Ethical Strategic Decision-Making
Management Policy and Strategy
Introduction
Any business that is operational today faces the dilemma of how to act ethically while also making sure that the company is productive. Our company is currently facing this decision. Senscore, is faced with the decision on how to conduct our business in an environmentally friendly way. Our recent change in production process has reduced the use of energy and labor but has not decreased the amount of waste. So, the dilemma that our company is facing is that our production team wants to launch a new marketing campaign to show support for substantiality. Faced with several different choices, our company must decide the most ethical approach to the situation. The four options presented to the company are, 1) Do nothing, 2), Allow the launch of the campaign to buy time for the marketing department, 3) Be honest about the production waste but launch a campaign that highlights the improvements made, or 4) Discard the campaign and focus on the changes and how they have improved the company.
Ethics
Business ethics evaluates and identifies the corporate responsibility and what should and should not be done by a business in concern with the overall business, employees, as well as general behavior (Grosser, K., Moon, J., & Nelson, J. A., 2017). This means taking into consideration the right thing to do for the company, employees and the consumers. With our company changing the way we do business we are making sure that our environmental footprint is less effective on our environment. However, since our waste production has not decreased, the ethical thing to do would be to see how the three pillars of sustainable development play a role in the decision that is made. These three pillars are the economic pillar, the social pillar, and the environmental pillar (Iacona, 2010). Since our company as taking the steps to become more economically friend which is the first pillar, we must examine the decision and how it will impact the social pillar. If the company were to do nothing then the community would see the company as a fraud, a company that lies to the community. By allowing the campaign to proceed, we are not sharing facts with the consumers that are entirely true and bending the truth is still lying. If our company is honest, then the community knows we are sharing all the facts, not hiding the truth and working to make our company more environmentally friendly. Discarding the campaign gives the business a new approach on how to present the changes made to the public but will cost the company a great deal of money. In regards to the third pillar and the environmental approach of the decision. In order to address this pillar, the company must decide how to change the amount of waste being produced by the company.
An Agency Theory approach would suggest that the company continue with the campaign since the business has all the information but the result is that it would have to suffer the consequences or backlash in the process (Jordan, 2016). How would the community feel if they knew the business was hiding facts from them? Competition could also use this type of information to discredit the business. With the stakeholder theory, each department within the company has its own goals (Stacy, 2013). In this case our marketing team has the overall goal of developing a campaign that paints the company in a “greener” light. However, it is the sole purpose of the company to ensure the company continues to profit and how can a company profit if they lose customers due to lying to them?
Competitive advantage
By being upfront and honest to our consumers we are showing them that honesty is important and that our business is ethically sound and has true integrity. This also would give our company an advantage over our competition. Consumers look at companies that not only do what is best for the environment but also what is best for the consumers and by taking a stand on making our company more environmentally friendly the company is putting the needs of the people at a higher standard. Consumers are more likely to do business with a company that shows true integrity than a company that does not. So, our position is to show our substantiality and influence how customers see our company (Ali Sair, 2014)
Strategic Management
Strategic Management is seen as decisions or actions that are made by managers that will help determine the long-term performance of a business or corporation (Karadag, 2015). For our company that means that the decisions made by our management team in regards to the campaign and how it will affect the longevity of the company. If done properly, it can boost sales, improve customer relations and push us past our competition. If done wrong, if can cost the company not only money but also its customers and reputation. Our strategy must be to design a campaign that allows us to present to the public the improvements that have been made and also a time frame on how we plan to decrease the amount of waste that is produced by our company. This strategy will show what we have done so far to improve the environment and the changes that will be made in the future to continue this endeavor.
References
Ali Sair, S. (2014). Consumer Psyche and Positioning Strategies. Pakistan Journal Of Commerce & Social Sciences, 8(1), 58-73.
Grosser, K., Moon, J., & Nelson, J. A. (2017). Guest Editors’ Introduction: Gender, Business Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility: Assessing and Refocusing a Conversation. Business Ethics Quarterly, 27(4), 541-567. doi:10.1017/beq.2017.42
Iacona, G. (2010). Going green to make green: Necessary changes to promote and implement corporate social responsibility while increasing the bottom line. Journal of Land Use Environmental Law 26(1), 113-146.
Jordan, D. (2016). Agency Theory (organizational economics). Salem Press Encyclopedia,
Stacy, R. N. (2013). Stakeholder theory. Salem Press Encyclopedia,
Karadag, H. (2015). Strategic Financial Management for Small and Medium Sized Companies. Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
