Current State Of Ethics In Business Commerce Essay

Current State Of Ethics In Business Commerce Essay The pace, scale and complexity of modern business has forced a change in how business is done. While it is accepted that it is foolish to do business with someone who is not trustworthy, the question arises whether you can trust those who are not ethical in all of their behaviour. Short timelines, tight supply chains and narrowing margins mean that chances cannot be taken that suppliers or customers will not honour their contracts as expected. Suppliers and customers are now becoming partners and stakeholders in business, and relationships with them are becoming more and more underpinned by trust. Trust is built on expectations of truth in words and consistency in behaviour. It is impossible to do profitable business with someone who says one thing one day and does something different the next. Ethical leadership is vital in business today. It is the backbone to any long lasting successful company in todays business market. It is important for companies to clearly layout their stance on ethical leadership to employees and the public, to have members of the company lead by example, and to reinforce the ethical leadership concept through out the year. By following these steps, the company will sustain or acquire ethical leadership in their companys culture. Although business accepted ethics slightly change through out the years, everyone should know if an action is ethical or unethical before they take an action. The importance of companies clearly defining their stance on ethical behavior will let individuals know how making an unethical decision will impact them, their fellow workers, and the company as a whole. On the other hand members of the company will also know how making an ethical decision will have a positive impact. Once a clear ethical leadership stance is taken, rewarding or punishing ethical or unethical actions should strictly uphold the rules. There should be an unbiased group to facilitate this activity, for example a Human Resources Department. Every employee, from the CEO to the mailroom clerk, should practice ethical leadership. Every member and every group can and should exhibit ethical leadership. This concept should not just be thought of as a manager to his report. Ethical leadership can happen in unexpected situations, for example where a CFO of a company asks the mailroom clerk to do an unethical act and the mailroom clerk refuses the CFOs request. The clerk refused based on the companys stance on ethical behavior. In this example, the clerk presented ethical leadership, but was in no way in a leadership role. The clerk would also feel safe taking this stance because he believes in his companies set rules on ethical leadership. He will not be negatively impacted due to the fact that he can contact his unbiased Human Resources department with issues of this nature, on top of the fact that he maybe rewarded for taking this ethical stance. Reinforcing the ethical leadership concept through out the year is also important for businesses. Not only reinforcing, but also reinforcing with meaning and showing the value of ethical leadership. Making positive examples of employees through rewards, have mandatory yearly training (make it fun), send positive ethical leadership examples out as part of company newsletter, ensure that unethical behavior is dealt with in an ethical way, restate companys stance during large meetings, make ethical leadership apart of each employees personal evaluation each year (make them give examples) and have ethical workshops. All of these examples will ensure that every employee knows the companys stance on ethical leadership through reinforcement. The over all concept of ethical leadership is that it is as important as making a profit in the business world. Profit and ethical leadership should be top priorities for any company that plans to have a long lasting existence. Ethics in itself can become a very pliable term with many grey areas, so focusing on specific ethics may prove futile. However, focusing on doing the right thing along with the reinforcement of ethical leadership may be the answer. Baking ethical leadership into a companys culture is key. Ethical leadership holds a positive outlook with great potential in the current business environment is the improvement that we have seen in ethical issues over the relatively recent years. As we all know accepted ethical behaviors have slightly changed over the years and will continue to do so. Ethical leadership along with the help from laws has driven the implementation of the halt or reduction of racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual discrimination. It is believe that accepted ethics have made great leaps and ethical leadership is one of the driving tools to solidify these concepts. Recent huge companies like Enron and World Com have made great examples of the importance of ethical leadership. It is said that the CEO of Enron, who was just sentenced to many years in prison, had the saying that nothing else matters besides profit. This is apparently not the best way to lead a long-term successful company. The fall of companies that disregard ethical leadership cost all Americans, the companys employees, and share holders billions of dollars. Based on this fact, the health of economies depends on companies to lead with strong ethics. One positive aspect that these unethical companies did do for America is to drive home the absolute importance of ethical leadership in business. Due to the unethical acts of these huge companies, everyone has taken notice. Many colleges are driving ethics harder then they ever have, the media attention has been enormous, and US companies are really sticking to ethical leadership programs better now than in the past. Recent changes in the business environment have deeply affected businesses and ethics consultancies that are concerned that the word ethics, in a business context, has lost its original meaning. They consider ethics to be unregulated behavior as well as regulated and talk about what is ought to be done as well as what we is compelled to be done. Not only would an ethical person not break the law or flout a regulation, but he/she also would think hard about doing something perfectly legal that gave the person ethical concerns. The ethics industry, now called the ethics and compliance industry, dwells almost entirely on issues of law and regulation. It is thought that ethics, as an important business tool, has been sidelined. The ethics industry emerged in the 1970s with defense scandals that resulted in the Defense Industry Initiative, a self-regulatory body of defense contractors. It really launched in 1991 with the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations, which helped judges to determine consequences for corporate misbehavior and, critically, identified seven steps that businesses could take to mitigate those consequences. The suggested steps included a code of ethics or conduct, training in the code, and a high-ranking person to oversee the program Many of the early providers were academics and nonprofits, like IGE, who believed that it was possible to guide corporate behavior through improved corporate decision-making. The waves of scandal that culminated in the 2008 financial tsunami have all but erased our formal ethics beginnings in business. A backwash of regulation, prompted by an outraged public, followed each wave. Companies, ethical and otherwise, are drowning in rules, expensive rules and regulations that make global competition difficult. Good companies are still doing the right things, but the focus has shifted from thinking ethically to complying with myriad regulations. In other cases, a whole new workaround ethic focuses on ways to skirt the rules. Following the recession, companies are demanding that people make their numbers while still following the rules, which even ethics professionals see as difficult. Professionals who used to direct their employers ethics programs are disappearing, replaced by legal professionals with specific expertise in bribery and corruption, export controls, insider trading, money laundering, and other topics of special interest. Were unhappy with the retrogressive sea change, but our respondents found some treasure silver lining, perhaps washed up on the beach. Anticorruption has a surprising ally, social networking, which has become a global phenomenon. Although the United States has a new portfolio of laws governing business (especially financial business) called the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which encourages whistle-blowers with offers of cash bounties and protection, social networking already has leapt far beyond. It is almost impossible to escape the reach of texting, tweeting, YouTube, and Facebook. Employees, customers and suppliers stay connected and theres really no place to hide when people take pictures and movies with their smart phones and make their observations public on the Internet. Although staff departments responsible for ethics have experienced cutbacks in funding, they are now working more closely with other departments that help to manage their companys risk. Its common to find close cooperation among ethics and compliance, internal audit, security, health, safety and environment, legal, and human resources. The benefit is that companies are likely to spot and avert misbehavior more quickly. Additionally, ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) now work more closely because their intentions are similar making the corporation a responsible citizen through attention to environmental and human rights issues. There is also exposure to legal penalties. Companies involved in international trade have to represent their products to potential or current clients based on their expected inputs by the suppliers. Â  A company that is involved in illegal activities, or that knowingly falsifies information on inputs supplied can create serious problems for its business partners. Â  A company with a good reputation and solid brands has much to lose, and should not take chances with its brand value. Another issue challenging the practice of good business ethics is the values, which employees bring to the work environment. Much has been said over the years about the deterioration of employees work ethics. The impact of poor work ethics results in low productivity owed to high levels of absenteeism, tardiness, theft and acceptance of bribe taking. A company that wishes to be efficient and competitive in the future cannot accept this state of affairs. There is a strong business case for the introduction of structured programs to support ethical behaviour in companies, size notwithstanding. These programs should be more than a mere encouragement to be honest, and should be based on clearly articulated values that are linked to the overall vision and mission of the company. The Manual of Business Ethics for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises prepared by the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) and the US Department of Commerce describes the following benefits among others: Enhanced Reputation and Goodwill: A reputation for integrity is important for securing the loyalty of customers, for recruiting and training the best staff, for winning community acceptance and accessing bank and supplier credit. Risk reduction: The process of developing a business ethics program involves the company in identifying and assessing the factors that could pose risks to reputation and financial performance, and developing and implementing the business processes that reduce those risks. Reduced costs: Providing employees with clear guidelines of how to conduct day to day business such as where and when to obtain quotations; how to carry out tenders; how to conclude contracts and how to avoid conflicts of interest can reduce transaction costs and improve the supply chain function. Protection from Unethical Employees: A program would include clear guidance in respect of the misappropriation and unauthorised use of company resources, and the consequences that could flow from violations, information that employees with undeveloped values may not fully appreciate. Recommendations for efforts that build ethical cultures without increasing expenses are as follows: Improve communication practices. Ethics programs are usually well constructed, but poorly disseminated. Require middle managers to train their direct reports and keep the message alive with ethics meetings. Employees often dont know or recognize the CEO and merely tolerate E-learning, but they actually pay attention to their managers. Encourage government to recognize and reward the value of ethics and compliance programs. Focus on corporate culture. Perhaps more emphasis on culture will galvanize corporate intentions and resources toward long-term corporate health in addition to dealing with the emergency of the moment. Operating according to values, accentuating the positives, telling the stories, and removing the negatives would empower good employees and managers and boost productivity. People actually like to work when the culture is right. Ever hopeful, we expect corporate ethics to rebound with serious attention paid to aligning individuals within positive values-driven cultures. It wont happen until the recession fades and businesses start spending the cash theyve hoarded for the last several years to acquire the human and intellectual resources needed to make it happen.

Comparing The Elements of Style and Style Toward Clarity and Grace :: Compare Contrast Comparison

Comparing The Elements of Style by Strunk and White and Style Toward Clarity and Grace by Williams Both The Elements of Style by Strunk and White and Style Toward Clarity and Grace by Williams emphasize the importance of ‘style’ in writing. Though they agree style is important, their approach and views of style differ. Stunk and White’s book was published in 1912 and was written for the old-fashioned ivy leaguers. This can be expressed by their use of the pronoun ‘he’. According to Strunk and White ‘he’ should always be used. Williams’ book was published in 1981 and in more culturally written. Williams states that a writer can use either ‘he’ or ‘she’; whichever is socially acceptable. He also tells the writer to use such words as police officer instead of policeman and mail carrier instead of mailman. Strunk and White feel that to be a good writer one must adhere to the rules they state in their book. Jeri Eleswed’s blog states that she was amazed that she already incorporated many of the rules in Strunk and White’s book into her own writing. They feel it is important for the writer to have an individual style â€Å"†¦what your are, rather than what you know, will at last determine your style†. (Strunk 84) Strunk tells the writer that he should sympathize with the reader, but never seek to know the reader’s wants. The duty of the writer is to â€Å"please and satisfy yourself and a true writer always plays to a party of one†. (Strunk 84) In Patty Clark’s Blog spot she gave a great statement about Strunk and White. â€Å"The voice in which this little book is written sounds like an old-fashioned schoolmaster†. I completely agree with her and when I read their book I picture my twelfth grade English teacher at the bl ackboard with her fancy chalk holder cramming grammar down our throats. Williams’ views on style are more diverse. According to him, style should be more about the audience the writer is writing to rather than the writer himself. Williams explains how to write or the reader. In his last chapter Williams states how to write in a constructive voice, how to the flow of information affects the reader, what words to use when the reader has prior knowledge of the subject and when he or she does not, and how to be clear for the reader.

Dystopia Essay

Dystopia is a Utopia gone wrong to create a society that rather than making people happy, makes people unhappy. That is exactly what the town in Fahrenheit 451 had become, a dystopia. The creation of this dystopia was the result of the government fearing the power given to the citizens through the knowledge in books so they took them away. The ban of books formed the dystopia, the people’s fear of being burned for reading made the social principles, and the people who didn’t fear to be burned rebelled and showed their society what was wrong with the way they were living.What started this whole dystopia in the first place was the government’s fear of being overpowered by the citizens who read and gained power from the knowledge they had collected. Because of the government’s fear, books were completely banned and anyone who decided to break the law was burned with the books inside the house. People called the firemen were the ones to start the fire which di ffers from their former job of putting them out.Everything changed when the books got banned whether it was as simple as people getting an urge to read even if they never wanted to before or as drastic as a worker who once saved people from fires was someone who killed people with fire. Because the penalty was so extreme, the law was followed in most cases and a lot of people were afraid of being burned. The only thing that kept this law in action was the fact that the people were afraid of the consequence which made society obedient as they quaked in fear. Because of the obedience, there always seemed to be routine.Nobody really knew how to feel about it because they didn’t want to know how to feel about it in fear that they would feel negatively towards it and be burned for the thought. The social principles throughout the whole novel, Fahrenheit 451, revolved around the fear of the people and the government as a whole. What really scared the government, however, were the p eople who were not afraid of the government or the consequences of reading. They were the ones that had the power in knowledge and could see the fault in the society.Rebels in society tried to make everyone see what was wrong but failed. In the novel, they had a plan that worked and put an end to the ban of books using the government’s war to get rid of the rebels against them. What the rebels showed the rest of the town was that the government took away power we had a right to and knowledge we created and were entitled to and that the government took it away from the people so that they would be the only one with power and the citizens were to always be the obedient ones.The realization of the dystopia is what destroyed the government with help from the rebellious ones. Within knowledge comes power and in that power, people are the welders. If you try to take away power that people are given and entitled to, you’re not going to get very far. That’s what happene d in Fahrenheit 451 that made it a dystopia. The government took away the power of the people and in the end, society rebelled. Making the novel, Fahrenheit 451, a dystopia.

The Effects Of Social Media On Teenagers Essay - 1259 Words

Alexsandra Rodriguez Professor Alexandra Dragin Rhetoric 102 November 15, 2016 Prompt #1 The Negative Effects Social Media has on Teenagers Social media is defined as â€Å"forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content.† (Merriam-Webster, 2004). Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube have the attention of millions of users. With just a click of a button, users are able to create their own profile that relates to themselves and are able to share their personal information by adding friends on these social media sites. Today’s generations of teenagers have become technologically dependant. A study done by Pew Research Center found that, 92% of teens reported going online daily, 56% of teens reported going online several times a day, and only 12% reported once a day. (Lenhart, Amandra, 2015). With the vast amount of social media that is so easily accessible and greatly depended on, it has made bullying so much easier on teenagers today. This bullying is referred to as â€Å"cyber bullying†. Cyber bullying is when a person uses technology to target another person by harassing or intimidating them in an aggressive nature. The bullies often use social media site to spread their message about or to their victims. Although these social sites can have positive interaction for teenagers, the negative effects ofShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Social Media On Teenagers1182 Words   |  5 PagesUrbana-Champaign, social media was key in establishing relationships with her neighbors before school started. By joining a Facebook group for residents of Bromley Hall, meeting her neighbors was not an uncomfortable or awkward task. (Rodriguez). This is just one of the many ways that social media sites, like Facebook, help guide face-to-face interaction and aide in creating relationships. Social media sites help teenagers meet people that have similar interests and e xperiences as them.Social media sites areRead MoreThe Effects Of Social Media On Teenagers1379 Words   |  6 PagesThe Social Media Effect When you were a teenager, did social media impact your life? If not, it certainly has had an impact on the teenagers of America today. Social media has been around for a long time. There are many applications for social media, some of which are Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook. With the rapid evolution of social media, people believe that social media is impacting teenagers in a negative way. However, some believe that there are positive effects. The negative effects ofRead MoreEffects Of Social Media On Teenagers Essay1995 Words   |  8 Pages Effects of Social Media on Social Comparison and Self Esteem in Teenagers Nikolo Bobadilla, Gaby Juarez, Lexi McCaig, Noe Molina Texas Tech University Social media applications have had a large impact on many different generations. With the rise of technology and opportunity, social media has become the epicenter for teenagers and college students to express and connect with others through pictures, videos, and personal content. According to a new studyRead MoreThe Effects of Social Media on Teenagers437 Words   |  2 PagesSome of the top benefits of social media over the years are that it is free to anyone, the content can get out to resources virtually immediately, and it can be delivered to a wide variety of people. For these reasons, communication through social media has become an extremely accessible and convenient way to communicate. It is also popular for those who need to be in contact with others. One example that comes to mind is a teenager who goes away on a trip to visit a friend or family. They canRead MoreEffects Of Social Media On Teenagers775 Words   |  4 Pageshas revolutionized the way of communicating. Social media has transformed the way of expressing ideas, sharing feelings, and relating to people. While young people are more connected online than ever, they were never more socially disconnected with each other. Because of the emotionless nature of the Net young people shut down and are left dumbfounded when confronted with real-life events in the classroom and over social activities. As a result, teenagers long for real-life interactions and meaningfulRead MoreThe Effects Of Social Media On Teenagers1434 Words   |  6 Pagesconstant problem for teenagers and even pre-teens. Now that we have internet and social media popping up like popcorn, picking and cyberbullying is easier than ever. Social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., have become known as the well-known pastime for teenagers today. What is â€Å"social media† anyway? From the internet, the definition of social media is â€Å"website and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.† Media of course is supposedRea d MoreNegative Effects Of Social Media On Teenagers1147 Words   |  5 PagesEffects of Social Media on Teenagers Nowadays social media have become one of the important part of our lifestyle and has a great influence in our day to day basic activities. Getting more likes and having more followers has become one of the important part of people’s social life. Teenagaers spent most of their time checking Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and many more. According to The Washington Post, â€Å"Teens are spending more than one-third of their days using media such as online videoRead MoreThe Effects Of Social Media On Teenagers Essay2265 Words   |  10 Pagespsychological, emotional, and social well-being, relate to the condition of individuals. There are the number of types of Mental health problem, such as anxiety disorders, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, eating disorders, and addiction disorders which threaten the growth of teenagers. As the development of new technology, Social media sites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram, provide the opportunit ies to people connect each other. The social media sites have become exceedinglyRead MoreDetrimental Effects of Social Media on Teenagers963 Words   |  4 PagesThe use of social media (which includes such media as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr) has become so popular among today’s youth, that it is becoming more than just a fragment of the youth’s world, it is becoming their world. According to a social network statistics report conducted on August 18, 2013, ninety-eight percent of teens are already using some form of social media. Teens are spending more and more time online, typically on a social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.Read MoreThe Effects Of Social Media On Teenagers And Young Adults1652 Words   |  7 PagesIn the other hand, social media can also have a negative effect on teenagers’ and young adults in their academic lives. One of the main consequences is addiction because students can easily get distracted by simply using their phones or laptop. This issue can harm the student’s concentration and the ability to learn new topics. Social media can easily grab the attention and concentration of students which it can turn into inappropriate actions such as chatting and killing time during class time.