Module 4 - Case Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Essay

Module 4 - Case Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Example Further, society as a whole expects that the behavior of all the citizens should be such that society advances on its own rather than regress due to actions and behaviors. During the recent times, high profiled failures of large organizations, unethical behavior being associated with the senior executives of the firms as well as fraudulent business, and accounting practices have highlighted the need for emphasizing more business ethics. The current financial crisis has also highlighted the vulnerabilities of the financial sector of the world and how senior executives used the money given for bailout purposes as their own bonuses. The hue and cry by the public, therefore, has been mostly directed towards the unethical behavior of organizations towards different stakeholders. This paper will discuss ethical behavior of two organizations, i.e. Primark and Anglo American, and will explore costs and benefits involved as well as discussing one component from Svennson & Woods’ model. What is Ethical Business Behavior Every business has a responsibility towards the society, and ethical behavior outlines the rules and regulations which actually govern the ethical behavior of the firms. ... It is also important to understand that society expects from the businesses and as such, businesses have to correspond to the basic rules of the society. This, therefore, requires that firms should not engage any such behavior which can effectively go against the values and norms of the society. Some of the critical areas where firms often face critical choices in terms of ethical business behavior include finance, accounting, supply chain management, human resource management, and marketing. These are the areas where firm often engage into behavior which may not be entirely considered as ethical in nature. There have been incidents where firms have engaged into actions which were not considered as ethical. Incidences such as falsification of information presented in financial accounts, insufficient and inadequate working conditions for the workers, unjustified bonuses and high compensation levels of senior executives, etc., are some of the issues which have come under heavy screener of unethical business practices (Dowling, Festing, & Engle, 2008). How Primark Applies Ethics One of the key concerns for Primark is to source ethically because it has to deal with variety of third party sources. Considering the overall nature of business of the firm, Primark has to procure its merchandize from different suppliers scattered all over the world. Ethical issues, particularly with regard to the supply chain of the firm, arise due to adverse labor situation in suppliers’ countries. Although Primark is committed to provide excellent value to its customers, it is clear on the issue of not delivering such value on the expense of those who actually produce for the firm. As such, Primark attempts to balance

Impacts of TNCS on Host Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Impacts of TNCS on Host Economy - Essay Example The current concept of trans-border business operations began to intensify after the Second World War, even though such business operations have been in existence for some centuries (Ietto-Gillies, 2012, p.7). The wide coverage of these organizations cutting across cultures make them have positive and negative impacts on, and become a point of concern for, their employees, the competitors, the domestic customers, the host government, alongside the other international organizations that may operate in the country (Sat, 2009, p.41; Fuller, n.d). The effects realized will be determined by the nature of operations by the TNCs. This paper focuses on the economic impacts that the foreign direct investments established by the transnational corporations have on the economy of the host nations. It examines how the workers, the suppliers, the domestic competing organizations, and the host communities are affected by the operations of a transnational corporation within a given country. Particul ar attention is given to the effect that acquisition of Cadbury by Kraft had on the economy of the United Kingdom. The Positive Contributions of TNCs to the Host Country’s Economy The operations of transnational corporations have certain positive impacts on the economy of the host nations. One of the benefits of TNC is transfer of technology into the host economy (Berger & Diez, 2008). The transnational corporations often get into a given country through different entry modes such as exporting, joint ventures with the domestic firms, foreign direct investments, or licensing among many others (Rugman, 1996, p.29). They develop various linkages that form the basis for technology spillover (Berger & Diez, 2008). The local employees will get to learn the modern technologies that the TNCs apply in their production operations. The learnt technologies can than be transferred to the domestic companies when these employees move on to take employments with the domestic firms. In this w ay, the technology shall have been transferred into the economy of the host nation at a relatively lower cost than other methods of acquisition such as buying the technology from the developers or domestic development of the technology. Similarly, the transnational corporations can acquire or enter into joint ventures with domestic firms. The transnational corporations have better responses to organizational changes. The organizations work in different cultural, institutional, and regulatory environments and they are forced to modify their organizational structures continuously (Lowe & Wrigley, 2010, p.382). The management approaches may be copied by local managers (Berger & Diez, 2008, p.1049) who would transfer the techniques to the management of other organizations if their tenure with the TNC comes to a halt. A manager who has worked for a significantly long period for some TNC may develop new ideas (owing to the research and development carried out by the TNCs) to go ahead and establish his or her new investment scheme. The transnational corporations producing goods locally may help reduce the imports to a given country if the domestic customers are attracted to their products in preference to the alternative imports (Fuller, n.d). The goods made locally by the TNCs are likely to be cheaper since other costs like shipment and duties have been reduced considerably. On a similar perspective, the TNCs can help increase the export from a given economy if the TNC exports