-DQ1: Identify an industry in which you would like to work – any company. Use the company’s website to learn about their core values and culture in order to find your best fit and then explain your choice.
Response:
My industry of choice is the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and the company of preference is Diageo Plc. Diageo is a global leader in the manufacture of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. The company takes pride in iconic brands, beer and spirits, such as Johnnie Walker and Guinness. It operates in over 180 countries situated in 21 geographical markets that are located in America, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Caribbean. Success of the company is founded in the ambition to “create one of the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products companies in the world”. ("Diageo Code Of Ethics")
In order to achieve its objectives, the company daily operations are guided by the corporate culture outlined in the company’s Code of Business conduct. The culture at Diageo is entrenched in five distinct values that define the day to day conduct of all people, internal and external, dealing with the company. A the core of the culture, the business aims at “celebrating life every day, everywhere” and that illustrates the company’s essence and commitment to its passion, ambition, responsibility and pride in its operations. The values are as follows:
Passionate about consumers and customers: Success of the business is borne out of satisfied customers. The business is therefore committed towards creative and courageous pursuit of full potential to innovate new ideas and products.
Freedom to succeed: Based on trust for each individual, the company is open to challenge, critique and responds fast to new opportunities.
Strive to be the best: This value eliminates any element of complacency in the company’s employees and are always geared to continuous learning and improvement.
Value each other: The Company’s corporate culture is focused on the employment and utilization of different people as well as perspectives for the benefit of the company. The business seeks to establish reliable contacts and relationships that generate mutual satisfaction. ("Diageo Code Of Ethics")
-DQ1: What defines organizational culture? Support you explanation.
Response:
Organizational culture is defined by the governing beliefs, values and motivations in an entity. It’s what defines the daily conduct for the employees of the organization and how they should conduct themselves in line of duty towards their fellow colleagues and even third parties. It’s a definition for the conduct and job performance in a specific organization. Culture in an organization is made up of the behaviors and specific human values that are practiced to establish and enhance a unique working environment in any corporate. An example of the Diageo corporate culture, it defines how the employees should relate to each other and even their clients. A viable corporate culture ought to be motivating to the staff so as to act as a morale booster hence better performance. Like in the Diageo case, passion for consumers and customers as well as being proud of what they do is two examples of cultural values that motivate employees. A good corporate culture will ignite a good customer service, high quality products, and increased productivity as well as innovation. (Watkins)
-DQ1: There is no doubt that organizational cultures are the fertile grounds for the creation of corporate policies and professional code of conduct. To what degree may the cultures influence the code of conduct? Any ideas?
Response:
The fact that the cultures define the general ways in which the employees are expected to conduct themselves internally and externally, they trickle down to the formulation of specific corporate policies and professional code of conduct. Drawing from the Diageo example, the “value for each other” is the mother of organizational policies against discrimination and harassment at work as well as health, safety and security. Corporate cultures also serve to instill sanity and a sense of personal integrity amongst the compliant staff members.
The corporate cultures have a direct influence on the codes of conduct in that they cultivate a positive understanding of the code in the staff. Organizational culture can therefore be referred to as the medium through which codes of conduct are actualized.
-DQ1: Dorweiler and Yakhou (2006) argue that in an organization business ethics play a central role dictated by a corporate culture and that functions within laws and provides not only the direction, but also the style of conducting business. Would you agree?
Dorweiler, V. and Yakhou, M. (2006). Corporate leadership going awry a business ethics
maze. Business Renaissance Quarterly, 1(3), 51-63.
Response:
Yes. Business ethics are central to all business operations and are usually the fuel on which the train of business success is driven. These ethics define the accepted business practices in regard to both internal and external environments and this is always in accordance with the law governing the area of business operations. Organizational ethics are also unique for every organization and thus give a unique way of conducting business and it contributes to the establishment of competitiveness on which the business rides to success.
-DQ2: If you are in charge of company recruitment, how would you develop a selection process that would most successfully allow you to hire the best workers for your particular culture?
Response:
In the position of recruiting for a company and tasked with the development of a selection process aimed at selecting the best fit candidate for the organizational culture, I would first evaluate the culture to assess its viability and adaptability. I would then ensure that all job advertisements include an outline of the culture such that the candidates have a clue of the cultural expectations in the organization. Since joiners are all fresh and may not fully understand the culture, upon being recruited, they should be taken through a thorough induction process to make them conversant with the culture and assist them in all possible ways to integrate into the system well.
-DQ2: Today, multinational cultures, macro environment, and international markets force corporate executive to reflect global expansion trends in their business ethics policies. Would you agree – why or why not?
Response:
I agree. Intensification of competition and technology has made the global market to become seemingly smaller and all corporate entities seek to grab the largest share of the market possible. Digitization and automation of business operations are the current traits of the multinational and macro environment and these forces compel the businesses to reflect global expansion trends in their policies to act as a provision for the possible expansion in market coverage. Reflection of these global expansion trends in business ethics policies serves as a relative benchmark for the business in its pursuit for success. A business usually borrows such trends from a successful business entity in the global platform to act as a role model and hence a stimulant for success.
Response:
Ethical conduct of business managers and employees is normally a representation of how members of public including customers and government institutions will perceive the business as either being ethical or unethical. Business organizations are systems that are driven by human beings and therefore any misdeed of one employee often leads to the organization carrying the responsibility of every ethical decision that is made by every person transacting on its behalf. Typically, business organizations are representation of values, attitudes, perceptions, behavioral patterns, beliefs, and language of organizational management employees (Ferrel and John,9). For this reason, ethics in business becomes an organizational issue as much as it’s a personal issue. When business managers act ethically, business relationships are strengthened and the reputation of the company improves. Personal and ethical liabilities are also reduced. This can be best exemplified where ethical preparation and representation of financial organizations will ultimately affect the ethical standing of the company despite the fact that a business organization is an abstract entity. The actions of business organizations affect how liable the business organization will be in the face of law.
Response:
Organizational culture is an important determinant of ethical behavior of company employees. Sustainable ethical business practices are highly dependent on values that already exist in corporate culture existing in the organization. Organizational culture is normally a complex web of attitudes, values and behaviors that persists in a business organization environment. Researchers agree that shared ideas as well as perceptions within an organization to a large extent affects how employees conceptualize the environment they work in and how they interact with individuals in the outside world. For this reason, prevalent values within an organization affect the ethical conduct of business employees. In particular, it should be noted that ethical policies that do not reflect the familiar organizational culture often reflects a mismatch and therefore it negatively affects ethical decision making process among company employees (Militaru and Adriana 24). An organizational cultural value has a strong link to ethical standards since it’s difficult to introduce changes within an organization. Employees have a tendency to resist change and therefore they are likely to reject an ethical policy that does reflect organizational values and perceptions towards customers, and interaction among employees since on the short term organizational culture tends to be stable. To manage change, business executives must reinforce change of negative organizational culture if they must introduce new ethical standards.
Works Cited
"Diageo Code Of Ethics". Diageo.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 12 June 2016.
Watkins, Michael. "What Is Organizational Culture? And Why Should We Care?".
Harvard Business Review. N.p., 2013. Web. 12 June 2016.
Ferrell, Odies C., and John Fraedrich.Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson Education, 2016.
Militaru, Cezar, and Adriana Zanfir."The influence of organizational culture over the ethical principles in international businesses."International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences 2.Special 1 (2012): 26-33.
