2411/09

Ethics- the moral prinicples,values,& judgemnts that sociey believesorgaizions should consider inte decision making process

Morals-to address questions such as how a moral outcome can be achieved in a specific situation and how moral values should be determined.

Corporate Social Responsibility-self-regulating mechanism whereby business would monitor and ensure its adherence to law, ethical standards, and international norms.

Social Auditing-review of the public-interest, nonprofit, and social activities of a business. These audits usually are performed primarily for internal benefit and typically are not released to the public. The social audit may be performed routinely by internal or external consulting groups, as part of regular internal audits. These evaluations consider social and environmental impacts of business activities.

. Three Examples of Unethical Business Behaviour:a) Financial Dishonesty - this encompasses illegal deliberate misinterpretation of financial accounts as well as morally unjust issues with business expenses being reimbursed to directors of companies. b) Exploitation of the workforce - Encompasses the exploitation of employees in areas such as neglect of welfare issues, poor pay and unjust working conditions.c) Exploitation of consumers - This is when firms knowingly exploit people or society by selling harmful products as well as charging excessive prices.3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Businesses which behave ethically
Advantages:
- Improved Corporate Image - enhances the businesses reputation through treating employees fairly as well as being environmentally friendly
.- Increased Customer Loyalty - businesses build larger customer base though ethical and moral ideals of their objectives and actions.
- Cost Cutting - by being conscious of the environment (e.g. recycling, reduced excess packaging) businesses can often reduce some costs of production as well as reduce the risk of litigation costs from illegal actions.
- Improved Self Motivation - drives employees motivation, productivity and loyalty as they are working for an ethically and morally positive business as well reducing labour turnover.
- Improved Staff Morale - recruitment and retainment of motivated, quality staff as more want to work for business with strong ethical stance.

Disadvantages:
- Compliance Costs - acting ethically could be far more expensive due to additional money and time needed to produce the ethically supportive products (e.g. organic food is more expensive to harvest).
- Lower Profits - Higher prices due to compliance costs which in turn could cause an ethical dilemma where the business could need to adopt a less profitable course of action.
- Stakeholder Conflict - Organizational objectives within the various stakeholder groups could be different (e.g. financial investors are more concerned with the short-term profits as oppose to the firm's ethical stance).
4. How CSR helps a Business compete?
The social responsibilities of a business play an important role in their corporate image. They alow the more consciencus customer to determine, what would be the right choice for their business.
5.Why Social Auditing is undertaken by a Business ?
Social auditing allows an organization to take into account its social performance, report on and improve that performance. It assesses the social impact and ethical behaviour of an organisation in relation to its aims and those of its stakeholders. Allowing the company to recognize how they are doing in satisfying the needs/wishes of the customers.