Examining Business Ethics: Profit, Law, and Social Responsibility

This essay delves into the complex relationship between a business's responsibility to generate profit and its ethical obligations towards society and stakeholders. It critically examines the notion that businesses should solely focus on profit maximization while adhering to legal requirements, arguing that corporate social responsibility (CSR) extends beyond mere compliance. The essay contrasts Friedman's shareholder-centric view with Freeman's stakeholder theory, highlighting the importance of considering the needs of employees, communities, and the environment. Furthermore, the analysis includes a case study of Sainsbury's CSR initiatives, evaluating its 20x20 sustainability plan, its impact on the market, and addressing both positive outcomes and criticisms. The essay concludes with a personal evaluation of Sainsbury's CSR efforts, emphasizing the importance of ethical integrity and accountability in modern business practices. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments.

BUSINESS ONLY
RESPONSIBILITY IS TO
PRODUCE PROFIT WHILE
COMPLYING TO THE
LAWS NOT TO BE
ETHICAL TOWARD THE
SOCIETY OR OTHER
STAKEHOLDERS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Essay...........................................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
1. Description of the Sainsbury and its CSR program................................................................3
2. Brief summary of the Sainsbury's CSR evaluated by the market ..........................................5
3. Positive or negative information about Sainsbury CSR project along with their
implementation............................................................................................................................5
4. Personal evaluation of company CSR efforts.........................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Social responsibility refers to the accountability fulfil by the business activity in order to
enhance the shareholder value that should act in a way which provide benefits to the overall
society (Stahl and Wright, 2018). The companies who are socially responsible should adopt
certain policies and regulations that promote the effectiveness of the society along with the
positive environment with lessen down the negative impacts over the company. This report will
illustrate the essay over the topic i.e. “business not only responsible to produce profits while
complying laws, not to be ethical towards the society or other stakeholders”. Apart from this, the
study will also elaborate further by adding independent research over the certain topic.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Essay
Social responsibility of any business refers to their obligation in order to take specific
decisions which helps to perform certain actions which are considerable in order to fulfil
objectives and values of the society. The concept of social responsibility has been implied by
business enterprise in order to provide appropriate respect to the aspirations of the society as
well as try their best to contribute their part towards the achievements of those aspirations along
with their profit interests. This particular idea gives emphasis over the common notion that
businesses only exists because to maximize profits for their owners (Diez-Cañamero and et.al.,
2020). It explains that responsible business or any responsible member of the society must act
according to the fulfilment of the concerns which provide appropriate effects over the lives of
the people living within the society. In this context, it has been evaluated that corporate social
responsibility plays a major role than fulfilment of legal responsibilities as it can be
accomplished by just mere compliance with the laws. Social responsibility acts even more than
that It is fulfilled and controlled by laws and regulations along with certain obligations. In other
words, it can be identified that social responsibility includes elements of voluntary actions over
the part of operations for the betterment of the overall society.
It is not justifiable that businesses only runs for their own benefits and having profits
while complying to the regulations not to be ethical towards the society or other stakeholders.
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The social responsibility is an ethical issue and it includes an inquiry as well which illustrates
the issue that what is morally correct or wrong in context to the firm's responsibility. Social
responsibility fulfil an element of voluntary action over the part of the business person who
might feel free in order to perform or not being able to perform such kind of responsibilities
within the company (Rendtorff, 2019). However, it has also been evaluated that all business
people are not makes themselves accountable for the betterment of the society. Some people do
believe that any organizational primary responsibility is their owners, but in current scenario, the
reactions changes and states that they have primal responsibility towards the society and their
stakeholders in order to fulfil their business basic requirements in beneficial ways.
There is a debate between the M. Friedman and R.E. Freeman over the concept of
corporate social responsibility according to which stakeholder theory holds that the company
stakeholders only involves anyone that are being affected by the firm or their functioning while
Friedman's illustrate that companies are compelled to make profits by satisfying their
shareholders in order to continue positive growth and expansion of their business. Freeman
actually highlight that the only way to create value for shareholders in current scenario is to pay
complete attention to suppliers, communities, employees, communities as well as other
shareholders at the same time who are directly or indirectly connected with the establishment
(Salehi, Tarighi and Rezanezhad, 2019). Friedman was totally against from the idea of fulfilling
social responsibility while in actual terms all these aspects helps the firm to sustain their brand
image and value in fruitful manner. By ethically fulfilling all the necessary requirements, the
company is able to understand their stakeholders through which they can satisfy the overall
society.
Basically, the company have to create a situation of balance in order to pursue market
opportunities while maintaining accountability and ethical integrity. A substantial enhancement
in the range, important and impacts of corporate social or environmental initiatives in recent era
suggests the growing materiality of more ethically informed approach. Ethics also played an
important role and it has been suggested that this should not be consists of a set of prohibitive
principles or rules. Thus, it is the social responsibility of any business enterprise is to play a
significant role for the society and do its operations and earn money in a manner that satisfies
the expectations of the society. This refers to the obligations to take decisions and perform
actions which are desirable in context of objectives and values of the society. It is the general
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idea that businesses should manage or balance the profit making actions along with activities
that provide appropriate benefits to the community as well. It includes developing businesses
with an optimistic relationship with the society in which they operate.
As an entity, the business have to follow rules and regulations and fulfil the requirement
of perusing their business into legal boundaries that has been set by varied commissions and
agencies at each and every level of the government. These rules are appropriate and required to
maintain balance and provide greater good for the society (Palonkoski, 2021). They have to
adopt all the legal regulations in context of environmental law, labour law along with criminal
law. In context of ethical responsibility the company have to include behaviour of the firm that
is being expected by the community but those are not necessarily codified in laws. The factors of
ethical responsibility involves the business that must be environmentally friendly. The
operations must be aware of its activities and the ways in which they have the capability to
affect the environment. Hence, it is the moral and ethical responsibility of each and every human
as well as every business.
TASK 2
1. Description of the Sainsbury and its CSR program
Sainsbury is the largest chain of supermarkets within the United Kingdom having
considerable amount of shares in the supermarket sector. In order to fulfil the corporate social
responsibility, Sainsbury adopts 20×20 sustainability plan which had been launched by the firm
in 2011. It helps to fulfil five significant values with 20 commitments (Alipour and et.al., 2019).
They create a strategy to help consumers according to which they propose a plan to their
communities in order to “live well for less”.
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As per this program, the company fulfil all the requirements that constitute their part
within the help of five values that help their customers, suppliers and colleagues to live healthier
lives along with making positive differences within the communities. It can source with
integrity, have respect for the environment and create a great place to work for their colleagues.
They reduce their emissions, water use or wastage. They are also tries their level best to
minimize the food wastage by enhancing supply chain efficiency and growing network of
charity food donation partners and helping their customers reduce food wastage in their own
organization (Palamarchuk and et.al., 2022). Sainsbury also send plastic packaging for fresh fish
and strawberries using prevented ocean plastic- high quality certified recycles plastic that has
been collected from coastal areas at risk of ocean plastic pollution.
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2. Brief summary of the Sainsbury's CSR evaluated by the market
Sainsbury is one of the leading UK retailer with some other financial activities as well.
The company is highly responsible in order to fulfil their CSR requirements within the market
place. According to the firm, it has been evaluated that their management states that their values
and sustainability with the help of effectual program plays a big part in order to fulfil their
commitments and help them to differentiate their business along with assist in delivering direct
cost benefits in some significant cases. The establishment outlined 20 commitments that they
decided to deliver within the society by 2020 (Rezaee, 2019). According to the management,
they have business based approaches which assist in providing great food at fair prices and with
over 24 million consumer transactions in a week, one of their most important accountability is to
offer people the best for food as well as for the betterment of their health status.
The sourcing with integrity is a key to their work with growers, farmers and suppliers
within the UK as well as all across the world. Due to this reason, the firm care about where the
products have been purchased by the consumers as they the ones who put their complete trust
within the enterprise to do correct things on the behalf of them. They try their maximum to
become the greenest grocer not only by reducing their impacts over the environment but also by
engaging their suppliers and other to adopt similar kind of approach towards the society or
market in which they perform. The company adopts strategic approach in order to address their
operations in context of their products and services along with the consumers by including
innovation and investment into the latest technologies along with provide their employees
practical training both within the business and with their suppliers.
3. Positive or negative information about Sainsbury CSR project along with their
implementation
By implementing the sustainability program within the Sainsbury, they are able to value
their business and strengthen their relationship with all their stakeholders. The positive
information about the program is that, it helps the firm to fulfil their commitments related to
making positive differences towards the community, respect their environment, generate great
place and atmosphere for employees to work, along with deliver their set priorities within the
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community for their betterment and providing appropriate services to their consumers. They
have further intentions to generate net zero by 2040 by reducing their plastic usage or packaging
which has been utilized to pack their products. They are ones who achieve zero wastage to
landfill and still plans to reduce food waste by 50 percent by 2030. This all because of the
success and positive responses gathered by the people of the society (Cheema, Afsar and Javed,
2020).
On the other hand, Greenpeace criticized for failing to reduce the amount of plastic
wastage produced by them. Hence, they had been ranked among the last and worst in their
category in a survey of retailers plastic policies. According to them, Sainsbury made the least
progress among all top 10 supermarket firms. Hence, then afterwards they have to set yearly
plastic reduction targets and starts with the help of eliminating unnecessary and unrecyclable
plastic by 2030 (Uhlig, Mainardes and Nossa, 2020). Thus, according to the complete
evaluation, it has been evaluated that the company tries their maximum to reduce their carbon
footprints and perform the CSR activities in considerable manner. Apart from this, the firm tries
their best to implement the strategies in most significant and serious manner and genuinely
wants to contribute their positive part towards the betterment of the society.
4. Personal evaluation of company CSR efforts
According to my opinion, the Sainsbury appropriate tries their best to fulfil the
requirements of the society by performing their CSR practices into most beneficial manner.
They highly respect the environment by resolving their issues, and open greenest stores where
they install new energy with saving technologies. Apart from this, they focus towards less water
consumption, community welfare, providing equality of rights, provoke people to take healthier
diet, provide appropriate importance to their suppliers and adopt practices that highly contribute
into community development in successful manner.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that CSR practices helps the firm to
improve their public image, increase brand awareness and recognition, save costs, take
advantage over competitors, generates greater employee engagement, and assist in providing
more benefits for their employees. With the help of adopting appropriate CSR program, the
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Sainsbury is able to sustain their brand image and satisfy the people up to their core who are
living within the society.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alipour, M. and et.al., 2019. The relationship between environmental disclosure quality and
earnings quality: a panel study of an emerging market. Journal of Asia Business
Studies.
Cheema, S., Afsar, B. and Javed, F., 2020. Employees' corporate social responsibility
perceptions and organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment: The
mediating roles of organizational identification and environmental orientation
fit. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(1), pp.9-21.
Diez-Cañamero and et.al., 2020. Measurement of corporate social responsibility: A review of
corporate sustainability indexes, rankings and ratings. Sustainability, 12(5), p.2153.
Palamarchuk, O. and et.al., 2022. Personal Responsibility as a Problem of Development of
Postmodern Society. Postmodern Openings, 13(1), pp.267-290.
Palonkoski, H.J., 2021. The Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial
Performance: Evidence from Nordic firms.
Rendtorff, J.D., 2019. The concept of business legitimacy: Corporate social responsibility,
corporate citizenship, corporate governance as essential elements of ethical business
legitimacy. In Responsibility and Governance (pp. 45-60). Springer, Singapore.
Rezaee, Z., 2019. Business sustainability, corporate governance, and organizational ethics. John
Wiley & Sons.
Salehi, M., Tarighi, H. and Rezanezhad, M., 2019. Empirical study on the effective factors of
social responsibility disclosure of Iranian companies. Journal of Asian Business and
Economic Studies.
Stahl, B.C. and Wright, D., 2018. Ethics and privacy in AI and big data: Implementing
responsible research and innovation. IEEE Security & Privacy, 16(3), pp.26-33.
Uhlig, M.R.H., Mainardes, E.W. and Nossa, V., 2020. Corporate social responsibility and
consumer's relationship intention. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental
Management, 27(1), pp.313-324.
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