Ethics And Social Responsibility Paper

Ethics and Social Responsibility

Evette Snyder (First M. Last)

School or Institution Name (University at Place or Town, State)

Ethics and Social responsibility play a crucial role in the strategic planning and management of an organization. A strategic plan is directed at achieving the organizational goals and objectives ensuring the long-term success of a company. An organization has to develop a strategic plan which could integrate the organizational missions and goals with ethics and corporate social responsibility. In addition, the strategic plan is directly affected by the ethics and CSR of an organization ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ar61l3sf66","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, & Bamford, 2017)","plainCitation":"(Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, & Bamford, 2017)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1041,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/NL4W5HUU"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/NL4W5HUU"],"itemData":{"id":1041,"type":"book","title":"Strategic management and business policy","publisher":"pearson","ISBN":"0-13-452205-2","author":[{"family":"Wheelen","given":"Thomas L."},{"family":"Hunger","given":"J. David"},{"family":"Hoffman","given":"Alan N."},{"family":"Bamford","given":"Charles E."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, & Bamford, 2017). The strategic plan should be developed considering CSR, ethics and the needs and agenda of stakeholders of a corporation.

Business ethics guide organizational decisions regarding business operations. Ethics and social responsibility guide the business organization in making a strategic plan that does not impact the moral values and ethics of society. A strategic plan directed at business ethics is important to prevent an organization from making any unethical decisions and putting an organization reputation at risk. Performing ethical responsibilities while satisfying the needs of stakeholders is only possible by aligning the strategic plan with it. Board members must be held responsible for aligning ethics to strategic planning ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"a2a9ms97m5u","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Bonn & Fisher, 2005)","plainCitation":"(Bonn & Fisher, 2005)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1038,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/BK2T9RBY"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/BK2T9RBY"],"itemData":{"id":1038,"type":"article-journal","title":"Corporate governance and business ethics: Insights from the strategic planning experience","container-title":"Corporate governance: An international review","page":"730-738","volume":"13","issue":"6","author":[{"family":"Bonn","given":"Ingrid"},{"family":"Fisher","given":"Josie"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2005"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Bonn & Fisher, 2005).

Uber is a transportation network company providing ride-ailing service. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. It also offers services like taxi cab hailing, bicycle sharing, food delivery, and many other services. It operates in about 785 metropolitan areas worldwide via its mobile app and website. The changes Uber has produced in the economy is referred to as by the term "Uberisation," and numerous startups have used "Uber for X" for their products. The term ‘Uber' is used as a reference to the common word uber which means topmost and super. It is estimated to have about 100 million users all over the world and a market share of about 69% in the United States. In addition, Uber is also a Gold member of the Linux Foundation and is having a rating of five stars from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Uber has been banned from operating in certain jurisdictions due to many reasons. Moreover, the company has been in the limelight due to its unethical practices. It has faced a lot of criticism from different members of security and its employees for its unethical conduct.

2017 has been the dark year for the company as it hit the ride-hailing service provider with the allegations of sexual harassment, criminal probes, and questioning regarding the leadership of its founder Travis Kalanick. A former employee of company Susan Fowler brought forward the culture of sexual harassment in the company. In May the company was alleged by the Justice Department reveals that it is using a software dubbed “Greyball” in the areas where it was operating illegally ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"a5ntegujo5","properties":{"formattedCitation":"{\\rtf (\\uc0\\u8220{}The 10 Biggest Business Scandals of 2017,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)}","plainCitation":"(“The 10 Biggest Business Scandals of 2017,” n.d.)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1039,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/NXR28FS3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/NXR28FS3"],"itemData":{"id":1039,"type":"webpage","title":"The 10 Biggest Business Scandals of 2017","container-title":"Fortune","abstract":"It was a less than great year for some","URL":"http://fortune.com/2017/12/31/biggest-corporate-scandals-misconduct-2017-pr/","language":"en"}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“The 10 Biggest Business Scandals of 2017,” n.d.). These events lead to the dismissal of Kalanick. After him, Khosrowshahi took the reins. After some time the company was banned from the United Kingdom, and the reason for that revealed was that Uber got hacked and put the data of 57 million users at risk. Users of Uber has chosen alternatives to black cars, unlike the case of United Airlines. Due to all of the ongoing negative incidents, Uber’s market share has been grabbed by Lyft, which is having a 74% share of US market. In addition. Japanese bank ‘SoftBank’ bought the stake in company valuing it to be $48 billion while the company had an evaluation of $68 billion.

The Ethical issues and CSR violations in Uber are an example of how the company violates the ethics while meeting the needs of a few stakeholders that is profitability. Uber has faced a lot of issues regarding its poor reputation, ban in UK and loss of market share due to being in the news for all the unethical practices. All these scandals have not only resulted in the loss of credibility in Uber but also the financial cost as it paid penalties and monetary compensation. In August 2018. It paid $7 million to its 480 workers as a settlement against disseminations, harassment and a rigid work environment. Uber had to make a strategic plan aiming at the company's profitability but not at the stake of unethical practices and violation of responsibilities towards society and its employees. Uber must have used a proactive approach so that the higher management and leadership was committed to ethical standards. The management needed to evaluate the organizational policies and procedures that if they are aligned with ethical values or mot. It was equally important to have a code of conduct and employees must be involved in the implementation of ethical rules and policies ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"anp1th4j0i","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Bonn & Fisher, 2005)","plainCitation":"(Bonn & Fisher, 2005)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1038,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/BK2T9RBY"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/BK2T9RBY"],"itemData":{"id":1038,"type":"article-journal","title":"Corporate governance and business ethics: Insights from the strategic planning experience","container-title":"Corporate governance: An international review","page":"730-738","volume":"13","issue":"6","author":[{"family":"Bonn","given":"Ingrid"},{"family":"Fisher","given":"Josie"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2005"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Bonn & Fisher, 2005). Ethical rules and values had been monitored to improve ethical behavior and promote the culture of ethics in an organization.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Bonn, I., & Fisher, J. (2005). Corporate governance and business ethics: Insights from the strategic planning experience. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 13(6), 730–738.

The 10 Biggest Business Scandals of 2017. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2017/12/31/biggest-corporate-scandals-misconduct-2017-pr/

Wheelen, T. L., Hunger, J. D., Hoffman, A. N., & Bamford, C. E. (2017). Strategic management and business policy. pearson.