage conflict among
employees. The employees must be aware about the values of the organisations and act in
rational ways. They should judge the outcome of their decisions and actions on the stakeholders
of the organisation like the management and the consumers. The management of the organisation
address and deal with false nations which unethical employees spread. I can also point out that
management should intervene to tackle unethical and conflicting acts by employees.
Session 5:
I have also learnt that business organisations while accounting for their business
operations should follow triple bottom line. Sarkis and Dhavale (2015) mention that triple
bottom line is an accounting method which involved accounting procedures keeping in view
social aspects, environmental aspects and financial aspects. The managers should act more
ethically like acquiring raw materials from sustainable supply chains. They should advocate

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ethical leadership and diversity management while leading their departments. These steps would
ethical business operations confirming to the triple bottom line.
Session 6:
I have learnt that business organisations have to play significant role in minimising
weather changes. The business organisations should promote adoption of sustainable operations
by adopyting sustainable operations in their daily workings. For example, they should acquire
raw materials from green supply chains. They should manufacture and sell sustainable products
as their main stream products and not as a niche marketing products to earn revenue
(theguardian.com 2018). The managers making decisions should act in ethical ways and enable
the business organisations move towards ethics. I can point out that they should deal with their
subordinates who act in unsustainable and unethical ways very strictly. For example, the
marketing manager should ensure that the products which firms market are safe both for the
consumers and the environment. They should motivate their peers and subordinates to do so. I
have also learnt that the business organisations should take policies like encouraging
environment friendly plantation and recycling of wastes to curb climate change to the extent
possible. Urry (2015) mentions that climate change increases the chances of risks due to natural
calamities which cause huge financial and resource loss to them. I can propose that business
organisations should invest in alternative sources of energy to reduce combustion of coal and
petrol which are responsible for release of large amount of greenhouses gases. However, the
companies producing renewable energy sources like hydro-energy and wind energy require to
boost their production to meet the needs of market. The business organisations like Adani should
invest in renewable energy sources.

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I have learnt that sugar tax have detrimental effect on the poor and lower middle class
people. I have also learnt that millions of square kilometres of forests are cleared in Indonesia to
cultivate crops like sugar. The immense amount of greenhouse gases which are generated from
the factories in the country affect Singapore and Malaysia. Multinational companies like Nestle
also encourage these unsustainable activities. These multinational often resort to practicing
indirect slavery in these plantations. However, they have stopped these unethical practices under
public pressure in order to minimise damage to their goodwill. Slavery is also said to exist in
manufacturers of sea food. I can point out that governments should take actions to curb these
unsustainable practices. The stakeholder groups like the government and the consumers can
share and compile information relating to environment. I can point out that they would be able to
collaborate and cooperate in obtaining higher level of sustainability. The business organisations
can use technology like 3D technology to decrease weight of their packages which would allow
them to transport more goods. I can point out that this would reduce the consumption of non-
renewable sources of energy like coal and petrol.
Session 7:
I can reflect that that both the household and the industrial sector contribute to wastage of
resources. For example, Australian people waste food worth $ 3500 each week on average
(iview.abc.net.au 2018). I can also point out that many countries like the United Kingdom are
taking measures to control environmental pollution. The Therasa May government has pledged
to reduce plastic greatly 2042 and also investigate into tax on plastic containers (sbs.com.au
2018). The environmental groups of the Australia is also urging the Australian Government take
similar steps as London.

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I have learnt that the fashion industry generates 6000 kilograms of fashion wastes every
ten minutes. Top fashion houses like H&M have taken steps to curb their use of synthetic
products and recycle their wastes. The international fashion brand has pledged to use 100
recycled raw materials by 2030 and make its supply chain fully sustainable within 2040
(huffingtonpost.com.au 2018).
I have learnt that supply chain plays a significant role as far as sustainability and its
achievement are concerned. The suppliers often slavery to produce the raw materials which they
sell to the multinational companies. The suppliers must abstain from using such unethical means
to produce raw materials. The companies sourcing raw materials should ensure that the suppliers
do not use such unethical means to produce raw materials. The companies should not only
consider their supply chains from the point of view of profit and cost cutting. They should also
consider factors like social impact and environmental impacts of such supply chains. For
example, if they keep on acquiring raw materials from the suppliers in spite of being aware of
their use of slavery, these companies indirectly promote slavery. This is totally unethical and
have dire impact on the society since, business organisations are considered as corporate citizens.
I can further point out that business organisation should adopt and promote the system of
corporate social procurement. Corporate social procurement is the system of procuring raw
materials from the local communities like the local suppliers of raw materials. Such activities
generate revenue and economic development for the local communities thus making the supply
chain more sustainable (Grayson and Hodges 2017).
I have learnt that the economists today promote the concept circular economy. The term
circular economy refers to the system where resources, inputs, wastes and emissions are
minimised by regulating the usages of resources so as to reduce wastage (Ghisellini, Cialani and

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Ulgiati 2016). The business organisations today stress on recycling wastes to reuse them to
reduce their expenses. I can cite companies like Dow as examples which make recycle finished
products from used and recycled goods (dow.com 2018).
Session 8:
I have learnt that business organisations today take market based approaches to solve
needs and adopt business model which aims to create value for the customers to generate
revenue. They make use of innovation to secure triple bottom line. They business organisation
have emerged into social enterprises which is a new concept and operate in order to benefit the
society besides earning profit. I can point out that business organisation are not only concerned
about earning short term profits but to benefit stakeholders like customers and investors to secure
long term growth under the leadership of able business leaders. They have business model which
embrace different stakeholders like suppliers and business partners on one hand and customers
on the other. I would like to cite example of sustainable beer plants which recycle waste water
and use solar energy to make beer (craftbeer.com 2018). I have also learnt that cooperatives
have emerged into social enterprises which are working towards bringing about development in
societies. They stand on the principles of sustainability and collaborative consumption. They
often involve in operations like eco-tourisms and guided tours. I can cite example of eco-tourism
as a sustainable industry which is attracting large number of tourists and also creating
employment opportunities in different regions of the world. The local producers in the villages
who do not access to markets in the cities can sell their products to the tourists and earn revenue.
Thus, sustainable business models like eco-tourism are not only boosting revenue generation but
also economic development of the local communities. The cooperatives and sustainable business
are encouraging sustainable use of natural resources like water and creates awareness about

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environment among the people. Empowerment of local communities and reduction of economic
evils like exploitation in child exploitation and gender inequality has boosted their economic
development (Driscoll, Wiebe and Dyck 2015). The local people as a result contribute towards
preservation of heritage sites and attracting more tourists. Eco-tourism has made global tourism
market far more sustainable and boosted its revenue generation as well, besides contributing
towards conservation of regions like rainforests. The international hotel chains today as I can
point out have entered the eco-tourism market making it all the more profitable and stronger. I
can also point out that in fact, the tourists prefer environment friendly trips which has boosted
eco-tourism industry even more.
Session 9:
I can point out that business organiations not only follow the triple bootom line ardently
but also seek to measure the benefits of the triple bottom line. They prepare reports like
environmental cost management and align them with the business requirements of the company.
Sustainability reports today form a part of the annual reports of the multinational companies like
Procter & Gamble. These companies seek to inform the external stakeholders like customers and
investors about their sustainable operations in the view to obtain their support. The multinational
business organisations today help small companies to sell their products using their brand names.
These companies put immense emphasis in presenting accurate information about their products
and strategies in the markets to create a strong brand image (McCowan et al. 2015).

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