Business Ethics and Responsible Management for GCG Limited

This report delves into the realm of business ethics and responsible management, specifically focusing on the case of GCG Limited, a UK-based consulting organization. It begins by identifying a key ethical issue: the gender pay gap within the company, exploring its potential causes such as workplace discrimination, diversity challenges, and unethical leadership. The report then examines the role businesses play in addressing such issues, proposing actions like strict anti-discrimination measures and equal opportunities. Stakeholder analysis is conducted, highlighting the impact on employees, shareholders, investors, the government, and suppliers. Examples of both good and bad ethical practices are provided, followed by recommendations for GCG Limited, including forming a committee to address the pay gap. Furthermore, the report applies ethical theories like Locke's theory of rights and Rawls's theory of justice to the situation, illustrating how these principles can be used to foster a more ethical work environment. The report emphasizes the importance of applying these theories to GCG Limited's operational structure to overcome existing challenges and promote ethical behavior within the organization.

Business Ethics and
Responsible Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................3
Part 1.....................................................................................................................................................3
Ethical issue.......................................................................................................................................3
Role of business in society................................................................................................................4
Five stakeholders...............................................................................................................................5
Example of good and bad ethics........................................................................................................6
Recommendations.............................................................................................................................6
Part 1 – B...............................................................................................................................................7
Theories.............................................................................................................................................7
Application of theory.........................................................................................................................8
Critique..............................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations.............................................................................................................................8
Part 2.....................................................................................................................................................9
Reflective essay.................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Business ethics plays very appropriate role for different ventures and businesses in the
market. No business can easily gain excellent profit without considering ethics within its daily
operations. Top-level management of a company is always responsible to maintain an ethicalness
within its workplace, because by taking this step, that company will be able to gain an effective
workforce. Reason is, most employees or people very much like to work in that type of organisations
where existing management of that organisation has successful implemented the ethical workplace.
According to the government of the United Kingdom, every existing business of country has always
responsible to follow and adhere different ethical and legal considerations. Otherwise, business will
be punished by the legal system. This report discusses the business ethics and responsible
management aspects in the context of GCG (Geotechnical Consulting Group) limited. GCG limited is
generally a UK based consulting organisation, headquartered in London, England. Some other
business ethics relating factors also has been included in this report.
Part 1.
Ethical issue
In recent time GCG Company has been noticed many issues related to gender pay
gap. This is a crucial ethical issue company has been associated with over the period of time.
There can be many reasons or issues work behind the issue of pay gap based on the gender at
the organisation. Issues like discrimination at work place, diversity and unethical leadership
must be associated with the organisation that is contributing in the gender pay gap at the
organisation level.
Discrimination at work place: Gender pay gap is an ethical issue that are the consequences
of the discrimination at work place. It is possible that the GCG Company must be facing the
discrimination on any social ground with employee’s part of the organisation. Discrimination
at work place can be associated due to any social reasons like caste, gender, religion, creed
and colour. All these are the ground that caters discrimination at the work place (Alum,
Nabacwa and Mbalinda, 2018). In United Kingdom government has also opposed the
antidiscrimination law over all companies active in UK. Apart from the legal liabilities

company is witnessing this ethical and legal issue which also causes to inefficiency in work
culture at the company.
Diversity: Many times due to diversity the organisation also suffer from issues like pay gap,
discrimination at work place and nay other ethical issues. GCG Company also follows the
practice of diversity at work place. This might be the possible cause of reason behind the pay
gap issue company is facing. Company has women employees all across the globe. Due to
bad leadership and unethical practices company consist up the issue call as gender pay gap.
The above mentioned issues are the issue company is facing along with the gender
pay gap. These issues have also played a role in raising the gender pay gap as an issue in the
organisation.
Role of business in society
Business organization play a crucial role in society to getting erases the issue call as
gender pay gap. Pay gap are the issue directly associated with the companies and
organisation. On the ground of gender pay gaps are seen in organisations (Bangar, 2018).
GCG Company is also an organisation and currently facing gender pay gap as an issue.
Business organisations can play a direct role in removing this issue. It becomes important for
the organisation to deal with the issue. Following are the steps that can be taken to deal with
the gender pay gap at the organisation.
Strict actions against the discrimination: GCG Company can set rules in company to take
strict actions against the pay gap. Gender pay gap is also a part of the discrimination.
Company can set strict rules against the pay gap. This will create a positive culture of work at
the organisation.
Give equal growth and pay opportunity: With the support of human resource department
at the GCG Company it can deal with the pay gap issue efficiently. Management at the
organisation can give the strict instruction to the human resource department to not
discriminate with any employees in regards to its pay on the ground of gender. This step
would allow company to effectively deal with the issue.
Strict policies and norms would support GCG Company in taking possible actions to
deal with the pay gap on the basis of gender at the organisation. Company can improve it
work culture and values by removing this issue from the organisation. This would create a
positive work culture at organisation. This would further boost the growth of company. GCG

Company would also be able to deal with improving the employee sustainability at the
organisation.
Five stakeholders
Stakeholders are the individual who carry a specific interest in the business of
company. They are the individuals who are associated with the company in some manner.
From the ethical issues identified in company following are the stakeholders who must be
affected from the gender pay gap issue at the GCG Company.
Employees: Employees are the primary stakeholder of the company who must be directly
getting affected with the issue of gender pay gap. Especially the female employees at the
GCG Company must be directly suffered from this issue of gender pay gap. Female
employees in company are targeted due to their specific genders (Ferreira, Jalali and Ferreira,
2016). They have to settle them down with the lesser payments in salary and other incentive
benefits. Even in case of promotions female employees of company needs to satisfy for less
what they deserve.
Shareholders: Shareholders are considered as the owner of the company. They also get
directly affected with the issue of gender pay gap. Shareholders being the owner of the
company wishes to sustain an effective corporate culture at the organisation. Due to the
ownership they get directly affected with the issue of gender pay gap at the organisation
level.
Investors: Investors are the individuals who have invested in the company. GCG Company
also took investments from many stakeholders like banks, angel investors and many other
(Gauthier, 2017). All such peoples who have invested in the company wish to have an
effective work culture at the organisation. They get affected with the gender pay gap issue at
the organisation.
Government: Government is also a stakeholder that gets involved in the unethical issues at
the organisation. Government in United Kingdom has also framed legal structure and laws
like anti discrimination which directly deal with the issue of any discrimination at the
organisation.
Suppliers: They are also the stakeholder that gets affected with the issue of gender pay gap.
Pay gap denote about the unethical work culture at the organisation. This also affect to the
suppliers deal with the company.

All the above stakeholders are such that get directly affected with the unethical
practices at the organisation.
Example of good and bad ethics
Good ethics is all about respecting the ethical values and beliefs. Companies like
Tesco and Marks and Spencer have set high standards for dealing with such ethical issues.
Many times the company resign on following unethical practices like gender pay gap,
discrimination on social grounds like not promoting employees who are deserving enough at
higher positional role in company (Glueckauf and et.al., 2018). This is the good example of
ethical practices follow at the organisation. Due to ethical values followed at these companies
the growth of such organisations has also expanded at different level. Good ethics always
drive company to respect the human values and beliefs.
Bad ethics is all about not supporting and promoting the ethical values at the
organisation. Companies like GCG and Sisters Poultry Limited has recently witnessed the
issues related to gender pay gap and discrimination in promoting women employees at higher
designated position role in organisation. This is an example of bad ethics (Harding and
Ralarala, 2017). This kind of behaviour with the employees diminishes the morale of
employees employed at the organisation. Company also face issues in recruiting skilled and
efficient employees at different designated position role in organisation. This also results into
inefficient work culture at organisation.
Recommendations
It is recommended that management at GCG Company must form a committee to
look at the issue of gender pay gap at organisation level. This can be conducted with the
support of human resource department in the company. This committee would analysis the
entire situation and will allow company to take necessary steps to deal with the gender pay
gap issue and other unethical issues at the organisation (Kour and Khurana, 2017). This
policy would support company in improving the work culture of the organisation. It is
recommended that this committee must address all kinds of unethical behaviours operating in
the company. Personal interaction with all female employees would also allow the company
to identify the issue of gender pay gap and all other unethical issue at the organisation. The
recommendations would support the company in improving the work culture and solve the
unethical issues happening at the organisation.

Part 1 – B
Theories
Theories are the concepts that can be used to face the certain situation. Following are
the theories and concepts that can support the GCG Company in dealing with the issue of
gender pay gap at the organisation. These theories would support company in strengthening
the organisation structure at such level that company will end up getting rid with the issue of
gender pay gap. These theories can be stated in the following manner.
Locke’s theory of right
Locke’s theory of right is the theory that not just portrait the basic rights of human
being rather it legalises the rights like consent, privacy, fair treatment, fair legal process and
all other rights. All these legal rights allow human being to prosperous in this competitive
world on the ground of skill, talent and capability (Kumar, 2016). All these rights allow
employees in company to achieve on the ground of skill and capability. This theory does not
support nepotism at any place. It’s become important to respect the concept of this theory to
have an effective corporate culture at the organisation. All big companies and multinational
organisations follow the concepts given in this theory to improve the culture at the
organisation.
Rawls’s theory of justice
Rawls’s theory is all based on providing legal justice to the deserving peoples who
could suffer due to any unethical behaviour. This theory drives a ethical direction towards the
organisation and believes that a society must serve justice to take against the guilty peoples
part of the society. This theory respect to justice in the process (Miller, Millis and Angelos,
2017). This theory believes that justice is a concurrent fair treatment in which everybody is in
a certain position to get what they truly deserves to get. It’s important for an individual to get
what he truly deserves in the system to spread the humanity and ethics in the society. This
theory supports ethics at in every company and organisation. In today’s time it’s important
for every organisation to have ethical values and fairness in the treatment with all employees’
part of the organisation.
Both the above theories support the ethical treatment at the organisation. With the
proper guidance of these theories company can improve the work culture at the organisation
by spreading ethical behaviour in the organisation.

Application of theory
It’s important that all such theories that can deliver strength in the organisation must
be applied in the operation structure of company. In recent time GCG Company has faced
plenty of issues related to gender pay gap. Company could not console the issues of pay gap
and many female employees have come out and speak over it properly. This has also resulted
into controversies against the company. Company can deal with the situation positively by
applying the theories like Locke’s theory of right and Rawl’s Theory of justice. Both the
theories carry a different significance of its own. Locke’s theory more justice towards giving
rights to employees part of the organisation (Paulus and Wise, 2019). Rawl’s theory on other
hand speaks about giving justice to such employees who could suffer due to any unethical
behaviour at the organisation. Company can form task force who would look over these
theories and application of these theories at the organisation. This team would overlook each
and every aspect related to the theories. The team would be formed out of the expert’s
professionals at the organisation. This would ensure properly the application of the theories at
the organisation.
Critique
Theories like Locke’s theory of right and Rawl’s theory of justice are not the legal
obligations company’s need to accept. All these theories are more like an optional approach
for the company just like leadership and management theories. Most of the companies do not
follow these theories even when they are following ethical practices in the organisation.
These theories just portrait about applying the theories but do not suggest any system that can
drive company in applying these theories in the operation practices of the organisation. In the
absence of the proper system and structure at the organisation many times these theories just
get ignorance from the management (Sahoo, 2017). GCG Company also faces the issue
which call as gender pay gap. It is obvious that the company do not follow the concepts
suggested by these theories in the operation activities of company. Even if the company do
not follow this theory they do not need to suffer on any legal basis.
Recommendations
It is recommended that management of the GCG Company must follow the concepts
given in both the theories to achieve the best level of business outcomes. These theories
would support the best practices at ethical level in organisation. Application of these theories
would support the management in providing the best work culture at the organisation which
also further attract many skill and capable employees for serving in the organisation. I

reomemnded that framing proper committee would allow the organisation to deal with any
issue employees part of the company are facing at present time. This would overlook the
employee issue seriously. It is necessary that company promote all its employees on the basic
of skill and capability and not on the ground of gender.
Part 2
Reflective essay
Ethical leadership management
Ethical leadership management is defined as applying the concepts of ethics in the
leadership practices at the organisation. Ethical leadership management is all about following
the ethical behaviour in the operation structure of the GCG Company. In case of unethical
organisation culture it is clearly species that the company do not value the ethical values and
beliefs in operating functional activities at organisation. Management can form a task team
that will overlook and compare the practices of company with ethical values and beliefs. This
practice would support the company and management to spread the ethical behaviour in the
organisation. Employee compliance centre must also be established in the organisation. I
recommended that this would drive company towards following the ethical practices even in
case of unethical organisation culture (Schlagwein, Cecez‐Kecmanovic and Hanckel, 2019).
Employee compliance centre would allow the employees part of the organisation to fetch the
company against any kind of unethical behaviour at the organisation. Employees of company
will be freely in this situation to get raised of the unethical and non professional behaviour at
the organisation. This is an important recommendation iv ca give to the organisation specially
to GCG Company who are facing the issue of gender pay gap due to unethical culture of
organisation. This would also guide company to improve the work culture of company.
Maintain integrity and compliance
Maintaining integrity and compliances are very much important for the company in
promoting ethical practices at the organisation. In case of unethical organisation culture the
biggest reason behind the spread of unethical practices at organisation is due to unsolved
compliances of the employees. Many times employees do not even get to register its
compliances at the organisation due to unavailability of the proper system at the company.
Many times even at the availability of the proper system to deal with the employee issues due

to unethical culture at organisation compliances of employees remain unsolved. Maintaining
integrity and compliances of employees play crucial role for the company in supporting the
employees at the organisation (Shaffer and et.al., 2016). This allows company to solve al
different issues and problems employees are facing at the organisation. Compliances of
employees at the company require dealing effectively to enhance the work environment at the
organisation. Maintaining integrity also serves the high ethical and human values at the
organisation. It attracts the skilled employees towards company.
Own experience and knowledge
I can state from my own experience that promoting ethical practices play crucial role
in improving the work culture at the organisation. I can specify that if the employees in the
company get the proper exposure out of the ethical practices of the company than it will
promote the ethical values in the organisation. If the employees at the company get the proper
support from the management to deal with the issues like gender pay gap than it would
motivate the organisation to attract the best possible talent in the organisation. Supporting
employees in facing the issues allow company to gain the employee loyalty in respect to the
organisation. I have experienced that employee loyalty towards the organisation capable
employees to provide proper authority in the organisation. Employees are among the key
resources associated with the organisation. Proper support from the management to improve
the employee growth in the organisation irrespective to the individual gender and social
background. Pay gap reduces the ethical culture at the organisation that also consequence the
company in form of low employee morale at the company.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that the top-level management at GCG limited has always required to
follow and adhere different business ethics within its daily operations. This is very necessary task to
the company’s upper management for fully ethical formed its business in the United Kingdom. This
should always be considered this small thing that, business ethics will always positively affect to the
GCG’s performance and productivity in the market. That’s why it should take responsibility to follow
various business ethics in the workplace.

REFERENCES
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