The Importance of Ethics and Social Responsibility within Organizations

The Importance of Ethics and Social Responsibility within Organizations

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Final Project

The Importance of Ethics and Social Responsibility within Organizations

Today, the stiff competitions among business organizations demand the adoption of policies, strategies, and technologies that foster competitive advantage. Competing firms have become so similar in their policies and management styles such that the small differences in one or more aspects make the biggest impacts. Ethics are a code of conducts that define the principles, values, and norms in a workplace hence determining organizational culture (Crane & Matten, 2016). Social responsibility is the balancing of profit-maximization and activities that have a positive impact on the large community. The paper focuses on the importance of ethics and social responsibility within an organization.

The success or failure of a business organization depends on the adopted organizational values and norms. Both leadership and employee ethics influence the commercial activities of a firm. Employees often uphold the behaviors and values displayed by leaders in an enterprise thus a need exists to set high standards of values (Crane & Matten, 2016). Apex management has to adopt policies that foster ethics with the potential to encourage the attainment of the set goals and other targets. Economists contend that ethics are an asset to an organization, i.e., a firm that fosters the right ethics would likely achieve the set goals. The desired behavior and values in an organization enable the alignment of the employee performance levels with the needs of the firm.

Today, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a common aspect of business organizations. It involves the development of business activities that have a positive influence on the society within which they operate (Bondy & Starkey, 2014). Analysts point out that the prosperity of organizations in today’s economies depends on their impact on the marketplace, community, environment, and workplace. Organizations are required to adopt policies that prevent environmental pollution hence promoting a positive impact on the society. Also, the top management has to enforce policies and strategies that motivate employees to perform at their level best. Many professionals and top-notch employees prefer to work in organizations that do not concentrate entirely on profit maximization. Therefore, adhering to social responsibility enables organizations to attract the best talents in the market thus raising the potential to attain the set goals (Bondy & Starkey, 2014). Additionally, most customers would prefer to consume goods and services of organizations that initiate programs with positive impacts in the large community. Hence, adhering to social responsibility increases the sale and revenues of an organization through the creation and maintaining of a loyal customer base.

Ethics and social responsibility are central to the success of business organizations. Ethics define the culture in an organization. Thus they are an asset in a firm, i.e., the upholding of the desired values and principles encourage employees to perform at the expected levels. Adhering to social responsibility attracts the top-drawer employees and enables the formation of a broad and loyal customer base.

The Importance of Planning and Decision Making within Organizations

Planning and decision-making are perhaps essential functions of management. Surveys and studies indicate that an effective manager ought to fine-tune his or her planning and decision-making abilities to guarantee continued operations of business organizations. The paper examines the importance of planning and decision-making functions within an organization.

Profit-maximization is at the core of the business operations in a firm. However, the attainment of this objective depends on the nature of planning and decision-making processes in an organization. Managers need to know when and how to plan as this determines the direction taken by an organization (Wolf & Floyd, 2017). Planning determines what an organization ought to do to attain the set objectives, and as such, planners have to consider the environment, values, resources, and mission of the organization. It is necessary for the organizations to know the path they would have to take to achieve their objectives. The prior knowledge enables the top management to avail in time the essential elements that foster success of the tasks is hence guaranteeing the achievement of both the short-term and long-term goals (Wolf & Floyd, 2017). Additionally, effective planning eliminates the occurrences of downtimes in an organization especially those caused by lack of an essential resource.

Decision-making process is important to an organization in almost the same measures as planning. The direction of an organization depends on the decisions taken by the pinnacle management and other concerned stakeholders in an organization (Pettigrew, 2014). Today, the adoption of technologies has fostered the decision-making process. For instance, the utilization of Enterprise Resource Planning systems enables the formation of the data-driven decisions within a short time. Such decisions reduce the chances of mistakes hence influencing the performance of an organization positively (Pettigrew, 2014). Simply put, decision-making is a critical function of the management as it determines the success or failure of an organization.

Planning and decision-making are important management functions that determine the direction of the organization. Planning enables an organization to avoid the hitches and obstacles with the capacity to derail the commercial activities of a firm. On the other hand, decision-making function influences the policies and strategies adopted in an organization hence are central to the success or failure of a firm.

References

Bondy, K., & Starkey, K. (2014). The dilemmas of internationalization: Corporate social responsibility in the multinational corporation. British Journal of Management, 25(1), 4-22.

Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.

Pettigrew, A. M. (2014). The politics of organizational decision-making. Routledge.

Wolf, C., & Floyd, S. W. (2017). Strategic planning research: Toward a theory-driven agenda. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1754-1788.