Corporate Employee Citizenship
Introduction
In the day-to-day activities of the business, it interacts with various categories of people. It is operated by employees who form the human resource of the company, customers and suppliers. The business has to understand how to handle the interactions to keep the relationship beneficial. On this note, the business must engage in good corporate citizenship and ethics in its workplace. The workplace is usually full of activities and interaction where clients engage the business employees in their quest for services offered by the business. This paper analyzes corporate citizenship and ethics in a business setting. It covers what corporate citizenship is, its significance in the business world and how employees are expected to maintain high standards of ethics in the business set up.
Corporate citizenship refers to the company’s or organization’s obligations towards its employees and the society. It is the extent to which the business is socially responsible for meeting ethical and economical responsibilities assigned to them. One of the central aims of the business is to improve the living standards of the surrounding communities while still observing their operations to gain profits. Organizations engage in charitable and volunteer activities together with non-profitable organizations to preserve the environment around the community and also meet the responsibilities placed on them by the stakeholders. Internally, the business improves the working conditions if the employees. This is to enhance the working environment for performing their duties and maximizing on their potential.
Corporate citizenship outside the business revolves around three main areas. These are social innovation, community involvement and charitable activities. Conducting each of these activities over a given period makes sure that the business maintains a healthy relationship with the neighboring communities and improves on its image. This healthy relationship will create a conducive environment and ties with the communities increasing the business’s reach and great public image. Research indicates that good corporate citizenship can be of great help to a business in a number of areas. Such include improving the reputation of the business, employee motivation and create a good atmosphere for innovation and operations.
A productive corporate citizenship in a business takes effort and time to develop, implement and maintain. This is because of the various parties and steps involved. Stakeholders, employees and top management of the business need to discuss and come up with effective strategies that allow the business to meet the emerging issues and aspects of corporate employee citizenship. They should identify the major aspects of the business and define the mission and vision statements that guide the whole process. These statements should reflect the business’s goals and approach on employee citizenship. This helps all the involved parties especially the employees. Employees are the actively involved in the implementation of the various plans planned by the business. Without a comprehensive understanding between the employees and the management, the set goals on corporate employee citizenship will not be effective.
The other way in which employees can engage in good corporate citizenship is by observing and upholding the cultural values in the business. All business establishments have a culture that they obey and continuously improve. This culture shapes the business’s approach to matters such as a corporate employee citizenship and reputation. By educating new employees on the cultural values in the business, the culture will continuously be maintained. Frequently reviewing the existing practices and cultural aspects of the business is crucial so that negative values do not develop in the business. Such can bring a negative effect on the establishment of an efficient corporate employee citizenship.
Effective communication and reporting helps to improve corporate employee citizenship. Communication allows employees to communicate to the leaders the concerns, queries and questions they may be having concerning the business’s approach to employee citizenship. This allows the management to review their strategies and approach. Reports on the various activities undertaken by the company are also crucial in assessing the effectiveness of their policies. Without a comprehensive reporting mechanism, the business would not be able to determine the impact of the various activities it conducts to improve its reputation.
Ethics and corporate citizenship go hand in hand in a business setup. Ethics guide stakeholders on how they are expected to behave in a workplace environment. Ethics involves the set practice and culture in a business while corporate citizenship covers how the business interacts with the neighboring community, and stakeholders. Employees in the business are expected to maintain the highest level of ethics in the business. This includes their conduct in the workplace, interaction with other employees and clients and also their conduct outside the business premises while on duty and off duty. The business may set up policies on some of the aspects of ethics that the employees are expected to apply in their daily activities.
The business ethics area has received lots of attention in recent years is a result of an increase in the significance of the issue for businesses. This was after several cases of business misconduct and degraded business ethics that researchers decided to research the field and come up with solutions to the existing and emerging issues. The researchers were also interested in the number of students undertaking courses in business ethics courses in various educational institutions. This is because the number of doctoral students undertaking the courses highlights the current situation in the field. The research also ranked business ethics experts within North America according to specific countries. From this research, it was evident that business ethics are issues that require the right approach to make sure that it was thoroughly understood and addresses.
The use of a code of ethics in a business environment to keep track of ethical issues in the business has also been analyzed by various researchers and criticism and suggestions made. In most cases, the code of ethics in a business establishment is the definitions of the various issues that employees are expected to observe without analyzing the causes of misconduct. Research indicates that major business failures related to ethical misconduct usually result in negative publicity and loss of integrity by the business community that particular business establishment. In this regard, business corporations usually come up with a set of policies that help keep everything in check. As pressure increases on businesses to improve and take a thorough look at their policies on ethics, questions are being raised on the standards of ethics in businesses and the significance of the policies of the institution. The major concern lies in the public domain that usually questions ethics aspects in a business setup. In accordance with this, there should be accountability, such that employees are questioned on their ethics based on their individual actions. On the same note, the existing code of ethics in organizations needs a review. The review will help identify faults in the policies that may be outdated and issues not addressed in the code. A business environment is dynamic and internal and external changes can always interfere with some of the set policies. It’s recommended for the business senior management to review the policies frequently to make sure that they meet the required standards.
As businesses work to improve on the ethics of their employees, it is essential to look at the legal aspects of the code of ethics and other policies related to ethics. This is to avoid the legal implications that may come as a result of overlooking such matters. Businesses are governed by various laws set up to make sure that they conduct their operations legally. This covers aspects of the business such as ethics, governance, employees and stakeholders. Integrating ethics into the governance of the institution helps improve the corporation’s credibility and comply with the law. Stakeholders have an important task to play in the processes of the business. However, their conduct should adhere to the set rules and regulations. This concerns their interaction with employees, customers and the operations of the business.
As the issue of ethics gets deeper and involves various parties, it’s crucial for employees to take a look at their actions and reflect on some of the aspects of their conduct that may cause negative impacts on the business operations. Businesses are run by employees who carry out the day-to-day tasks driving the business forward. Their conduct is important and should always be governed by the set code of ethics and instincts in favor of the business success. Employees have a significant role to play in relation to ethics and responsibilities in the business. Managers are the role models for the other employees. Their conduct in their profession is essential in setting the standards. Their behavior is usually guided by frameworks such as utilitarian theory. In this theory, the manager can make ethical decisions that have great benefits to the largest possible individuals involved. The main advantage of this approach in ethical decisions is that it is usually in line with the business goals and objectives as the main aim of the business is to maximize profits.
Effectively ensuring that employees engage in good corporate and ethics in the workplace should be one of the major priorities of any successful business establishment. A business may be enjoying a successful path and good reputation, and then a mishap happens ruining everything the business had built. The management should always guard against such an eventuality happening and in the case that it has happened, attempts should always be made to restore the image. The business success depends on this and the management should do all that is within their power to make sure it is not dented.
In a nutshell, corporate employee citizenship involves the obligations that a business has towards its employees and the society. This entails how the business handles its employees and interacts with the outside world. In addition, ethics in business are very important among the employees, stakeholders and the top management. Ethics refers to the expected code of conduct that employees, stakeholders and management must portray in their workplace so that all operations and tasks in the business may be conducted in a professional manner. Failure to do this, the business may find itself with a bad reputation that may negatively affect its success. To properly maintain a high level of ethics and good corporate employee citizenship, the business needs to identify a number of factors and practices that favor its operations. Implementing these factors will take a while but the outcome will be a business culture that maintains a high business integrity and trust among the partners. Strategic planning and communication are some of the factors that enhance the overall effect. Reviewing the set code of ethics will help the business tackle emerging issues in regard to the corporate employee citizenship and ethics.
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