Introduction
Ethical measures are extremely essential for an organization, as far as attaining effectiveness is concerned. The measures that specifically associated with Ethics are effective in terms of taking financial and non financial benefits into account (Renz, 2007). Corporate Ethics, also known as Corporate Governance, are the set of standards that should be used by an entity for its financial and non-financial benefits. Inevitably, the entire operations of an organization depends upon the pure fact that how corporate governance and ethics will be used to sustain the company in the industry for a long span of time.
There are certain ethical policies, standards and procedures that have to be taken into account by the entities for their remarkable sustaining and unmatchable financial benefits. It is also observed from the past researches that organizations which are sounder in terms of complying effectively with the ethical standards and corporate governance are more productive and effective as compared to those organizations wherein the level of compliance with the ethical policies and standards are very low.
The main thing that requires completing in this particular assignment is to choose a United States (US) based company, and then initiated an interview with the corporate governance manager of the same company just to get information about the ethical toolkits of the same organization. The core focus on this analysis will be thrown towards analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the ethical toolkits of the company. The company which has been chosen for this assignment is Ben & Jerry.
Analysis & Findings
About Ben & Jerry’s
Ben & Jerry’s is an American Ice Crème Company and known as a division of Anglo-Dutch conglomerate company that manufactures frozen yoghurt, ice-crème, and ice-crème based products. It is one of the most widely used brands found in the United States. The taste quality of the company is marvelous, and they are doing the right job to maintain their level of quality in a perfect manner. Ben & Jerry’s are trying to expand their core operations in different markets of the world, and soon the management will decide regarding their expansion in some of the major markets of the world. Apart from the perfect management, the company also has effective a perfect employee’s based teams, which termed as an asset for them in the future. There are three different mission statements of the company, which comprises on their product, economic value and social mission. The summary mission of Ben and Jerry’s is as follows
It is required to select a Corporate Ethics Managers for the assignment, and then asked about the different toolkits for Ben and Jerry’s.
Ethical Toolkit Analysis
For this assignment, a hypothetical person is selected for the core analysis with the name of Mr. Chang. Mr. Chang associated with the Corporate Ethics and Compliance Department of the company, and selected for the same interview just to get an idea about the corporate ethics policies of the company and their responses.
What are the Toolkits of Ethics for Ben & Jerry’s?
The question has been asked with the Manager corporate Ethics of Ben Jerry’s just to get an idea about the toolkits of the ethics used within the organization. Toolkits are the features and attributes which will be taken into account by the entities to makes their operations effective and organized in the same manner. The toolkits of business ethics depend upon the core fact of these four angles (Sison, 2008)
- Shareholder’s Ethics
- Employee’s based Ethics
- Social Ethics
- Customer’s Ethics
Chang revealed that all of these four angles of ethics which also referred as toolkits for the company are essential for their future consequences and effectiveness.
Shareholders Ethics
According to Chang, shareholders are extremely important for an organization, as they are the one who provides funds for the company from which the operations would have been done and run in a smooth and perfect manner. Shareholders of a company can be bifurcated into two different forms, known as internal shareholders and external shareholders (Sison, 2008).
Ben and Jerry’s found effective as far as fulfilling the needs and specification of both of their shareholders. The Internal Shareholders of the company are their management. As Unilever is the parent company of Ben and Jerry’s, and the entire management of the company is in their hands, they are the one who take responsibilities on their shareholders to provide every single thing to the production and manufacturing department which they are in need of it. Chang showed that the management of Ben and Jerry’s is highly effective as far as fulfilling all the core requirements of their different departments to make their presence in the market accordingly.
Apart from the internal shareholders, Ben and Jerry’s also found effective in terms of managing its external shareholders. The external shareholders are usually associated with Unilever, but they are very happy with the current management and existence of Ben and Jerry’s with the company. Chang revealed that Unilever arranges Annual General Meetings (AGMs) and Extraordinary General Meetings (EOGM) just to get an idea from their shareholders to continue or shut down the operations of their business units. These strategies are perfect for the company, and comply effectively with the industry ethical policies and requirements.
Strengths and Weakness of Shareholder’s Ethics Toolkit
Strengths
- The financial power of the company is spurring perfectly by complying with the sheer needs and wants of their shareholders
- More and more investors are now looking forward to park their money within the company
- Proxy rights to the shareholders made them satisfied and effective
Weaknesses
- As a shareholder’s oriented company, Unilever cannot initiate a thing without the permission of their shareholders
- Ben & Jerry’s cannot innovate a single thing without asking from the Unilever
Employee’s Based Ethics Toolkit
As per the wordings of Chang, “Employees are the lifeblood of a corporation, thus organizations cannot ignore them from any mean”. Chang found very attentive and active as far as employee’s management and satisfaction is concerned. In the reply regarding the employee’s based toolkit, Chang said that it is the most important ethical activity for Ben & Jerry’s to maintain the level of effectiveness and interest within their employees (Zimmerli, Richter & Holzinger, 2007).
Change revealed that Ben and Jerry’s is one of those companies of the world who values their employees accordingly, and always try to give them congenial and effective environment for their future growth and prosperity. Ben and Jerry’s are implementing the framework of Herzberg Motivational theory, in which employers are entitled to reward their employees on their performance. Apart from that the level of communication among the employees are marvelous, and the company recently launched Management Bi Objective (MBO) initiatives from which the employees can communicate their issues and problems with the management without any barrier. Chang is confident that this particular initiative will certainly help out the company to maintain a perfect level of effectiveness among the employees and the management.
Strengths
- High employees’ based satisfaction means high productivity of the company
- This ethical toolkit will enable the company to increase their retention rate of employees
Weaknesses
- Too much leniency for the employees sometimes made them completely out of focus from the work, therefore Ben and Jerry’s has to look over this issues
Social Ethics tool kit
Strengths
- It will certainly help out the economy to lower down its unemployment rate effectively
- It is purely an act of socialism and corporate social responsibility that will certainly be effective for the goodwill of the company
Weaknesses
- Sometimes buying the products from these companies would increase the operational cost of the company, along with the opportunity cost of doing the business
Customer based Ethical toolkit
Chang suggested that customers are the end users of an organization, and without customers no company can grow effectively. Ben & Jerry’s is one of those companies of the world which has a clear cut policy towards the customer’s satisfaction. The company complies with ISO standards in terms of making the Ice-Creams with healthy and fresh ingredients. This particular aspect will be essential for the company in terms of their productivity.
Strengths
- It will certainly leave the customers satisfied
- Retention rate of the customers will increased
Weaknesses
- It might happen that the company will not provide customized solution to the customers because of their escalating wants and needs
Conclusion
Ethical Policies and Standards usually associated with the industries rather than with individual companies, and entities are required to comply comprehensively with the industry standards merely to sustain in the business for a long span of time particularly. A workplace is referred to a place where-in the minds of hundreds of thousands of people will work for the achievement of a single and pre-specified goal particularly, and without proper ethics and consideration they cannot make the place an effective one for their future. Ben & Jerry’s is the company selected for the same analysis. It is found from this entire analysis that Ben & Jerry’s is a perfect company, and it is operating with purely complying with the business ethics and standards. Hypothetical person Mr. Chang is selected for the interview for the corporate ethics, and it is effective for the company.
References
Dailytexanonline.com,. (2013). Ben and Jerry’s co-founder emphasizes the ethics of business - The Daily Texan. Retrieved 28 November 2014, from http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2013/11/20/ben-and-jerry%E2%80%99s-co-founder-emphasizes-the-ethics-of-business
Renz, P. (2007). Project governance. Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag.
Sison, A. (2008). Corporate governance and ethics. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Zimmerli, W., Richter, K., & Holzinger, M. (2007). Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance. [New York]: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
