Ethics and Corporate Responsibility

What is Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility?

When it comes to ethics and corporate social responsibility, unfortunately there are only basic laws and regulations to help guide companies actions. Therefore, it is up to a company to decide what levels of ethical and corporate social responsibility it wants to abide by. As more and more companies are starting to emerge, and customers are becoming the driving force of businesses, ethics and corporate social responsibility have become increasingly important.

Although ethics is incorporated in corporate social responsibility, it is important to understand what ethics entails. Ethics is what helps guide responsible decision making through the use of accepted morals and values (what is right and what is wrong). When individuals are faced with an ethical issue, they usually go through four step process to determine their final action. The model that explains this process is called James Rest’s Model of Moral Decision Making. The four step model engages an individual in the recognition, formation, establishment, and engagement in moral dilemmas. Through this process an individual determines whether or not to engage through looking at matters such as: the ethical intensity of an issue, how sensitive they are to the ethical issue at hand, justification as to why they feel the way the way they do (rights and duties), internal and external pressures, and their overall cognitive moral developments.

Because this process may be different among individuals, most companies guide ethical behavior through the use of corporate policies as well as a code of ethics- which is a set of guidelines that aid employees decision making or actions to ensure they are in line with the ethical climate of the company. This way, all employees are acting in the same manner to hopefully increase the overall corporate social responsibility- which is all about a company’s obligation to society in regards to positive and negative effects. Great leaders/managers are the best way to ensure the ethics are upheld.

When it comes to corporate social responsibility, there are four levels of responsibility a company should keep in mind- economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic. Economically, companies are responsible to earn a profit in order to help stakeholders earn a return on investment as well as provide the community with employment opportunities. Legally companies have to abide by the laws and regulations set in place by the government. Ethics has been discussed, but it is important to understand that this is what helps a company build long term relationships through trust building. Finally, philanthropic responsibilities help a company promote their company with the intent to increase brand image-which is a good marketing tactic.

Issues related to ethics and corporate social responsibility

There are many issues