The Role of Ethics and Values in Decision Making

Discuss about the Corporate Sustainability and Organizational Culture.

Ethics is an effective and dynamic system of moral rules and principles while values are the stimuli people thinking. The primary motive of this essay is to discuss about the ethics and values of the organization. The significance and role of code of ethics and values have been explained in the task. Some companies such as Wesfarmers, Woolworths, Telstra, and Coca Cola Amatil have been taken to explain the important of ethics and values. The core values and ethics ensure that the companies are able to fulfil the basis requirements and needs of the country and community by working within the structure of the society. The ethics and values are fundamental concepts because it helps the business to perform business in a hassle free manner. The paper discusses that how values and ethics help in decision making and culture in the organization. Furthermore, the essay also highlights the advantages of maintaining values and ethics in the business. More detail of the task has been discussed below.

Values determine whether what is wrong and what is right in the organization. Values are considered the individual beliefs and attitudes that encourage people to act one way or another. They serve as a guide for human behaviour. On the other hand, ethics or moral is a branch of philosophy that includes a systematizing, suggesting and defending perception of wrong or right conduct (Reamer, 2013). Ethics is considered the moral principles that govern an individual’s behaviour or regulating of an activity and a branch of knowledge that manages and deals with moral. Values and ethics play a significant role to maintain a favourable culture in the global market. The values are significant because they help the people to develop and grow. They also help the people to create the future widely (Parrott, 2014).

Apart from this, values and ethics also help in making unique and effective decisions in the global market. The values and ethics provide a clear direction towards a particular objective or purpose. Values may be defined as the customs, acts, and institutions that a group of people regard in a favourable way. The values can be good, bad, right and wrong. On the other hand, ethics refers to a branch of rules that explains acceptable conduct in a community (Lefkowitz, 2017).

Furthermore, ethics serve as a guide to moral daily living and helps people whether people behavior and attitude can be justified and effective. The ethics are associated and interconnected with truth, equity, fairness and honesty. Ethics refers to community’s sense of the right way of living people daily lives (Schein, 2010). It does this by setting principles, rules and customs on which people can base their conduct. With the help of ethics and values, an organization has been able to gain competitive benefits in the international market. In addition, ethics succeeds law and regulations in safeguarding the community. All types of decisions can be taken with the help of ethics and values in the organization. Furthermore, it also helps maintaining favorable working environment within the organization (Crane & Matten, 2016).

Advantages of Maintaining Ethics and Values in Business

It is noted that the foundation or formation of ethical decisions making includes balance and choice, it is a guide to discard bad choices in favour of good ones. The significance of ethics to business is just because the values that people use to develop and handle company’s need and requirements to be rooted in strategies and ethical decisions (Trevino & Nelson, 2016). The principles of ethics include truthfulness, nonmaleficence, confidentiality, autonomy, justice, beneficence and informed consent. The ethics in the organizational culture is significant and effective as it both act as a role model for the workers and can also directly affect the attitude and culture to improve and enhance the performance and efficiency of the organization. Ethics and values provide a system of principle or rules that guide people in making decisions in enormous circumstances. Aside this, ethics also play a significant role in conducting code of conducts within the organization. The ethics and values also help in overcoming the competitors in the global market (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).

It is analyzed that ethical culture of a company provides ample of information about the values of the firm. Ethics codes are one way to disclose the prevailing outlines and values to accomplish the goals and objectives. The management also influences the ethics and values of the organization. No company can grow and survive without maintaining ethics and values in the organization (Linnenluecke & Griffiths, 2010). In addition, the leaders and top management provide guidance to the employees for maintaining ethics and values in the organization. It is noted that management provides training and development coaching to the workers to promote the ethical activities in the organization.

Apart from this, management sets seminars, sessions, workshops and similar ethical training programs. The organization needs to render formal tools so that workers can discuss ethical dilemmas, misconduct, and unethical behavior fear of reprimand. It is stated that ethical workplace culture is one that gives primacy to workers’ rights, promotion of tolerance, loyalty, honesty, compassion, equity in promotion and pay and fair procedures. When workers respect the code of conducts, values and feel treated by the management, the workers begin to trust top management and top management. It is also true that good ethics is good business. Mostly, the companies maintain values and code of ethics successfully and effectively (Daft, Murphy & Willmott, 2010).

For example, Wesfarmers is one of the biggest conglomerate companies in Australia. The main objective of the company is to deliver satisfactory returns to shareholders through exceptional management and financial discipline of a diversified portfolio of the business. It is stated that Wesfarmers way is the outline for the organization’s business model and entails core values of openness, integrity, responsibility and boldness. The effective policies and code of conducts guide the attitude of the employees who works at Wesfarmers to accomplish the primary objectives and goals (Wesfarmers, 2017). Ethics and values also help in protecting the rights and interests of the stakeholders in the organization.

Case Studies: Wesfarmers, Woolworths, Telstra, and Coca Cola Amatil

Let’s talk about Woolworths, it is noted that the company follows effective and unique policies and code of ethics to run the business effectively and efficiently. The values of the firm include trust, dignity, integrity, acting and loyalty. To improve and enhance environment and labour practices of suppliers, the firm disclose its full commitment towards them smoothly.   The stakeholder’s values and ethics is an significant concept just because it helps the business to perform roles and responsibilities effectively. It is significant for the businesses to ensure ethics and values that mean that they will follow the basis rules and guidelines of the business and community also.

The company ensure ethics and values of its suppliers by taking efforts to enhance and improve the social and environmental policies with them. Maintaining the ethics and values on constantly basis helps the firm to maximize its outcomes, goals and targets. Along with this, it also helps in sustaining competitive benefits in the international market. Beside this, stakeholder’s values and ethics play a significant role in maintaining the brand image and goodwill of the company. Apart from this, the organization also understands and determines the needs and requirements of its stakeholders for which it take care to ensure that they are completely satisfied. It is also contributes towards the country and society by fulfilling the needs and wants of the stakeholders and society as well (Woolworths, 2018).

On the other hand, Telstra is also a leading and growing company in Australia. It provides telecommunication and internet products and services for the customers in the marketplace. The main aim of the firm is to create a brilliant connected future for the people across the world. Trust, simplicity, together, courage and care are included in the core values of the firm. It has been found that Telstra is committed to excellence in responsibility, corporate governance and ethical behaviour.

The organization ensures in creating and encouraging a strong value based culture and maintaining flexibility in the operations and activities. The policy structure and code of ethics emphasize on Telstra values. The company also provides an effective and unique structure through which Telstra has been able to maintain conformity with legal duties and obligations (Telstra, 2016). The company has a number of initiatives and actions in place to encourage and promote effective and unique engagement, collaboration and communication. The code of ethics and values determine and define the standard of behaviour of the people. The governance framework include factors that address key areas like diversity, discrimination, sustainability, privacy, safety, bullying, anti-corruption, whistle blowing and social media.

Let’s talk about other company such as Coca Cola Amatil, it is noted that code of ethics guides the business conduct and integrity in the organization. The core values of Coca Cola Amatil include openness, straightforward, initiative and focus. Aside this, the firm permits the workers to undertake other paid work and perform unpaid work. The company is also liable to protect the environment of the country. It focuses on the risks and challenges of the market by focusing on the environment (Ccamatil, 2018). The ethics and values also help attaining the long term mission and vision and it also provides support to conduct business actions and functions smoothly and successfully. By using effective and dynamic code of ethics, Coca Cola Amatil has been able to maximize the customers in the international market.

Furthermore, code of conducts and values also help in providing ample of employment opportunities to the workers. It also creates an environment where workers feel comfortable and happy while raising issues and concerns in the organization. Furthermore, values and code of ethics also help in preventing the violation and misbehaviour in the workplace. Coca Cola Amatil is committed to reduce the issues and threats of the market in the competitive market. The code of ethics also ensures the workplace health and safety within the organization. CCA is committed for maintaining a healthy and safe working environment for the workers. All suitable regulations and laws are fully complied by the company while carrying out the business at international level. It has been analyzed that cross cultural training is also provided by the organization to understand and identify the values, beliefs and customs of the different countries (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016).

It is stated that all the companies follow dynamic values and code of ethics to make a strong financial position and brand image in the global market. Further, it also helps in attracting and retaining the customers in a large extent (Stevens, 2008). The core values and ethics also help in striving with competitors in the competitive market. Ethics programs and sessions cultivate strong and dynamic teamwork, performance and productivity. Moreover, these programs also provide support in employee growth and success. The strategic planning and diversity management can be possible with the help of core values and ethics.

The ethics programs also encourage company to make a dynamic image in the minds of the customers. The top management makes unique and attractive policies, strategies and policies to maintain core values and ethics in the workplace effectively. Management plays an empirical role to run the business activities in a hassle free manner. Thus, they maintain favourable culture and environment at the workplace by using dynamic core values and code of ethics. In this way, management plays a fundamental role in the organization and it also influences the core values, sustainability and ethics in the firm. The entire success and growth of a company depend on the ethics, sustainability and significant values. With the help of ethics and core values, employees react with strong performance and motivation for performing tasks and duties effectively (Bolman & Deal, 2017).

On the above mentioned analysis it is concluded that ethics and core values are significant part of each and every company. The paper analyzes that how the companies such as Woolworths, Wesfarmers, Telstra and Coca Cola Amatil maintain values and ethics. The core values and ethics are used by these companies to stand out against the competitors and to be a leader in the international market. The code of ethics and values play a vital and empirical role in maintaining goodwill and brand image of the business. By using core values and ethics, the firm can differentiate itself from others in the market. It also helps the companies to attain social, economic and global objectives. The code of ethics and values provide a right direct to the company to explore and flourish the business widely. Further, values and ethics are also important to generate more outputs and profits in the competitive market.

References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Ccamatil.,(2018). Our vision [Online], Retrieved from https://www.ccamatil.com/en/our-company/our-vision-and-values

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

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Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Lefkowitz, J. (2017). Ethics and values in industrial-organizational psychology. Routledge.

Linnenluecke, M. K., & Griffiths, A. (2010). Corporate sustainability and organizational culture. Journal of world business, 45(4), 357-366.

Parrott, L. (2014). Values and ethics in social work practice. Learning Matters.

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Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership(Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.

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Stevens, B. (2008). Corporate ethical codes: Effective instruments for influencing behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 78(4), 601-609.

Telstra.,(2016). Ethics, values and governance [Online], Retrieved from https://exchange.telstra.com.au/ethics-values-governance/

Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2016). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley & Sons.

Wesfarmers.,(2017). Wesfarmers sustainability report 2017 [Online], Retrieved from https://sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/our-principles/governance/robust-governance/ethical-and-responsible-behaviour/

Woolworths.,(2018). About us [Online], Retrieved from https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us