Question

 Question 2 

 There are four perspectives from which ethical values and decisions can be evaluated, namely societal norms and culture, laws and regulations, organisational practices and culture

 and lastly individual perspectives.

 Comment on individual perspectives as one of the four perspectives from which ethical

 values and decisions can be evaluated.

 Question 3 

 A group is two or more individuals who share common interests, whereas a team is a group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose.

 Critically discuss the differences between a group and a team.

 Question 4 

 From a cultural perspective, language is a shared system of vocal sounds, written signs and/or gestures used to convey special meaning among members.

 Critically discuss language and narratives as observable elements of culture.

 Question 5 

 The purpose of an organisation's design is to support the achievement of its goals and objectives. It should be obvious that the environment in which an organisation finds itself will affect the organisational design the business requires and thus chooses to use. There are two types of environment, a stable environment and a changing (turbulent) environment. Distinguish between a stable and changing or turbulent environment.

 Question 6 

 Corporate citizenship is about creating a contract between an organisation and the society in which it operates, because what happens to societies happens to business.

 Explain the four main principles of corporate citizenship.

Answer 1

Question 2 - Individual Perspective

Introduction

Individual perspectives are the bedrock of ethics as they guide what a person considers good/bad or desirable/undesirable. Perspectives create the foundation for personal and societal judgment and action. Out of the four perspectives i.e. Societal Norms and Culture, Laws and Regulations, Organizational Practices and Culture, and Personal Perspectives, the latter plays a major role in decision making, since the actions / decisions are generated by the individuals.

INDIVIDUAL PERSPECTIVE FROM WHICH ETHICAL VALUES AND DECISIONS CAN BE EVALUATED

Decision making is a product of both the way individuals make decisions and the context in which these individuals make decisions.

Organizations do not make decisions, people do. This observation is a statement of both structural and operational fact: organizations are made by, and are comprised of, people. There may be transportation, transformation, technological, computation and communication infrastructures to support human decision makers. These infrastructures generally have differential impact on the individuals in question, affect what information they have access to, and so what decisions they make. Nevertheless, organizations are all created, supported, maintained and operated by these individuals. Thus, the issue of socially constrained, but nevertheless indvidual decision making, lies at the heart of research on organizational decision making.

However, those that seek to make moral personal decisions have the will or desire to seek what's right over the long term. This will be reflected in their ethics in decision making (decisions made in the business context). There will also be the case where a person's morals may come into conflict with the organization's ethics.

Being a moral person rests on a combination of key traits such as integrity, honesty, and trustworthiness. Integrity involves not only forthrightness and honesty or truthfulness but also consideration for the soundness of the whole entity that one manages as well as of the society in which the organization is located. Integrity also means firm adherence to a code, such as an ethical code of conduct. Thus, being a moral person suggests that the individual has integrity and can be trusted. In addition to these traits, being a moral person also involves behaviors such as doing the right thing, concern for people, being open, and standards of personal integrity. The essence of ethics, of course, is doing the right thing, especially under difficult circumstances, and that involves being able to reason well about what the right thing to do actually is. To be able to reason well about a difficult ethical situation, a person needs to be open to learning from multiple sources about the situation while taking care not to harm people and actually attempting to treat people well in the decision making process or when decisions are being implemented. To be able to make good decisions ethically, an individual needs to have thoughtfully developed his or her personal set of perspectives or values, a personal code of conduct or integrity. Personal standards allow an individual to think through a decision with a clear rationale in mind.

It is important to have a moral personal perspective since ethical business practices aren't just an example of selfless do-goodism, but they are essential for sustainable growth, increased employee productivity and reliable investment in the business. In short, individual perspective plays a large role in individual and corporate success.

Conclusion

Individual Perspective concerns an individual’s moral judgements about right and wrong. Decisions taken within an organisation may be made by individuals or groups, but whoever makes them will be influenced by the culture of the company. The decision to behave ethically is a moral one; employees must decide what they think is the right course of action. Though it may involve rejecting the route that would lead to the biggest short-term profit.

Question 3 – Group and Team

Introduction

A group is a collection of individuals who coordinate their individual efforts. On the other hand, at team is a group of people who share a common team purpose and a number of challenging goals. Members of the team are mutually committed to the goals and to each other. This mutual commitment also creates joint accountability which creates a strong bond and a strong motivation to perform.

Definition of Group

A group is an assemblage of persons who work, interact and cooperate with one another in achieving a common goal in a specified time. The identity of the group members is taken individually. The members share information and resources with other group members.

In an organisation, the groups are made on the basis of common interests, beliefs, experience in common fields and principles, so that they can easily coordinate with each other. There are two kinds of groups:

Formal Group: These groups are created by the management of the organisation for performing a specific task.

Informal Group: The formation of these groups is done naturally in an organisation, to satisfy the social or psychological human needs.

For example: Ethnic groups, trade unions, friendship circles, airline flight crew, etc.

Definition of Team

A group of people who are joined for achieving a common goal within a stipulated period, having collective accountability is known as the team. The agenda of the team is “one for all and all for one”. Apart from sharing information, the team members also share the responsibility of the team task. The team is always responsible for the outcome (i.e. Result of the collective efforts of the team members).

The team members have a mutual understanding with other members. They work jointly to maximise the strengths and minimise the weakness by complementing each other. The most important feature of a team is “synergy” i.e. the team can achieve much more as the members can achieve individually. The three key features of team functioning are:

· Cohesion

· Confrontation

· Collaboration

For example: Cricket team, team for accomplishing a project, team of doctors, management team etc.

Key Differences Between Group and Team

The difference between group and team in the workplace can be drawn clearly on the following grounds:

1. There is only one head in a group. A team can have more than one head.
2. The group members do not share responsibility, but team members share the responsibility.
3. The group focuses on achieving the individual goals. Conversely, the team members focus on achieving the team goals.
4. The group produces individual work products. As opposed to, the team who produces collective work products.
5. The process of a group is to discuss the problem, then decide and finally delegate the tasks to individual members. On the other hand, a team discusses the problem, then decide the way of solving it and finally do it collectively.
6. The group members are independent. Unlike a group, the team members are interdependent.

Conclusion

A team is qualitatively different from a group. A team plays a very vital role in the life of the members. The team members as it motivates the members for working creatively and actively participating in the team tasks. Moreover, a team stimulates the members to work for/with one another in an achieving an objective.

The Group is also not less; the group also helps the members in developing a sense of conformity between the members and respect the group values. It increases their resistance to change. Above all, the power of a group is always more than an individual.

Question 4 – Language and Narrative as observable element of Culture

Introduction

Language allows people to pass on ideas, knowledge, and even attitudes on to the next generation. “Language allows culture to develop by freeing people to move beyond their immediate experiences”. Language help create memories. This is because people associate experiences with words and then use words to recall the experience. If language was not present, people would have a very rough time with communicating dates and times. Because of language, people are able to plan activities and events with one another. Language allows culture to exist. Language is also very important because it allows people to have a purpose for getting together.

Language and Narrative as observable element of Culture

Language is transmitted culturally; that is, it is learned. To a lesser extent it is taught, when parents, for example, deliberately encourage their children to talk and to respond to talk, correct their mistakes, and enlarge their vocabulary. But it must be emphasized that children very largely acquire their first language by “grammar construction” from exposure to a random collection of utterances that they encounter. What is classed as language teaching in school either relates to second-language acquisition or, insofar as it concerns the pupils’ first language, is in the main directed at reading and writing, the study of literature, formal grammar, and alleged standards of correctness, which may not be those of all the pupils’ regional or social dialects. All of what goes under the title of language teaching at school presupposes and relies on the prior knowledge of a first language in its basic vocabulary and essential structure, acquired before school age.

If language is transmitted as part of culture, it is no less true that culture as a whole is transmitted very largely through language, insofar as it is explicitly taught. The fact that humankind has a history in the sense that animals do not is entirely the result of language.

By far the greatest part of learned behaviour, which is what culture involves, is transmitted by vocal instruction, not by imitation. Some imitation is clearly involved, especially in infancy, in the learning process, but proportionately this is hardly significant.

Through time, variations appeared within a language. Transmission of a language is self-perpetuating unless there is deliberate interference. However, it became important for humans to improve their social hierarchies and social status to advance personally. Thus, many people cultivate the right dialect with is phonological, grammatical and lexical features to make themselves better than the rest and get accepted in new communities.

An example of this phenomenon is the insistence of immigrants from Europe to speak American English when they decided to move to the United States. It is because they realized that speaking American English is the sign of acceptance in their new home country. Unexpectedly, third generation immigrants now want to get in touch with the language of their ancestors.

Culture unifies a community although there is diversity within that unity. For example, the speech used by the older generation could be different from the one used by the younger people. Further, different groups may speak one language, but there would be subsets used by different groups of people. There could be slight differences in the language used by a professor compared to the one used by a young office worker. People could use a different form of the same language in online forums, which would vastly differ from the language used by media and classically trained individuals.

Language is used in different ways and broadly, the linguistic varieties could be categorized into geographical (used only in particular parts of the community), social (varieties used by societal groups based on occupation, gender and age) and functional (used based on function and situation). These factors lead to the formation of dialects or narratives that add diversity to the language.

Learning a language is therefore learning the behavior of a given society and its cultural customs. Language is a product of the thought and behavior of a society. An individual language speaker’s effectiveness in a foreign language is directly related to his/her understanding of the culture of that language.

Conclusion

Language and culture are interlinked and one cannot learn one of these without having a clear understanding of the other. Language is linked to all the human-life aspects in society and understanding of the surrounding culture plays an important role in learning a language. Hence language and culture are inseparable and language and narratives are the most observable part of the culture.

Question 5 – Distinguish between Stable Environment and Changing or Turbulent Environment

Introduction

From the perspective of a businessman, the business environment is considered one of the most influential forces that can affect business operations. Following are two major business environments:

(a) Stable Environment

A stable environment is one with little or no unexpected or sudden change. However, it is difficult to find stable environment because of changes in technology, society and other spheres.

(b) Changing/Turbulent Environment

In a changing environment, innovation may occur in product, sudden changes may occur in market, law, or technology.

DIFFRENCE - STABLE ENVIRONMENT VS CHANGING ENVIRONMENT/TURBULENT ENVIRONMENT

Stability refers to the rate at which change occurs. In a Stable environment, change is slow. Managers have time to monitor and respond to changes in a deliberate manner. The grocery industry is relatively stable. In Changing environment Managers must react quickly and organizations must be flexible to respond. Today’s business environment is generally very Changing. Technology, consumer tastes, laws and regulations, political leaders, and international conditions are all changing rapidly and dramatically. Failure to monitor and respond to changing conditions often results in a company’s demise. Consider the Nokia example. Nokia was a market leader just a few years ago. It didn’t respond quickly to the emergence of smartphones and has now been acquired by Microsoft.

Conclusion

Considering todays technological speed and domination of social media and data analysis, the Companies will always be facing changing environment and the strategy shall be pro-active to achieve sustainable growth.

Question 6 - Corporate citizenship

Introduction

Corporate citizenship is the term used to describe the contribution a business or organization makes to the local community or society as a whole. These contributions include not only the company’s core business activities, but also its investments in the local community. An organization’s long-term success depends on having favorable corporate citizenship. For this to happen, the company must successfully engage with its employees, shareholders, business partners, customers, the government, and the rest of the community. These relationships are vital for a business that wants to have successful financing and social standings within the community.

Four Main Principles of Corporate Citizenship

Corporate citizenship is the business strategy that shapes the values underpinning a company's mission and the choices made each day by its executives, managers and employees as they engage with society.

The four core principles that define the essence of corporate citizenship that every company shall apply in a manner appropriate to its distinct needs is as follows:

1. Minimize harm: The Company shall work to minimize the negative consequences of business activities and decisions on stakeholders, including employees, customers, communities, ecosystems, shareholders and suppliers. Examples include operating ethically, supporting efforts to stop corruption, championing human rights, preventing environmental harm, enforcing good conduct from suppliers, treating employees responsibly, ensuring the safety of employees, ensuring that marketing statements are accurate, and delivering safe, high-quality products.

2. Maximize benefit: Contribute to societal and economic well-being by investing resources in activities that benefit shareholders as well as broader stakeholders. Examples include participating voluntarily to help address social issues (such as education, health, youth development, economic development for low-income communities, and work force development), ensuring stable employment, paying fair wages and producing a product with social value.

3. Be accountable and responsive to key stakeholders: Build relationships of trust that involve becoming more transparent and open about the progress and setbacks businesses experience in an effort to operate ethically. Create mechanisms to include the voice of stakeholders in governance, produce social reports assured by third parties, operate according to a code of conduct and listen to and communicate with stakeholders.

4. Support strong financial results: The responsibility of a company to return a profit to shareholders must always be considered part of its obligation to society.

Ultimately, what distinguishes a company's practice of corporate citizenship is expressed by the way it delivers its core values. The competitive companies have fundamentally align and embed their core values - including the values that society expects them to hold. Values are becoming a new strategic asset and tool that establishes the basis of trust and cooperation.

Conclusion

As said, what happens to society happens to business because global society cannot solve many of its problems without the help of companies and their employees. By contributing to society, companies enrich the lives of their employees through match giving and mentoring schemes and the company builds a reputation for responsible behaviour, which is an immense asset in both the marketplace and the workplace. Corporate Citizenship also helps businesses in accessing finance, attract positive media attention, reduce regulatory burden, and identify new business opportunities.