Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Essay

Ethics are the “standards of conduct that indicate how one should behave based on moral duties and virtues.”

From a business ethics stance “corporate social responsibility” (Velazquez, 2007, pp. 23), refers to the social interest an organization manifest in the environment it operates. SoftMagic has not seized opportunities from corporate social responsibility. In the U.S., the use of pro-bono activities to develop networking is fundamental considering that multiple leaders of different firms participate and engage in activities that consequently offer an opportunity to market and increase the awareness of the organization. One more time, the cultural challenge seems to have affected the opportunities for SoftMagic.

The notion of ethics deals with people’s behaviors within a company. Social responsibility involves a company’s moral obligations and the manner in which the organization makes its decisions. Although ethics and social responsibility are similar on a conceptual basis, each has its own unique characteristics that express their differences and its independence of the other. Ethics and social responsibility have to be present and coincide with one another for a business to be ethically sound.

A dictionary definition of ethics is: “A set of principles of right conduct, a theory or a system of moral values, the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or members of a profession.” The American Heritage College Dictionary, Fourth Ed, Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, pp. 480. (Houghton, 2015)

This research paper discusses theories in business ethics. It also considers three cases that illustrate ethics principles violation.

Examine Apple’s current position on the company’s ethical and social responsibilities, and determine whether or not the company has met these responsibilities. Provide two (2) examples that support your position.

Ethics are principles of behavior based on the ideas of what is good and what is bad. Business ethics, or also known as corporate ethics, is a form of ethics that is used in the business environment. The study of business ethics looks at the decisions that businesses make and whether those decisions taken are right or wrong. Many company executives are unethical, because their number one goal is not to satisfy customers, or clients; Instead their number one goal is to make as much profit as they can no matter what. What this type of companies fail to realize is that there is long-run and short-run profit maximization. A company can maximize its profits by in the short-run by being unethical; however, in the long-run, the bad publicity, lawsuits, etc. will make the company suffer plenty in both the public appearance and the monetary aspect. One of the biggest legal scandals of a company being unethical was in 2001, when, Enron, a natural gas pipeline company went from having $65 billions in assets to being bankrupt 24 days after. Enron Corporation was founded in 1985, in Houston, Texas, it was a merger between Houston Natural Gas Co. and InterNorth Inc. Enron reached dramatic heights, it was the seventh largest corporation in America, and named the “Most innovative company” by Fortune magazine for 6 years straight. Enron innovated the entire natural gas market by adding a natural gas trading segment; making it the world 's largest energy trading company. At its peak

Raymond James is a financial service holding company with subsidiaries specializing in investment banking, financial planning, investments, and asset management. The company was founded in 1962, has been public since 1983, and was founded in St. Petersburg, Florida. In June 2016, Raymond James joined the Fortune 500 list for the first time. This paper will address the corporate social responsibility and ethics of this financial institution (Raymond James).

Bovee, C. L., Thill, J. V. (2013). Business in Action Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education,

A business is not one that lives in isolation; it can be an integral part in a community’s success or demise and has social responsibilities to; the community, stakeholders, and anyone who may be affected by a company’s actions. Corporate social responsibility is a term that is never used lightly and is a key role in the development of a successful and morally healthy business. “The objectives of a corporation are to outperform its competitors, presumably through preferred competitive strategies” (Joseph Heath 123). There are three main models by; Freeman, Friedman and Heath discussing corporate social responsibilities and all have distinct differences between their moral obligations, and the way they perceive business should be ran in a

Ethics, a moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity. In todays over sensitive society, it is more important than ever for an individual to pay more attention to their own ethical behavior, and if in the power of position the behavior of those they oversee.

Ethics is a science that deals with the ideals involved in human conduct. In other words, it is the rules or standards, governing the conduct of a person or the conduct of the members in a profession. It relates to the social rules that influence a person to be honest while dealing with other people. The word “ethics” is originated from a Greek word Ethos which means character or manner.

Corporate social responsibility has become a major issue in the recent past to the extent in which there are watchdog organizations that monitor actions of corporations and file a report indicating companies that aren’t socially responsible. Such organizations are known as sustainability auditing firms (Gallagher, 2012). This has made most of the companies that are growing to issue corporate social responsibility reports alongside their annual business reports. Citigroup is a financial service company that has been able to do this with other companies. In fact, it should be noted that Citigroup, Inc. is the world’s largest financial service corporations with a revenue base of over 130 billion dollars (MacDonald, 2011). Citigroup, Inc. has appeared in the list of Forbes 100 and was been rated in 2007 as one of the most responsible top 50 companies. The company employs more than 300000 employees today. Hence, this paper will look at the extent to which Citigroup, Inc. has put in place responsible practices and corporate ethics and how they account for the influence of their stakeholder’s actions (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2010).

When we place our first step into the world of business, we have heard businessmen speak expressively about the aim of the company is to make profit and not to address social responsibilities. This is only certain truth to this statement as the world we live in now is evolving. People in the current era are more concern about social responsibility especially with corporations and their behaviours and plans. There is an increasing demand on businesses to have a “social conscience” and taking serious responsibility for providing employment, eliminating discrimination, ethical working environment and whatever else is related to having a “social conscience”.

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