Ethical Reflections

Ethics Reflection

Jana LeBeau

STR/581

April 9, 2012

Jay Oslakovic

Ethics Reflection

Ethics and social responsibility both have an important role in an organization's development of a strategic plan and the needs of the stakeholders, both internally and externally. A company without ethics and social responsibility has not consideration for the employees or stakeholder's of the company. Throughout the Master's program the ethical perspective of the student, Jana LeBeau, has not changed as much as she initial thought although this could be due to the environment in which she is currently employed.

Role of ethics and social responsibility. Ethics are "moral principles that reflect society's beliefs about the actions of an individual or group that are right and wrong" Pearce, 2011, pg. 74). In developing a strategic plan one must take into consideration the ethical conduct of the company's employees and the social responsibility of the company. These two items have an important role within a business organization. "There is only one social responsibility of business, to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud." (Freidman, Mackey,& Rodgers, 2005, pg. 1). For an organization to have a defined social responsibility the organization is incorporating the interests of the stakeholders via stating the internal and external stakeholders, understanding the stakeholder's demands, reconciling claims, and prioritizing objectives and strategies as well as coordinating principal sets. "Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the idea that a business has a duty to serve society in general as well as the financial interests of its stockholders" (Pearce, 2011, pg. 47). One of the four social commitment areas is the ethical responsibility. This area deals with the business obligation to perform and behave in a proper manner of doing business. An increasing number of organizations are codifying business ethics by not only incorporating a code of ethics within their employee handbook but also on the website, lunchrooms, and other employee gathering areas. Creating a policy, which enforces the code of ethics on ways to improving employee knowledge of the organization's code of ethics is training and monitoring the work behavior of the employees.

Evolution of ethical perspective. According to the Ethics Awareness and Ethical Choices Assessment (2012), the ethical perspective tends to focus on the individual's character