Contemporary Issues Portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Contemporary Issues Portfolio - Essay Example Some recently published organisational studies and other market research surveys also justify the promotion of ethics and social responsibility in business. In order for promoting ethics and social responsibility in the organisational environment, today most of the companies perform community based services and publish a corporate sustainability report periodically. These concepts are of greater importance in online business sector too. This paper will analyse the contemporary ethical and social responsibility challenges Facebook is facing and how the organisation is addresses those problems. Managing ethics and social responsibility Business ethics and social responsibility are two broad and interconnected terms which play a significant role in determining the level of reputation of an organisation. The concept of business ethics represents a set of principles and standards that make an organisation’s business conducts acceptable to its different groups of stakeholders. †Å"Business ethics is defined as rules of business conduct by which the rightness/proprietary of the business operations/activities may be assessed or judged† (Prasad 2005, p.426). ... In a business context, stakeholder groups including customers, government, competitors, general public, and other interest groups determine the acceptability of behaviour. The collapse of Enron, one of the biggest ethical disasters in the 21st century, is a good example of how unethical business practices may affect an organisation (Trevino & Nelson 2010, p.3). Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, the former CEO’s of Enron, intentionally tried to deceive the firm’s stakeholders by hiding the actual state of financial affairs of the company. Evidently, it is necessary to promote and manage business ethics in an organisational environment. For this purpose, primarily the management should foster ethical behaviour among its employees. Setting business goals and periodical performance appraisal are effective strategies to manage business ethics successfully. Another important thing is that the organisation has to develop well defined codes of business ethics and decision rules. In th e area of online business, managing business ethics is becoming a complex task because internet based illegal and unethical practices like password theft are increasing each day. Therefore, online marketers have to give specific focus to the promotion of business ethics. Social responsibility is an ethical ideology that obliges business organisations to make notable contributions to the overall welfare of the society rather than focusing only on profit maximisation efforts. â€Å"Social responsibility is a management philosophy that includes contributing resources to the community, preserving the natural environment, and developing or participating in non-profit programmes designed to promote the