Research Paper on Corporate Social Responsibility

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an automatic and self-evaluating approach that assists a firm/enterprise become socially answerable to its structure and operation, its stakeholders as well as the society in general (Schwartz, 2011). The primary purpose of the CSR is to ensure that the enterprise ethically performs their trade bearing in mind the social, environmental, and economic impacts and also with the contemplation of the human rights (Schwartz, 2011). Some examples of CSR activities include socially responsible investments, establishing an acute relationship between employees and consumers, and implementing environmental protection and sustainability projects (Schwartz, 2011).

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Influence of Primary and Secondary Stakeholders

Paradigm Toys has some stakeholders, some of the primary stakeholders are the company's clients as well as the investors. Additionally, the company has secondary stakeholders, for example, the community residing within the enterprise's environmental setup and the media.

First, consumers are the primary stakeholders of the company since any outcome of unethical leadership directly affects them, for example, in the case of ethical breaches the company might produce and distribute toys that do not meet the expectations and standards of the clients. Moreover, unethical conduct might also lead to the disclosure of client details such as private and credit card information. Furthermore, unethical behaviour can affect the funding of the company; therefore, changing the productivity level and brand of the company.

The secondary stakeholders also play an essential role towards ethical leadership of Paradigm Toys. The community assists the company to initiate corporate social responsibility activities to directly influence the reputation of the company, its long-term and short-term objectives. Also, implement ethical decisions towards promoting a safe environment for the community by fostering acute strong ethical culture and training of the personnel and the public to assist control internal and external barriers that affect the shaping of the society.

Meeting Corporate Social Responsibility

For the company to achieve ethical responsibility, Paradigm Toys board of directors needs to approve an interactive and team building training program. The program will be used as an opportunity to establish the ethical culture that is in line with the company mission and policies (Schwartz, 2011). Also, the program will initiate various models of omitting mistakes that can lead to ethical breaches by focusing on the essential compounds and structures of ethics as a means of maintaining company integrity.

Next, the board of directors will design and approve the implementation of security protocols used by both stakeholders. Such protocols will enable the company to identify each stakeholder's responsibility and trust in handling different levels of sensitive information (Schwartz, 2011). Next, it will support the ethical initiatives that support the security of clients' data. Moreover, such schemes can help the company design a firewall that eliminates the chances of the company system getting hacked by external and internal hackers.

Ethical Leadership Reflection

Ethical Culture

Ethical culture is essential to most organizations since it defines the consequences of the stakeholders' obligations (Hoffman, Frederick, & Schwartz, 2014). Additionally, its importance reflects on the tasks performed by the company and how they are affected by all the inputs, for example, the company's mission and vision, objectives, strategies, expectations, leadership, competitors, as well as laws among others (Hoffman, Frederick, & Schwartz, 2014). Moreover, Paradigm Toys' leadership can enhance the continuous training of the personnel to develop an ethical culture. Continuous/effective training helps in maintaining moral conducts within the work environment. Besides, it also helps the employees understand their roles and expectations, for example, an employee will appreciate the boundary of his/her obligations; therefore, they will follow the company leadership/management hierarchy as a preventive means of getting caught up in unethical conduct behavior.

Ethics Audit

Ethics audit is an investigation conducted to understand the performance of an enterprise, especially regarding the ethical norms of the industry or society is implemented (Kaptein, 2012). Also, it considers how a firm's practice, its approach to grievances, financial disclosure, whistleblower punishment approaches, and the entire organization culture operations (Kaptein, 2012).

Value of Ethics Editing: The value of an ethics audit is of the great importance of Paradigm Toys because it stabilizes the company ethical culture that ensures that the company operates in a trustworthy and respectful way (Kaptein, 2012). Additionally, it ensures that fairness is practised since it will minimize the bias levels of operations among executive members and the community by providing rules and regulations governing financial bounds as well as the organization's reputation. Lastly, ethical audit ensures that all the employees work as per the moral standards set by the Paradigm as well as the community.

Ethical Framework

While working as the sales manager at Info-Tech Company Ltd., I came across an issue that established dilemma on the company brand reputation as well as productivity levels of the company. John, one of the sales representatives, had a clean record of convincing new clients to purchase company products and service, his career was excellent, and he made the company outdoor its competitors in the market niche. Later, while performing an ethics audit, it came to my notice that John had access to two competitor firms' databases and was poaching customers one after the other by promising good deals and premiums with Info-Tech Company. He did not realize that in case he was caught the entire company was to be held responsible for poaching and not abiding by the business ethical conducts that establish fair and just competition within the market niche.

There are two ways of solving the dilemma without tarnishing the image and company brand. First, is to report the case to the executives and let them decide on the next actions. The idea of forwarding the information to the executives have one course of action; John will lose his job since the company will not want to be involved in his unethical act of hacking, stealing competitor's clients' information, and then poaching them. The second way of solving the dilemma is by taking it upon me to investigate and stop him from continuing with the practice. My investigation will also, depend on the scope of the severity of harm caused to other firms; if it is severe, then I will have no option than to report his conduct to the management for further investigation.

The best approach is to handle the case myself by investigating the issue at hand. First, I will meet John's clients and seek out the reason as to why they had to cancel their contracts with other competitor companies; if their intentions are personal and not influenced by John then I will ensure the staff gets admission to ethical programs in order for him to learn the values of the business morals. In case, the clients were pressurized/influenced by John by promising them good deals; then I will refer the issue to my superiors who will then decide on the punishment as per his offences according to the company and business policies.

Proposal

The key areas to focus on, especially when addressing moral values are the truth, trust and honesty, workplace development and respect and the handling of confidential data. The main reason for including the above topics is because they are the most sensitive sectors of the business since they directly relate to the company reputation and enhance an acute relationship with the clients. For example, handling of confidential information will promote trust and confidence the clients have on the company. Also, workplace development and respect assisted in the provision and production of a good working environment and increased the productivity of quality products.

The best delivery method of training is an annual training that all employees need to enrol and attend. First, the training approach will be conducted for new employees to make them familiar with the company ethical policies, and on a yearly basis, the training will help in identifying the prior unethical conducts and provide a method of improving the moral balance within the environment.

References

Hoffman, W., Frederick, R., & Schwartz, M. (2014). Business Ethics: Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality. John Wiley & Sons.

Kaptein, S. (2012). Ethics Management: Auditing and Developing the Ethical Content of Organizations. Springer Science & Business Media.

Schwartz, M. (2011). Corporate Social Responsibility: An Ethical Approach. Broadview Press.