Ethics, Governance, and Sustainability in Business Essay Sample

Ethics, Governance, and Sustainability in Business

Task

Assessment of this module is based on a written essay of no more than 2000 words (excluding reference list)

Answer the following question in an essay format.

What are the main ethics, governance and sustainability issues that businesses need to address? What would be your recommendations for implementing sustainable and responsible approaches to leadership?

Your answer should include relevant academic theory and refer to examples based on your research of Apple and Tony’s chocolonely.

The companies investigated as part of this assignment were chosen via an online poll at the start of the module.

Solution

Introduction

Within the organizational context, the appropriate maintenance of workplace ethics has played a pivotal role. According to the study, opined by Ferrell et al. (2019), workplace ethics has the ability to provide immeasurable support to the corporate sustainable development to meet with the organizational stakeholders. According to the MBA Assignment Expert overview, Within the business, managing unethical behavior is represented as an utmost concern as it affects the overall organizational performance and sustainability respectively. In this regard, several companies are responsible for developing a broad range of principles with the help of different theoretical frameworks within their respective workplaces (Lin et al., 2020). Following that, these principles direct the organizational individuals to deal with uncertain situations ethically and help to determine the moral responses to raised situations as well.

As a result, the companies prioritize effective enforcement of codes of ethics and regulations to promote ethics and accountability. This significant approach guides the organizations to maintain a balance concerning the stakeholder’s demands and the society as well (Sarwar et al., 2020). The study aims to explore the concerns of ethical, governance and sustainability issues in well-known business organizations like Apple Inc. and Tony's Chocolonely respectively. The thesis statement of the essay is that the presence or maintenance of good ethical behaviour along with proper corporate governance assesses the effect of organizational stakeholders' social responsibility accordingly.

Main Body or Discussion

As per the study, propagated by Van Buren III, Syed and Mir (2020), the application of ethical values is primarily depending on moral development at the individual level. Hence, the companies have involved business ethics as an integral part of the organizational principles. In order to meet these principles the companies often establish sets of values, standards and /or norms, followed by influencing the actions of the organizational individuals. In this regard, the inclusion of a triple bottom-line approach seeks much attention. According to the study, opined by Lei, Ha and Le (2019), the triple bottom line has been represented as a transformation framework to help organizations while moving toward a sustainable future. By using the mentioned framework, companies can eventually set goals and measure the improvements to develop a more sustainable system.

However, based on the chosen framework, one of the greatest tech-savvy companies, Apple faces many criticisms regarding their ethical issues. Apple is highly criticized for poor working conditions with 12-hour shifts and exhaustion. As per the report, stated by theguardian.com (2023), Apple gets a score of 46% in terms of international human rights standards as the company reported child labour. Similarly, another company such as Tony’s Chocolonely has also faced much criticism in this regard. The company has been dropped, especially from a list of ethical chocolate companies over its links to using child labour (tonyschocolonely.com, 2023). It should be noteworthy that the chocolate industry has been represented as a deeply flawed system. Hence, in order to tackle this situation, a company like Tony's Chocolonely needs to involve a large processor. However, using child labour is not an ideal choice to make a profit for the company respectively.

In addition, it is known that the maintenance of corporate governance helps the business to attract more investors to invest in business organizations. This significant approach assists the companies to raise their share price as well (Sugiyanto and Candra, 2019). However, unethical behaviour of the company’s corporate governance can damage the firm’s corporate image and /or reputation, followed by making the firm less appealing, especially to the stakeholders. Being the most valuable firm, Apple has included several independent directors in the corporate governance structure (apple.com, 2023). This significant approach raises the chances of interest in conflicts within the organizational context accordingly. Besides, it is known that the shareholders are responsible for taking active participation in the annual meetings of Apple Inc. Being a one-man company, Apple is not transparent to the shareholders which in turn, reciprocates the facts of misunderstandings. As a result, Apple is responsible for losing 10% of the share price as well (theguardian.com, 2023). Hence, apart from cutting edge of technology, Apple needs to prioritize its shareholders to deal with this criticism accordingly.

Additionally, other company like Tony’s Chocolonely deals with different scandals due to the presence of poor management of corporate governance. In order to enhance the onboarding of two farming cooperatives, the corporate governance of the chosen company struck off the Slave Free Chocolate categories. However, the presence of child labour within their supply chain management reciprocates the facts of modern slavery and leads to generating a poor reputation for the company accordingly. In order to cope with this situation, the company has partnered with one of the largest chocolate makers and processors Barry Callebaut (tonyschocolonely.com, 2023). However, there is a presence of conflicts between the partners as the company cannot tackle the consequences of child labour respectively. Therefore, based on the above discussion, it has been noted that the presence of poor corporate governance develops ethical dilemmas and corruption and creates obstacles to achieving sustainable growth as well.

According to the study, opined by Lorincová et al. (2019), sustainable business is responsible for attracting customers and boosting sales and profit. Several organizations are integrating sustainable practices, especially within their operations in order to mitigate environmental and social problems, followed by striving to have a positive impact on society respectively. In this regard, the inclusion of stakeholder theory seeks much attention. As per the study, opined by McGahan (2021), the firm should engage the stakeholders to settle the claims of shareholders and meet the needs of other stakeholders that in turn, help the business create economic value for the people. This theory entails that a business enterprise’s sustainability and success depend on its achievements, especially regarding its economic and societal goals. Hence, organizations need to enhance the incorporation of the stakeholders, followed by influencing the business operations as well. However, being the largest brand in the telecommunication industry, Apple has been dealing with major sustainable issues apparently.

Following that, one of the environmental issues that are responsible for particularly pressing, especially within the electronics industry is represented as the generation of massive amounts of waste. In this regard, Apple needs to prioritize its special responsibility in order to address the matter. With respect to increased concerns about climate change, Apple needs to utilize recycled products. However, being the most highly valued company, Apple has a very poor track record in terms of environmental responsibility as its products are not able to meet the relevance of resource utilization. Another company like Tony’s Chocolonely has been accused of slacking on sustainability to produce chocolate (forbes.com, 2023). As a result, the company faces much criticism in this regard.

Hence, with respect to the above facts, it has been noted that both the giant companies, coming from different industries have faced a wide range of issues accordingly. In order to deal with this situation, both the companies such as Apple and Tony’s Chocolonely need to incorporate feasible strategies within their respective organizational context. Firstly, a tech-savvy brand such as Apple needs to incorporate Carroll's CSR theory within its organizational context. According to the study, opined by Brin and Nehme (2021), the inclusion of Carroll's CSR theory helps the brand to deal with economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities to maximize organizational profits. By including Carroll's CSR theory, Apple can be able to follow the crises such as violation of labour law, low wages, uneven working hours and so on. In this regard, the company should prioritize their internal stakeholders by providing working pleasure and contributing community. These significant approaches will help the company to improve productivity and profitability as well.

Whereas other company such as Tony’s Chocolonely needs to involve a brainstorming program within their organizational context. This significant approach, in turn, will help the company to involve the employees in the decision-making process and can solve the mentioned issues apparently. In addition, the company can incorporate scheduled training programs to ensure a diverse workforce as well. It will help them to understand the safety guidelines while performing the organizational functionalities as well. Besides, instead of cutting the layoffs, Apple should prioritize the cloud-based system, especially for financial planning and analysis (apple.com, 2023). This selected aspect can have the ability to build governance by the internal stakeholders in its deployment model. Apart from this, the inclusion of cloud-based technology will help the present brand such as Apple in order to add governance protocols after deployment as well. However, it should be noteworthy that Apple also needs to be quite careful while applying the laws and regulations within its organizational context.

Following that, the presence of compliance within the workplace has been represented as an essential aspect in order to maintain a clean brand image. By incorporating the above aspects, Apple can be able to ensure its business decisions comply with applicable regulations in all the operating markets as well. Furthermore, being the world’s most valuable company, Apple needs to solve the consequences of sustainable issues as well. It should be noteworthy that Apple's products are having less recycling facilities while the brand itself imposes a reactive approach. In order to cope with this situation, the management of the brand can improve its environmental track record by extending its product life, followed by the reduction of the accumulation of waste (apple.com, 2023). Since the fragile state of the environment imposes various constraints on the companies and hence, being the most reputed brand, Apple should encourage the self-service repair program to spur a change of attitude as well. This significant approach, in turn, will help the company to meet the relevance of resource utilization and achieving carbon neutrality respectively.

Lastly, Tony’s Chocolonely needs to incorporate and prioritize its sustainability strategy accordingly. Instead of measuring the profit, the chosen company has measured the sell volume to achieve their success, followed by maintaining equal business relations. Since the maintenance of an appropriate supply chain without any scandal is represented as one of the primary concerns and hence, in this regard, the company can raise awareness respectively (forbes.com, 2023). Raising awareness helps the brand to understand the market and its potential size as well. In order to create a brand with slave-free chocolate, Tony’s Chocolonely also needs to prioritize the offerings of unique products with the help of an open-chain platform strategy. This will help the brand to be focused on broadening its impact and maintain its leadership position in the market accordingly.

Conclusion

The study had provided a transparent image of the concerns of the ethical, governance and sustainability issues in well-known business organizations like Apple Inc. and Tony's Chocolonely respectively. Based on the above discussion, it had been understood that the companies needed to prioritize the effective enforcement of codes of ethics and regulations to promote ethics and accountability within their respective organizational context. This significant approach guided the corporations to maintain a balance concerning the stakeholder’s demands and the society, followed by enhancing the overall organizational performance and business sustainability as well. In addition, the application of ethical and sustainable values had primarily depended on moral development at the individual level. Hence, the companies involved business ethics as an integral part of the organizational principles. On the other hand, the presence of poor corporate governance had led to the generation of improper management that in turn, developed ethical dilemmas and corruption, creating obstacles for the companies to achieve sustainable growth as well. In order to deal with this situation, both the companies such as Apple and Tony’s Chocolonely needed to incorporate feasible strategies within their respective organizational context.

Reference list

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Apple under fire again for working conditions at Chinese factories (2014). Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/19/apple-under-fire-again-for-working-conditions-at-chinese-factories (Accessed: 6 January 2023).

Brin, P. and Nehme, M., 2021. Sustainable development in emerging economy: Using the analytical hierarchy process for corporate social responsibility decision making. Journal of information technology management, 13(Special Issue: Role of ICT in Advancing Business and Management), pp.159-174.

Ferrell, O.C., Harrison, D.E., Ferrell, L. and Hair, J.F., 2019. Business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and brand attitudes: An exploratory study. Journal of Business Research, 95, pp.491-501.

Kraaijenbrink, J. (2023) Getting Sustainability Right With Tony’s Chocolonely’s Six-Layer Impact Strategy, Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeroenkraaijenbrink/2019/12/20/getting-sustainability-right-with-tonys-chocolonelys-six-layer-impact-strategy/?sh=25252c4014c2 (Accessed: 6 January 2023).

Lei, H., Ha, A.T.L. and Le, P.B., 2019. How ethical leadership cultivates radical and incremental innovation: the mediating role of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.

Lin, W.L., Yip, N., Ho, J.A. and Sambasivan, M., 2020. The adoption of technological innovations in a B2B context and its impact on firm performance: An ethical leadership perspective. Industrial Marketing Management, 89, pp.61-71.

Lorincová, S., Štarchoň, P., Weberova, D., Hitka, M. and Lipoldová, M., 2019. Employee motivation as a tool to achieve sustainability of business processes. Sustainability, 11(13), p.3509.

McGahan, A.M., 2021. Integrating insights from the resource-based view of the firm into the new stakeholder theory. Journal of management, 47(7), pp.1734-1756.
Sarwar, H., Ishaq, M.I., Amin, A. and Ahmed, R., 2020. Ethical leadership, work engagement, employees’ well-being, and performance: a cross-cultural comparison. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 28(12), pp.2008-2026.

Sugiyanto, S. and Candra, A., 2019. Good Corporate Governance, Conservatism Accounting, Real Earnings Management, And Information Asymmetry On Share Return. Jiafe (Jurnal Ilmiah Akuntansi Fakultas Ekonomi), 4(1), pp.9-18.

Van Buren III, H.J., Syed, J. and Mir, R., 2020. Religion as a macro social force affecting business: Concepts, questions, and future research. Business & Society, 59(5), pp.799-822.

Why we are not on all lists of ethical chocolate brands - Tony's Chocolonely (2023). Available at: https://tonyschocolonely.com/uk/en/our-mission/news/why-we-are-not-on-all-lists-of-ethical-chocolate-brands (Accessed: 6 January 2023).