Ethics Essay, Research Paper

Ethics (1) are an individual?s personal beliefs about what constitutes right and wrong behavior. Important areas of ethical concern for managers are how the organization treats its employees, how the employees treat the organization, and how the organization and its employees treat other economic agents. The ethical context of organizations consists of each manager?s individual ethics and messages sent by organizational practices. Organizations use leadership, culture, training, codes, and guidelines to help them manage ethical behavior.

Social responsibility (2) is the set of obligations an organization has to protect and enhance the society in which it functions. Organizations may be considered responsible to their stakeholders (3), to the natural environment, and to the general social welfare. Even, so organizations present strong arguments for and against social responsibility. The approach an organization adopts toward social responsibility falls along a continuum of lesser to greater commitment: the obstructionist stance, (4) the defensive stance (4), the accommodative stance (4), and the proactive stance (4).

Government influences organizations through regulation, (5) which is the establishment of laws and rules that dictate what businesses can and cannot do in prescribed areas. Organizations, in turn, rely on personal contracts, lobbying (6), political action committees (7), and favors to influence the government.

Organizations use three types of activities to manage social responsibility formally: legal compliance (8), ethical compliance (8), and philanthropic giving (9). Leadership, culture and whistle-blowing (10) are informal means for managing social responsibility. Organizations should evaluate the effectiveness of their socially responsible practices as they would any other strategy.