Social Responsibility and Good Governance Albert A. Anonuevo _____________________________________________________________________________________
Social Responsibility and Good Governance
Business Ethics Social responsibility Fundamental approaches to ethical issues Corporate Governance
Three Domains of Human Action
Domain of Free Choice (Personal Standard)
Ethics
The code of moral principles and values that govern the behaviors of a person or group with respect to what is right or wrong. The domain of ethics does not have specific laws. The mistaken notion: “if it is not illegal, it must be ethical”
Ethical Dilemma
A situation that arises when right or wrong are in conflict or cannot be clearly identified. The individual who must make the choice is the moral agent.
Examples of ethical dilemma
A pharmaceutical sales manager promotes a new expensive drug costing P1,000 per dose. The drug is only 1% more effective than a dose costing P250. Should you aggressively promote the more expensive drug to a hospital catering to indigent patients? A company will save millions from not installing an anti-pollution device. But doing so will damage a river from which hundreds of poor people make a living from fishing.
The Importance of Business Ethics
The ability to recognize and deal with complex business ethics issue has become a significant priority in twenty-first-century companies. In recent years, a number of well-publicized scandals resulted in public outraged about deception and fraud in business and demand for improved business ethics and greater corporate responsibility. In 2008, investigations on German corporate giant Siemens revealed systematic and well-coordinated use of bribery of foreign government officials to get contracts and
business. The practice was so widespread that one observer remarked that bribery is their business model.” In the end, Siemens will pay more than $2.6 billion: $1.6 billion in fines and fees in Germany and the United States and more than $1 billion for internal investigations and reforms. In China, the “Melamine in Milk Scandal” claimed the lives of at least four infants and caused illness in over 50,000 more babies. It also caused a worldwide scare and did inestimable damage to the already maligned “Made in China” label. The chairman of Sanlu (the maker of the tainted milk) is appealing a life sentence.
What do you think?
The iPhone was launched in Poland where demand for the gadget was very low. As part of a marketing campaign, the country's largest mobile operator Orange, paid dozens of actors to stand in queues and pretend that they were ordinary people interested in getting the phone. Regardless of what an individual believes about a particular action, if society judges it to be unethical or wrong, whether correctly or not, that judgment directly affects the organization’s ability to achieve its business goals.
A Timeline of Ethical and Social Responsibility Concerns
The
1960s Environmental Issues
1970’s Employee militancy
1980’s Bribes and illegal contracting practices Influence peddling
Civil rights Issues
Human right issues
Increased employeeemployer tension Changing work ethic Rising drug use
Covering up rather than correcting issues
Deceptive advertising
Disadvantaged consumer
Financial fraud
1990’s Sweatshops & unsafe working conditions
2000’s Cybercrime
Rising corporate responsibility for personal damages Financial mismanagement & fraud
Financial misconduct
Organizational ethical misconduct
Sustainability
Transparency issues
Global issues, Chinese product safety
Intellectual property theft
Development of Business Ethics
The study of business ethics in North America has evolve through five distinct stages – (1) before 1960s (2) the 1960’s (30 the 1970s (4) the 1980’s (5) the 1990’s – and continues to evolve in the twenty-first century. Before 1960 : Ethics in Business Ethical issues related to business were often discussed within the domain of theology or philosophy. Individual moral issues related to business were addressed in churches, synagogues and mosques. Religious leaders raised questions about fair wages, labor practices and the morality of capitalism. Each religion applied its moral concepts not only business but also to government and politics
The 1960’s: The rise of Social Issues in Business
This period witnessed the rise of consumerism– activities undertaken by independent individuals, groups, and organizations to protect their right as consumers. JFK outlined the four basic consumer rights (Consumers’ Bill of Rights) The right to safety
The right to be informed The right to choose The right to be heard
The 1970s: Business Ethics as an Emerging Field
Theologians and philosophers had laid the groundwork by suggesting that certain principles could be applied to business activities. Business professors began to teach and write about corporate social responsibility, an organization’s obligation to maximize its positive impact on stakeholders and to minimize its negative impact.
The 1980’s: Consolidation
Business academics and practitioners acknowledge business ethics as a field of study. Many of the leading companies established ethics and social policy committees to address ethical issues. (GE, GM, S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. , Caterpillar) In the 1980’s, the Defense Industry Initiative on Business Ethics and Conduct was developed to guide corporate support for ethical conduct.
The 1990’s: Institutionalization of Business Ethics
The Federal sentencing guidelines for organizations (FSGO), approved by Congress set the tone for organizational ethical compliance programs in 1990’s. The guidelines broke new grounds by codifying into law incentives to reward organizations for taking action to prevent misconduct such as developing effective internal legal. On the other hand, under FSGO, if a company lacks an effective ethical compliance program and its employee violate the law, it can incur severe penalties.
The Twenty-First Century: A New Focus on Business Ethics
Congress in 2002 passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the most far-reaching change in organizational control and accounting regulations. The new law made securities fraud a criminal offense and stiffened penalties for corporate fraud.
Developing an Organizational Ethical Culture
The ethical component of a corporate culture relates to the values, beliefs, established and enforced patterns of conduct that employees use to identify and respond to ethical issues. The goal of an ethical culture is to minimize the need for enforced compliance of rules and maximize the use of principles that contribute to ethical reasoning in difficult or new situations. An ethical culture creates shared values and support for ethical decisions and is driven by top management.
“ Being good is good for business” -Annita Roddick Founder of The Body Shop
The role of Organizational Ethics in Performance
The Benefits of Business Ethics
The field of business ethics continues to changed rapidly as more firms recognize the benefits of improving ethical conduct and the link between business ethics and financial performance.
Ethics Contribute to Employee Commitment
Issues that may foster the development of an ethical culture for employees include the absence of abusive behavior, a safe work environment, competitive salaries, and fulfillment of all contractual obligations toward employees. The more a company is dedicated to taking care of its employees, the more likely it is that the employees will take care of the organization.
Ethics Contribute to Investor Loyalty
Ethical conduct results in shareholder loyalty and can contribute to success that supports even broader causes and concerns. Investors today are increasingly concerned about ethics, social responsibility, and reputation of companies.
Ethics Contribute to Customer Satisfaction
It is generally accepted that customer satisfaction is one of the most important factors in successful business strategy. Successful businesses provide an opportunity for customer feedback, which can engage the customer in cooperative problem solving. When an organization has a strong ethical environment, it usually focuses on the core value of placing customer’s interest first.
Ethics Contribute to Profits
Ethical conduct toward customers builds a strong competitive position that has been shown to affect business performance and product innovation positively. The Corporation’s concern for ethical conduct is becoming a part of strategic planning toward obtaining the outcome of higher profitability
Stakeholder Relationships, Social Responsibility, and Corporate Governance
Business ethics issues, conflicts, and successes revolve around relationships. Building effective relationship is considered one of the more important areas of business today.
A business exist because of relationships between employees, customers, shareholders or investors, suppliers, and managers who develop strategies to attain success. An organization usually has a governing authority often called board of directors that provides oversight and direction to make sure that the organization stays on its objectives in an ethical, legal, and socially acceptable manner. Most ethical issues exist because of conflicts in values and belief patterns about right and wrong between and within stakeholder groups. The formal system of accountability and control of ethical and socially responsible behavior is corporate governance. In theory, the board of directors provides oversight for all decisions and use of resources. Ethical leadership is associated with appropriate corporate governance.
Stakeholders Define Ethical Issues in Business
In a business context, customers, investors and shareholders, employees, suppliers, government agencies, communities, and many others who have a stake or claim in some aspect of a company’s products, operations, markets, industry, and outcomes are known as stakeholders. Some activities and negative press generated by special interest groups can force a company to change its practices. Ex: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) launched a campaign against Mcdonald’s to try to force the company to halt inhumane treatment of chickens among its egg and meat supplier. Mcdonald’s did change their policies , although they deny that PETA”s actions had any direct effect. Ethical misconduct and decisions that damage stakeholders will generally impact the company’s reputation both from the investor confidence and consumer confidence perspective. Reputation is a factor in the consumers’ perception of product attributes and corporate image features tat lead to consumer willingness to purchase goods and services at profitable prices.
Identifying the Stakeholders
We can identify two different types of stakeholders. 1. Primary stakeholders are those whose continued association is absolutely necessary for a firm’s survival; these include employees, customers, investors and shareholders, as well as the governments and communities that provide necessary infrastructure. 2. Secondary stakeholders do not typically engage in transactions with a company and thus are not essential for its survival; these include the media, trade associations, and special interest groups.
A Stakeholder Orientation The degree to which a firm understand and addresses stakeholder demands can be referred to as stakeholder orientation. This orientation comprises three sets of activities:
1. The organization-wide generation of data about stakeholder groups and assessment of the firm’s effects on these groups. 2. The distribution of this information throughout the firm 3. The organization’s responsiveness as a whole to this intelligence The responsiveness of the organization as a whole to stakeholder intelligence consists of the initiatives that the firm adopts to ensure that it abides by or exceeds stakeholder expectations and has a positive impact on stakeholder issues. Such activities are likely to be specific to a particular stakeholder group. Ex: Family-friendly work schedules Pollution reduction programs
Social Responsibility and Ethics
The concepts of ethics and social responsibility are often used interchangeably, although each has a distinct meaning. Ethics is only one dimension of social responsibility. We defined the term social responsibility as an organization’s obligation to maximize its positive impact on stakeholders and to minimize its negative impact.
Steps of Social Responsibility
Economi c : Maximizin g Legal : Abidingstakehold by all laws ander wealth and/or government value regulations
Ethical: Following standards of acceptable behavior as judged by stakeholders
Philanthrop ic: “giving back” to society
Four Levels Social Responsibility
Legal – Businesses are expected to obey all laws and regulations. Economic – Companies have an economic responsibility to be profitable so that they can provide a return on investment to their owners and investors, create jobs for the community, and contribute goods and services to the economy. Ethical- Business Ethics, as previously defined, comprises principles and standards that guide behavior in the world of business. Philanthropic- Philanthropic responsibility refers to activities that are not required of businesses but promote human welfare or goodwill.
Corporate Citizenship
The term corporate citizenship is often used to express the extent to which businesses strategically meet the economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities.
Corporate Reputation
Reputation is one an organization’s intangible assets with tangible value. The value of a positive reputation is difficult to quantify, but it is very important. Corporate reputation, image, and brands are more important than ever and are among the most critical aspects of sustaining relationship with constituents including investors, customers, financial analysts, media and government watchdogs.
Fortune’s Best and Worst Companies for Social Responsibility Best Companies 1. Microsoft 2.Google 3. Walt Disney 4.BMW 5. Apple 6.Mercedes-Benz 7. Volkswagen 8. Sony 9. 10.
Worst Companies 1. Circuit City Stores 2. Family Dollar Stores 3. Dillard’s 4. Sears Holding 5. Tribune 6. Hon Hai Precision Industry 7. Fiat 8. PEMEX 9. Surgutneftegas 10. Huawei Technologies
