Organizations are currently emulating social entrepreneurship to withstand stiff competition. It is an organization’s responsibility to give back to the society by engaging in corporate citizenship. Leading organizations are known for providing donations, charities, taking part in communal projects and sponsoring needy students. This has enabled them to attain goodwill and maintain its reputation in the society (Bornstein & Davis, 2010). Social responsiveness ensures that companies are not just after maximizing revenues and increasing the value of the shareholders but rather acknowledge the society who plays a great role in ensuring business continuity.
The middle class earners rarely think about developing countries. Global issues are left to the government but the scarcity of resources undermines government’s involvement in all the sectors. This has affected global development (Ferri and Urbano, 2011). Consequently, the private sector has played a role in aligning brand loyalty with social responsibility.
Such companies have come up with the idea of dedicating a portion of it revenue to charitable initiatives. Organizations have realized that they must create new responsive business models in order to gain competitive advantage. Similarly, the organizations should observe human rights and take part in socially sustainable practices.
It is the duty of everybody to take part in global development rather than leaving it to organizations. Social responsibility if seriously handled would reduce the poverty level and try to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. For instance, Durbnanville is a trust Company that takes part in corporate social responsibility through donations (Peredo and McLean, 2003). It spares the price of a bottle of wine in order to donate to disadvantaged families in South Africa.
The complexity of practicing social responsibility demonstratives the virtue of competitive enterprising which forces people to be responsible for own actions and makes it difficult for them to utilize the hard earned profits (Harris, 2009). Organizations which such a perception should know that the government has the responsibility of levying taxes and allocating resources to social projects however, the problems are too many and calls for enterprises to become socially responsible in order to solve the issues.
The society mandates organizations to take part in social responsibility. Social responsibility is the organization’s obligation to take part in activities that has a positive impact to the society. Even though both social responsibility and ethics are used interchangeably, the terms are different (Bornstein & Davis, 2010). For an ethical point of view, the society may be concerned about a health care organization that overcharges the provincial government for medical services.
But from the social responsibility perspective, the society might be concerned on the effect that the overcharging has on the ability of the health care system to offer sufficient services for the community (Bornstein & Davis, 2010). The primary ethical and social responsibility issues have been viewed as rules and regulations that foster business to comply with social standards and attitudes. The legal phenomenon’s occur as choices that the society perceivers as irresponsible. However, all actions that are unethical may not be illegal.
Ethics is a discipline that ensures that organizations get involved in ethical business practices such as evading corruption, discrimination and environmental destruction. Business conflicts can be avoided if the stakeholders familiarize with the legal framework. Forty eight percent of employees surveyed by an ethics officer association survey showed that organizations have to improve ethically (Harris, 2009). The costs of unethical and fraudulent acts done by the work force are around four hundred billion dollars in a yearly basis.
It is not only altruism which encourages organizations to function in a socially responsive way but allow the consideration of the bottom line. The reasons for commitment to ethical values are corporate reputation, ethical companies have been (Bornstein & Davis, 2010) revealed to be more profitable, ethical behavior fosters leadership rand that the only option to voluntary ethical behavior is demanding and costly.
Not all the disadvantages in business ethics are international in scope. Several directly affect the society and needs prompt address. Businesses problems may appear comprehensive and easy to solve, but in a real life scenario, a person may require experience to acknowledge whether it is ethical (Peredo and McLean, 2003) for instance, if a sales representative should consider when to offer gifts so that it is not seen as a form of bribery.
The size of the transaction inclusive of the history of personal relationships within a certain organization will indicate whether an action is right or wrong. When Wal-Mart stated selling scandals that featured Teva brand, Mark Thatcher, the pioneer of Teva Sports Sandal got attracted to the issue (Ferri and Urbano 2011). Sales of Teva sandals declined from sixty nine million dollars to forty two million dollars and the top management asserted that it was because Wal-Mart sold copies for twenty five percent less.
The ethical problem of wrong or right was settled in court and Teva won the case\\. As a result, Wal-Mart stopped selling the shoes. Moreover ethics is related to corporate culture. In the US or Canada, it would be unsuitable for a businesses executive to hand in a wrapped gift to a client during the first meeting because it is perceived as bribery (Ferri and Urbano, 2011). In Japan, it is seen as a sign of impoliteness not to award a gift. This shows that an experience with the culture in which an organization functions is crucial to recognize what is unethical or ethical.
Irresponsible organizations have the risk of losing its consumers besides having difficulties in persuading the government and the public to participate in safeguarding their assets (Ferrell 2010). Organizations that participate in socially responsive and ethical business engagements have the advantage of attracting new employees and avoiding loses due to sabotage and pilferage.