Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Essay - 1

Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Example It is therefore no surprise that generations of corporate managers have grown up believing that business ethics consists merely of complying with civil and criminal law and not doing anything that would damage the reputation of the company or its products (Feiser, 2007). Goran Svensson and Greg Wood in their publication â€Å"A Model of Business Ethics† suggested that there is the need to define a new model of business ethics that needs to encompass not just the internal stakeholders but also the external stakeholders. This includes the society at large. They suggested that the society has expectations of each company, it has perceptions and it evaluates each company against those expectations and perceptions. They also pointed that these standards will be continually reviewed and modified and corporate managers have to measure up to these changes (Svensson & Wood, 2008). The trend for companies to measure up to society’s standards of ethics has been further enhanced by the emergence of large institutional investors as significant players in the capital markets from the early 1970s. These large investors have sparked the trend to what is termed Socially Responsible Investment where these large funds would only invest in companies that set â€Å"acceptable† standards of business ethics. ... This trend has strengthened after the 2008 global financial crisis with investors seeking much higher standards of corporate behaviour than had been acceptable in the past. Ethical corporate behaviour is now enforced by the power of the media scrutiny that can force change. A good recent example is Starbucks in the UK being forced to pay additional tax after social boycott of their outlets following media reports of their tax avoidance practices (Hurley, 2012). The access to the internet and the social media by employees, suppliers and other stakeholders of large corporations also makes sure that ethical business practices are not merely professed but also practiced. In recent times, most public corporations have adopted the practice of publicizing their business ethics and corporate social responsibility projects voluntarily to build up the image of their companies in the media and amongst the investor communities. Various organizations have come up to rank companies on their busine ss ethics and these awards are eagerly sought after. 2. The application of business ethics practices at Anglo-American and Primark 2.1 Anglo – American Anglo American is one of the world’s largest mining companies with revenues of ? 22 billion and profits of ? 8 billion (Anglo-American, 2012). Though it has mining operations all around the world, in countries such as Canada, Australia Brazil and Chile, 76% of its employees live and work on the African continent. The mining industry has some major challenges with respect to business ethics and sustainable development. A 2010 survey of stakeholders conducted by the International Council on Mining & Metals listed some of these issues.