How to Identify What If Any Ethical & Social Responsibility Issues Might Arise in a Business

Check your pollution control measures to ensure your business is abiding by pollution laws.

Business ethics force businesses to make decisions and operate in a moral manner and to look beyond their own goals. Businesses are accountable to all of their stakeholders, including employees, customers, society as a whole and stockholders. Businesses are not isolated from society, they are a part of it, and they must be contributing members. Owners are experiencing demands for transparency and investor pressure to become ethical, socially responsible businesses. Business owners must be vigilant in their search for ethical and social responsibility issues within their companies.

Instructions

1. Identify conflicts of interest. Search for areas where the business has put its own interests above the interests of its stakeholders. Identify any areas where your business has cut corners to increase profits. These cut corners could be improper equipment maintenance, overworked staff, inadequate environmental controls or low-quality products and services.

2. Encourage open communication throughout the organization and investigate any claims of one individual blocking communication with another. Monitor email systems to prevent demeaning emails. Investigate any claims where an employee refused to or failed to communicate or return the communication of another employee.

3. Develop and enforce policies that prevent abusive or intimidating behavior within the organization and in its interactions with others and society. Investigate customer and employee claims of abuse. Treat all employees with fairness and honesty. Stop rumors about individuals within and outside the company. Watch for individuals who flaunt status, discredit or disrespect others ideas and opinions and take credit for the work of others, known as plagiarism.

4. Identify areas where the company has lied to its stakeholders. Correct these lies. Review all corporate documents and statements for truth. If you are uncomfortable with the document coming out, it may contain unethical information. Review these in detail and make changes in the business to prevent this in the future. Creative accounting is a common way businesses skirt around the truth. Ensure the product packaging is correct.

5. Enforce discrimination policies strictly and investigate any claims of discrimination. Create strict policies against discrimination.

6. Review the company's environmental plans to prevent pollution. Compare them to current laws and identify areas where the company may need to upgrade its systems to reduce or prevent pollution. Pollution includes air, water, land and noise pollution.

7. Create an ethical corporate culture where ethical issues are welcome and discussed openly. This will encourage your employees to bring new issues to your attention.

8. Review all gifts that were given to customers, vendors and employees to ensure they aren't bribes. Gifts are given with no expectation of anything in return. They may be given for customer loyalty, vendor appreciation or employee success. Never give a gift to keep an issue quiet or gain an unfair advantage.

9. Conduct social audits. Create a comprehensive report identifying how the company has handled any ethical issues and what policies or strategies were instituted to prevent that activity in the future. Compare your audit to your company's code of ethics and make any changes that are necessary.

10. Create an ethics officer position in your organization. This person will be responsible for ensuring that the company behaves in a socially responsible, ethical manner. He will investigate any claims to the contrary. He will also be available to employees who have questions regarding specific ethical dilemmas.

References

• Mid State Technical College; Being Ethical and Socially Responsible; D. Wolf
• UVCMS: Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
• McGraw-Hill: Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
• Kaplan University: Implementing a Program of Social Responsibility
• Dartmouth College: Ethics and Social Responsibility Requirement
• BDS Global: Corporate Social Responsibility

Resources

• University of Northern Iowa: Ethics and Social Responsibility
• University of Colorado Boulder; The Social Responsibility of Business...; Milton Friedman; 1970