Kudler

Ethics Reflections Paper

STR/581-Strategic Planning & Implementation

Ethics Reflection Paper

Ethics are necessary for all businesses. Ethics according to dictionary.com is “that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.” (Dictionary.com, 2011, p. 1). Businesses incorporate ethics in all aspects of the company particularly in developing a strategic plan and dealing with the stakeholders. Within the paper the role of ethics are discussed as well as how ethical perspective has changed throughout the Masters of Business Administration program.

Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility in Strategic Planning

Ethics give the company guidelines regarding performance. Those guidelines are what managers and employees use to perform at a level of excellence. As the company develops a plan that includes ethics the company upholds the most, these ethics are provided in the company’s’ mission or vision statement. This statement offers direction, purpose, and a clear understanding of the company’s expectations. The mission or vision statement acts as a starting point for setting goals and plans but still holds ethics as a core requirement of all plans.

While developing the strategic plan for operations the company takes into consideration what role social responsibility plays. “Corporate social responsibility is the idea that a business has a duty to serve society in general as well as the financial interests of its stakeholders”. (Pearce and Robinson, 2011) Social responsibility can range anywhere from community service, the changing the ways a company produces a product to act in a more environmentally sound manner. By behaving socially responsible the company is more profitable, therefore the stakeholders are more profitable because customers want work with a company doing what it...