Business Ethics Analysis: Telecommunication Companies of Malaysia

This report critically analyzes business ethics within the Malaysian telecommunication industry, focusing on companies like Maxis and DiGi. It explores ethical issues such as honesty, integrity, and fairness, highlighting dilemmas like price discrimination and unfair customer treatment. The report delves into ethical principles including justice, deontology, and utilitarianism, and performs a stakeholder analysis considering shareholders, suppliers, and customers. It also examines marketing ethics and the impact of company policies. The report concludes with strategies to overcome ethical dilemmas, emphasizing honesty, ethical conduct, and proactive responses to allegations, along with the importance of stakeholder engagement and ethical decision-making frameworks. This report is contributed by a student and is available on Desklib, a platform offering AI-based study tools for students.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS
Telecommunication
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Discussion:.................................................................................................................................2
Ethical issues:.........................................................................................................................2
Justice:....................................................................................................................................3
Deontology:............................................................................................................................4
Utilitarianism:.........................................................................................................................4
Ethical dilemma faced by the company:................................................................................4
Stakeholder analysis:..............................................................................................................5
Strategies to be overcome:......................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
Reference..................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction:
The subject matter of the report is to analyse the problems critically regarding the
business ethics and to evaluate the aspects of the same. Business ethics contain certain ethical
principles to maintain the proper business environment (Crane & Matten, 2016). It regulates
all kind of business conduct and retains standard by setting out certain necessary norms for
the betterment of the company. In 1952, Adam Smith overviewed the importance of ethical
issues of business (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). In 2005, Jones has expressed his willingness
regarding the imposition the ethical norms over the companies. The term Business ethics has
been used professionally in United States of America and the official structure of the same
has been concocted in 1980 (Trevino, & Nelson, 2016). It has been observed that in recent
times, the industries are facing certain dilemma regarding the business ethics. In this report,
the problems faced by Telecommunication industry of Malaysia have been discussed. The
main reason behind the same is that the companies are not following the proper business
ethics and become a profit gaining machine. Various allegations have been made against
these companies and therefore, the share markets of Malaysia have been affected a lot. This
report points out certain strategies to overcome the ethical problems (Weiss, 2014). This
report has made a critical analysis on the two telecommunication based companies in
Malaysia. The chosen companies are Maxis telecommunication and DiGi
telecommunications.
Discussion:
Ethical issues:
Ethical issues are stands on morality and the grounds of the ethical issues should be
depended on honesty and integrity. Circumstances may be differed into such a condition that

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requires the business group to crave the morality regarding special action (Hoffman,
Frederick & Schwartz, 2014). In recent times, it has been observed that the ethical issues
regarding a business have been highlighted and it involves certain aspects such as honesty,
integrity, harassment, professional behaviour and fraud. The problems will remain same if
these could not be removed. It has been observed that most of the companies are affected
from the ethical misconduct committed against the customer and the employees. The resource
abuse is also getting at the top now days (Wang, Kweh, & Lai, 2014).
In certain times, it has been observed that the companies are involved within the
curse of bribery. This malicious intent helps the company towards degradation. It has been
observed by business analytics that honesty is the base of every company. If a company fails
to achieve the goal and jeopardise the organisational ethics, it will face degradation
(Cantwell, Dunning & Lundan, 2015). There are certain principles that a company should
follow to achieve the ultimate goal by maintaining business ethics. These are beneficence,
least harm, respect for autonomy, justice, Deontology, Utilitarianism, rights and virtue. In this
report, three of the principles will be discussed. These principles can be categorising as
follows:
 Justice;
 Deontology, and
 Utilitarianism.
Justice:
According to this theory, it is the utmost duty of the decision maker to concentrate on
the works that are fair in nature. The main objective of this theory is to equalise the ethical
decision with the ethical theory (Oelze et al., 2016). It has been stated that if the decision
taken by the company could not be based on the ethical version, a company cannot make

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prosperous. The decision will also assist the companies to deal with the ethical dilemmas and
therefore, it can be stated that until a company takes an ethical decision regarding their
products or company settlement, it could not ensure the interest of the consumers and the
employees (Yeboah-Asiamah et al., 2016).
Deontology:
This theory regulates the process of decision. As per the theory, a company should
have to equalise the obligations and the duties and the same should have to apply during the
process of decision making. A company should perform that duty which is regarded as
ethically correct (Wahid et al., 2017). For instance, a company shall, at all possible times
keep the promises and abide by the principle of law. The main criteria of this theory are to
follow certain obligations regarding to perform certain ethical duties. The deontological
ethics can be formularised in certain ways such as Kantianism (originated by Immanuel
Cant), moral absolutism, divine command theory and contemporary deontology (Wang et al.,
2014).
Utilitarianism:
When a company can predict an action and the result of such action, the ability will be
regarded as utilitarianism. It has two wings, one deal with act and other deals with rules. The
believer of acts utilitarianism performs that job suitable for most of the person. Rule
utilitarianism consists of certain legal principles. The objective of this theory is to gain
maximum good (Taghizadeh et al., 2014).
However, these theories have certain loopholes that are generated from the ethical
background and it can be observed that the interest of the individuals is neglected in the
process of application of these theories.

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Ethical dilemma faced by the company:
The present company is a bright name in the telecommunication sector of Malaysia.
However, this company has been suffering from certain ethical dilemmas that can be stated as
under:
 The main ethical issue is that the price of the mobile has been reduced by the
company, but the same has not been offered to all. It has been fixed for certain
classified customers.
 It has been alleged by many loyal customers that they do not enjoy the cheap plan of
the company.
 The decisions taken by the company are not based on ethical issues. It fails to comply
with the ethical principles and as a result, the company lost its customer chain.
 It has been observed that the company has failed to be loyal to its customers and fails
to provide quality product to its customer (Taghizadeh et al., 2014).
 The acts of the company towards its customer are being treated as unfair and it has
been observed that the secret post-paid plans by the company become the scandal.
 The secret plans of the company is being regarded as the dishonest approach of the
company to the customers and it can be stated that the reputation of the company has
become affected by this a lot.
Stakeholder analysis:
It is a legal fact that a company is a separate entity and it works through the
stakeholders. Therefore, it is obvious to state that the stakeholders are important in nature and
without their assistance; a company could not run its business. Stakeholders include Board of
Directors, shareholders, and other staffs. The theory of stakeholders applies to them who are

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getting benefitted from the company and regarding their role in the company, the
stakeholders are to be treated ethically (Bryman & Bell, 2015).
Shareholders are the most important part of the company as the economic background
of the company is depended on the shareholders and they are purchasing the shares of the
company. They are directly attached to the company and if the company is affected due to
certain unethical decisions, the interest of the shareholders will also get inflicted. The
suppliers and the customers are also a part of the company. The suppliers are the persons who
are distributed the products of the company and reach the products to the customers. If the
policy of the company does not go with the suppliers and fails to protect the interest of the
customer, it will be unethical in nature and affected both of them (Crane, & Matten, 2016).
It has been observed that both the companies are affected by the ethical dilemmas and
bunch of allegations are pending against them. Stakeholders of both the companies are facing
certain dilemma as the reputation of the companies is deteriorating day today. However, it
has been observed that the position of Maxis telecommunication is not that mush good. In the
Maxis Telecommunication, there are certain reputed stakeholders. It is a part of the Ananda
Krishnan’s empire. One of the important stakeholders of the company is Saudi Telecom
Company who owns 25% of stake in the company.
It is obvious to state that if the company is suffering from certain disabilities, it will
affect the interest of the stakeholders. Therefore, the company should act with the
stakeholders ethically and it should not forget the ethical principles so that it will oppose the
customisation policies. Stakeholder analysis is important in this regard to understand the
necessary policies of stakeholders (Trevino & Nelson, 2016).
Stakeholder analysis comprised of pondering and evaluating all the rival demands on
a company or corporation by each of it who have a claim on it, in order to arrive at the firm's

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obligation in a particular case. In case of the stakeholder analysis, the necessary thing is that
the overall examination regarding the interest of the stakeholder should be the matter of
consideration. It is a way to determine the attitudes of the stakeholders regarding the dispute
and the way they deal with the same. there is no particular time or process mentioned to
analyse the stakeholders. It is depending on the circumstances (Weiss, 2014).
In case of the Maxis telecommunication, it has been observed that the marketing
policy became a potential threat to the company and it begins to lose its customer chain due
to this. The marketing ethics consists of certain ethical values that should be followed up by
the marketers. It is the duty of the marketers to take effective decisions regarding the market
contradiction and the way these disputes can be resolved. There should be a transparency
regarding the potential risks regarding the environmental issues and risks generated due to
finance and the security whereas the policies of DiGi telecommunication are quite promising
(Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). It has been observed that the employees of the company are
getting training to deal with the customers properly and the product policies of the company
are also customer oriented. Therefore, it has been observed that many loyal customers of
Maxis are transferring their concentration to the DiGi telecommunication.
There are three kinds of stakeholders- primary stakeholders, secondary stakeholders
and key stakeholders. Stakeholder analysis will help to avoid the potential risks regarding the
interest of the stakeholders.
Strategies to be overcome:
The ethical dilemma of a company can be resolved by adopting perfect policies or
strategies. It is important to make a framework to resolve all the ethical dilemmas and to
point out the grounds that causes dilemma regarding the same. The decisions are trade off
between utility, rights and justice (Hoffman, Frederick & Schwartz, 2014). The company

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should be indebted to the stakeholders and to the customers as their profit is depends on
them. The company should act with them ethically and should provide them certain benefits
like efficiency, consistency and pay back policies.
The company should value all the possible chances and should not take any fraudulent
way to gain ulterior motive or profit. It has been stated by Ambers Parker that the company
should treated all the customers and the stakeholders with honesty and ethically. In the words
of Plato, the business conflicts should be avoided at all possible chances. The unethical
behaviour of the company should be treated with pro-active measures and it should be stated
that there should be a common goal for the companies and policies should be taken so that all
the stakeholders can take part in it (Wahid et al., 2017). If there is any allegation made
against the reputation of the company, it should be responded positively. All the legal and
ethical duties are to be fulfilled and all the strategies must be logistic and based on facts.
According to Borgerson, and Schroeder (2008), marketing can influence individuals'
perceptions of and interactions with other people, implying an ethical responsibility to avoid
distorting those perceptions and interactions.
The allegations that have been made against Maxis affected the interest of the
shareholders and the stakeholders and it can be stated that the customer chain of the company
had been affected and the company had to face great dilemma (Trevino & Nelson, 2016).
Many customers have made the allegation that the company deprived all the loyal customer
and providing discount to others. It has been observed that the company has been affected by
certain scandals and the reputation of the company had been affected for the unethical
decisions and the policy of the company. The company should respond to the allegations and
the company should take ethical approach to deal with the problems.

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Conclusion
Therefore, it can be stated that the company is facing certain ethical problems and the
report has been discussed the ethical issues that the company is being faced. The company is
liable for the launching of Malaysia’s first four satellites and it is serving as a great name for
the telecommunication industry for years and it has a strong customer chain. However, it has
been observed that the customer base of the company is being affected by the unethical
approaches of the company regarding its 2G spectrum. It has been alleged that the company
is supplying certain mobiles to the customers in a cheap rate and deprive the loyal customer
(Ismail et al., 2015). There were no positive replies given from the officials regarding the
allegations and as a result the company is losing its customers. It has also been observed that
the stakeholders of the company are also getting affected as the bad impression of the
company regarding the consumers minimize the price of the shares and it has been observed
that the costs of the products have faced a financial dilemma. There are other competitors in
the telecommunication market of Malaysia and it has been noticed that unethical approaches
of the company help others to rise in the market of the company. Many of the customers of
the company went to the companies like DiGi. Therefore, it can be stated that the ethical
issues of the company should be resolved with positive delights. In the words of Economist
Milton Freidman, the corporate executives should have to maintain certain responsibilities.
There are certain policies that will help to overcome these ethical issues. It is important to
point out the sources of the ethical dilemmas and the policies of the company should be
customer oriented. It is important to implement code of conduct for the employees and
necessary provision regarding anti-corruption rules should be included. The interest of the
customer should be taken on higher priority and the division of customer should be closed by
the highest authority as soon as possible. The employees should be trained in a proper way
so that they can prove themselves as promising to the customers. The company should

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provide quick response to the allegations, if any, made by the customers. These strategies
will help to overcome the dilemmas and the telecommunication industry can get rid of the
dilemmas.

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