Business Ethics and Law for Managers

This assignment delves into the realm of business ethics and law, exploring the complexities of managerial responsibilities, legal status, and best practices. It draws from a range of academic sources, including research papers and articles, as well as online resources. The content provides insights into the role of managers in upholding business ethics, the historical examination of the legal status of managers, and the significance of relationship learning in supplier-customer interactions. This assignment is ideal for students seeking to understand the intersection of business ethics and law in a managerial context.

Law For Business Managers

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Meaning of representation and difference with the term of a contract...................................1
Dismissal from employment...................................................................................................2
Duties governing the Directors of the company.....................................................................4
Principles regarding the award of damages in the Law of Torts............................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Law plays an important role in business activities. Law are implemented on managers,
owners and employees who are engaged in their business activities and deal in internal and
external part of their business transaction. Laws related to business helps the management team
to work and behave ethically, has the power to resolve the disputes that arise between the
employees and protect the rights and liabilities of the persons who are dealing with their
business. Present report is based on Monica who is working on large firm as a post of Human
resources Manager in Young & Ernst LLP. The case study rounds around two cases, First one is
between the Monica and chandler who is car salesman. And second one is between the Ross,
Monica brother and Joey who is injured by Monica car.
Report will include the meaning of representation and its distinguished with the term of
contract. It also includes various laws which Monica has to explain to the board of directors
regarding the dismissal from employment which is unfair in terms of law. Further it includes the
main duties of directors which Monica had to explain to the new members of the board. Lastly
the report ends up with the principles that govern the award of damages in the Law of Torts.
MAIN BODY
Meaning of representation and difference with the term of a contract
Representation refers to a statement which relates to a fact which presents all the
contractual terms and negotiations which apply to all the parties involved into the contract.
Representation is used in context of any express or the implied statement which is made by any
of the parties relating to the contract regarding a particular fact or situation (Siedel and Haapio,
2016). In the case study the representation is when the lady Monica expressing her feeling to buy
the car is the representation. For this she represented that she has to buy a new car but she needs
a second hand car for this she goes to local second hand car dealership.
Misrepresentation is one of the major reason for the law of Tort coming into action. A
mere representation is a type of statement which is made at time of negotiation but it is not
necessary that it form the part of contract or not. If the mere representation is breached then t will
not give rise to the contractual liability. It is a set up wherein the party to a contract has made a
representation of the fact which is represented in such a way that the other party is induced to
enter into the contract but is not intended to form part of the contract. The mere representation
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are the statements which does not form part of the contract but rather it induces or encourages in
helping in the contract accomplishment.
The terms of the contract refers to as the duties which each party has to perform under the
law of contract (Kraakman and Hansmann, 2017). Generally there are two types of terms of
contract. Firstly the express terms which means that these terms are laid down by all the parties
according to their suitability and convenience. Whereas the implied terms are added into the
contract by the law or the court which are implied on the contract according to the nature of the
agreement and the conduct of the parties involved in to the contract. The mere representation
differs from the legal effects of the contractual terms in the following ways -
The contractual term is only a provision which forms a part of the contract whereas the
mere representation is a statement including the facts which does not amount a term of the
contract rather it is one that the maker of the statement does not guarantee the truth.
The term of contract refers to as the expression which shows or demonstrate the
willingness of the parties to agree or to abide by the obligation which is either part of the contract
or has a contractual effect. Whereas the representation is the inducement encouragement to
persuade the other party to enter into the contract where there is no term, no contract or not any
contractual effect or the obligations.
The breach of term gives rise to the contractual warranty and also gives insight to
develop a remedy for solving the damages. Whereas in the representation the breach of the mere
representation leads to non- contractual remedies and it is very difficult to obtain solutions to the
damages.
The terms of contract establish the parties with their individual and respective rights,
duties and obligations which comes under the contract (O'Leary and Sandberg, 2017). Whereas
the representations are the statements of fact including the concerning matters which are in
existence at the time the contract is entered into with the involved parties.
Dismissal from employment
Employment refers to as a relationship between two or more parties where the relation is
based on a contract where one party that is either company, not for profit organisation,
cooperatives and any other entity which runs to earn profits and on the other side is the
employees who are paid for the services which they provide to the organisation. The employees
work with the sole expectation of payment which may either be in the form of the hourly wage,
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monthly wages, or annual salary depending upon the type of work which the employees perform.
Employees may also get benefits other than basic salary like housing, health insurance, travelling
allowance etc. The employment is governed and maintained by the employment rules and
regulation, laws and legal contracts (Crane and Matten, 2016).
Dismissal of the employees refers to as the expiration, cancellation or the termination of
the contract of the employment by an employer either against the wish of the employees or due
to some other reasons. This dismissal is done due to many reasons or factors like economic
downturn or economic slowdown, performance related problems from employees side, conflict
of interest among the employees., also there is greater probability of employees getting fired
from the employment contract.
Some grounds on which it can be proved that dismissal from employment is at law
discussed in the following points -
Wrongful dismissal - this is a kind of law which operates when the employees are
dismissed without any appropriate notice. The wrongful dismissal is a breach of contract which
may be brought in by the employees if the employer dismisses the contract of employment
without giving any prior appropriate notice (Johnston, Segrestin and Hatchuel, 2018). If the
employee is terminated without notice then the employee is entitled to sue against the employer
for the breach of the contract. The employee can file a suit against the employer for any of the
loss happened to the employee within the time frame of the notice period like any gratuities,
advances or the commissions which the employee must have earned if he was not terminated
from its service.
Unfair dismissal - this is another type of dismissal where the employee terminated can
use the law as a saviour. If the employee is terminated or removed from his job without any fair
and relevant reason and also the employer has not followed the fair and correct procedure then it
is termed as unfair dismissal (Trevino and Nelson, 2016). However, the employees who have
suffered unfair dismissal can use this law against the employer and can sue the employer against
this. The claims must be brought within the period of three months of the termination of the
contract but with this the following three conditions must be satisfied-
The continuous employment
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The employee should prove with help of facts and figures which proves that the
employee is being unfairly and wrongfully dismissed from the contract of the employment
(Hisrich and Ramadani, 2017).
Lastly if the employer thinks that the termination of the employee was fair then he has to
prove that the dismissal was fair.
Redundancy - it means that to reduce the size of the workforce the employer terminates
some employees. A redundant employee has two different rights out of which the employee can
access any one either of any two claim. These two claims are as follows -
Redundancy payment - because it is a legal form to reduce the size of the employees in
an organisation. So thus rendering some employees which are in excess or surplus according to
the requirement of the organisation (Frankel, Laby and Schwing, 2015). So the employees which
are being terminated have the right and entitlement for the compensation for losing their job
without any reason.
Unfair dismissal - it may be possible that the employer terminates the employees under
the name of redundancy but it may not be the case as such. It may be possible that the employee
because of any personal reason or grudges wants to terminate the employees but the employer
cannot directly terminate him. So the employer takes the help of the redundancy approach where
the employer can easily terminate the employee and does not defect its image in front of others.
Duties governing the Directors of the company.
Board of directors are the whole and sole of the company and their internal matters to
handle all the activities in the business transaction. As per the companies Act, 2006 they
assigned some special duties to act with the business and are responsible to take care of the
employees effectively. The duties which are assigned to directors in Young & Ernst LLP can be
summarized under various ways (Rosenbloom, 2018). Firstly Monica explains about the
Company Missions and Vision to be take care by the directors to motivate employees to achieve
targets. The vision is that which the company want to see success of business in near future. The
mission is to execute the plan which undertakes the vision of business. The duties of directors
regarding the vision and mission are on the same perspective as that of the other board member.
The second duties which they have to take care is regarding the appointment of Executive
Directors of the company. They should be appointed on the basis of qualification and experience
to deal the company matter properly and authentically execute the plan of action. Once the
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executive directors are selected, they should be guided to carry out the task which helps to
achieve the organisation goal. It's the duty of the board of directors to review the performance of
the executive director and carry their plan of action in the board meeting (Becker, 2018). The
third duty which they have to examine is related to Planning in Organisation to achieve targets.
They have to monitors and analyse the products, services and management plan to reach to the
market and challenge their competitors. It's the duty of the directors to monitor their plan
strategy and review periodically the activities which they are committing in company.
The next duty which they have to work on is related to Manage the Financial resources in
Young & Ernst LLP. They don't have to play the role as accountant in company just they have to
manage the cash transaction and guides them to utilize in proper manner to save for future
perspective (The Responsibility and Duties of Company Directors, 2019). They have to manage
the budget for every department which raise productivity and profits in company. The next duty
which is important in respective of every working is related to Time Management. Board
members to manage their time and activities so that they can their other meeting at same time
without any conflict. They have to mange their review of their meetings and agenda which they
have to discuss and this can be done by managing the time and are responsible to accept the task
and completed within the stipulated time.
The next duty is in respect of Maintaining Integrity is the company private and secrecy
matter. They have to maintain the confidentiality in company working structure and board
matters decision in the board meeting (Kohtamäki and Partanen, 2016). If they didst maintain the
integrity it results in conflict in the company management team which result in risk factors
occurs. They also have to perform the duty in respect of Recruiting New Members in the Board.
At the time of recruiting new members it results in getting knowledgeable, experience and
talented person to hold the position in board. They trained the board members more about the
company progress and different ideas to achieve the targets (Davies, 2016). An active board
members provides new opportunities to the company and also raise many issues which helps
company to grow in a better way.
The next duty which result in developing the skills and Assessing opportunities in respect
of attending seminars and workshops to know the market structure. They help them to know the
financial statement of the company and also analyses where they are lacking in to achieve more
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success. This helps them to achieve more ideas to raise their funds, knowledge and enhance their
skills in more productive manner (Holden, 2017). They declare interest according to the profits
earned in the company and aware of all the rights and duties which results in chances of
infringement of company details.
Principles regarding the award of damages in the Law of Torts
In case of Law of Torts, it arises when the person suffer any loss or harm in case of civil
wrong. As law of tots is mainly based on civil cases and avoid criminal cases. Under this tort
damages, compensatory damages and mitigation are examined (Torts, Negligence and Nuisance
claims- Overview, 2019). Damages in torts are occurs in case plaintiff commit such tort. The
damages in terms of awards are mostly in relation to money to be paid by the defendant to
plaintiff for loss incurred either serious damages or actual damages. So the law of torts arises
when party suffer losses or damages due to defective products or services.
Damages in torts are subject to principles governing the award are Remoteness,
Causation and Mitigation. In relation to Remoteness, the terms of damages is recognized at the
type of loss occurs to the plaintiff at the time of result in breach of contract or duty. Breach of
contracts or duty arises between the employer and employee relationship or between any person
who are engaged in contract with the other person. In this case Monica is engaged in contract
with the Chandler at the time of buying a car (Heminway, 2017). As she told this thing before
that she has no knowledge about car and she wants this to be fulfilled at the time of work and
after work. Candler offer her a car with best model of 2006 and after two weeks that car breaks
down. This result in breach of contract as according to Chandler thoughts and views she believed
in him and buy a car. Chandler had to compensate under the law of Torts.
Under the Causation clause, the loss are previously incurred and the damages are causes
foreseeable at the time of contracting with the other party. This will be recoverable if the losses
are actually incurred with result in breach of contracts or duty. In this case the claimant had to
prove their defects and liabilities that this incident occurs at the time period of contract
(Sadgrove, 2016). The next case is related to mitigation in this aspect the plaintiff had to
minimize their loss and didn't take any steps to increase the losses. This is result of mutual
understanding between the claimant and plaintiff that they both are equally liable for the damage
incurred. This helps in avoiding by taking reasonable steps for the damage incurred.
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Damages be limited in case of duty of care. It's the duty of company mangers, owners
and other person to whom they are dealing to take proper care of their employee and other
person whom they are deal with. In case of Ross, Monica brother it's the duty to drive with safe
and proper care of people walkin Company Missions and Vision g near roads. Due to his
negligence he commits an accident in which Joey's leg is broken (Hillary, 2017). Joey wants to
sue Ross under law of torts and Negligence. As according to him he can take proper care while
driving the car and just because of his negligence of changing the radio station he causes harm to
him. Duty of care is the major duty which every person have to keep as its first priority while
engaging with any activity. They should be limited by taking proper care and proper precaution
should be carries to be safe while engaging in some work (Recovery Of Damages In Torts,
2019). As its also said no duty of care is needed if the claimant occurs at some risky area
without taking some precaution. As per this case study the joey can only sue Ross as if the
damage is proved and the loss is actual happen by defendant mistakes.
In case study of Barnett V Packer, Packer is the shop assistant and he displays certain
chocolate outside their shop by which the Barnett gets affected as there are loose wires outside
that places which results in claiming the injury suffered. Packer carries the duty of care to the
Barnett as any person can be injured through this activity.
CONCLUSION
After the study of the whole report it can be concluded that representation must be
accurate and correct and parties should avoid misrepresentation. The law of Tort is a vast and
broad range including the different types of the obligations, rights, duties and different remedies
which can be applied by the court in the civil proceedings. A tort refers to civil wrong done by a
person which results in partial and unfair harm and loss to others involved in the agreement.
Firstly the report outlined the meaning of representation and mere representation along with the
distinction between the mere representation with the terms of contract. Further the report
discussed about some measures around which the dismissal from the employment would be
unfair for the employees. Also, the report defined and discussed the main duties which governs
the act and behaviour of the board of directors of the company which is explained by Monica to
the new board of directors appointed. At last the report demonstrated the main principles and
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concepts governing the damages as per the law of Tort along with the ways and methods in
which these damages can be minimised and limited.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
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Allen, W. T. and Kraakman, R., 2016. Commentaries and cases on the law of business
organization. Wolters Kluwer law & business.
Becker, G. K., 2018. Moral leadership in business. Contemporary Issues in Leadership. pp.237-
257.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. 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.
Frankel, T., Laby, A. B. and Schwing, A. T., 2015. The Regulation of Money Managers: Mutual
Funds and Advisers(Vol. 3). Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
Heminway, J. M., 2017. Shareholder wealth maximization as a function of statutes, decisional
law, and organic documents. Wash. & Lee L. Rev.. 74. p.939.
Hillary, R. ed., 2017. Small and medium-sized enterprises and the environment: business
imperatives. Routledge.
Hisrich, R. D. and Ramadani, V., 2017. Business Ethics, Social Responsibility and
Entrepreneurial Managers. In Effective entrepreneurial management. (pp. 179-201).
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Holden, P., 2017. Ethics for Managers. Routledge.
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Management Proceedings (Vol. 2018, No. 1, p. 12831). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510:
Academy of Management.
Kohtamäki, M. and Partanen, J., 2016. Co-creating value from knowledge-intensive business
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Kraakman, R. and Hansmann, H., 2017. The end of history for corporate law. In Corporate
Governance (pp. 49-78). Gower.
O'Leary, J. and Sandberg, J., 2017. Managers' practice of managing diversity revealed: A
practice‐theoretical account. Journal of Organizational Behavior. 38(4). pp.512-536.
Rosenbloom, D. H., 2018. Administrative law for public managers. Routledge.
Sadgrove, K., 2016. The complete guide to business risk management. Routledge.
Shipton, H. and et.al., 2016. Sense‐giving in health care: the relationship between the HR roles
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Journal. 26(1). pp.29-45.
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Siedel, G. and Haapio, H., 2016. Proactive law for managers: a hidden source of competitive
advantage. Routledge.
Singer, L., 2018. Settling disputes: Conflict resolution in business, families, and the legal system.
Routledge.
Trevino, L. K. and Nelson, K. A., 2016. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do
it right. John Wiley & Sons.
Zhang, T. and Fang, J., 2016. For Portfolio Managers, Patent Sellers/Buyers, CFOs, VCs, or
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Online
Recovery Of Damages In Torts. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.mondaq.com/cyprus/x/601468/Civil+Law/Recovery+Of+Damages+In+Tort+
And+ExemplaryPunitive+Damages+General+Principles>.
The Responsibility and Duties of Company Directors. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.burges-salmon.com/news-and-insight/publications/the-responsibilities-and-
duties-of-a-company-director/>.
Torts, Negligence and Nuisance claims- Overview. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/lexispsl/disputeresolution/document/393747/59PM-
BBC1-F18B-72Y2-00000-00/Tort__negligence_and_nuisance_claims_overview>.
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