Social Responsibility Ethics, Sustainability and Stakeholder Management
C15.V.9.1 PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT
Social responsibility and Management ethics
Assignment 4
Social responsibility, for me, is the obligation of an organization's management towards the welfare and interests of the society in which it operates. It can also be define as the idea that business should not function amorally, but instead should contribute to the welfare of their communities. Being Socially responsible means that people and organizations must behave ethically and with sensitivity toward social, cultural, economic and environmental issues. Striving for social responsibility helps individuals, organizations and government have a positive impact on development, business and society with a positive contribution to bottom-line results. Examples include employee relations, philanthropy, pricing, resources conservation, product quality and safety and doing business in countries that violate human rights. It is a duty every individual has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystems in a sustainable manner. The responsibility can be passive, by avoiding engaging in socially harmful acts or active by performing activities that directly advance social goals.
Social responsibility is the best interest of business to promote and improve the communities. Business organizations, as members of society, have a moral obligation to help society deal with its problems and to contribute to its welfare. It is the ethical thing to do by the business organizations. A measurement should be made of whether the organization is performing such activities as producing goods and services that people need, creating jobs for society, paying fair wages and ensuring worker safety. People and organizations need each other. Social responsibility to employees extend beyond terms and conditions of the formal contract of employment and give recognition to the workers as a human being. An organization must be socially responsible to improve public image in the firm, improve stock price, to solve social problems, to attract investors, encourages professional (and personal) growth and to cut business costs. Some of the responsibilities of an organization are as follows:
To build its brand, reputation and public profile :
Being socially responsible creates goodwill and a positive image for a brand. Trust and a good reputation are some of company's most valuable assets. In fact, without these, it is very difficult to run a business. It is important for a success grow of an organization, members of an organization and a whole community.
To attract investors :
Investors and financiers are attracted to companies who are socially responsible. These decision-makers know this reflects good management and a positive reputation. This influence should not be underestimate. It is the deciding factor in choosing to support a company.
Values-based management lays the foundation for the development of mission and subsequent corporate and individual plans and goals by enabling managers to address and resolve unavoidable dilemmas. Values-based management serves as an essential first step toward building a high growth organization in which individual performance improves and heightened individual achievement drives economic success. A do-gooder is a well intentioned person. A ploy is a move designed to take advantage of the situation. A do-gooder is doing something else in the pretext of high values. It shows clearly from the above statement, that as an actual approach to managing and not just a series of guidelines, values-based management can be much more than a "do-gooder" ploy. When an organization actually practices values-based management, managers use the company's shared values as they decisions and do their jobs. It can easily appear that way the values are only listed on a piece of a paper. Robbins and Coulter mention the roles of management and that they're responsible for creating an environment that encourages employees to embrace the culture and the desired values as they do their jobs. Creating a positive and value based culture is a top down approach and must be witnessed by employees.
Stakeholders are those who may be affected by or have an effect on an effort. They may also include people who have strong interest in the effort for academic, philosophical or political reasons, even though they and their families, friends and associates are not directly affected by it. Balancing the interests of a variety of groups is the managerial form of a juggling act. Managers must consider various stakeholder groups while preparing an overall business strategy. The approaches stakeholders use to get their point across to management range from making suggestions at shareholder meetings to threatening to withhold resources from the firm. Effectively managing stakeholders is a key component of successful project management and should never be ignored. Proper stakeholder management can be used to gain support for a project and anticipate resistance, conflict or competing objectives among the project's stakeholders. When a stakeholder group makes demands on a firm, management should first perform an analysis by answering the following questions;
1.Who are stakeholders?
2.How are the stakeholders affected by the company policies?
3.What are the stakeholders' interests in the business?
4.What new strategies and action plans need to be formulated to deal effectively with the stakeholders?
It can be very tempting for managers to use their disciplinary powers to get rid of employees who they want they want out of the way. However, as the CCMA is well aware of such abuses of disciplinary processes employers are advised never to go this route. Here are some examples of the manager's misuse of discipline:
- For wanting an employee to vacate his job there is always a legal, fair and practical way of resolving the problems.
- Harassment, bullying, discourtesy, disorganization and indecision
It is the responsibility of manager to make the workplace productive and efficient and the bad habits. There is an old saying "the fish rots from the head". Each person holding management responsibility ought to reflect upon their behavior so as to ensure that their behavior is congruent with personal and corporate values.
References
Gomez-Mejia, Luis R. & Balkin, David. (2011). Management (1st Edition): People, Performance, Change. New Jersey: Prentice hall.
Robbins, Stephen P. & Coulter, Mary. (2008). Management (10th Edition). New Jersey: Prentice hall.
Daft, Richard L. (2011). Management (10th Edition). Boston: Cengage Learning.
