Organizational Ethics and Social Responsibility in Australia

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Below and attached are the comprehensive answers (same answers in 2 different formats) to your questions on Organizational Ethics and Social Responsibility with Australian business examples (there are some American ones as well) as per your instructor's specifications. References and citations are in the Harvard format. I hope this will help you in your studies.

Please Note: Please remember that this is a study guide and to use it as such. You still need to put the answers in your own words. This means you can summarize, expound upon and paraphrase the information to fit your needs but I would advise that you do not turn it in word for word as your own work or you will be committing plagiarism.

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Fariba
OTA # 105428
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Organizational Ethics and Social Responsibility

Companies have ethical responsibilities toward their communities as well as their employees and share holders (internal and external stakeholders). When a company acts according to its code of ethics it has a measurable impact on its reputation. In 1989 when bottles of Tylenol were tampered with in the Chicago area and young children were sick and dying, Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Tylenol immediately came forward with full disclosure, provided all of the information they had and took every last bottle of Tylenol off the shelves, at the cost of some 50 million dollars to the company. Today the Tylenol brand is one of the most trusted in the country and Johnson and Johnson is one of the most lucrative pharmaceutical concerns in the industry. Johnson & Johnson took pride in and publicized its long history of success and its reputation for integrity, bolstered by a strong founder who publicly valued corporate social responsibility over the usual sales and profit motives. High ethical standards were part of the company's legacy which was demonstrated in the form a long standing company credo. Johnson & Johnson further demonstrated its recognition of the public interest when it passed all information regarding the case whether good or bad on to the media as quickly as it developed (Seitel 2005). This paper will define ethics and social responsibility, examine the interrelationships between the two concepts and discuss why a company should put ethics and social responsibility ahead of profit making.

Corporate social responsibility is one of the best ways for companies to manage their business processes if they want to have an overall positive impact on, and benefit, their communities. To be socially responsible, companies need to explain two aspects of their business to their publics. One is the quality of their management both in terms of the competence and sincerity of their people and the integrity of their processes. The second is the nature and quantity of their impact on the community in various areas such as the health of consumers and the economy (Baker n.d.). Social responsibility is important to retaining both employees and customers. More and more people want to be informed about a company's record on social and environmental responsibility before they decide to buy from, invest in, or work for that company. The most admired companies in the world, which are also very often the most successful, are those that are dedicated to serving the interests of others versus only their own (Kotler & Keller 2006).

"In no area of corporate life is leadership commitment more important than in creating an integrity culture. And nothing is more effective in manifesting that commitment than a seamless consistency between leaders' personal attributes, their public and private statements, and their direct and indirect actions. Companies are preternaturally attuned to leadership hypocrisy. The stirring call for performance with integrity at the large company meeting can be eroded by the cynical comment an executive makes at a smaller meeting, by the winks and nods that implicitly sanction improprieties, by personal actions (dishonesty, lack of candor) that contradict company values. It is fundamental: A culture of high standards for employees requires high standards from the CEO and the senior operating and staff officers. There is no more important task for the CEO than demonstrating that the top executives will be held just as accountable for lapses in integrity as they are for missing their numbers - and that the generals will be held to higher standards than the troops" (Heineman, 2007).

Highly ethical leaders build values and ethics awareness. They regularly communicate and discuss the organization's shared values, operating principles and ethical standards. Not in a special meeting but as part of their everyday business style. In recent years, society may have confused image with leadership. Some business leaders may have been under so much pressure that they looked for accounting loop holes to inflate quarterly earnings reports-because they confused a manipulation of stock price with the creation of long-term value (Davis 2004).

Trust must be a part of a culture within an organization just as integrity must be inside the individual person. An officer in a company today has ultimate responsibility but not necessarily ultimate control over every decision that is made. That's why trust in your associates is so very important. Here's a quote that sums up this thought; "The power of the wolf is in the pack. The power of the pack is in the wolf." The wolves are individually strong but unbeatable as a team (Davis 2004).
A 2004 study by the Ethics Resource Center found that there is a strong connection between employees' perception of their leaders and their own ethical behavior. JC Penney ...