Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Importance of good corporate governance
Corporate social responsibility and social change
Corporate social responsibility in an organization
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Importance of good corporate governance
As a CEO of a corporation there is nothing more rewarding then maximizing the wealth of your shareholders, in addition, to increasing the value of the firm. However, it should not be done unethically and jeopardize the financial, social status as well as the reputation of the company, ultimately causing them to suffer in the end. There are systems put into place to avoid such acts that are generally overseen by the board of the directors of organization. In most companies the board of directors consists of shareholders or former employees of the company. Due to the recent scandals in corporate America many companies have acted quickly in actually implementing rules and regulations. They are sometimes referred to as the ethical codes. In this paper I will discuss the importance of corporate governance and ethical codes within a corporation. How has the recent crackdown changed corporate America? Has there been an improvement? Does the gender of top management have an impact on the company’s performance? Are we able to determine if independent directors influence the social responsibility and corporate governance of the organization? I will attempt to address these issues throughout this paper.
Analysis/Critical Evaluation
Corporate Governance is defined as a system that has been established to direct and control companies and I controlled by, (QFinance – The Ultimate Resource, 2009, para. 1.), the board of directors, who must abide by rules and regulations, while implementing such a system. Their duties include, setting the strategic goals of the company, provide leadership and reporting to the companies stakeholders (QFinance - The Ultimate Resource, 2009, para 1).
Socially responsible firms are defined as firms ...
... middle of paper ...
...SIBILITY AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE. Economic Affairs, 29(4), 5-10. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0270.2009.01940.x
Llopis, J., Reyes Gonzalez, M. M., & Gasco, J. L. (2007). Corporate governance and organisational culture: The role of ethics officers. International Journal of Disclosure & Governance, 4(2), 96-105. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jdg.2050051
Kanji, G. K., & Chopra, P. K. (2010). Corporate social responsibility in a global economy. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 21(2), 119-143. doi:10.1080/14783360903549808
Holder-Webb, L., & Sharma, D. S. (2010). The Effect of Governance on Credit Decisions and Perceptions of Reporting Reliability. Behavioral Research in Accounting, 22(1), 1-20. doi:10.2308/bria.2010.22.1.1
QFINANCE – The Ultimate Resource, © 2009 Bloomsbury Information Ltd. - http://www.qfinance.com/dictionary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_code
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the way a corporation achieves a balance between its economic, social, and environmental responsibilities in its operations so as to address shareholder and other stakeholder expectations. In general, when firms hold this wider encouraging role on the public by being engaged with stakeholders, a variety of profit can be produced for both company and the stakeholders. A key inclination is the combination of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into the organization strategy, culture, mission and communications. By incorporating corporate citizenship into the company it is no longer an additional “nice thing to do” or something made to obey laws or regulations. Instead, corporate responsibility has become something business leaders and workforce want to engage in, frequently because executives who believe in the long-term see business profit. The four types of social responsibilities a...
Ramona faces a difficult decision after her trip to the headquarters of Next Step Herbal Health. Next Step offered her a lucrative starting salary plus commissions, and a junior manager position. Ramona should not take the position with Next Step due to its questionable business practices, the dismissiveness of the Next Step recruiter when questioned regarding the company’s ethics code and the CEO exhibiting non-ethical and immoral behavior.
For a company to be successful ethically, it must go beyond the notion of simple legal compliance and adopt a values-based organizational culture. A corporate code of ethics can be a very valuable and integral part of a company’s culture but I believe that it is not strong enough to stand alone. Thought and care must go into constructing the code of ethics and the implementation of it. Companies need to infuse ethics and integrity throughout their corporate culture as well as into their definition of success. To be successfully ethical, companies must go beyond the notion of simple legal compliance and adopt a values-based organizational culture.
In response to the brief presented case study, Company Q has stores in high crime areas, and has chosen to close these stores citing above average losses because of shrinkage or theft by both customers and employees.
In today’s global society, a Code of Ethics policy is used to label established, acceptable behaviors among that industry’s business associates, potential investors, and the corporation’s executive officers and employees, and most important, the consumer (Ethics Resource Center, 2003). In an attempt to promote an increased efficiency and productivity potential level, among employees and prospective clients, a corporation’s standard Code of Ethics should guide its members toward a more in-depth examination of their personal moral activity, and how these actions affect the people or acquaintances they encounter. A company should utilize this strategy as a model for the professional behaviors and responsibilities of its constituents, and proves the occupational advancement of that business. Ethics are important in every level of a corporation, but specifically in the day-to-day actions of its members, and the image the company broadcasts to its associates is fundamental in building a stable business foundation. These pledges are a vital communication tool used to covey the firm’s standards for business operations, and predominantly, its relationships with the surrounding communities (Ethics Resource Center, 2003).
According to Byrne (2002), a strong organisational culture that reflects moral values will have a potent, positive impact on its position within the industry. Business ethics derived from corporate culture has come to be considered a management discipline as managers are the ones who regularly faced with ethical decisions within the company, which may affect the business’s social responsibility. Hewlett Packard (HP), a multinational information technology company, as a leader in its market demonstrated its strong commitment to ethical integrity and business culture under the management of Carly Fiorina who stated “Some of the most important choices I ever made were firing people who weren 't conducting themselves with integrity.” This establishes that a business with the right management structure with a strong commitment to the business culture can in fact remain competitive without tarnishing the reputation. This can be contrasted with the actions of the tobacco company R.J Reynolds, who neglected to follow its business culture when they were caught in a cover up scandal. It was revealed the company had hidden knowledge about the addictiveness of the nicotine within their cigarettes in order to maintain their profits and improve the bottom line (Stephen E. Brimmer, 2007). Although some companies are able to maintain a competitive spot in the market, corporate culture is sometimes overlooked as unethical decision making can be seen as a solution to short run business problems in order to maximize
Business Ethics and Code of Ethical Conduct Introduction A company’s code of ethical conduct governs the decision-making process and actions for doing business and self-regulation. Moreover, these codes give direction to employees by creating a public image of desirable behavior, healthier work climate, and reputation thereby helping firms to evade scandals. As a result, this document is useful in shaping the cultural expectations regarding the behavior of staff as well as acting as a marketing and PR tool for clients and business partners, who prefer doing business with companies that are serious about business ethics. The chief executive officer of any company should thus ensure that their firm enacts and follows an ethically and socially responsive code of conduct to spell out the appropriate behavior of employees towards other stakeholders.
An organization needs to adhere to ethics in order to effectively implement its mission, vision, and objectives in a way in which offers a solid foundation to management and their subordinates to properly develop and implement its strategies. By doing so, the organization as a whole is essentially subscribing to one commonality that directs all of the actions of the employees of the organization. Additionally, it assists in preventing such employees from divergence in regard to the proposed strategic guideline. Ethics additionally ensures that a strategic plan is developed in accordance to the interests of the appropriate stakeholders of the organization, both internal and external (Jin & Drozdenko, 2010). Likewise, corporate governance that stems from various regulatory parties makes it necessary for organizations to maintain a high degree of ethical standards; this is done by incorporating ethics within the organization’s strategic plan so as to foster a positive corporate image for the stakeholders and general public (Min-Dong Paul, 2009).
Corporate governance implies governing a company/organization by a set of rules, principles, systems and processes. It guides the company about how to achieve its vision in a way that benefits the company and provides long-term benefits to its stakeholders. In the corporate business context, stake-holders comprise board of directors, management, employees and with the rising awareness about Corporate Social Responsibility; it includes shareholders and society as well. The principles which...
Solomon, J (2013). Corporate Governance and Accountability. 4th ed. Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. p.7, p9, p10, p15, p58, p60, p253.
Corporate governances actually illustrate that no entity or agent is immune from fraudulent practices (Arjoon, 2005 p 342-344). Therefore, it is crucial for an organization to have a stable ethically healthy corporate culture, Patagonia is "doing things right" by influencing the actions of the workforce. Through the integration of ethical conduct in an organization, employees see the complexity of making ethical choices; also, it helps the staff understand what an ethical decision entails and how to talk about hard ethical choices and taking responsibility for making moral choices carefully and
Globalization Phase, companies were known locally, regionally and internationally, their products were already improved offering innovative services. However, as The Economist (2007) has highlighted, while more global the companies are more aware of corporate social responsibility they need to be, namely, foreign stakeholders will expect, not only innovative and effective products, but also they will open their doors and invest their money to companies that are social responsible.
Bhagat, S. and Bolton, B. 2008, ‘Corporate Governance and Firm Performance’, Journal of Corporate Finance, 14, 3:257–73.
A company's code of ethics is very important to establishing the expectations and quality of its brand. The code of ethics are concrete expectations for employee behavior, accountability and communicates the ethical policy of a company to its partners and clients. A good business practice is to have sound ethics. Having good ethical practice is knowing the difference between right and wrong and choosing what the right thing is. Though good ethical behavior is something that should be done automatically, a company needs to have a set of rules in place that holds everyone accountable. Over the last twenty years, the country has been bombarded with company scandals and unethical behavior; though morally wrong, the punishment does not fit the crime. The punishments have been overkill. A murderer, rapist, or child molester commits violent crimes and potentially is out of jail in 10 - 20 years. The CEO’s that commit white collar crime receive 25 years to life; this paper will discuss how this punishment for committing nonviolent crimes, such as breaching a company’s code of ethics, are disproportionate to violent crimes that plague the country today.
According to Carol Padgett (2012, 1), “companies are important part of our daily lives…in today’s economy, we are bound together through a myriad of relationships with companies”. The board of directors remain the highest echelon of management in any company. It is the “group of executive and non-executive directors which forms corporate strategy and is responsible for monitoring performance on the behalf of shareholders” (Padgett, 2012:1). Boards are clearly critical to the operation of companies and they are endowed with substantial power in the statute (Companies Act, 2014). The board is responsible for directing and steering the company. The board accomplishes this by business planning and risk management through proper corporate governance.