The role of ethics and social responsibility in developing a strategic management plan while considering stakeholders needs and agendas
Introduction
Ethics are the code of conducts or the rules placed to govern certain processes. Ethics vary from place to place depending on the environment, cultural, social and religious practices among others. Ethics, therefore, dictate how people should behave in certain situations. Social responsibility, on the other hand, is what companies or firms do to show that they are concerned about the society in which the company or business is set up. An example of social responsibility is when a corporation participates in a fundraising that is conducted to help improve the lives of people living in a particular area.
When companies are involved in social responsibility, they need to consider the stakeholders needs and agendas. Strategic management needs are applied to ensure that the firm doesn't go overboard or cause strains on the company's finances. Sometimes the companies also don't participate as expected, or to their level best with the social responsibilities. The strategic management helps to ensure that what they do favors both the company and the community as a whole.
Reflecting on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which happened in 2010, it's important to see what the company did for the concerned parties. The accident involves oil spilling for about eighty-seven days. It is considered as the largest oil spill that has happened to date. The spill caused the death of several people and left other people injured. It also caused adverse effects to tourism since the water life was affected and many water plants and animals died at the time, leading to increased losses for the seafood companies (Kujawinski et al., 2011).
The British Petroleum Inc. had to compensate the affected parties. The organization decided to work with the federal government to pay people to look after their health, as well as looking for the welfare of the residents who helped in responding to the spill. The spill led to the decline in the economy as the Gulf Coast tourism was affected and the seafood industries. The company, therefore, decided to take upon itself to support the economic recovery of the industry (Kujawinski et al., 2011).
When having their management, the put in place the stakeholder's needs and agendas. The company looked at the people who had lost their lives to the accident. It helped by compensating their families as well as taking care of the funeral expenses. It took care of the hospital costs of the injured and also compensated them for the same. They also minded the welfare of those who helped in responding to the spill (Kujawinski et al., 2011).
The company first checked the parties who had been affected and how they would have been aided. It is about identifying the needs of the concerned people. After analyzing the relevant parties and their needs, the company went ahead to try and meet the needs of the stakeholders. The company has been compensating for the spill over time. It has also put into place measures to ensure that most of the spilled have been cleared off the environment to make the environment eco-friendly. Steps have also been set to reduce the chances of another spill. It is an illustration of holding high ethical standards. The company has had to make financial adjustments to help deal with the spill.
During the compensation process, the company compensated the affected people in phases. Applying the phase's strategy is paramount. Paying the people at once would make them have a feeling that the corporation doesn't care about them, and it feels like it can get away with anything, only because they can comfortably compensate the people. When the compensation is done in phases, the people feel as though the company is walking them through the healing process. Again, to the enterprise's benefit, if they compensated the people at once, they'd feel the financial strain. But with the phases, the company has time to plan and decide how to make money for the next phases and how it should be done to ensure that nobody feels neglected or left out.
Conclusion
The role of ethics is to make it clear what a company should or should not do. The code of ethics also puts laws into place if a person or a group goes against certain rules or fails to do what is expected to make it efficient. With the social responsibility, it requires a company or a firm to identify the needs or agendas of their target group. Once they have identified the plans, they then have to come up with a scheme that helps them to make the social responsibility a success without having to strain themselves financially, and also ensuring that the target group feels that the company has done its best and not like the company is taking advantage of them.
References
Kujawinski, E. B., Kido Soule, M. C., Valentine, D. L., Boysen, A. K., Longnecker, K., & Redmond, M. C. (2011). Fate of dispersants associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Environmental science & technology, 45(4), 1298-1306.
