Faculty of Economics and Administration

Department of Business Administration

EMBA Program

Business Ethics and Social Responsibility (BUSE-619)

Section JA1

Assignment 1: Outline of Speech

Basics of Business Ethics and Social Responsibility

Speech Outlines:
1. Introduction
2. The meaning of ethics and social responsibility

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 3. Examples of ethical misconducts in business field
4. The causes of ethical misconducts in business field
5. Examples of solutions to control ethical issues
6. Conclusion

Hello and good evening, everyone. The first time I had to think about ethics and morals as a
serious matter in our life was in 2008 when the first episode of the Breaking Bad series was
aired. The protagonist of the film, Walter White, was a high school chemistry teacher diagnosed
with lung cancer who struggled to pay hospital bills and make sure his family was provided for
until his death. Unfortunately, many people are faced with such desperate circumstances as
Walter White. However, few would consider choosing the option he chose: to produce a
superior level of meth-amphetamine and become the boss of the opioid syndicate. Breaking
Bad has raised several ethical and moral concerns in my head. Perhaps the most evident of all
ethical and moral problems are illustrated in the adage: "The road to hell is paved with good
intentions." Walter started with good intentions, but he ended up using the school’s lab
equipment for his interest, murdered more than a thousand people and ruined his family
members' lives. From there, I started to read more and more about what is business ethics?
How can it be controlled? How often do people lie? When is it okay to lie? So, I am here today
to share some insights into how corporate ethics and social responsibility are essential to every
organization's survival by introducing several examples of ethical problems that may have no
impact on business. Then, I'm going to share the right solutions with you.
Ethics is our beliefs about right and wrong. These ethics are based on individual beliefs and
social concepts. Thus, it could be different from person to person, situation to situation, and
amongst cultures. Real-world societies adopt formal laws that reflect ethical standards;
however, sometimes, these are difficult to interpret. Social responsibility is a concept of ethics
in which people are responsible for maintaining their public responsibility, and an individual's
actions must support society as a whole. In this way, economic prosperity and the wellbeing of
people and the community must be balanced. If this balance is upheld, so social responsibility is
reached.

First, we should all know that ethical misconduct in every company will have very serious
implications, which can cause time and resources for the corporation to fix its corporate image
and any legal problems based on the seriousness of the case. It can even cost companies
millions of Riyals and even jail sentences in certain very serious situations.

To protect an organization from ethical misconduct, the manager must incorporate a

management strategy to remain on track of any unethical activities in the business environment
and put up barriers to avoid anything like this from happening.
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Discrimination and harassment in the workplace, accounting fraud, employee theft, data
privacy, and environmental responsibility are some of the most common recent ethical
challenges you may have to face in the industry. Instead of remediation, learning how to
identify and, most critically, prevent these challenges until they become an issue will focus on
business development. These issues would lead to a very serious impact on the business. When
a lack of ethics becomes general knowledge in an organization, the corporation loses its
reputation and credibility even after a corporation rebounds from headlines of its lack of
honesty, rebuilding its reputation and customer trust requires a lot of time and resources. A
lack of ethical behavior may also create employee conflict, with some workers resenting others
who do not obey the rules and yet continue to get ahead. This will lead to a lack of faith among
employees that would harm the organization that depends on teamwork and a sense of
community.

I would say that the main factor causing ethical issues are the top managers because the image
that ethics does not matter is generated by top management who are unethical or who
encourage unethical practices and actions. Another factor is bad planning and weaknesses
elsewhere in the organization, a lack of ethics occurs. Set realistic expectations for workers and
track employee success regularly to discourage unethical conduct. They could indulge in
unethical actions to accomplish such targets if workers are forced to fulfill unreachable quotas
and objectives. In some cases, managers and workers display poor ethical behavior because
some firms have no structured ethical compliance manuals and do not give any guidelines.
Others have strategies that are ambiguous, undefined, conflicted, or not followed consistently.
Also, the large proportion of bad ethical choices in corporations are somehow connected to
money. In certain situations, it can avoid taxation and lining up inner shareholder wallets, which
may lead to a corporation's undoing.

Ethics is in many ways about individual choices. However, companies can encourage their
employees to act ethically by ensuring that they have established the right culture, ensuring
that company policy places a high value on good ethics. The company must also educate the
employees by attending regular ethics training to remind them of the importance of ethical
decision-making. Ensuring that managers and supervisors have ethical integrity to lead by
example are good ways to ensure that good decision-making spreads throughout the company.
It is also essential for a company to develop ethics codes to define specific ethical positions
about how the firm and its staff can conduct business.

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Businesses obviously exist to make profits, but an ethical company recognizes that its
responsibility is to provide more than just the bottom line. Their stakeholders, owners,
employees, suppliers, customers, and communities may have differing and often opposing
interests. So, it can sometimes be hard to tell what the best decision is. Companies behave as
good corporate citizens when they consider their responsibilities tall stakeholders and act in
ways that balance conflicting concerns.

References:
Zeiger, S. (2021). Effects of a Lack of Ethics on a Business Environment. Chron. Retrieved 11 March 2019,
from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/effects-lack-ethics-business-environment-23332.html.

McLeod, M. (2021). Common Ethical Issues In Business and What You Need to Know. Fast Capital 360.
Retrieved 15 February 2021, from https://www.fastcapital360.com/blog/ethical-issues-in-business/.

McLeod, M. (2021). Common Ethical Issues In Business and What You Need to Know. Fast Capital 360.
Retrieved 15 February 2021, from https://www.fastcapital360.com/blog/ethical-issues-in-business/.

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