Organizational Responsibility and Ethics Flashcards

Flashcards covering key concepts of organizational responsibility, ethics, and sustainability.

Social Responsibility

A business's obligation to pursue policies, make decisions, and take actions that benefit society.

Economic Responsibility

Making a profit by producing a product or service valued by society; historically the most basic responsibility.

Legal Responsibility

A company's ability to obey society's laws and regulations.

Ethical Responsibility

To not violate accepted principles of right and wrong when conducting business.

Discretionary Responsibilities

Social roles that businesses play in society beyond their economic, legal, and ethical responsibilities; VOLUNTARY.

Social Responsiveness

A company's strategy to respond to stakeholders' economic, legal, ethical, or discretionary expectations.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

A form of corporate self-regulation that builds sustainability and public interest into business decision-making activities.

Reactive Strategy

A CSR approach where a company will do less than society expects.

Defensive Strategy

A CSR approach where a company admits a problem but does the minimum required to meet societal expectations.

Accommodative Strategy

A CSR approach where a company accepts responsibility for a problem and takes a progressive approach to resolve it.

Proactive Strategy

A CSR approach where a company will anticipate responsibility for a problem before it occurs and lead the industry in its approach.

Three Ps of Organizational Responsibility

People (socially responsible), Profit (economically sound), Planet (environmentally sound).

Shareholder Model

Holds that the only social responsibility of a business is to maximize its profit to benefit shareholders.

Stakeholder Model

Management's most important responsibility is the firm's long-term survival, not just profit maximization; stakeholders have a legitimate interest in the company.

Primary Stakeholders

Groups that the organization depends on for long-term survival (shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, governments, and local communities).

Secondary Stakeholders

Any group that can influence/be influenced by a company and affect the public's opinion about the company's socially responsible behavior.

Classic View of CSR

Management's only responsibility is to maximize profits (shareholder perspective/model), forming wealth for investors and owners.

Socioeconomic View of CSR

Businesses have vast resources with the potential for great social impact; executives have ethical obligations to ensure their firms act in socially responsible ways (broad stakeholder perspective).

Shared Value

A corporation's purpose must be redefined as shared value, not just profit.

Sustainability

A goal that values the rights of both present and future generations as stakeholders of the world's natural resources.

Environmental Sustainability

Preservation of environmental resources and biodiversity, creation of sustainable access to safe drinking water, and enhancement of the quality of life among the most impoverished.

Social Sustainability

Improvement of daily life for the greatest number of people through improving fair income distribution, promoting gender equality, ensuring access to land ownership, employment, and education, and investing in basic health and education.

Economic Sustainability

An economy's capacity to regularly produce outcomes consistent with long-term economic development.

Social Business

A business with a business model that directly addresses a social problem; profits are reinvested to expand the social mission.

Social Responsibility Audit

Used at regular intervals to report on and systematically assess an organization's performance in various areas of CSR.

Sustainable Business

Firms that operate in ways that meet the needs of customers, owners, and other stakeholders while protecting and advancing the wellbeing of the natural environment.

Ethics

Moral principles that set standards for what is good/bad/right/wrong in our conduct.

Individualism View

Does a decision or behavior promote one's long-term self-interest?

Utilitarian View

Does a decision or behavior do the greatest good for the most people?

Justice View

Does a decision or behavior show fairness and impartiality?

Moral Rights View

Does a decision or behavior maintain the fundamental rights of all human beings?

Terminal Values

Desired ends or what someone wants to achieve (e.g., self-respect, wealth, and happiness).

Instrumental Values

Means to accomplish desired ends (e.g., ambition, courage, imagination, and self-discipline).

Group

Formed when 2 or more people have common interests, objectives, and continuing interaction

Team

Members putting aside individual interests in favor of unity.

Psychological Intimacy

Emotional and psychological closeness to other team or group members.

Integrated Involvement

Closeness achieved through tasks and activities, resulting in enjoyment of work, social identity, and self-definition.

Behavioral Norms

Standards of behavior within a group; benchmarks against which team members are evaluated.

Group Cohesion

Enables a group to exercise effective control over its members in relation to its behavioral norms and standards.

Work Team

A group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common mission.

Teamwork

The joint action by a team of people in which individual interests are subordinated to team unity.

Clan Culture

Has an internal focus and values flexibility rather than stability and control.

Adhocracy Culture

Has an external focus and values flexibility.

Hierarchy Culture

Has an internal focus and values stability and control over flexibility.

Market Culture

Has a strong external focus and values stability and control.

Mechanistic Organization

Authority is centralized, tasks and rules are clearly specified, and employees are closely supervised.

Organic Organization

Authority is decentralized, there are fewer rules and procedures, and networks of employees are encouraged to cooperate and respond quickly to unexpected tasks.

Differentiation

The tendency of the parts of an organization to disperse and fragment.

Integration

The tendency of the parts of an organization to draw together to achieve a common purpose.

Value System

A hierarchy based on a ranking of an individual's values in terms of their intensity.

Nga Matatini Maori (Diversity)

Acknowledging the wide range of ways in which people express themselves in connection with business, and the diverse realities experienced.

Kotahitanga (Unity)

Creating a sense of belonging that applies in vast and varied ways.

Kaitiakitanga (Guardianship)

Responsibility to the environment and sustainable actions, including preservation of natural assets for future generations.

Wairuatanga (Spirituality)

A commitment to ensuring spiritual protocols are observed.

Manaakitanga (Hospitality)

Businesses must host and provide for people accordingly, with resources allocated for this purpose.

Whanaungatanga (Kinship)

Acknowledging the importance of networks and relationships and therefore developing, managing, and sustaining those relationships.

Tikanga

The ethical framework of Maori society; what is right and correct in any given situation.

Inclusion

The degree to which an employee feels like an esteemed member in a group with their uniqueness is highly appreciated.

Managing Diversity

Creating a climate in which the potential advantages of diversity of organizational or group performance are maximized while potential disadvantages are minimized.

Management

Concerned with coordination, focused on doing things right, and consists of activities directed toward routine procedures

Leadership

Part of the job of management, concerned with doing the right things, necessary under conditions of change