University Report: SBM3204 - Sustainability and Ethics Self-Reflection

This report, focusing on sustainability and ethics, delves into the critical aspects of business operations and their ethical implications. It begins by establishing the importance of regulations, laws, and business ethics in organizations, highlighting their impact on business success and the need for adherence. The report then examines the organizational values that support ethical decision-making, emphasizing their role in shaping company culture, attracting stakeholders, and fostering employee motivation. It further evaluates the influence of social and public pressure on ethical behavior, exploring how community involvement and external demands shape corporate practices. The analysis extends to identifying and responding to ethical dilemmas, providing examples and strategies for managers to navigate complex situations, including balancing confidentiality and whistleblowing. Finally, the report addresses the promotion of corporate responsibility through internal values and external communication, outlining methods for businesses to enhance their reputation and engage with stakeholders effectively. The report draws on various sources to support its arguments, offering a comprehensive overview of ethical considerations in the business world.

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Sustainability and Ethics
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Introduction
Demonstrate an understanding of regulations, the law and business ethics in organizations
The business world plays a very important role in the country’s progressiveness. There
are distinctive features that make a successful business. The business has been impacted by
several forces for its survival against the implemented rules and regulations. It is a necessity that
all the businessmen follow the established laws and regulations since, without these laws, the
success of the business cannot be assured. Ethics affects business. Ethics have heavy impacts on
business in many different ways. The distinct era of the people, world and specifically the elites
of the world overlooked the ethics and principles that hindered the success of the era (Crane, and
Matten, 2016). This paper’s main focus is in highlighting the impact of the ethics in the business
and to demonstrate an understanding of the regulation, law and business ethics in various
organizations. It enables us to relate well the how distinct systems of ethics regulations and ages
affects the business and fostering the values of business law and ethics.
In definition, business law implies the rules that are related to business entities such as
corporations and partnerships. It regulates the business and ensures that it rhymes with the
established policies by the business world. It builds a relationship between the businessmen and
their states that every business operation will be done according to the published rules and
regulations. Business law controls the cash flow in trade (Ferrell, and Fraedrich, 2015). It is
comprised of business formation, contract, litigation, merger and acquisition, and consumer
protection. The set laws majority deals with the illustration of the responsibilities and rights and
extending to the overlapping business issues. The primary governing authority is the Uniform
Commercial Code (UCC) for commercial transactions. In business law, there are some essentials
such as environmental law, insurance, and tax liability, contract employment law and tax law.

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These essentials govern the business over the entire world without which, no business can
progress.
In the contract law, is the general involvement with the legal transactions in operating a
business. This enables a sound business agreement that can is enforced by the law when solving
a dispute. A contract is a legal agreement between two or more parties that sets a task either do
or not to do any operation. The word party can be used to refer to people or companies
(Reinecke, Arnold, and Palazzo, 2016, pp82-97). The organizations have always set their
regulations on how they deal with their employees, customers, and competitors in the prevailing
business environment. The parties engaging in a business contract must be of a safe mind and
should have a clear understanding of the agreement terms.
Demonstrate an understanding of the organizational values that support ethical decision
Making
The crucial ethics of a company are considered to be the organizational values that every
particular organization complies with no matter what. The key benefits of such values are that
they tend to motivate the employee’s efforts towards the attainment of the organizational goals.
Arguably, a true reflection of a company's aspirations should be based on true articulated values,
because they are usually necessary for workplace behavior. Additionally, the values help in the
development of a positive culture within an organization (Ferrell, and Fraedrich, 2015, pp111-
113). The perception of the employer is always based on the culture, values, and vision by the
employees of an organization. The above-mentioned factors are usually considered as important
aspects. Moreover, according to a study conducted recently, it was found out that firms that
displayed a set of ethical principles are more profitable than others, and thus they have the

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chance of the test of time. With clear values set in an organization, the results are usually the
attraction of the right individuals such as customers, collaborators, and employees, and this raises
their level of focus, cooperation and loyalty (Chell, et.al, 2016, pp619-625). There are various
organizational values that organizations tend to set that aids in the maintenance of ethics. Such
include,
Strengthening of the value proposition of employment.
Minimization of risk inappropriate behavior
Provision of a solid foundation for the employment policies and later fill up the gaps where such
policies do not exist.
The setting of organizations apart from its key competitors
Demonstration of accountability and integrity to the outside stakeholders.
Guiding of the behavior of the staff, and this includes both the operational and strategic
decisions.
Enhancing the ethical character as displayed in the operations as well as the culture of an
organization.
With the above-mentioned values, most of the organizations are in a position to make
ethical decisions that are critical for the success of any particular company with the intent to
make profits in the long run (Connelly, et.al, 2017). Reports indicate that companies that have
clear set organizational values, they experience more revenue generations as well as gaining a
competitive advantage over their competitors. Also, most of the customers, as well as
collaborators, tend to prefer them over others.

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Evaluate the implications of social and public pressure for ethical behavior in organizations
In business ethics, social external pressure is regarded as a major factor that affects the
flow of the business. Community involvement and environmental responsibility, companies
should deliver very strong attention to social needs and demands. This is aimed at addressing the
human rights and job conditions that favor the employees and the organization. There are
employment policies and contract terms that must be adhered to in order to minimize the external
pressure from both the employees or the market (Barry 2016). It is mostly seen as an ethical
transformation where the major focus is business operation in a way that does not interfere with
the set laws and regulations and to avoid violating them. When any party goes beyond the laws
to oppress the other, some legal parameters will be needed to be applied by the oppressed party
in order to achieve a standard working condition.
There are several ways in which a community can express their concern to the existing
organization. Examples are; boycotts, picketing, peaceful demonstration among others.
Boycotting is one way in which the community can apply social pressure to influence the
company’s ethics and oppose the oppressing conditions. It a way of mobilizing the community
members, the market, customers to demonstrate for their rights by absconding work. In this way,
the companies will be forced to consider the community’s wishes (Davies, 2016). To better
preserve the working environment, some companies have changed their terms to consider the fair
dealings with the communities.
Identify and respond to ethical dilemmas that threaten the organization and industry
There are many forms in which an ethical dilemma can manifest itself in a company and thus the
managers sometimes are overweighed with the dilemma situation to an extent that seeks help

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from other professionals in order to address the situation. Sometimes, the managers regard the
dilemma situation as a business decision hence they employ their professional codes to
determine the potential course of action. Examples of business dilemmas are; balancing
confidentiality with blowing the whistle on illegal or improper actions of others, disclosing
information in the public interest and unlawful trading in a discomforting environment where the
inefficiency is very high.
Various ethical issues are addressed by the ethical dilemmas, they include exaggerating
performance and evaluation, taking part in dishonest business activities, withholding information
from the stakeholders and making a premature decision without proper consultations from the
members or the community (Wood, et.al, 2015). In an attempt to solve any of these problems,
the managers and the accountants first consider the worthiness of their decisions and the
implications that might come with their final decisions. When solving a boycott problem, the
managers will have to scrutinize the reasons as to why the workers and the community members
are boycotting to the company's services. The manager should call the representative of the
community and workers. Make a deal with them that is both fair for both the company and the
workers union and the community. The management should regulate their professional behavior
in relation to the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants which was developed by the
International Ethics Standards Board for Accounting (IESBA).
The leaders might be threatened by a broad range of issues ranging from familiarity, self-
interest, intimidation, and self-review but their familiarity to the codes of ethics and various
regulations, they will effectively handle the situation in a better way.

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Promote an organization’s corporate responsibility through values internally and to stakeholders
in the media.
Organization’s social responsibility is a business plan with an expanding currency around
the world. The argument to increase the number of employees and increase production and
outreach to the market. The business thus assumes the operation that goes beyond the view of
just a commercial relationship (Fryer, 2016, pp79-90). Competitiveness and a lucrative business
name are the main aims of promotion. To promote the organization corporate responsibility,
these are some of the ways in which it can happen, give a clear definition of the company or the
industry, do an extensive and very concurrent research to obtain a clear concept about the
corporate social responsibility, know how to measure the organization’s corporate
responsibility’s impacts, involve the employees in coming up with the definitions and
advancement of the company, the management should keep track of all the definite cost, employ
the use of communication skills when communicating with the staff or the community and
finally, maker a positive and lively relationships with the society, competitor companies in the
market to control the unhealthy businesses in the market.

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References
Barry, N., 2016. Business ethics. Springer.
Chell, E., Spence, L.J., Perrini, F. and Harris, J.D., 2016. Social entrepreneurship and business
ethics: Does social equal ethical?. Journal of business ethics, 133(4), pp.619-625.
Connelly, S., Mumford, M., Steele, L., Mulhearn, T., Watts, L. and Medeiros, K., 2017. What is
Working, What is Not, and What We Need to Know: a Meta-Analytic Review of Business Ethics
Instruction.
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.
Ferrell, O.C. and Fraedrich, J., 2015. Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations
practice and the idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). Routledge.
Ferrell, O.C. and Fraedrich, J., 2015. Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson
Education.
Ferrell, O.C., Harrison, D.E., Ferrell, L. and Hair, J.F., 2019. Business ethics, corporate social
responsibility, and brand attitudes: An exploratory study. Journal of Business Research, 95,
pp.491-501.
Fryer, M., 2016. A role for ethics theory in speculative business ethics teaching. Journal of
business ethics, 138(1), pp.79-90.

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Quarshie, A.M., Salmi, A. and Leuschner, R., 2016. Sustainability and corporate social
responsibility in supply chains: The state of research in supply chain management and business
ethics journals. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 22(2), pp.82-97.
Reinecke, J., Arnold, D.G. and Palazzo, G., 2016. Qualitative methods in business ethics,
corporate responsibility, and sustainability research. Business Ethics Quarterly, 26(4), pp.xiii-
xxii.
Wood, D.J., Logsdon, J.M., Lewellyn, P.G. and Davenport, K.S., 2015. Global Business
Citizenship: A Transformative Framework for Ethics and Sustainable Capitalism: A
Transformative Framework for Ethics and Sustainable Capitalism. Routledge.