TESCO

Discuss about the Business & Society for Business Ethics?

Introduction

It is a form of ethics which is applied. The different  ethical or moral problems which can evolve in a business situation are dealt with here. People who are engaged in commerce, suppliers, customers and  the extended group of people are all involved.

All businesses are affected by ethical issues. A particular business would prefer to close down if they are becoming victim of ethical problems (Paliwal, 2006). Good ethical actions like recycling and buying only fair trade will attract customers and prosper the business.

Tesco is a multinational grocery and retailer. Its position with regard to revenues comes after Wall mart. It has branches in 12 countries across Asia, Africa and America. The mission statement of Tesco is to create value for customers to earn their loyalty. People should be treated the way they like to be. The customers should get the best value for money at the most competitive prices. The community well being and protection of the environment are also targeted.

Fair Trade

It is an organized movement developed to promote environmentalism standards and fair wages. Its aim is to alleviate global poverty and to see that the negotiation of the company with the growers, manufacturers and producers are at a fair price. The firm which is supplying the product should abide by the common laws of hygiene of animals. The Bowes group which supplies Tesco’s pork, bacon and other meats was found that animals were suffering in very small cages and sharing places with corpses that were infested. This will give a bad impression to the public and may lower sales. Tesco has designed a policy by which it sets much higher standards of production.

The prevalence of low employment in UK sometimes forces them to employ people from out of the country. However, there may be language and cultural barriers. Tesco had announced they will recruit from Poland (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2003). Tesco’s policy on diversity says that everyone should receive the same treatment. Factors such as gender, age, race, creed or color, religion should not be considered while treating people.

Waste packaging from supermarkets creates an issue. Since the company is operating from a lot of outlets, the packaging waste is an issue. Tesco has devised a variety of ways to tackle this issue. Bio degradable packaging and recycling schemes have been formulated by the company. Biodegradability ensures that the unwanted package is cycled back to nature. The Green Tray Scheme shows that Tesco is acting in an ethical way to resolve issues

Ethical Issues

.Impact On Stakeholders

Stakeholders are individuals or groups having some sort of interest in the business. Following are some of the implications of each stakeholder:

The shareholders will have a good time with the business operating ethically. There will be a good will creation. The value of the business will increase. The profits of the company will increase. When the profits increase, there will be declaration of dividends (Cory, 2005). The share of profits with the shareholders will thus increase.

The most vital issue that the employees will enjoy is the security. When a business operates ethically, the employees know that there are no fraudulent activities in the company. This will raise the confidence level of the employees.

There will be a big group of satisfied customers. These customers will feel that they have their value for money when buying the products of the company. They will be sure that the products they consume have quality assurance and are not degenerated in nature. The quality and price of the products should be in tandem.

When a business operates ethically, suppliers can expect steady orders, prompt payments and feel valued. They will not be delayed in getting payments. This will increase the motivation of the suppliers to deliver quality things on time.

The competitors will be cautious. When a business operates ethically, its competitors shall also make efforts to run their business ethically. It serves as an eye opener for the other parties.

The citizens of a country will be satisfied with a company if its business is being run ethically. There will be happier citizens (Kwong et al., 2015). The citizens will be proud to be a part of the ethical company which is continuing its business for such a long time.

The pressure groups will not exert too much pressure on the business people in issues of environmental concerns. The pressure groups will be cautious in their approach.

Trade unions: The trade unions will operate smoothly. Their demands will not be out of reach of the management. It will be in awareness of the unions that the business is being operated on ethical grounds.

The government would be happy as they will get all taxes and on time. The revenue collection of the government will increase. Most of the people in the world want to evade taxes. An ethical company however will be always ready to pay tax, whether its direct tax or indirect tax.

Impact On Stakeholders

The consumer support will be positive for an ethically managed company. The consumers will think that they are buying products from an ethical company. This will increase the goodwill in the market.

If a company is managed ethically, it will attract new sources of finance. The sources will be encouraged to lend money to the business house since they will expect bigger and safer returns.

An ethically managed organization has better employee motivation. The employees will be motivated and give their 100% to the jobs. They will feel good to be a part of an ethical company.

For an ethically managed organization, the reputation of the business will be good. This reputation will help the business further prosper in its endeavors.

It leads to the creation of an improved brand. The brand management concepts do hold true.

The conflicts are much less in an ethically managed company. The managers do not have to indulge themselves in conflict resolution (Duska, 2006). The conflicts arise when there is disagreement in some terms. Conflicts are very common in organizations. Generally, the human resource department takes care of the conflict management issues.

We take into consideration the company Starbucks. Starbucks was concerned with the social responsibility since it wanted to have a good image and become involved with the community. It is important as the ethical corporate should be established in a period of time. Consumers feel good to convey business to socially responsible companies and the organizations provide much better customer service.

Starbucks growth is exceptional to both its ethically and socially accountable activities. It manufactures products and gives an environment the consumers want. This is the unique selling proposition of Starbucks. While a company has to remain competitive in the marketplace, it often forgets to maintain its ethics and social implications to the public at large. Starbucks maintained that ethical impressions and that is the reason of it becoming popular. Consumers want to buy the products of such an organization. Employees want to work for such an organization. The society at large supports such a company (Wieland, 2010). If the society does not support an organization, it will not be able to perpetuate on its business. Business continuation always depends on the way the organization maintains the link with society. The rapport it builds with the customers go a long way in the development of long term relations. These long term relations are the building blocks for customer retention.

The argument of moral philosophers is that the social responsibility for corporations to give something back to the society comes with power. Social responsibility opines that businesspeople should take care of the societal aspect of economic actions while taking business decisions.

The eyes and ears of the global community are provided by the news media and tend to set the priorities for concerns that are international. Whenever any business tends to ignore the societal aspect and goes towards profiteering only, it is the duty of the media to highlight the aspect to the public (Donaldson, 2010). The public should not remain unaware of the consequences of social plight. The corporate social responsibility is a big issue that every company should be aware of .If a company is not aware of it; it should be made aware of. A company becomes more complete when social aspect is taken care of.

In this report we will be investigating how shells oil pipeline is handled in the city Baralle, situated in Nigeria. The oil passes through the community of Baralle. As it passes, it gets leaked to the forests and farms and poses problems for the local community. He oil will be destroying crops, farms and people houses. Communities will be having trouble growing crops. If the communities cannot grow crops, it would have a huge impact on the revenues of the farmers. The oil spill also implies that birds, eggs and fishes will be damaged. This will affect badly as they will not be able to trade with the other countries. This oil spill can create a very poor condition in the country. Government intervention may be necessary as the communities are to be protected from the oil spill. The workers and farmers are very poor in a country like Nigeria. If there is low GDP, this will lead to a bad condition of economic growth in the country.

Pressure groups try to influence the public policy. This oil spill will affect the name and reputation of the company (Goodpaster, 2011). The pressure groups will try to persuade the customers to buy oil from other companies except Shell. This will increase competition for Shell and will destroy the monopoly Shell enjoys in the market.

In the long term, it can cause destruction to crops and farms and this can have a very long term effect. This long term effect will have a great impact on the economy. Globalization is an advantage in most economies but it can cause enduring poverty to a country. The particular country in consideration has to take measures in order to combat poverty. Cultural imperialism happens when a big country like UK dominates in respect to fashion, dresses, lifestyles, etc. This cultural imperialism may damage the prospects of a country like Nigeria.

Governing bodies will impact Shell and UK is an example of a governing body which impacts all the nations of the world. In order to combat global warming, the governing bodies pass legislation and try to create an environment friendly world.

An effort is made by international body to promote free trading by countries that are persuading to abolish taxes. The WHO cares for people’s health and they try to promote a healthy environment for men as well as animals. Shell needs to have social responsibility as it must ensure that oil spill should not occur. The workers need to be trained. Investment must be made in training since that would ultimately lead to productivity, efficiency and profit. Training is such a function that helps the employees to accumulate certain skills required for the purpose of job (Hoffman, 2010). The trainers selected for the purpose of training should be experts in their relevant fields. They have specialized knowledge in the domains. Global warming is an issue that impacts each and every corner of the world. This issue needs to be addressed in an assertive way. The ethical issues are very crucial since they affect the business in a large way. The top management looks at these issues very carefully and takes certain decisions which are taken in line with the protection of those issues.

Reference List

Carroll, A. and Buchholtz, A. (2003). Business & society. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western.  

Donaldson, T. (2010). Are Business Managers “Professionals”?. Business Ethics Quarterly, 10(1), p.83.

Duska, R. (2000). Business Ethics: Oxymoron or Good Business?. Business Ethics Quarterly, 10(1), p.111.

Goodpaster, K. (2011). Business Ethics and Stakeholder Analysis. Business Ethics Quarterly, 1(1), p.53.

Hoffman, W. (2010). Business and Environmental Ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly, 1(2), p.169.

Kwong, K., Tang, F., Tian, V. and Fung, A. (2015). Can customer loyalty be explained by virtue ethics? The Chinese way. Asian J Bus Ethics.

Paliwal, M. (2006). Business ethics. New Delhi: New Age International.

Wieland, J. (2010). The Ethics of Governance. Business Ethics Quarterly, 11(1), p.73.