Business Report On Ethical Consumerism For Corporate Governance

Describe about the Business Report on Ethical Consumerism for Corporate Governance .

The concept of ethical and moral consumerism has been gaining grounds in the previous past up to the present. The reason attributed to this phenomenon is that companies globally comprise of different sets of economic facts and relations. Certain attributes such as trustworthiness, personal integrity, and social competence and various other core competences have become crucial when it comes to dealing with corporate partners, employees, and decisive public. Most organizations have discovered that yearly assessment are not efficient enough to measure employee performance.The management has the capacity to identify any issues ahead of time by seeking to maintain employees’ abilities and workload.

As a food producing and selling company, Wegmans stood out as exceptional company because of the way it has constantly maintained its position in the rankings. The best memorable time came in 2007 when Wegmans got an award from the Food Networks for being the leading supermarket in the United States. The company is a thriving grocery store positioned in Rochester in the heart of New York. Its achievement is witnessed in the manner it has spread to close to 70 of its stores across Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland by 2010.  There are uncountable reasons as to why Wegmans retains such loyal staff and a high turnover rate of 9% for their 40k workers. The astonishing feature of this establishment is the way it applies job sharing as well as a compressed worksheet and providing of telecommuting for its staff members. The organisation has eventually created a viable environment that symbolises that staffs matter the most. Therefore, the first ethical aspect practiced by this company is the giving of due recognition to its workers. This has always remained a challenge to majority of firms out there who are not concerned by the welfare of the employees as much as they do with other goals like wealth creation and profit maximization. This firm’s mission is always “Workers First, Clients Second”, and is cherished on the premise that when workers feel cared for, they automatically reciprocate by displaying utmost concern and care for the clientele they serve (Smith, 2013, p. 3). The core purpose of this paper is to attempt to extract the organizational behaviour of the company in question, and give elucidative reasons why it is the best organization one should strive to work for.

Conducting Primary Research for the Company

When researching public opinion, it can be difficult to understand the reasons why consumers choose a particular retailer especially when there are numerous indicators that the company may have a flawed perception of what those consumers really need or a less than stellar process of treating their team members. By conducting experiments, we are able to identify an effect of a particular variable and can potentially gain insight into what prompts consumers to continue shopping even though the company has its fair share of challenges and what contributes to employee turnover rates. 

Another ways through Wegmans has upheld ethics in its operations and management is by bringing innovation to a traditional industry. In 1996, for instance, the company initiated a website for its major stores with key specifics on recipes and health coupled with other significant information for all its clients. Many have labelled the experience at the company as “Food Theatre.”  The company has always strived to ensure that all its employees are ahead in terms of innovativeness and skill development. A good company is the one that keeps all its stakeholders including the management and employees, who come should be kept at par with the ongoing progress of the company. It would be very unfair for this company if it does its activities and does not disclose them to the concerned parties attached to it (Laurin, 2006, p. 300).  

Commercial enterprises that work by insisting on the use of conventional methods of persuasion and marketing are failing because of the advent of a younger class of consumers who have high levels of literacy standards and are interested in firms that undertake ethical businesses. A good and effective consumer is in a position to purchase and use products which are generated in an ethical manner, and not otherwise (Tricker, 2012, p. 16). The modern-day consumers expect products produced by companies to be 100% harmless in both the society and the environment. The concept of ethical consumerism is associated with mistrust to both suppliers and manufacturers of products. Consumers (who are strictly ethical clients) have various demands and possess high prospects to enable them attain value and have value delivered at their disposal via ethical processes and techniques (Brink, 2011, p. 3).

There are certain products that can be termed as ethical. Such comprise products in industries comprising of soft drink industries, travel, dairy, energy, toiletries and cosmetics, food and beverage. Apart from the form in which products are manufactured, consumers are encouraged to be ethical specifically through assessment of their food miles. The presence of food miles is used to describe the volume or bulk of energy used in making products and availing them to consumers (Sudbury, Kohlbacher & Hofmeister, 2012, p. 291). For this particular reason, majority of ethical consumers are now fond of purchasing and consuming locally manufactured products.

Ethical Consumerism

While addressing the principles of business ethics, corporate social responsibility and human rights, corporations too, can come up with the fundamental ethics principles by positioning them as the foundation of the requisite protection of human rights of people in global business. According to Bruce (2007, p. 8), it becomes clear that respect for human self-respect is the most treasured and essential responsibility of any business especially those operating on a worldwide scale.  Such kind of human dignity should always be expressed in the concern for human needs as the pillar towards realizing human rights. In this particular ethics of the world, it is always important to protect the fundamental ethical principles of vulnerability, integrity, dignity, and autonomy.

With every passing cloud, the business context, which is the backbone of nearly every economy in the world, is in shambles because of failure to indoctrinate the right measures of perpetuating the human rights need. Businesses have embarked on making and amassing huge profits whilst compromising on their integrity and ethical standards. The Wegmans’ code of conduct guides its day-to-day operations, proving that acting unethically is compulsory for them. Since 2005, Wegmans has engaged in boosting the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within its partner organizations (Borden, Chu, Fishman & Prospero & Sacks, 2008, p. 18). The company is ceaselessly working towards lessening environmental impacts. These are just some of the examples the company has adopted to commit itself for environmental and social causes. Secondly, the company’s strong emphasis on reputation created trust, loyalty, and faith amongst their clients, and the strongest brand recognition of all time. The act of placing employees on a number scale does not work as desired. It causes unncessary competition, causing  reduced productive workforce (Trigger, 2012, p. 14).Most businesses are evaluating their staff based on the succcess of each member towards the company goals.

Employees are encouraged to be considerate towards each other.The management should ensure that there is no practice of some employees being turned down based on their gender. In terms of promotions, equal sexes are considered. i.e. 6 males, 6 females while seeking for 12 positions. All positions are being turned into gender-netral. Organizations are now cognizant of the gender-parity issues, and have sought to address them.

The role of senior management is now being viewed with regard to how balanced the management is in terms of  gender equity (Sudbury, Kohlbacher & Hofmeister, 2012, p. 300).The world of globalization is shifting from praising men-only or male dominated jobs to female-related jobs. It bespeaks of the position both sexes hold in global development. In future, some of the jobs and occupations known for certain sexes will be unheard of (Bhimani, 2008, p. 11).  

Consumer buying and consuming behavior is a field of study which has been gaining a lot of popularity in the world of business. There is unique waay and style in which consumers in the current age respond to the buying of products, a reason why I undertook to study thier behavior by just sampling a small fraction of these consumers. As a  researcher, I undertook to carry out a short and informal opinion survey that studies a sample of 15 students studying at GSM London as a means of determining the factors influencing consumer purchasing behavior. The selected survey instrument used was in form of a questionnaire (as shown below):

THE QUESTIONNAIRE  FOR RESEARCH

Instructions:

1. Please don’t bother writing your name on the questionnaire.
2. Kindly attempt all questions.
3. Indicate your choice of answer by using a tick (√)
4. Ensure you answer all questions as precisely and honestly as possible.
5. The information you give will be treated with a lot of confidentially, and will not be disclosed to any third party.

PART A: Background Information

1. Indicate your gender: Male [] OR Female []
2. Age

[] 15-30 years, [] 31-45 years, [] 46-60 years, [] Above 60

1. Education level attained/Pursued

[] Undergraduate, [] Masters [], PHD.

PAST B:

Influence

Please indicate your agreeableness in the below statements by placing a tick. The question requires that you honestly rate the degree (level) of influence the following factors/persons pose on your buying behaviour.

Factors	Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
Satisfaction by a previous bought  product associated with a certain brand
Position in the society
Product quality
Brand recognition
Firm ethical behaviour
Dispensable income

Factors	Strongly agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
Brand recognition
Packaging
Product quality
Taste and appearance
Firm ethics
Durability
Product availability

Do you have any additional comments? If so, then state them briefly.

These results from the survey conducted on fifteen students at the GSM London reveal that there are various factors that combine and influence consumer buying and consuming behaviour. The factors include psychological, economic, societal, situational, and individual in nature. Whereas some of the students’ disposal income was very applicable in influencing their buying choices, their own perceptions regarding the unlike brands that are accessible in the marketplace influenced other group of students. The study shows that an estimated three fourths of the participants cited in the study are disposed towards the assessment of a company’s ethical production before embarking on making a good buying decision.

As early as now, there is need for the company to engage in enhancing and simplifying the activities and processes. All the approaches used and adopted by the company henceforth should mirror straightforwardness and openness. Company leaders are encouraged to resist the temptation of making management decisions based on employee analytics. Though this data offers insight into skill levels, it fails to put light on the engagement between the management and other stakeholders. The management should focus much on increasing employee motivation and satisfaction in order to deliver desirable long-term results (Bhimani, 2009).

Conclusion

The company that has been selected and discussed is classic example of firm that uphold ethical values and practices honesty and transparency to its clientele. Its consumers ranked Wegmans Food Markets as the leading supermarket in the nation during the latest Consumer Reports survey. From the analysis what has been discussed in the paper, it is evident that for any firm that meets the needs of its employees will always stand better chance of taking care of its consumers. The duties mandated by every firm to fulfil to its employees include the duty to assist consumers who are deprived of their rights and the duty to assist by protecting consumers from any form of deprivation.

Reference List

Bhimani, A. (2008) “Making Corporate Governance Count: The Fusion of Ethics and Economic Rationality”. Journal of Management and Governance, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 135-147.

Borden, M., Chu, J., Fishman, C., Prospero, M. A., & Sacks, D. (2008, September 11). 50 ways to green your business. Fast Company. Retrieved January 27, 2008, from https://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/50-ways-to-green-yourbusiness_5.html

Brink, A., (2011). Corporate Governance and Business Ethics, NY: Springer.

Bruce, C. (2007, October). Business Etiquette 101: Making a good first impression. Black Collegian, 38(1), 78–80.

Crane, A., and Matten, D., (2007). Business Ethics, NY: Oxford University Press.

Laurin, K. R. (2006). Is strategic human resource management socially responsible? The case of Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. Employee Responsibility and Rights Journal,18, 295–307.

Sison, G.S., (2008). Corporate governance and ethics: an Aristotelian perspective, UK: Edward Elgar publishing press.

Sudbury Riley, L, Kohlbacher, F, & Hofmeister, A (2012), ‘A Cross-Cultural Analysis Of Pro-
Consumer Behavior among Seniors’, Journal of Marketing, 28, 3/4, pp. 290-312.

Tricker, B., (2012). Corporate governance: principles, policies and practices, NY: Oxford University press.

Smith, Jacquelyn. (2013). “The World’s Most Ethical Companies.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 15 Mar. 2012. Web. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/03/15/the-worlds-most-ethical-companies/&gt