Implications of unethical practice
According to Schneider, Elizabeth N (42), ethics refers to a set of universal belief, conduct or set of standards that controls what one ought to do when the well-being of others is at stake. Ethically, organizations should, therefore, apply the standards in their day to day operations in a way that creates sustainability and promotes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In brief, CSR can be defined as carrying out activities that may not necessarily benefit the organization but instead help the well being of the third parties such as employees and customers. When ethical standards and corporate social responsibility is well observed, both the firm and third parties get satisfied, this is referred to as sustainability. Sustainability involves creation an environment that is free of degradation and a potential threat for example, to climate change. Looking into the Buffalo Creek Disaster, situations of ethical flaws and instances of nonconsideration of CSR and sustainability are elaborated.
According to Stern, Gerald M (16), the Preston Coal company failed to uphold professional behavior where the business valued cash flows more than the safety and environmental problems. This was evident by the absence of concerns regarding safety and environmental problems on the company’s radar screen as they were committed to making positive production at the expense of other issues as such. Besides, the coal company acted in a negligent manner by avoiding the haulage costs and disposing of wastes on hillsides and in hollows despite the fact that such practice negatively affected people around those areas. On professional behavior, it can be noted that the employees at the Buffalo mining company raised a little alarm and made few complaints about the potential damage of the dam despite the employees going by the impoundment daily on their way to and from work. This was a violation of an ethical standard. Mr. Dascovich and Mr. Kent failed in the moral requirement of professional skill and due care. This is so because the duo did not inform the relevant authorities of the risk involved if the dams had collapsed despite the fact that they observed the dams before the incident. On different occasions, the duo, Mr. Kent, and Mr.Dascovich, visited the dam and noticed a rise in the level of water. Had he warned the residents or reported their observations to the relevant authorizes, there are possibilities that the residents could have been moved away from the site and that their lives, save for their property, would have been held safe. The flaws of these ethical standards resulted in responsibility charges against the Buffalo mining company as it was considered their duty to curb the menace.
On the other hand, a concept of Corporate Social Responsibility is central in the case of Buffalo Creek Disaster. A dangling question is to what extent the company exploited the avenues of advancing responsibility to the clients. Well, generally speaking, Corporate Social Responsibility has seven different approaches that are: pristine capitalist approach, expedient approach, social contracts approach, social ecologists approach, socialists approach, radical feminist approach and finally deep ecologists approach. It is vivid that the mining company embraced an approach that gave Corporate Social Responsibility little concern over profit making. The Buffalo mining company made the following mistakes that contributed to lack of Corporate Responsibility: Improper Dam construction which was not built using engineering practices in earth dam construction since there was no foundation preparation done for the building process, the company failed to make a compaction of the fill material other than the conventional grading by bulldozer, use of weak foundation material, inadequate overflow system due to the insufficient size of pipes used, and use of poor refuse materials to construct the dam (Schneider, Elizabeth N 43)
Other than the fore mentioned elements negatively affecting Corporate Social Responsibilities, Buffalo mining company ought to warn the residents of the impending fall of the dam. Worse still, the officials from the company noticed the rise in the level of water but did not take a hasty action to curb the situation. Also, the mining company ignored the duties owed to the residents by adopting a poor damping strategy to cut on haulage costs at the expense of the citizens. Throwing litter along the hillsides and hollows presented a possible threat to the residents regarding possible diseases that could arise from the wastes.
Having vividly brought out the concept of ethics and corporate social responsibility as regards the Buffalo Creek Disaster, sustainability, as defined by the United Nations, of the environment is critical. The Buffalo company failed in maintaining a sustainable environment for the residents as required by the World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987 (Stern, Gerald M 5). There are several breaches of sustainability principles that the company committed for example: the company did not adopt an environment friendly waste disposal technique, the company did not follow construction practices in putting up the dam despite the fact that such practices would have helped reduce the risks of environmental degradation and finally the materials used in the building of the dam were not of high quality and hence caused pollution.
In conclusion, understanding the concepts of Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability is vital due to their applicability in the real life and course work for example, integrity as an ethical standard is necessary in real life when giving information about the records of a firm and in course work in cases of responding to exam questions. The Buffalo Creek Disaster gives a lesson on how the violation of basic ethical standards can prove costly due to the litigation charges (Schneider, Elizabeth N. 44).In the case of Buffalo Coal mining company, the residents, through Attorney Gerald M. Stern, won a lawsuit against the company due to what was termed as criminal negligence. Ethics, therefore, forms the central part of survival of any company, failure to observe the ethical principles, as observed, results to high costs.
Works cited.
Schneider, Elizabeth N. "Rethinking the Teaching of Civil Procedure." Journal of Legal Education 37.1 (1987): 41-45.
Stern, Gerald M. "The Buffalo Creek Disaster." New York: Vintage (1976).
