Essay Sample on Maintaining Professionalism: Meeting Objectives Through Ethical Standards

Introduction

Out of the four levels of the ethical continuum, the category that I feel accurately reflects my ethical standards is the professional practice standard. As a professional, my moral standards would be in line with the requirements of the profession that I am holding, but with a blend of personal ethics to ensure that whatever I do is not subject to any form of criticism. Maintaining professionalism is essential in any practice, and it helps in meeting the objectives of both the organization and the legal requirements of the land.

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As a marketing manager of McDonald's, I would market the products but not actively target the children with the adverts. It is essential to market the products from the company, but it is equally important to exercise ethics by considering the health and safety of the consumers of these products. Children and adolescents may suffer from high-sugar products through complications such as obesity, and this needs to be reduced. The advertisements should, however, be objective but not actively targeted to the children since they cannot make conscious decisions.

In most cases, and the case of Volkswagen, the marketing manager only use the information provided to them by the technical and other departments responsible for the specifications. It is nonsensical to wrong market information about a product, and in professional ethics, this is uncalled for. From the VW case of the fuel emission scandal, it is evident how unethical corporate action like false advertisement would lead to penalties and losses to a company. VW incurred a total of $85 billion by recalling its cars. However, most people choose to engage in unethical corporate conduct to make more profit and with the hope that the consequences would not be long-lasting, like in the case of VW whereby one year after the scandal, the company resumed and made the highest number of sales.

From the ethical point of view, whether it is right or wrong to use the customer data in targeting them is a question of how. Joining Facebook or creating a Facebook account is a matter of choice, and there are abiding terms and conditions a customer have to assent. As the marketing manager of Facebook, I confirm that I would use the customer data to target them with the adverts. The customer data are provided publicly, and using these to target them is not only to the benefit of the company but also to the customers. There is not severe harm caused to the customers by using their data to target them in adverts.

Conclusion

Like in the case of Apple, I think it is within business ethic to exercise the freedom of decision making in manufacturing your products. Each company has a target market with different interests. For the case of Apple companies, I believe most of their users are also excited by the fact that older versions of the products become obsolete. This gives them the room for upgrading to the most recent product. I would knowingly take this route in my business decision if it were to the best interest of the consumers and the business. It would, however, be appropriate to do it in a manner that the consumers are also informed of the possible future of the products so that they are aware of what to expect.