Ethics And Corporate Social Responsibilities

Introduction

Work ethics and social responsibility are two critical concepts in the modern day business environment. Work ethics entails codes of conduct that govern or regulate the behavior of employers, employees, and the entire organization. Work ethics is vital to maintaining strong working relations with their employers, stockholders, employees and the general public (Kurzrok, & Hund, 2013). They guide all decision-making processes. The following case evaluates the ethical conduct of PharmCARE

PharmaCARE stakeholders

PharmaCARE is leading multinational pharmaceutical company that has operations in Colberia, which is an African country with low living standards. PharmCARE is reputable, honorable and well-run organization that produces quality products. As a business, PharmCARE has a responsibility to account a wide range of social issues and environmental issues that affect not only employees but also the member of the public. Business stakeholders include a wide range of individuals, groups, and agencies that business processes affect directly or indirectly.

PharmaCARE has numerous stakeholders. The first stakeholders include the company�s stockholders or investors. PharmCARE has an obligation to meet the needs of the stockholders or investors by ensuring it maximizes its return on investment. As such, the company operations should ensure the investors get the value of their investment by focusing on operations that maximize profit. The second stakeholders include PharmCARE management who design the decision-making policy. The management is under pressure from the stockholders, various government regulations and the community to meet their varying needs. The third stakeholders include the company�s employees who work to ensure the company achieves its strategic goals. Employees are vital resources of the company and their welfare matter a lot to the success of the company.

The fourth stakeholders include the government agencies and regulating bodies in the mother country and the local countries. PharmCARE has to operate within the local laws and also follow the laws of the mother country. The fifth stakeholders include the community within which the company operates. The company has a social responsibility to the society.
Human right issues and business ethics

Attention to human rights has a positive impact on business performance through improved stakeholder relations, positive reputation, and brand image. In addition, it improves employees� motivation and increase employees� retention. A commitment to business ethics and human rights is driven by values such as dignity, fairness, equality, respect and responsibility (Persons, 2012). Doing business ethically involves respecting human rights. As such, a company wishing to be considered ethical has to be mindful of human rights. It has to avoid violation of human rights or protect and promoting human rights in business operations.



The case of PharmCARE represents numerous cases of human right violations including discrimination, unfairness, lack of equal opportunities and lack of diversity respect. In addition, the company is aggravating the poor social and economic status of the citizens through environmental degradation and hazardous activities in terms of health and safety. Labor-related issues such as fair remuneration, indiscrimination, and other labor related issues are at the core of human rights. There is evidence of the violation of workers� right to poor labor conditions and discrimination. Despite the local community providing vital information to the company, they continue to be victims of poor wages ($ 1 per day). The workers have to walk for over five miles into the dangerous jungle carrying heavy loads. Business ethics and corporate social responsibility principles require businesses to participate in improving the quality of life of the community around their operations. However, despite PharmCARE exploiting community resources, Colberians continue to live in inhumane environments. Colberian employees are subject to discriminatory living conditions. They live in shanties where there are no basic amenities while their counterparts live in luxurious residential areas. Although the company may not be under an obligation to provide housing, it should ensure equality if it decides to provide housing services.

PharmCARE can adopt numerous strategies to make it more ethics. First, the company should introduce a fair employment policy. The employment strategy should promote fairness and improve the working conditions of the employees and tour quảng châu provide workplace guarantee. The company needs to formulate worker welfare by establishing strategies to improve the living standards of the local employees. Secondly, the company should establish corporate social responsibility programs that aim at improving the welfare of the society at large. PharmCARE should introduce strategies such as improving the education status of the local so that they can assume a more productive position. Thirdly, the company should revise its anti-environmental lobbying and initiate environmentally sensitive programs. PharmaCARE extensive activities in Colberia have destroyed habitat and endangered native species.

PharmaCARE environmental initiative.



Corporate social responsibility, ethics and sustainable development require businesses to ensure sustainable exploitation of natural resources. Business codes of ethics require firms to ensure their operations do not harm the environment. PharmaCARE performs poorly in terms of environmental preservation. First, it has been at the forefront of anti-environmental lobbying efforts. Anti-environmentalism refers to the way multinationals, agencies, and conservative groups counter the efforts of environmentalists, to redirect and reduce public concerns about the environment. PharmCARE anti-environment activities reduce its obligations to ensure sustainable development. In addition, the company has been exploiting Colberian natural resources without giving back to the community or taking care of the externalities costs.

PharmCARE and ethics theories

Utilitarianism

The utilitarian approach to ethics focuses on making decisions and actions that will result in the greatest good for the largest number of people. In the case of PharmCARE, employing a large number of employees at low prices may be seen as a utilitarian move. However, the operations of the business are doing harm to the greater community than they are benefiting the employees. In addition, the company�s operations focus on maximizing profit for the stockholders instead of working to improve the welfare of the community.

Deontology

Deontology theory to ethics focuses purely on the intrinsic rightness of an action, without regard for its consequences. The three key features of deontological ethics include duty should be for duty�s sake. The rightness or wrongness of an act or decision is, at least in part, an issue of the intrinsic moral values of that kind of act or kynghidongduong.vn rule. Secondly, it is imperative to treat humans as objects of intrinsic value. Humans should be the end and not the means to end. such, the motivation for action should be based on obligation. According to the deontology ethics, PharmCARE is obliged to take care of the environment concerns or to improve the conditions of the local community. Thirdly, a moral principle is a categorical imperative that is universal and must be applicable to everyone in the same moral situation.
Virtue ethics

Virtue-based ethics places less emphasis on which rules people should follow but instead focus on helping individuals develop good characters traits include traits such as kindness and generosity. These traits inform the decision-making process. As such, the organizational culture should emphasize values that help it to observe fairness and dignity of all employees without discrimination. According to the "virtue ethics " theory, there are specific ideas such as dedication to common good toward which humans should strive and which allow full development of humanity.
Ethics of care

The ethics of care theory centers around the interdependence and interaction of all individuals. The theory considers the fact that some societies and individuals are more vulnerable than others. As such, PharmCARE should afford extra consideration to the vulnerable than others. Ethics of care asserts that there is no universal truth and considers the contextual details of a moral situation to promote specific needs of the community. PharmCARE should consider the special needs of the community. It should strive to improve the living conditions of the community (Dawoudi, & Sabella, 2013).
Your own moral or ethical compass

The moral rights approach focuses on the moral principles regardless of the consequences. As such, actions are either right or wrong. However, morals are not universal and are often influenced by the culture of a community. From this standpoint, employing low-wage employees who work long hours and heavy work is immoral. In addition, the decision to exploit the natural resources without concern is immoral. PharmCARE should treat the locals with dignity. Although the locals are willing to work at low pay, the moral compass of the management should inform the management to pay them fairly. In addition, the moral value of fairness and justice should guide the company to improve the conditions of the community.

PharmCARE and tour mua sắm quảng châu Nike cases are similar in different ways. First, the two companies are using cheap labor to achieve its business and strategic goals. The outsourcing strategy exploits locals to the advantage of the company. Secondly, the two companies have limited social responsibility programs in the region they operate.



PharmCARE Vs. Nokia

One of the recent ethics case involving a multinational company is the Nike and the sweatshops. Although Nike is an established leading athletic company, it has endeared public scorn due to the use of child labor. Over the years, Nike has succeeded partly because of its ability to outsource cheap labor and underage labor in various countries. After the rise of prices in Korea and Taiwan, Nike began to outsource labor from China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. In these countries, Nike paid low wages, and the working conditions of an employee were inhumane. Despite the company having company�s code of ethics, its practices violated business ethics. It pays it, workers, low wages that cannot enable them meet their basic needs, are not allowed to organize independents unions and face health and safety hazards. However, the two companies differ in that Nike subcontracts while PharmCARE is involved directly with the local country.



References

Institute of Business Ethics (2012). Business ethics and human rights.

Okoro, J. (2014). EMPLOYERS ASSESSMENT OF WORK ETHICS REQUIRED OF UNIVERSITY BUSINESS EDUCATION GRADUATES IN SOUTH-SOUTH NIGERIA. College Student Journal, 48(3), 437-444.

Kurzrok, A., & Hund, G. (2013). Beyond compliance: Integrating nonproliferation into corporate sustainability. Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists, 69(3), 31-42. Doi:10.1177/0096340213485946

Persons, O. (2012). Incorporating Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Into a Business Course: A Shared Experience. Journal Of Education For Business, 87(2), 63-72. Doi:10.1080/08832323.2011.562933

Dawoudi, D., & Sabella, A. (2013). Padico Holding: Developing Responsiveness through Corporate Social Responsibility. Perspectives On Global Development & Technology, 12(5/6), 590-596. Doi:10.1183/15691497-12341276