Better Business Bureau Ethics

Creating an adequate monitoring system not only protects the best interest of an organization but the consumer also. Furthermore, without these structured protections for the business and consumers, unethical behavior tends to flourish throughout an organization in several different forms. In the case of the Better Business Bureau, it appears that the proper protections were not in place to protect consumers or the organization should have updated its mission statement to account for the many consumer changes since the use of the internet globalized businesses. Furthermore, the leaders of BBB should have worked harder to ensure that employees and companies were punished for allowing his or her unethical behavior to tarnish the organization’s image.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) is tasked with writing and enforcing rules for financial entities to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive or otherwise harmful practices by such entities. A major area of focus for the CFPB is a robust and effective oversight of a financial institution’s third-party providers (vendors) to ensure consumers are not exposed to unnecessary risk of financial or personal harm.

Abandoned minors are no longer protected from liability on their contracts, merchants are still reluctant to deal with them on a credit basis, fearing that they may still attempt to disaffirm, or

In the article, "Better Business Bureau Warns: Scammers Exploiting Affordable Care Act Confusion," Better Business Bureau informs the public about Con Artists and how to avoid the distraught they bring into helpless families. They speak from an educated view against Scams and Con men and how to “ignore these pitches and use the following precautions when dealing with this type of scam” (Better Business Bureau Warns: Scammers Exploiting Affordable Care Act Confusion). Better Business Bureau, or BBB teaches how to fight back computer, cell phone, and text message scammers with strategy. BBB explains that "Scammers' favorite tools are confusion and fear" and how “Con artists are taking advantage of people's confusion” (Better Business Bureau

We as Americans tend to focus on companies unethical behavior, lapses of judgement, corporate misconduct or the methods corporations may use to hide unethical business practices from the public view this process leads to national scrutiny. We seldom recognize an organization that displays positive-intentional ethic behaviors that are defined as acceptable by the American people.

Excellence of an organizational leadership determines how well an organization is doing. Effective leadership is influencing the behavior of individuals and groups in positive way to work towards a predefined organizational goal (Baack, 2012). An effective leader creates vision for the organization and effectively communicates with employees to set the organizational direction for growth, align the structure of the organization to meet the goals, and define organizational culture where employees can perform and grow along with the organization. Effective leaders create organizational strategies to inspire and motivate employees to achieve organizational goals and vision. There are many leadership theories evolved in organizational behavior over time. Some of the examples for leadership theories include great man theories, trait theory, behavioral theories, situational leadership, contingency theories, transactional leadership, transformational leadership and charismatic leadership.

Over the last decade, headlines have told stories of unethical behavior from corporations such as Enron, Worldcom, Boeing, Xerox, and Rite Aid. As business continued to grow, so has the laws and regulations that govern corporations to make sure they continue to practices their business legally and ethically. Rules and regulations are made because of the unethical practices that corporations have made due to greed and power.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a well known self-regulatory trade association in the United States. Companies that adhere to self regulation standards meaning the business will exhibit best practices and social responsibility. The BBB creates self regulatory programs for its members and uses the internet, newspaper, and media to inform the public of businesses who have violated self regulatory rules. The BBB's membership dues are around $425. The BBB's purpose is to establish a place of trust between business and consumers, as well as, dispute and complaint resolution services, reliability reports, and arbitration.

The Better Business Bureau is believed to have a reputation of protecting consumers and businesses from fraudulent scammers and unreliable firms, there were several unethical occurrences and allegations that led consumers to feel otherwise towards a company that has the reputation of trust. According to the Ermongkonchai (2010) study, “the main reason of employee misconduct was identified with personal or financial gain” (Pg125). It appeared that the Better Business Bureau had several bouts of unethical misconduct that lead to a ruined reputation and questioning of the firm's values.

Businesses of today, are under no obligation or commitment to seek BBB accreditation, and some businesses are not accredited because they have not sought BBB accreditation, which may cause problems for the business in the future. To be accepted or accredited by the Better Business Bureau, a business must take the time to apply for accreditation and it is at this point that business meets accreditation standards. This will include a commitment to make a good faith effort to resolve many of the customer’s complaints. Better Business Bureau must pay a fee for accreditation review/ monitoring and also for the support of BBB services to the general public. The Ratings that Better Business Bureau provides is a key element to protect business

BBB has become monster verbal confrontations with their rating structure which was one of the essential good issues that the affiliation went up against. The open deliberation started when the prestigious diner "Ritz-Carlton Hotel" got rating "F" despite no complaints. This left the buyers confused that why such a prestigious associations or figures are gotten not exactly stellar scores. The reason for such examinations were that the a bit of the labourers of BBB assessed high assessments for the associations which paid costs to BBB people while assessed low for the business that did not paid any due charges to BBB. This declaration drove savants to ensure the BBB is working a "pay for play" plan. This "pay-for-play" is a distortion system in which the general population and the affiliations pay for their incredible treatment to the detriment of extra components. This was something isolating procedure where BBB respected awesome examinations "A" for accreditation for the people who paid costs while isolating other individuals who did not paid charges by rating "F". These issues happened due to heartbreaking conduct drove by the Los Angeles Branch of BBB. Distinctive business people reported the BBB was giving low assessments to their business regardless of now customer grievances or decided. The proprietors also reported that BBB was supporting pay-for-play where to get high examinations you have to pay.

The one aspect of the reading that I found interesting was “How to File an Ethics Complaint with the American Counseling Association's Ethics Committee”. I particularly found this aspect interesting because I had no clue how to file an ethic complain, so that was very new to me. I now can use this valuable information for future reference. Furthermore, the explanation on how to file an ethics complaint was easy to understand. It provides step-by-step directions and provides a telephone number if any issue

1. The Sales Rep. A sales representative for a struggling computer supply firm has a chance to close a multimillion-dollar deal for an office system to be installed over a two-year period. The machines for the first delivery are in the company’s warehouse, but the remainder would have to be ordered from the manufacturer. Because the manufacturer is having difficulty meeting the heavy demand for the popular model, the sales representative is not sure that the subsequent deliveries can be made on time. Any delay in converting to the new system would be costly to the customer; however, the blame could be placed on the manufacturer. Should the sales representative close the deal without advising the customer

The issue of business relations with government has increasingly become a key issue of business ethics. Some of the many questions raised are

1. The Sales Rep. A sales representative for a struggling computer supply firm has a chance to close a multimillion-dollar deal for an office system to be installed over a two-year period. The machines for the first delivery are in the company’s warehouse, but the remainder would have to be ordered from the manufacturer. Because the manufacturer is having difficulty meeting the heavy demand for the popular model, the sales representative is not sure that the subsequent deliveries can be made on time. Any delay in converting to the new system would be costly to the customer; however, the blame could be placed on the manufacturer. Should the sales representative close the deal without advising the customer