IBM UK: Ethical Business Practices and Corporate Responsibility

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of IBM UK's business ethics, exploring the company's commitment to ethical practices and corporate responsibility. It delves into the reasons behind IBM UK's reputation as an ethical organization, highlighting factors such as transparent policies, innovation, diversity inclusion, and a culture of health and safety. The report examines IBM's ethical philosophy, including its adherence to BCG guidelines, data privacy measures, and social responsibilities. Furthermore, it discusses the crucial role of senior management in maintaining business standards by setting corporate culture, providing resources, and communicating company goals. The report also emphasizes the importance of employees in upholding these standards. This assignment is a detailed overview of IBM UK's ethical framework and its practical implications within the business context.

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Business ethics are defined as set of rules and
regulations which are required to follow by the
organisation and every person working there.
These are treated as code of conduct which is
followed during normal course of business. The
major role of business ethics is to guide
employee behaviour in such a way that decision
making process can be done in easy manner.
Following of business ethics leads an
organisation to deal with various business
complexities in easy manner so that goals and
objectives of the business can be attained in
early manner. Business ethics guides
employees and manager to discharge their duty
so that higher satisfaction can be rendered to
varied stakeholders of the organisation. This
assignment is prepared in order to understand
various concepts of business ethics in the
background of IBM UK. IBM is an IT service
management company which is having
headquarter for UK in Portsmouth. The
company is engaged in providing technological
solution to various products and services by
discovering different innovation in numerous
dimensions.
Proper rewards and appraisal policies: IBM is having transparent and
clear rewards and appraisal policies in which the company is providing
appropriate rewards to their employees so as to boost their morale and render
them motivation. By getting appropriate amount of motivation employees
may give full contribution in organisational success. On the other hand, this
is an ethical practice which is used by IBM which is leading them to attain
success and remain at top position in global market.
Adaptation of innovation: IBM is known as one of the best organisation
which is emphasised over adapting innovation. The company is continuous
updating their technology in order to remain updated as compared to their
competitors. Innovation is shaping the society and life of people. So this can
be said that IBM is trying to improvise standard of living society in which
the company is making new innovations so that to attain higher reflective
values.
Culture of health and safety: IBM is continuously working in order to
render excellence to their employees in terms of health and safety. For this
company is complying with various legal and different requirements which
may lead in minimising health hazards to working people in the company.
This way company is taking responsibility of taking care of people which are
engaged with IBM in any direct or indirect manner.
These are the major reason of attaining ethical working by IBM,
these practices are helping IBM to obtain higher sustainability and market
prominence as well. The company is a globally working organisation so the
prominent role of these ethical practices are to enhance market goodwill
which leads the company to earn higher profits and retain skilled employees
as well.
IBM is considered as one of the most ethical organisation in the
world as the company has decided ethical goals and objectives and
ethical standards around global periphery. This is the major reason
that IBM is one of the most sustainable organisations and Fortune
500 companies are relying on IBM in order to handle their data in
more specific manner. There are various practices used by IBM for
making their organisation ethical and those reasons are enlisted as
under:
Inclusion of diversity: IBM is trying to associate diversity
in their organisation in order to meet their ethical commitments.
Diversity is helpful for an organisation to deal with challenges and
inhale collaborative working as well. IBM is a work centric
organisation in which the company is focused on bringing human
intelligence in their working culture rather than depending upon
machines. The company is keeping transparent practices in the
business which leads the free from any external biasness. Diversity
is helpful for IBM in bringing new insight due to which a proper
path is made for organisational success.
Enhancement for minorities: The company is focused
over enhancing favour of minorities and this way company is
promoting their female employees. On the other hand, the company
is including their employees in decision making process so as to
enhance their trust and empathy towards organisation. On the other
side for supporting their employees IBM is advocated with
government so as to assist their employees in specific manner. This
way IBM is deciding their ethical practices within global
organisation.
Business Ethics
Introduction Reasons for which IBM UK is considered as ethical

Ethical philosophy followed by IBM
Ethical philosophy is defined as the term which is
used over system and organisation in order to
differentiate between good and bad practices. These
theories are applied by organisation so that to attain
prominence over goals and objectives and to deal with
major complexities existed in the market that may
create dodge in attaining success as well.
BCG guidelines: The company is having their ethical
guidelines named BCG which are known as global code
of conduct for the company. These policies are
reflecting longstanding commitments of their employees
in relation of maintaining ethical conduct at high level
and decision making in wide era. On the other hand,
IBM has proving global standards by complying varied
commitments such as:
 Avoidance of child labour.
 Complying to pay minimum wages with all of
their employees.
 Complying to keep legal limits of managing
working hours in weekly manner.
In this manner company is keeping ethical standards in
their organisation by which they providing
communicating with their employees and other
stakeholders in direct manner. These codes of conduct
and ethical philosophy lead the company to touch new
heights in business and market sustainability as well.
The company is taking care of each and every direction
so as to become ethical organisation and to manage their
supply base in proper way. In order to support their
employees company is facilitating effective
communication with their employees so that to enhance
overall productivity as well.
Fairness: The company is involved in collecting various information in
fair, lawful and transparent manner so that to work in ethical manner. This way
the company is dealing with their competitors in successful manner.
Environmental affairs: IBM is exerting fair environmental practices in
their business activities so as to provide safe and adequate workplace
environment. On the other hand, the company is involved in conservation of
natural resources as by using recyclable material and packaging material. On the
other side IBM is developing and using proactive measures for saving
environment in specific manner.
Quality: IBM is a quality centric organisation in which their major goal
is to attain prominent quality in their products and services. Their goal is to
deliver value to their customer so that to renowned in the market. In this way the
company is delivering ethics within marketplace so as to survive for long term.
Social responsibilities: IBM is highly active on subsisting corporate
responsibilities as the company is showing respect to human rights. The company
is keeping high culture with greater ethics and integrity which enables them to
obtain with prominent corporate governance in transparent manner. This corporate
governance policy of IBM is comprehensively used by the company in order to
meet expectation of their stakeholders and other related parties.
Ethical philosophy Approaches which are used by IBM as in ethical philosophies
Data privacy: For IBM protecting customer data is
primal and they do not share personal information of
their employees. The company is using constant
practices of disclosing, accessing, and transferring
such information in the manner by which privacy of
the same cannot be breached.

Role of the senior management team to maintain the business standards of the company
The success of an organisation is wholly dependent on implementation on
plans and their action in appropriate manner. Strong leadership is also
essential to meet promised commitments and to manage business standards
in full proof manner. The top level management is having varied role in
order to manage business standards within company and the same are
elaborated as under:
Setting corporate culture: The corporate culture within an
organisation is required to be established in such a way that it can be
followed by everyone. The leaders and top level management is having
responsibility to establish those standards and practices so that expectation
of various stakeholders can be met. In a business, culture in playing
effective role in bringing creativeness and innovation as well. In this
regard top level management of IBM is having responsibility to set
prominent corporate culture and effective strategies so that with team
support contribution employees may deal with all the business
complexities in appropriate manner which may lead in attaining goals of
overall business.
Communicating goals of the company: The goals of the
company are defined as insight of the business which is required to be
attained by the business by executing functions. For reaching to new
business heights this is imperative that all the goals are communicated in
such a way that every person knows their responsibility and direction in
which they are required to work. In this context top level manner top level
management is having responsibility to provide proper channels through
which proper direction can be rendered to each and every individual in
respect of using their efforts for overall goal accomplishment. In this
respect top level management of IBM is trying to stimulate goals of their
company within employee so as to flourish accomplishment of goals in
clear manner which may lead in managing business standards in equivalent
way.
Ensure overall engagement of managerial practices: For maintaining business standards fuller involvement of
management is required. In this respect the management is having responsibility to lead in such a way that information can
be flow in proper manner. This helps employees to share their grievances and to discuss progress in proper manner.
Management involvement is necessary to bring overall upliftment in performance and employee satisfaction so that they
can execute their responsibilities in appropriate manner. For IBM top level management is having responsibility to
properly manage management practices along with prominent involvement so that standard of the business can be
maintained. This could lead the business to manage transparency and communication in specific manner.
Providing appropriate resources: The top level management is having obligation to acquire appropriate
resources so that goals and objective of the business can be attained in effective way. These resources are bone of the
organisation by which goals can be adhered to organisational working due to which oversight within business can be
judged. In the context of IBM as the company is dealing in IT solution to their customer so this is mandatory for them that
they acquire resources in appropriate manner so that business may deal with challenges occurring. In this context higher
authorities are having responsibility that they acquire resources so that business standards can be maintained and relevancy
can be created. .
Organisational policies: Senior management is having role to develop such policies by which all the relevant
activities within business can be facilitated. These policies are framed in such a way that attainment of goals can be made
easier. These policies are treated as those activities which are executed by every personnel working in the organisation. In
the context of IBM as the company is having global presence so this is the reason that they are required to maintain overall
standard of their business so that market prominence can be enhanced. In this respect top level management of IBM is
working to manage their business in a way so that business standards can be maintained in specific manner that is desired
by overall performance.

Role of employees to maintain the business standards Conclusion
Employees are treated as backbone of the organisation as these are helping
business to enhance their performance and attain set objectives.
Employees are working for the organisation and deals with all the coming
challenges by using resources which are provided by top level. On the
other hand, employees are associated with duty to manage business
standard so that goals and objectives can be attained without any delay.
This way employee can be adhered to goals which are pre-decided by top
level authorities. For managing business standards employees are having
varied roles which are enlisted below:
Execution of roles and responsibilities: The major role of an
employee is to execute their given roles in proper manner so that business
standards can be maintained. These roles are entitled to employees as
according to their skills and capabilities. In the context of IBM, the
employees are treated as asset for the organisation and all the policies are
made around to them and in this respect employees are having obligation
that they set goals in such a way that overall objectives can be overlapped
and business standards can be maintained.
Creation of positive working environment: The employees are
the major reason due to which positive environment within organisation
can be created. Employees are having role that they try to maintain
positive working environment so as to manage business standard and to
manage gap between lacking of performance. On the other side, by
creating positive environment working culture can be enhanced and this
way ethics can be maintained within organisation.
Establishing team trends: Employees are frontier of the
organisation and in this context they are required to manage team trends in
such a way that market efficacy can be studied. In the background of IBM,
the company is operating at global level and for them their market image
is the primal succession factor. For managing business standard company
is fulfilling expectations of their and in lieu of this higher performance is
being exerted by employees.
These roles are required to be executed by employees so as to
maintain organisational standards in prominent manner. This way IBM
can manage business standards and ethical working of their business
which may lead them to attain organisational objective in appropriate
manner.
From the above discussion this can be analysed
that business ethics are playing prominent role in
meeting business targets in prominent manner
which leads the business to deal with various
complexities in proper manner. On the other hand
these ethics are helpful in sustaining in the
market so as to enhance overall goodwill in the
marketplace. Business ethics are defined as set of
rules and regulation which are followed by
overall organisation so as to achieve appropriate
level of productiveness. Besides this ethics may
lead the business to enhance their societal
goodwill through that sustainability can be
attained.
Gibbs' Model of Reflection
The steps of this model are explained as beneath:
Description: Under this project which was based on need
of ethics in business assigned to me. This was the very first time that
I worked as a leader. During executing duties, I faced various
challenges which gave me negative and positive experience as well.
In initial time of the project I was required to monitor work done by
others so this was full of challenges for me but all my team mates
helped me to attain appropriate results along with higher
productiveness.
Feelings: During assigning duties, team mates behaved in
positive and negative manner due to which varied experiences were
gained by team members. At some point of time mates were rigid to
face challenges which proven to be a prominent task for me to
convey them for the same. As the assignment was related to
gathering information regarding ethics significance in IBM so
collection of information was one of the major task.
Evaluation- Under this stage I examined that there are
numerous factors which are having implication on my project. In the
terms of positive impact, I was able to intensify my skills but in
terms of negative impact I had to face difficult in gathering
information. In order to attain my objective positive and negative
aspects were required to be undertaken by me so that objective of the
project can be attained.
Analysis- Under this step, an analysis is drawn in order to
check level of completion and level at which goals have attained. By
passing of time difficulties were minimised and I have understood
the manner in which information can be collected in appropriate
manner. This analysis is helpful in examining those mistakes which
may lead the project to face difficulties in completion.
Conclusion- There were numerous things which I have
learnt various aspect in order enhance my critical thinking skills,
research skills. These are going to help me in my future to attain
high growth opportunities and to enhance my career opportunities as
well.
References
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Managing Business Ethics in a Global
Environment: The Impact of Cultural
Diversities. In Geopolitics and Strategic
Management in the Global Economy (pp.
137-169). IGI Global.
Homann, K., 2016. Theory strategies of business
ethics. In Order Ethics: An Ethical
Framework for the Social Market
Economy (pp. 37-54). Springer, Cham.
Schaltegger, S. and Burritt, R., 2018. Business
cases and corporate engagement with
sustainability: Differentiating ethical
motivations. Journal of Business Ethics.
147(2). pp.241-259.