Background
Discuss about the Comparative Business Ethics and Social Responsibility for Uber.
Business ethics is accepted as one of the most important factors to lead the business organisation to the next level. It is noticed that when it comes to business ethics then various people express various concepts according to their realization. But overall it can get said that business ethics is there to determine the wrong and right activities and decisions in a business organisation. On the contrary, when it comes to social responsibility then the consumers expects the business organisations to take a responsible membership in a society. Actually, the business decisions and activities have the great ability to influence or affect the society in a great level.
According to the assignment criteria, the assignment has focused on recent business ethical issues of Uber in London. Actually, it is noticed that most of the business organisations are concerned of only making revenue and paving a great place in the industry. In order to achieve all these often the business organisations forget to maintain the business ethics and perform the social responsibility. Recently the TFL’s decision to take out operating license of Uber in London and this type of sudden decision has affected the business regime, drivers and common people of London. According to the business ethics experts, Uber needs to become more etical when it comes to its business ethics. It is not that everything was happened due to the achievement of adding revenue and great place in the industry but Uber has faced a down growth for near about one year. It can be said that improving the reputation of this business organisation is not so difficult, with the right initiative and just by avoiding the unnecessary embarrassment it can easily gained a great popularity within the industry.
In the introduction part there is a glance of business ethics but when it comes to deeper sense then it needs to get said that business ethics can be accepted as a study of business policies and practices and these policies and practices need to get evaluated on basis of controversial issues (in a business context) such as corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, leadership and etc. there are various types of business organisations and industries in a nation but it is not that all of them are equally aware of the business ethics and social responsibility (Crane and Matten, 2016). And that’s why the respected government implements several laws and legislations. Actually, the benefit of implementing the laws and legislation is the ethics of the business organisations get proper guidance. Actually, there is the utmost need of shaping the business ethics in order to maintain a positive and encouraging atmosphere in all the business organisations in a nation. It is also noticed that often business ethics are there only to provide a basic framework and the business regime needs to gain public acceptance on a greater level. (Schwartz, 2017)
Business ethics and social responsibility according to the scenario
On the contrary, social responsibility can be depicted as an ethical theory and according to this theory individuals are bound to perform their own civic duty. Through this process, it needs to get ensured that the actions by the individuals in an aligned way which leads towards great benefit of a society. When business ethics and social responsibility gets properly maintained then there automatically a great balance between economic growth and welfare of society gets built (Joutsenvirta and Vaara, 2015).
Generally, social responsibility gets built based on the system of ethics. Actually, here both the actions and decisions need to be ethically approved to the society. On the other words it can be said that due to the implementation of moral values automatically the sense of right and wrong in a social and business context gets created. (Kolk, 2016)
It is noticed that business ethical issues frequently take place in the business organisations due to lots of influential factors. It is not that all the organisations of a specific industry will face the same kind of business ethical issues. Ethical behavior is accepted as the best way to run a business organisation successfully (Vidaver-Cohen and Brønn, 2015). The lack of proper ethical behavior, miscommunication with the staffs, lack of market survey, lack of integrity are there to provoke major ethical issues. And this can get seen in the case of Uber.
In order to understand the reason why business ethical issues have taken place into the business regime of Uber understanding all the related factors is truly important.
It can be clearly said that day by day the business executives of Uber were losing the integrity in their way of operating the business. The major employee support Uber get from the local drivers and according to the local drivers (who work in Uber) did not realize any fairness and honesty when Uber deals with their clients. During the transportation, the driver becomes the utmost responsible to face the passengers and it makes them annoy and they have no clear answer to give the passengers (Knudsen et al, 2015). A clear dissatisfaction takes place into the Uber drivers. It is also noticed that they drivers often do not get proper training on how to deal with such situations. On the other words it can be said that how the company treats its customers leaves a greater impact on its employees. If the company is cheating the customers and making complicate the service regime in order to increase the profitability illogically then the employees find it as a not a good place to work for long (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2014). Employee turnover rate has become greater in Uber due to this type of dishonest unethical business practices.
Overcoming business ethical issues
So, here a discussion can get raised and that is there any way to overcome this situation or not to get in this type of loss (Saeidi et al, 2015). The answer should started with ‘yes’, it is possible to bring back the lost reputation and place of making business in the market. Through the close evaluation it can get noticed that a lot of business organisations have faced such loses due to illogical business practices and avoiding of ethical business practice manner.
In this type of situation, the business organisation requires to develop code of business ethics in alignment of social responsibility (Karmasin and Bichler, 2017). Through this way, the mentioned business organisation too can gain its lost popularity and pave a place in the industry. The code of ethics should include a motivating statement in order to make the employees more efficient. Actually, efficient employees are the best things which can ensure the success of a business organisation. The motivation should get developed without considering its existence and the purpose of the business organisation. In the next lines, how the developed code of business ethics can help Uber is described in the appropriate manner. (Visser and Tolhurst, 2017)
Having an impression of responsible business organisation is really important in order to gain the trust of the employees. The developed code of ethics plays a vital role when it comes to operating the business responsibly. With the code of ethics, a better culture automatically gets created and the new employees at the first day try to get adjusted with that and the organisation need not to put any adding effort in this aspect. (Quarshie et al, 2016)
In the earlier section it is mentioned that the countrymen prefer to deal with the business organisation which has proper sense of social responsibility. The customers prefer the business organisations which value integrity. And the integrity can be achieved and maintain through proper code of ethics in practice of a business organisation.
In a business organisation, a lot of factors take place it is not that it happens due to the interfere of the governing body of the organisation rather of the problematic factors take place due to the employees on their own. Proper codes of ethics shape the behavior and activity of the employees in a business context and this ensures the prevention of miscommunications between the employees and other unexpected factors. (Grigore et al, 2017)
Importance of code of ethics
It is also noticed that having clear code of business ethics in alignment with social responsibility helps the business organisation to get profited from various ways. In order to avoid the potential business problems having an idea to address the problems earlier is necessary and this can get enabled only through proper development of codes of business ethics based on the social responsibilities.
Conclusion
After the long discussion, the assignment has reached its conclusion point. In the entire assignment the importance of business ethics and social responsibility is getting noticed. Actually, all the business organisations have some basic responsibility to its employees and customers but a lot of organisations such as Uber forget this part and try to anyhow merge the business and as a result after a time lose the entire popularity. With the proper codes of business ethics and social responsibility such situations generally do not take place and if an organisation is facing such problem then it can get cured with the development of codes of business ethics.
Reference List
Carroll, A. and Buchholtz, A., 2014. Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Grigore, G., Molesworth, M. and Watkins, R., 2017. New Corporate Responsibilities in the Digital Economy. In Corporate Social Responsibility in the Post-Financial Crisis Era (pp. 41-62). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Joutsenvirta, M. and Vaara, E., 2015. Legitimacy struggles and political corporate social responsibility in international settings: A comparative discursive analysis of a contested investment in Latin America. Organization Studies, 36(6), pp.741-777.
Karmasin, M. and Bichler, K., 2017. Corporate Social Responsibility in the Media Industry: Setting the Benchmark or Falling Behind?. In Value-Oriented Media Management (pp. 135-146). Springer, Cham.
Knudsen, J.S., Moon, J. and Slager, R., 2015. Government policies for corporate social responsibility in Europe: A comparative analysis of institutionalisation. Policy & Politics, 43(1), pp.81-99
Kolk, A., 2016. The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the environment to CSR and sustainable development. Journal of World Business, 51(1), pp.23-34.
Quarshie, A.M., Salmi, A. and Leuschner, R., 2016. Sustainability and corporate social responsibility in supply chains: The state of research in supply chain management and business ethics journals. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 22(2), pp.82-97.
Saeidi, S.P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S.P. and Saaeidi, S.A., 2015. How does corporate social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Business Research, 68(2), pp.341-350.
Schwartz, M.S., 2017. Corporate social responsibility. Routledge.
Vidaver-Cohen, D. and Brønn, P.S., 2015. Reputation, responsibility, and stakeholder support in Scandinavian firms: A comparative analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 127(1), pp.49-64.
Visser, W. and Tolhurst, N., 2017. The world guide to CSR: A country-by-country analysis of corporate sustainability and responsibility. Routledge.