1. Many companies, big or small, put up an image of ethical purity. Describe instances that can cause people to doubt the company’s commitment to ethics.
2. Corporate social responsibility is the obligation toward society assumed by business. However, there are contrasting views regarding the role of corporations on social responsibility. Summarize these opposing views, and how would you reconcile them especially from the view of cost-benefit analysis.
3. There are many factors that affect ethical and unethical behavior at the workplace. Describe how an organization can encourage and improve ethical behavior across all employees. Rationalize your answers in detail, with organizational examples.
4. Identify and discuss illegal, unethical and irresponsible business actions that made news in your country recently.
5. What are your arguments for and against the concept of CSR? Where do you stand, and why?
Answers
Many managers think of ethics as a question of personal scruples, a confidential matter between individuals and their consciences. These executives are quick to describe any wrongdoing as an isolated incident, the work of a rogue employee. The thought that the company could bear any responsibility for an individual’s misdeeds never enters their minds. Ethics, after all, has nothing to do with management.
In fact, ethics has everything to do with management. Rarely do the character flaws of a lone actor fully explain corporate misconduct. More typically, unethical business practice involves the tacit, if not explicit, cooperation of others and reflects the values, attitudes, beliefs, language, and behavioral patterns that define an organization’s operating culture. Ethics, then, is as much an organizational as a personal issue. Managers who fail to provide proper leadership and to institute systems that facilitate ethical conduct share responsibility with those who conceive, execute, and knowingly benefit from corporate misdeeds