1. Summary
The article “The perception of ethics in business: analysis of research results” written by Włodzimierz Srokaa and Marketa Lőrinczy represents a report based on a research conducted in the field of business ethics in Poland and the Czech Republic (Srokaa & Lőrinczy, 2015). The scholars state that business ethics is of utmost importance for modern companies that want to position themselves as serious and successful enterprises in the growing business environment. Therefore, they conclude that sustainable development of a contemporary company is not conceivable without taking into account basic elements of business ethics (Srokaa & Lőrinczy, 2015, pp. 156-157). According to the authors, the goal of the study consists in revealing “the scale and scope of the use of Business Ethics in Poland and in the Czech Republic” (Srokaa & Lőrinczy, 2015, p. 157). In order to complete this task, 200 enterprises working in three business sectors (alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical industries) and located in these aforementioned countries have been taken as samples for this research, and their employees have been asked some questions about business ethics in their companies. As a result, the scholars have received data that evidence the growing importance of business ethics in modern companies. However, they also state that its scale varies a lot from country to country (Srokaa & Lőrinczy, 2015, p. 163). This conclusion confirms the idea that Srokaa and Lőrinczy proposed in the beginning of their article and that consists in that business ethics’ implementation is diverse in different countries, companies and business sectors (Srokaa & Lőrinczy, 2015, p. 158).
2. Key Learning Points
The article written by Srokaa and Lőrinczy provides some learning points that may be divided into theoretical premises based on literature review, and practical results deriving from the research itself. The first group is represented by understanding the notion of business ethics for which the scholars provide a series of definitions and finally identify it through morality: “the areas of moral principles, beliefs, values, culture, governance issues and a code of conduct for business” (Srokaa & Lőrinczy, 2015, p. 157). They also emphasize that business ethics is close to a so called CSR, or corporate social responsibility, that is identified by the authors as a kind of responsible behavior that companies should demonstrate in relation to their stakeholders and shareholders and that actually consists in maintaining the profit of the enterprise (Srokaa & Lőrinczy, 2015, p. 157). The main theoretical premise stated by the scholars in their article is that both business ethics and CSR are very important for modern companies.
Practical learning points are based on the results obtained during the research and, hence, depend on the group of questions that have been made to companies’ employees. In their surveys the scholars suggest three types of questions that, in their opinion, may reveal the scope of business ethics’ utilization in different firms. These are questions about ethical institutions, personal experience of employees (questions “about myself”), and about companies ‘owners (Srokaa & Lőrinczy, 2015, p. 158).
In the first group of questions devoted to ethical institutions, the scholars use three optional responses: “no”,” yes”, and “I don’t know.” Although most of responses provided by employees from different countries are similar and reveal both importance of ethical institutions in their company and their awareness in relation to the issue, some gaps have been found in relation to several companies’ policy. For instance, as it has been revealed, the majority of companies don’t publish a CSR or sustainability report (Srokaa & Lőrinczy, 2015, p. 158). In some cases Czechs revealed more determination than their Polish counterparts while respondents from Poland often tend to present their companies in a better light.
The second group of questions that was “about myself”, has revealed the high level of employees’ awareness in relation to business ethics in their enterprises and their understanding of the issue. However, as for Polish respondents, the scholars challenge the objectivity of their answers suspecting them of wanting “to present themselves in a better light.” (Srokaa & Lőrinczy, 2015, p. 161).
Finally, the third group of questions about business ethics of companies’ stakeholders revealed diversity of answers depending on country and business sector in relation to ethical requirements for the companies, and similarities of responses as for ethical behavior of the enterprises and their stakeholders. In conclusion, the authors state that their research “has confirmed that companies from the sectors in question use business ethics in their operations, although their scale is differentiated.” (Srokaa & Lőrinczy, 2015, p. 163). Meanwhile, Srokaa and Lőrinczy note that respondents are not very enthusiastic about participating in such surveys that makes realization of similar studies rather difficult.
3. Practical Implementation of the research article matter on a real UAE company
The construction company Dartek Contracting located in Dubai has been selected for implementation of the aforementioned research methodology in order to reveal the scope of business ethics’ use in this enterprise. The following data have been obtained:
The Table 1 reveals that although in most of cases Dartek Contracting’s employees are aware of ethical issues of their company, very often they just don’t know the answer to the questions. The fact that the company’s regulations do not provide the workers with the right to talk about abuses is unfortunate and evidences an obvious gap in business ethics of the enterprise.
The Table 2 shows “excellent” behavior of the workers in relation to business ethics together with the fact that in many cases they are not very sure of what it actually means. When juxtaposing the latter with the previous results, it may be supposed that very often the employees try to present the firm and themselves in a better light.
The Table 4 again evidences some controversies in perception of business ethics by Dartek Contracting’s employees who confirm their enterprise’s focus on ethical principles but do not actually understand what it means according to the previous surveys. The latter is not surprising when taking into account that customers are not aware of business ethics requirements either.
The choice of this company is not haphazard, since Dartek Contracting is a purely Emirati company that operates only in the UAE market, and, hence, it must be less influenced by large American or European companies where ethical issues are well known. It should be noted that we succeeded to get feedback only from 40 employees of the firm whereas the overall number of its workers is about 85. In conclusion, although in the framework of such a small investigation it is quite difficult to draw some general conclusions about Dartek’s employees’ perception of business ethics, the presence of some controversies in relation to the subject is obvious.
References
Srokaa, W., Lőrinczyb, M. (2015). The perception of ethics in business: analysis of research results. Procedia Economics and Finance, 34, 156 – 163.
