Individual Reflection Report: SBM3204 Sustainability & Ethics Module

This reflection report on SBM3204, Sustainability and Ethics, provides a comprehensive analysis of key concepts in business ethics. The report explores the significance of business ethics, professional ethics, and relevant laws and regulations in addressing ethical decision-making within organizations. It examines the role of ethical standards, organizational values, and their impact on employee and customer relations, referencing US regulations like OSHA and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The report further delves into the influence of external social pressure and the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a business strategy, highlighting community involvement and environmental responsibility. It also addresses ethical dilemmas, workplace misconduct, and the importance of confidential reporting mechanisms. The author reflects on the importance of CSR in promoting ethical behavior and improving the quality of life for employees and society. The report uses references to support the arguments and provides insights into the practical implications of ethical practices in the business environment.

SBM3204 – Sustainability and Ethics

Part 1: The business ethics or the professional ethics, laws and the regulations are important for
the organization to encounter the different situations where an individual needs to make ethical
decisions. They are the areas of study to address the moral concerns of organization. The
governing employee relations need to be acknowledged with ethical and legal concerns that deals
with the firing and hiring of employees. In US, OSHA and Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission have been working in the roleplay for addressing the employees and the relevant
area of ethics. The governing customer relations are set with the law where the organizations
might treat the customers (Schwepker, 2018). Hence, there are arguments about ethical
principles and what makes the business successful. The laws have been arising for properly
enforcing the ethical treatment for the customers and ensuring about the product quality. With
this, the organizations have been massively working on ethical rules and standard where the
corporations and professional organizations are licensing the boards with the written code of
ethics. This is mainly to govern the standards of professional conduct that has been expected into
the particular field.
Part 2: For an organization, the ethical standards are important for the environment that are
mainly accepted to the different people. It has been seen that majority of the people accepts as
good and they behavior without imposing any rules and regulations. With this, the ethical
thinking also involves the intricating procedures that are important to consider the major impact
of actions on individuals and institutions. The management needs to work on closely working
together on the project where the individuals generally compromise with their own valued for in
favor to the group (Kangas et al., 2018). There are advisor development programs to address the
ethical issues and the role culture to make the ethical decisions. With this, we need to understand
that the values are mainly acquired for childhood and that they manifest themselves based on the

permanent perceptions. This helps in shaping and influencing the nature of the behavioral
standards. The values involve the emotion, thought and the choice of response. When working
with different people, it is important that we are able to appreciate the efforts which are being put
by the different people (Freeman, 2016). With this, we also seldom reflect on the fact that the
people with whom we are associated through unique set of values, hold importance in our life.
Part 3: The external social pressure has been a major driver for the business ethics. It is seen that
the companies need a stronger consideration where the community involvement and the
environmental responsibility is important. As per the ethical information in organization, the
operations of a business needs to be worked in a way that does not tend to break the law or
violate any of the moral guidelines (Xu, Loi & Ngo, 2016). This is largely based on the societal
forms of expectations where companies meet demands for treating their customers honestly.
With this, the company leaders used to give major consideration to the ethical standards till it is
stayed in the legal parameters. Some companies include social responsibility where mission is a
way to distinguish themselves completely from any of the competition. One of the ways through
which communities can use the social pressure for influencing the organization are but hitting
them to their bottom line. The leveraging ability for quick mobilization, along with communities
working on organizing boycotts in different circumstances, can lead to influencing the
organization and its employees.
Part 4: When it comes to the ethical dilemma, there are pressures to compromise with the
organizational standards. The pressure is one of the leading indicators that is considered to affect
the workplace standards. As per the survey, it is seen that the employees felt a pressure for
evasion of ethical standards, with witnessing workplace misconduct (McMurrian & Matulich,
2016).

It is seen that the observed misconduct comes with the fundamental indicators where the
employees need to follow the rules and live out for the firm core values. They need to understand
about the public and the abusive behavior which is a common ethical misconduct that is seen to
happen in the day-to-day workplace. Apart from this, there are reporting of the observed
misconduct where the reports allow the leaders to address and then fix the ethical workplace
issues as the management is not able to address the problems. The availability of the confidential
reporting mechanisms are important for the promotion of ethical workplace standards. Hence, the
management should clearly work on conveying the availability to report methods with
encouraging the use and ensuring the people that they will be protected, if they make a report of
misconduct. The retaliation comes against the reports in the form of silent treatment, harassment
which is done verbally and through undesirable assignments.
Part 5: According to me, the CSR is important business strategy for the growing currency in the
world. It helps the organization to work on different research projects and the surveys. CSR is
important for the organization so that the employees are committed to the business and they tend
to behave in an ethical manner. This will help in improving the quality of life and the workforce
along with the local community and society. The mission is about the successful management
that is done at the dual bottom line of profitability and the social responsibility which is
considered to be a major goal for every country. The involvement of the employees for the
advancement of CSR helps in authorizing and working towards track of all measurable costs in
an effective manner.
References
Freeman, R.E., 2016. Ethical leadership and creating value for stakeholders. In Business ethics:
New challenges for business schools and corporate leaders (pp. 94-109). Routledge.

Kangas, M., Kaptein, M., Huhtala, M., Lämsä, A.M., Pihlajasaari, P. and Feldt, T., 2018. Why
do managers leave their organization? Investigating the role of ethical organizational culture in
managerial turnover. Journal of Business Ethics, 153(3), pp.707-723.
McMurrian, R.C. and Matulich, E., 2016. Building customer value and profitability with
business ethics. Journal of Business & Economics Research (JBER), 14(3), pp.83-90.
Schwepker, C.H., 2018. Strengthening Customer Value Development and Ethical Intent in the
Salesforce: The Influence of Ethical Values Person–Organization Fit and Trust in
Manager. Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-13.
Xu, A.J., Loi, R. and Ngo, H.Y., 2016. Ethical leadership behavior and employee justice
perceptions: The mediating role of trust in organization. Journal of Business Ethics, 134(3),
pp.493-504.