Business Ethics and TechFite

TechFite is a U.K based company that has done well even though their operations within a new multicultural environment (The United States) have been challenging. With their community and employee focused organizational structure, the company has been able to successfully empower their members by including leadership development and facilitating strong coworker relationships. TechFite also keeps their standards high by properly compensating employees for their contributions to the company as a whole. In addition to this, their highly respected outlook for the environment is a major plus for the direction they wish to take the company. They constantly contribute to the well being of the community and it seems as if each area they inhabit, is improved significantly. At this time however the company is dealing with a few challenges in regards to their contributions to the community as well as the manner in which they are compensating their employees. These problems branch from the social and ethical agreements within the company. Now more than ever there is the need to institute corporate policies that address the trials facing the company and develop corporate social responsibility policies to guide the keep them in line with their efforts regarding the community.

CORPORATE POLICIES

A: Promoting a Positive Work Environment

Everyone wants to be a part of a workplace where they are accepted, understood, and acknowledged for their efforts. These are the basic fundamentals for providing a healthy work environment. Being a company that originated overseas and operates in a singular business environment that demonstrates the diversity of cultural values, the management of the company understands the importance of having policies that correlate with the requirements of the business and are geared toward promoting a positive work space. Therefore, the company will not tolerate behaviors or actions that promote discrimination or harassment of any kind including those against religious beliefs, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation/preference, etc. The company’s goal is to promote a highly positive work environment that supports it’s employees and empowers the individuals surrounding the organization. Therefore, anyone who wishes to work within the company must contribute to creating and maintaining positive space for their coworkers.

B: Compliance with Labor and Employment Laws

TechFite has a goal of making sure their employees are treated fairly and are provided pristine work conditions. In order to maintain a structure that depends on trust and reliability the company must make sure the well-being of the employees is being positively promoted throughout the organizational culture. The company sees the relevance of implementing several provisions of the country’s labor and employment laws that differ, in different aspects, to those of the United Kingdom, of which the company also adhered. The several provisions of these statutes guide the conduction of various human resource activities such as hiring, firing, promoting, layoffs, minimum wage, compensations, and so on. These are to demonstrate the ethical concern to employees; the company shall strictly adhere to the provisions of these laws even in dramatic corporate events that are likely to impact members of the organization by financial and psychological aspect.

C: Discussion and Exchange of Information with the Company’s Stakeholders

The company’s organizational culture promotes communication that characterized by honesty, transparency, and integrity. The company acknowledges the importance of critical stakeholders such as employees, the community members, government, and shareholders among others, to be up to date about the endeavors and organizations position of the company at all times. These are to establish and maintain positive and suitable relationships between the organization and its stakeholders (Rossouw, 2005). Accordingly, the organization shall disclose allowed information, ideas, proposals to the stakeholders that are likely to be affected by the decisions taken from such data. The aspect of open communication will help to place stakeholders in previous positions regarding the critical decisions that shall be made by the company. However, the disclosure shall be limited to information that shall not expose the company on the grounds of confidentiality and privacy.

Violations of the Policies

The ethics officer of the company charged with the responsibility of ensuring all members of the organization adhere to the provided ethical standards and principles. Therefore, any violations of the policy shall be subject to disciplinary action or discharge depending on the decision made by the company’s ethical committee that is headed by the ethics officer.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Corporate social responsibility is a form of business regulation that has been incorporating into an organizational model. Usually, it is an initiative that is undertaken by a company to assess the environment and take responsibility for its actions to ensure social and environmental well-being. It is a self-regulatory model that goes beyond statutory compliance laws, regulations and legal requirements (Balabanis, Phillips, & Lyall, 1998). CSR, also known as corporate citizenship also involves a company incurring costs that have no immediate financial benefit to the corporation but has a long-term effect in promoting positivity in environmental change. This method is relevant to the case scenario in the sense that TechFite is actively involved in the activities of the community and also funds its several projects on a periodic basis.

An important thing to note in corporate social responsibility is that it has immense benefits for companies that actively take part in the initiatives. For example, TechFite has a worth-praising reputation due to its contribution to the general community and its projects. These have given the company an excellent image that is likely to have a long-term effect on the growth, and profitability of the organization. However, the recent disengagement in the company’s contributions to the community is having a negative impact on the image of the company, especially from the general public’s perspective. There is a perfect example of a depiction of the adverse effects of lack of corporate social responsibility initiatives or programs.

Due to the impact, this can have on an organization, although the company was forced to pull out from the CSR program, there is the need to address the matter to solve the problem of the deteriorating corporates image. For instance, due to its financial troubles, there is the need to communicate the company’s incapability to meet the periodic financial contributions but guarantee that once it gets back to its position, the program will be continued (Yoon, Gühan-Canli, & Schwarz, 2006). Additionally, there is the need to have appropriate budgeting techniques and appropriate funds allocation for different projects for purposes of preventing such or similar inconveniences. Participating in the community’s activities, although not necessarily financially is also a suitable solution. For example, engaging in tree planting activities, cleaning events, donations and so on.

These activities exhibit the social and ethical responsibility of the company in the sense that it promotes the social and environmental well-being for the greater good without having to worry about the costs incurred or the financial benefits it is likely to gain from the initiatives. Also, company’s efforts such as treating its waste before disposing of them, managing its emissions, and appropriately eliminating of its waste are examples of ensuring a sustainable environment.

References

1. Balabanis, G., Phillips, H. C., & Lyall, J. (1998). Corporate social responsibility and economic performance in the top British companies: are they linked?.European business review,98(1), 25-44.
2. Boyd, C. (1996). Ethics and corporate governance: The issues raised by the Cadbury report in the United Kingdom.Journal of Business Ethics,15(2), 167-182.
3. Rossouw, G. J. (2005). Business ethics and corporate governance: A global survey.Business & Society,44(1), 32-39.
4. Yoon, Y., Gühan-Canli, Z., & Schwarz, N. (2006). The effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on companies with bad reputations.Journal of consumer psychology,16(4), 377-390.

Did you like this example?

4516

288