Question:
Critically analyse and evaluate the Incidents related to Business Ethics issues by applying at least 3 relevant Business Ethic Theories. You are also required to provide Criticisms and Opinions on the Issues.
The subject matter of the report is to analyse the problems critically regarding the business ethics and to evaluate the aspects of the same. Business ethics contain certain ethical principles to maintain the proper business environment (Crane & Matten, 2016). It regulates all kind of business conduct and retains standard by setting out certain necessary norms for the betterment of the company. In 1952, Adam Smith overviewed the importance of ethical issues of business (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). In 2005, Jones has expressed his willingness regarding the imposition the ethical norms over the companies. The term Business ethics has been used professionally in United States of America and the official structure of the same has been concocted in 1980 (Trevino, & Nelson, 2016). It has been observed that in recent times, the industries are facing certain dilemma regarding the business ethics. In this report, the problems faced by Telecommunication industry of Malaysia have been discussed. The main reason behind the same is that the companies are not following the proper business ethics and become a profit gaining machine. Various allegations have been made against these companies and therefore, the share markets of Malaysia have been affected a lot. This report points out certain strategies to overcome the ethical problems (Weiss, 2014). This report has made a critical analysis on the two telecommunication based companies in Malaysia. The chosen companies are Maxis telecommunication and DiGi telecommunications.
Ethical issues:
Ethical issues are stands on morality and the grounds of the ethical issues should be depended on honesty and integrity. Circumstances may be differed into such a condition that requires the business group to crave the morality regarding special action (Hoffman, Frederick & Schwartz, 2014). In recent times, it has been observed that the ethical issues regarding a business have been highlighted and it involves certain aspects such as honesty, integrity, harassment, professional behaviour and fraud. The problems will remain same if these could not be removed. It has been observed that most of the companies are affected from the ethical misconduct committed against the customer and the employees. The resource abuse is also getting at the top now days (Wang, Kweh, & Lai, 2014).
In certain times, it has been observed that the companies are involved within the curse of bribery. This malicious intent helps the company towards degradation. It has been observed by business analytics that honesty is the base of every company. If a company fails to achieve the goal and jeopardise the organisational ethics, it will face degradation (Cantwell, Dunning & Lundan, 2015). There are certain principles that a company should follow to achieve the ultimate goal by maintaining business ethics. These are beneficence, least harm, respect for autonomy, justice, Deontology, Utilitarianism, rights and virtue. In this report, three of the principles will be discussed. These principles can be categorising as follows:
Justice:
According to this theory, it is the utmost duty of the decision maker to concentrate on the works that are fair in nature. The main objective of this theory is to equalise the ethical decision with the ethical theory (Oelze et al., 2016). It has been stated that if the decision taken by the company could not be based on the ethical version, a company cannot make prosperous. The decision will also assist the companies to deal with the ethical dilemmas and therefore, it can be stated that until a company takes an ethical decision regarding their products or company settlement, it could not ensure the interest of the consumers and the employees (Yeboah-Asiamah et al., 2016).
Deontology:
This theory regulates the process of decision. As per the theory, a company should have to equalise the obligations and the duties and the same should have to apply during the process of decision making. A company should perform that duty which is regarded as ethically correct (Wahid et al., 2017). For instance, a company shall, at all possible times keep the promises and abide by the principle of law. The main criteria of this theory are to follow certain obligations regarding to perform certain ethical duties. The deontological ethics can be formularised in certain ways such as Kantianism (originated by Immanuel Cant), moral absolutism, divine command theory and contemporary deontology (Wang et al., 2014).
Utilitarianism:
When a company can predict an action and the result of such action, the ability will be regarded as utilitarianism. It has two wings, one deal with act and other deals with rules. The believer of acts utilitarianism performs that job suitable for most of the person. Rule utilitarianism consists of certain legal principles. The objective of this theory is to gain maximum good (Taghizadeh et al., 2014).
However, these theories have certain loopholes that are generated from the ethical background and it can be observed that the interest of the individuals is neglected in the process of application of these theories.
The present company is a bright name in the telecommunication sector of Malaysia. However, this company has been suffering from certain ethical dilemmas that can be stated as under:
It is a legal fact that a company is a separate entity and it works through the stakeholders. Therefore, it is obvious to state that the stakeholders are important in nature and without their assistance; a company could not run its business. Stakeholders include Board of Directors, shareholders, and other staffs. The theory of stakeholders applies to them who are getting benefitted from the company and regarding their role in the company, the stakeholders are to be treated ethically (Bryman & Bell, 2015).
Shareholders are the most important part of the company as the economic background of the company is depended on the shareholders and they are purchasing the shares of the company. They are directly attached to the company and if the company is affected due to certain unethical decisions, the interest of the shareholders will also get inflicted. The suppliers and the customers are also a part of the company. The suppliers are the persons who are distributed the products of the company and reach the products to the customers. If the policy of the company does not go with the suppliers and fails to protect the interest of the customer, it will be unethical in nature and affected both of them (Crane, & Matten, 2016).
It has been observed that both the companies are affected by the ethical dilemmas and bunch of allegations are pending against them. Stakeholders of both the companies are facing certain dilemma as the reputation of the companies is deteriorating day today. However, it has been observed that the position of Maxis telecommunication is not that mush good. In the Maxis Telecommunication, there are certain reputed stakeholders. It is a part of the Ananda Krishnan’s empire. One of the important stakeholders of the company is Saudi Telecom Company who owns 25% of stake in the company.
It is obvious to state that if the company is suffering from certain disabilities, it will affect the interest of the stakeholders. Therefore, the company should act with the stakeholders ethically and it should not forget the ethical principles so that it will oppose the customisation policies. Stakeholder analysis is important in this regard to understand the necessary policies of stakeholders (Trevino & Nelson, 2016).
Stakeholder analysis comprised of pondering and evaluating all the rival demands on a company or corporation by each of it who have a claim on it, in order to arrive at the firm’s obligation in a particular case. In case of the stakeholder analysis, the necessary thing is that the overall examination regarding the interest of the stakeholder should be the matter of consideration. It is a way to determine the attitudes of the stakeholders regarding the dispute and the way they deal with the same. there is no particular time or process mentioned to analyse the stakeholders. It is depending on the circumstances (Weiss, 2014).
In case of the Maxis telecommunication, it has been observed that the marketing policy became a potential threat to the company and it begins to lose its customer chain due to this. The marketing ethics consists of certain ethical values that should be followed up by the marketers. It is the duty of the marketers to take effective decisions regarding the market contradiction and the way these disputes can be resolved. There should be a transparency regarding the potential risks regarding the environmental issues and risks generated due to finance and the security whereas the policies of DiGi telecommunication are quite promising (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). It has been observed that the employees of the company are getting training to deal with the customers properly and the product policies of the company are also customer oriented. Therefore, it has been observed that many loyal customers of Maxis are transferring their concentration to the DiGi telecommunication.
There are three kinds of stakeholders- primary stakeholders, secondary stakeholders and key stakeholders. Stakeholder analysis will help to avoid the potential risks regarding the interest of the stakeholders.
The ethical dilemma of a company can be resolved by adopting perfect policies or strategies. It is important to make a framework to resolve all the ethical dilemmas and to point out the grounds that causes dilemma regarding the same. The decisions are trade off between utility, rights and justice (Hoffman, Frederick & Schwartz, 2014). The company should be indebted to the stakeholders and to the customers as their profit is depends on them. The company should act with them ethically and should provide them certain benefits like efficiency, consistency and pay back policies.
The company should value all the possible chances and should not take any fraudulent way to gain ulterior motive or profit. It has been stated by Ambers Parker that the company should treated all the customers and the stakeholders with honesty and ethically. In the words of Plato, the business conflicts should be avoided at all possible chances. The unethical behaviour of the company should be treated with pro-active measures and it should be stated that there should be a common goal for the companies and policies should be taken so that all the stakeholders can take part in it (Wahid et al., 2017). If there is any allegation made against the reputation of the company, it should be responded positively. All the legal and ethical duties are to be fulfilled and all the strategies must be logistic and based on facts.
According to Borgerson, and Schroeder (2008), marketing can influence individuals’ perceptions of and interactions with other people, implying an ethical responsibility to avoid distorting those perceptions and interactions.
The allegations that have been made against Maxis affected the interest of the shareholders and the stakeholders and it can be stated that the customer chain of the company had been affected and the company had to face great dilemma (Trevino & Nelson, 2016). Many customers have made the allegation that the company deprived all the loyal customer and providing discount to others. It has been observed that the company has been affected by certain scandals and the reputation of the company had been affected for the unethical decisions and the policy of the company. The company should respond to the allegations and the company should take ethical approach to deal with the problems.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be stated that the company is facing certain ethical problems and the report has been discussed the ethical issues that the company is being faced. The company is liable for the launching of Malaysia’s first four satellites and it is serving as a great name for the telecommunication industry for years and it has a strong customer chain. However, it has been observed that the customer base of the company is being affected by the unethical approaches of the company regarding its 2G spectrum. It has been alleged that the company is supplying certain mobiles to the customers in a cheap rate and deprive the loyal customer (Ismail et al., 2015). There were no positive replies given from the officials regarding the allegations and as a result the company is losing its customers. It has also been observed that the stakeholders of the company are also getting affected as the bad impression of the company regarding the consumers minimize the price of the shares and it has been observed that the costs of the products have faced a financial dilemma. There are other competitors in the telecommunication market of Malaysia and it has been noticed that unethical approaches of the company help others to rise in the market of the company. Many of the customers of the company went to the companies like DiGi. Therefore, it can be stated that the ethical issues of the company should be resolved with positive delights. In the words of Economist Milton Freidman, the corporate executives should have to maintain certain responsibilities. There are certain policies that will help to overcome these ethical issues. It is important to point out the sources of the ethical dilemmas and the policies of the company should be customer oriented. It is important to implement code of conduct for the employees and necessary provision regarding anti-corruption rules should be included. The interest of the customer should be taken on higher priority and the division of customer should be closed by the highest authority as soon as possible. The employees should be trained in a proper way so that they can prove themselves as promising to the customers. The company should provide quick response to the allegations, if any, made by the customers. These strategies will help to overcome the dilemmas and the telecommunication industry can get rid of the dilemmas.
References
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Cantwell, J., Dunning, J. H., & Lundan, S. M. (2015). An evolutionary approach to understanding international business activity: The co-evolution of MNEs and the institutional environment. In The Eclectic Paradigm (pp. 192-223). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
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