(Institution Name)
Abstract
Aramex is a logistics company that is based in the United Arab Emirates. The company, however, provides its services globally and has a very visible presence all over the world. There are 60 countries in which they offer their services and in addition to being large in volume, the company also is a promising candidate to be a socially responsible entity. The assignment aims to discuss and analyze the level of social responsibility that Aramex follows and the impact of their activities on the society when they try to return to the society. There are ethical considerations involved when doing a business and Aramex is known to follow the best practices known in the present day business domain. Aramex qualifies as one of the better organizations when it comes to following business ethics and returning to the society.
Introduction
Aramex is a courier and logistics service providing company that operates in the United Arab Emirates. The company was established in 1982 and at that time, they were merely regarded as express operators. It did not take them long to get evolved into a global brand that is recognized all over the world for their superior service and swift deliverance. Not only has the company been sublime in the service delivery, but has also been of great value for their investors. It became the first company based in the Emirates to ever get traded on the NASDAQ (Jamali, & Dawkins, 2011). The company’s shares were started being traded in the stock market in the year 1997. The company has been going into different forms of ownerships over the time as in the year 2002 it got fully privatized only to later in 2005 get public again (Aramex, 2016).
A brief background of the area where the company is based in is that the United Arab Emirates is one of the busiest places in the world with respect to trade and business. In addition to that, there is a lot of population in the region comprising of people who are mostly not native to the Emirates. Now, since they belong to different other countries, they frequently require the services of couriers and logistics operators to bring and take their shipments from and to all over the world (Himola & Tan, 2010).
Aramex is one of the biggest employers in the region and hence contributes largely towards the revenue generated in the region and employment provision. Though a courier service such as this one requires very few people to manage the operations of the head office, but the execution sector requires a lot of manpower. Hence, the company employs some 13,900 employees who are based in 60 different countries and 354 locations globally. For a courier
service provider, the network of Aramex is regarded as one of the best in the world (Aramex, 2016).
This assignment is focused on analyzing a specific domain of business with specific reference to the company Aramex. Each and every organization, especially the ones that have higher volumes of sales and revenues and are well recognized globally, contributes towards the betterment of the society in one way or another. The company Aramex is no exception as they also have the realization of their social responsibilities and their ethical duties that they have to perform in favor of the wider society. The assignment focuses on the two main factors. First is the ethical consideration of Aramex towards their business operation. The second is the contribution to the society in the form of their corporate social responsibility fulfillment. The organizations undertake such activities in order to develop a relationship with the general public that not necessarily are the people who use their services or products. The relationship thus developed is about humanity and care.
The fortunate companies that make profits worth a lot of money, when contributing towards resolution of social problems in the form of aiding through financing then they get realized as responsible entities by the general public. The purpose of this assignment is to assess if the social responsibility activities and ethical considerations, followed by them weigh enough for them to be rendered as public friendly organizations. The purpose is to analyze if the company is nearly as good at being socially contributing as it is in the profit making activities.
Ethical and Social responsibility Analyses
Organizations and particularly the ones that are made for profit usually have only one end that they need to meet and do not generally regard the way they choose for achieving it. That aim being money making, profit entities undertake the means that are the most efficient and least effort taking. However, there are still some gray areas in the day to day business activities that they need to undertake in a decent manner so that they are not charged with violation of morality and ethics (Friedman, 2007). Aramex has a very sound set of rules in this regard that they recognize as their code of ethics or more appropriately a code of conduct. These rules govern the activities of Aramex in their day to day transactions and their interaction with other parties involved in the form of customers, vendors, investors, employees, etc. (Aramex, 2016).
Integrity is something that is of great value to the organization. Many a times organizations compromises on their core values in order to accomplish their goals (Becker, 1998). The company Aramex, however, is very considerate towards following their organizational core values so that they make themselves portrayed as an integral organization. Everything has to come in line if an organization values the efforts of their employees and has a policy that extra work or superior performance will be regarded by the organization in the form of bonuses and rewards. Then the organization does not give a good picture by showing the employees back by cutting costs on bonuses by excusing for the poor financial condition. Hence, it becomes an ethical duty of the organizations to stand by their words for better or for worse (Pearson, 1995). Aramex code of ethics is very strictly for the company to follow for when it comes to keeping their word with their stakeholders.
Aramex is known for being very considerate of the timeliness of their service. The company realizes that they work in an industry that is very much reliant on the time of their service, they cannot afford delays in service because of being courier and logistics company. Hence, if they promise their customers that they will provide them with their shipments on a said time and date, then by all means necessary they must abide by those terms. There is a huge ethical dilemma that is associated with the courier services industry. Once a customer has subscribed to a courier service and has handed over the shipment to them, they usually make the payment there and then. From then on, the shipment is with the service provider, and if they get late, then the customer can face serious trouble and yet they cannot do anything about it. After all, they cannot unsubscribe the service there and then and have to, in any case, wait for the transaction to get completed (Bowersox, Closs & Helferich, 1996). Aramex does not let their customers face such kind of hopeless condition by being very timely.
Maintaining a good environment in the organization can be a real challenge for any kind of management, but the organization Aramex does not look at the matters of innovation and diversity in the organization as a challenge but an opportunity for the company to capitalize on. Rather than taking advantage of their employees who may feel alienated by the level of diversity in the organization or who may find it difficult to keep up with the ever-changing environment of innovation of the organization, they help them out of situations (Bassett‐Jones, 2005). The United Arab Emirates is a place where people from all over the world come to work. And this makes the region as the home of one of the most diverse organizations in the world. Hence, employees may tend to feel alienated in the organization if they are not backed by the management in the matter of mixing up with the colleague.
Aramex realizes that they need to maintain an environment that is healthy for work and where there are not formed sections of people belonging to different ethnical and national backgrounds. This way, the employees tend to feel more equality in the organization. This is a very important ethical consideration in the work practices that Aramex follows. Because of the ever-changing work environment, organizations are quickly evolving into more and more innovative ones, it can become a challenge for the employees to keep up. For example, if an organization gets technologically advanced, and the organization does not teach its employees how to use the newer software and technology then they are committing an injustice. The mismatch of employee expertise with the requirement can make them obsolete and hence not eligible for doing the job (Burns & Stalker, 1961). Aramex follows ethical requirements by taking their employees on board whilst making such a decision and make sure that they train their employees well enough so that they can keep working in the organization.
There are several other matters that organizations need to attend to for when it comes to proving themselves as responsible for their leadership and undertaking of their business practices. Aramex operates in an industry where customer trust is of great value for all the stakeholders. When the customers trust their service provider with their valuable, they are actually entrusting them to deliver it in a timely manner and in the safest way possible. Aramex makes sure that they follow the confidentiality requirements associated with the deliverance of shipments. In addition to that, there are several financial constraints that need to be addressed by an organization. The disclosure of true financial records like balance sheets and ledgers is an ethical requirement that Aramex follows. There is a fair amount of taxation in the area where the
company operates, and while it is viewed as a common practice to reduce tax by undergoing certain accountancy techniques, Aramex makes an effort to ensure that they do not use unfair means for tax reduction.
There are several corporate laws that organizations are functioning anywhere in the world must abide by. These laws are enforced by the governments for the purpose of regulation, and hence, they are not to be taken lightly (Correia, 2010). Laws ensure that level playing field exists and organizations do not take false routes to quick prosperity, rather they follow rules and earn their money through effort and good practice. Aramex makes sure that they do not undertake any activity and do not make a policy that is not in line with the regulations that they are bound to follow. Whether the rules of confidentiality of the customer are under the question or the good treatment of the employees is the matter of discussion, in any of the cases, Aramex makes sure that they do not get exploited towards the market or towards their workforce. Aramex is known to be a good employer, and they ensure that they provide their workers with their rights.
There are several other domains in which Aramex follows good and ethical practices that are associated with reasonable and responsible organizations around the world. One of these practices is the following of equal employment opportunity. According to this concept, an employer cannot marginalize a person belonging to a certain sect, ethical and national background solely on that ground and the merit is made on the basis of the expertise of the applicant (Konrad & Linnehan, 1995). At the same time, there is a concept of fair treatment that Aramex advocates in their organization. This demands that the employees are treated fairly in their day to day matters and that no person is exploited. Accountability is one of the trademarks of Aramex
as they have a very sound system for maintaining checks and balance throughout the organization and at all levels. It is not that only the lower level employees feel the heat of being checked on, but the entire organization maintains an environment of accountability evenly on all the levels (Ebrahim, 2005). There is no room for corruption in the organization as the activities that come under the domain of bribery and corruption are strongly discouraged by Aramex.
In addition to being honest with the organization’s customer and employees, Aramex also remains loyal to the investors and ensures fair shareholder treatment to all their finance providers. According to the code of ethics of Aramex, inside trading is nonexistent in the organization and the organization does not promote nor allow the possibility of leakages of inside information of financially sensitive nature. This way they ensure that no one takes advantage of the market by using the information not available to anyone else for his or her own financial gains (Amann, 2012).
In addition to following best practices, Aramex has also been known to have contributed a lot towards the society. Recently, Aramex has funded the celebration of the Mandela day in remembrance of and appreciation for the efforts put in by Nelson Mandela for the African community in South Arica. Since many of the neighboring countries of South Africa are poor and very severely struck by famine and shortage of food, Aramex helped in collecting 1.6 tons of maize that were provided to these countries. Because of being a financially less privileged country, Egypt has been vulnerable to several diseases and epidemics. There are several health related problems that exist in the region of Egypt and the neighboring countries. Aramex helped in making it possible for the nongovernment organizations and the government to provide
vaccination to the children all over the country. The activity undertaken by Aramex for this matter was greatly appreciated by the UNICEF and other international organizations. The problem is that because of so much density in the population of the poverty-stricken countries, it takes a lot of money for the organizers to provide the masses with health facilities that are meaningful. For this matter, the organizations like the United Nations alone are not able to cater for all the financial requirements. The private organizations like Aramex hence come into play. These organizations provide financial resource while the health care organizations have the system in place to channelize the resources into deliverables (Aramex, 2016).
There has been a lot of emphasis on the environment preservation and the role of organizations and corporations in polluting the environment. For the eradication of pollutants, several large-scale organizations have taken steps and initiatives that demanded them to sacrifice their personal gains in favor of the environment. Aramex is not far behind in this regard as they have also adopted green office initiatives for the reduction of pollution and saving the environment. Trees are cut in tremendously numbered for the preparation of paper that is used for academic and corporate purposes, hence organizations who are considerate towards keeping the environment preserved for the generations to come.
Aramex has started to play their part for the purpose, by adopting green office practices. These practices involve the less use of paper and more use of digital storage for record keeping and communication. In addition to that, the field in which Aramex operates in is heavily reliant on the transportation that uses fuel and hence causes pollution to the environment. Aramex makes
an effort to ensure that their conveyance does not emit hazardous fumes more than what is bearable for the environment and hence play a role in keeping the environment safer and cleaner. The basic purpose of environmental preservation is that the coming generations get to enjoy the fruits of their local resources (Aramex, 2016).
Conclusion
Aramex is a socially responsible organization working in the region of United Arab Emirates with global coverage of service that is logistics. They follow good work practices, hence ensuring that their stakeholders like customers and financiers are satisfied, and no one gets exploited. They follow the requirements of financial integrity as well as legal considerations that they are supposed to follow. In addition to that, they deploy equal employment opportunity and fair work practices that enable them to keep their employees engaged with their work. Aramex is also a fair contributor towards social responsibility as they follow green office practices, hence reducing the pollution levels in the environment and preserving it as well as taking part in, financing and managing certain events that are meaningful and helpful for certain neglected sections of the broader community.
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