Corporate Social Responsibility – Ethics and the Future

Corporate Social Responsibility – Ethics and the Future

The Kantian moral philosophy holds that the motive instead of the consequence determines the morality of an action. This philosophy implies that ethical living requires one to treat other people better than just means to greater ends. For instance, it is wrong to steal regardless of one’s situation. It is also wrong to kill, even in self-defense. Respect is highlighted as critical for human interactions. Every human being deserves respect (CFI Education Inc., 2021).

In a business setting, Kantian ethics requires entities to respect the consumers. In the case of Samsung, the company was purely driven by the need to make profits faster than its competitor, Apple. Therefore, Samsung did not take into consideration the safety of employees and cut corners when manufacturing the Note 7 phone (BBC, 2017). The results manifested in explosions, which posed safety and health hazards to users and non-users. The first reaction that the company displayed showed a lack of concern for its consumers. Eventually, the company recalled the phones and replaced them with improved ones (Lopez, 2017). This action turned out to be positive because the company finally demonstrated concern and respect for its clients.

Personally, I have had to deal with situations where I had to weigh ethical concerns over business aspects. Once, I had a client who had a skin allergy. She wanted to purchase products for her facial routine. When I asked her, she clearly identified the product that she was allergic to. This specific ingredient was in the product that she wanted to buy. I had the moral obligation to inform her that the products she intended to buy would worsen her skin situation. I could also brush this moral obligation over and sell the products to her. However, I chose the former decision. While she was disappointed that she could not get the desired products, she was grateful that I pointed her to this aspect. She became a loyal client and came back to seek product referrals from the business. The motive behind my decision was to protect the client’s welfare since I already had information regarding her allergy.

In a business setting, it is usually difficult to make ethical decisions because of the desire to make profits consistently and shared decision-making. Some of the decision-makers may be sensitive to the consumers’ welfare, while others may choose to view these as insignificant. As is the case with Samsung’s Note 7 phone release, the decision to make the gadget publicly available may have been made without adherence to proper product tests. The lack of product tests or the product’s failure to satisfy the tests was overlooked for the sake of profits. This scenario is common among both small and large business owners.

To make ethical decisions in the business setting, it is necessary for all decision-makers to clearly understand and defend the company’s ethical position. Conflicting personal interests may come in the way as people seek fast profits, rapid goal achievement, promotions, and other elements (ASHA, 2021). These personal goals may interfere with ethical decision-making (McDonald, n.d). Unfortunately, it places the company’s reputation at risk. Unethical decisions can lead to far more serious consequences than just a bad reputation. For instance, clients can sue a company if they suffer damages due to the usage of a certain product or service (Anderson & Caldwell, 2020). This outcome attracts litigation costs and payment of damages. Instead of placing financial resources at risk, ethical decision-making is much better.

References

Anderson, V., & Caldwell, C. (2020). Chapter 5 Ethic of Self-Interest. In Business Ethics. NOVA.

ASHA. (2021). Issues in Ethics: Conflicts of Professional Interest. Retrieved from American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: https://www.asha.org/practice/ethics/conflicts-of-professional-interest/

BBC. (2017). Samsung confirms battery faults as cause of Note 7 fires. BBC News.

CFI Education Inc. (2021). Kantian Ethics.

Lopez, M. (2017). Samsung Explains Note 7 Battery Explosions And Turns Crisis Into Opportunity. Forbes.

McDonald, M. (n.d). Ethics and Conflict of Interest. Retrieved from University of British Columbia: https://ethics.ubc.ca/peoplemcdonaldconflict-htm/

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Business Ethics are moral standards of conduct expected of a business by society. Social Responsibility involves the philosophies, policies, procedures, and actions that have the primary goal of enhancing society. Let us apply the concepts.

SLP Assignment
The goal of this Session Long Project:

This assignment is the last of four SLPs where you will be building a bank of takeaways pertaining to ethical and/or unethical behaviors.

After reviewing this SLP scenario:

Express your reactions
Apply your own background/experiences
State important takeaways
Add other comments you would like to make
Your SLP submission should be 2pages of text, well-organized, well-written, and 100% error-free. You may use first- or third-person voice. Write in full sentences. Demonstrate your critical-thinking skills. Be creative (for example, add color and/or small graphics).

*Note: In SLP 2, we introduced the importance of library research. So, in SLP 4, support your arguments with sources from the Trident Online Library. This is an expectation at the graduate level.

Categorical Imperative: Part of Organizational Culture?

Mobile phone
“samsung phone” by Sean MacEntee is licensed under CC BY 2.0

In the fall of 2016, Samsung Electronics experienced a massive public relations disaster when its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones started exploding due to faulty batteries and casings. Initially, the company denied there were any technical problems. Then, when it became obvious the exploding phones posed a safety and health threat when they were banned from airplanes, Samsung accused its suppliers of creating the problem. In reality, the rush to beat Apple’s iPhone 7 release date was the most likely reason corners were cut in production. Samsung finally owned up to the problem, recalled more than two million phones worldwide, and replaced them with new, improved Galaxy Note 7s. The company’s response and its replacement of the phones went a long way toward defusing the disaster and even boosting the company’s share price. Whether management knew it, its response was Kantian. Samsung focused on the end (i.e., customer safety and satisfaction) with the motive of doing the ethically responsible thing.

Source: Byars and Stanberry (2018), page 54 CC BY

General References Useful for Preparing Graduate-Level Papers:

For a list of general reference sources related to locating library sources, using APA formatting, applying critical-thinking skills, and so forth, see General References Useful for Preparing Graduate-Level Papers. It is not required that you read these sources page by page, but rather you refer to them for guidance.