Review of corporate ethics

Provide an overview of corporate ethics. Regardless of whether you run a large or small firm, ethical standards are important. Because a company's ability to meet financial goals is so important, it is even more crucial that it fulfill its ethical obligations. As a result, everyone in the company, regardless of their position, must fulfill these moral obligations (LaCroix 56).
Due to its wide use, integrity is the most important ethical principle in business (Leonard and Gonzalez-Perez 44). Of course, those who possess integrity value other values as well, such as self-control, dependability, honesty, compassion, and respect. These values are then incorporated into the six pillars of a person's character, includes trustworthiness, fairness, citizenship, respect, caring and responsibility.
Ethical principles in business are not only crucial for the long-term survival of the organization but also they create positive business results, for instance, enormous profits. These laws and policies should always come first from the top leadership, which they are emulated by the rest of the employees in the organization since the senior leaders always act as the role models to the rest of the employees.
The following are the twelve ethical principles for business executives; loyalty, leadership, accountability, fairness, honesty, respect for others, reputation and morale, commitment to excellence, concern for others, integrity, Law Abiding also promise-keeping and trustworthiness (Leonard and Gonzalez-Perez 49).

Define CSR and give an example

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)) refers to the movement aimed at inspiring the organizations to be more concern about the impacts their businesses have on the society, their environment, and the specific stakeholders. It is a business approach in which by delivering economic, social, and environmental benefits for the stakeholders, it promotes sustainable development (Sheth 35).
Below is an example of an aspect of CSR, that is, environmental sustainability.
One of the international companies in the beverages and food sector with a CSR strategy that is comprehensive is Unilever Company, and it is rated as the seventh in the hundred most sustainable corporations worldwide. Unilever is among the significant and unique initiative by the company, and it aims at sourcing all of its Litton and tea bags from the Alliance certified TM farms. The partnership is based on NGO which is Rainforest Alliance. The certification of the Rainforest Certification provides organizations to differentiate their services and products being socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable.

Identify Stakeholders and Define their Individual Roles or Relationships

A stakeholder is either an organization, group of people or a person, who has concern or interest in a firm. They can undeviatingly affect or be affected by the firm’s policies, objectives, and actions. The key stakeholders include employees, consumers, suppliers, investors, and communities.
In the consumer goods industry, employees directly influence the performance of the business. Also, these stakeholders are interested in the holistic career development as well as competitive compensation, for instance, in the work-life balance, suitable human resource policies help to satisfy the needs of workers (Smillie 9).
The role of the consumers is to focus their interests on the price of the product, the impact of consumer goods business on the environment and also the quality of the product, furthermore, these stakeholders determine the profits of the company directly since the firm’s revenues will increase due to consumers’ satisfaction.
Supplier as plays a significant role in affecting the capacity of business operations in a firm. Aforementioned is based on the availability of the consumer goods production. Additionally, they focus their interests in doing a money-making business with the organization. Investors are stakeholders group that plays an essential role in influencing the availability of capital which is used in funding the company’s business hence leading to the continuing expansion of the firm’s business; moreover, they focus their interests on how the consumer goods business performs. For instance, investors will not only be confident but also satisfied, if there are higher profits as well as revenues being realized by the organization.
Communities as a stakeholder have a role in providing positive feedback, therefore, enhancing the brand image which is one of the company’s strength. Furthermore, communities play a significant role in influencing the consumers’ perception of the company, for instance, when the community is involved, the consumers will develop a real and positive confidence in the business.

Define Business Ethics Fundamentals and give examples

The study of practices and proper business policies which concerns potentially controversial issues like, fiduciary responsibilities, bribery, corporate social responsibility, company governance, discrimination as well as insider training is referred to as business ethics.

Discuss consumers as stakeholders, Information Issues, and Responses

Consumers as stakeholders are directly affected and can also be affected by the firm’s policies, objectives, and actions. Consumers are directly involved in the determination of the firm’s profits. For instance, the firm’s revenues will increase due to repeated sales and when the customers are satisfied. Besides, the benefits will increase when consumers are focused on the consumer goods, and the quality of the outputs produced by the company.

Discuss the Natural Environment as a Stakeholder

Like people, the environment is also influenced by the business. Therefore, there are many consequences when the environment is ignored by the firm. Ignoring it will likewise have a significant impact on the society as well as the other businesses. Evolution has been there concerning the perspective of the environment as a business stakeholder and its position. The environment has been disregarded many times since it is voiceless. Thus the reason as to why the environment is ignored in decision making in most cases, both at the firm and macroeconomic level can now be seen. Even the stakeholders who gave the credit to nature as among the stakeholders have not been able to address the issue (Smillie 34). They have failed to provide or deliver expression on corporate activity that affects the environment in various ways. The significance of the environment has been emphasized by numerous stakeholders
Regardless of the pressure by the stakeholders, actions which result in the activities such as conversion of the recourses in the natural earth or preservation of the bio-diversity are morally worthy. Therefore, the companies should take into account environment as one of the stakeholders if they want to gain the upper hand. For any business to succeed, all the stakeholders need to be taken into consideration. All the stakeholders are interdependent, and each one of them plays a crucial role in the development of the business. The organizations which do not treat the environment as among the primary stakeholders realize maximum returns from the industry. The current concept of corporate social responsibility takes into consideration performance of organizations in environmental, social, and financial regards. Apart from this, it also addresses the impact of the business activities and different stakeholders including the environment.

Works Cited

LaCroix, W L. Principles for Ethics in Business. UP of America, 1979.
Leonard, Liam, and Maria A. Gonzalez-Perez. Principles and Strategies to Balance Ethical, Social and Environmental Concerns with Corporate Requirements. Emerald, 2013.
Lewis, M. K. "Ethical Principles in Islamic Business and Banking Transactions." The Foundations of Islamic Banking, doi:10.4337/9781849807937.00009.
Sheth, Jagdish N. Corporate Social Responsibility. 2016.
Smillie, Ian. Stakeholders. Taylor and Francis, 2013.