Question

Name 5 Ethical dilemmas facing smaller businesses? Why do you see these areas as a problem?

Answer 1

In today’s business world, number of start-up’s are growing significantly. They usually start with small scale business & face a lot many ethical dilemmas in due course of their operation. These are usually catered & learned as firms start growing & start looking at a bigger picture. Business ethical code of conduct & practices has to be defined right from the beginning & every person of the firm must abide by these practices.

5 Ethical dilemmas which are faced by small business are mentioned below:-

1. Diversification Dilemma:- Response to diversity of the pool of people hired & already in the system on basis of their knowledge & experiences. Each employee knowledge has to be respected when they are aligned to be worked together as a team. An ethical response could be recruiting as diversified team, providing equal & same trainings to all the employees so that each of them have a motivation factor that values their contributions. Each employee’s contribution in any field would be a key element in small business.
2. Decision Making Issues:- In order to maintain fair & transparent working organization, which includes good practices to be followed, ethical decision making has to be in process that would focus on internal & external stakeholders. Each decision should ensure that values & beliefs of workers are protected. Any situations must be analyzed identifying all the challenges, then collecting facts about the situations, considering alternative solutions & then making a decision which is beneficiary for all keeping intact the values & integrity.
3. Credibility & Trust:- These are most ethical issues that small business face due to challenges faced on employee credibility & retention rates. In order to be trusted, one must trust first. Small firms must show their trust in their employees & keep motivating them. This will help employees to keep values intact with the firm & give their best. Same, firms has to keep a strong check on customers’ orders & quality delivered as, credibility is hard to gain but easy to lose.
4. Legal & Compliance Issues:- Small organizations needs to comply with all the regulatory laws defined by the civil rights laws in order to keep running business ethically. All the laws as stated under judiciary has to be in place & must in aligned so that there is no compliance issue in running the organization. Ethically all the governmental documents & practices has to be followed in every organization, in order to make successful running of the business.
5. Privacy Policy:- Employees need to have a clear understanding on privacy policy of firms provided instruments, data, laptops, business cards. Information collection & distribution rights must be clearly defined in the terms & conditions or privacy policy. Non-adherence to any of these would be punishable under law. Small organizations keeps these policies of little concern & usually learn as they grow.