Question

THE ASSIGNMENT: Consider each of the five areas of ethical dilemmas that companies are currently facing. Do some research and find a company that is publicly dealing with one area. Discuss the specific issue the company is having, what they have done to address it and whether or not you feel their actions to date have been effective. Also discuss what actions and precautions the company could have taken to avoid the dilemma in the first place. This assignment requires you to develop an essay with a beginning (introduction), a middle (the body) and an ending (the conclusion). If you need assistance with formatting this (and all of the writing assignments) please make time to visit the Student Success Center or the English Writing Lab.

Answer 1

Introduction:-

Business ethics is a hot topic in today’s time, with most companies and countries acknowledging the fact, that their conduct is monitored real time and the information and technology as an industry has become so huge that one mistake is enough to cause big time real problems for the management respectively.

In historic times, due to lesser policies of the government which safeguarded the interests of the employees and the fact, that employee and employer relationship was relatively new, employees often found themselves working for long hours and were harassed at workplace and were thought of as a liability than an overall asset to the organization.

Over a period of time, this changed and companies began to address the issue backed by both government intervention and the fact that they realized that employee welfare is the only means to increase overall performance.

Business ethics has various issues such as social media, accounting, harassment and discrimination, data privacy etc. a small backdrop of each one of them is as explained.

Social Media:-

In today’s time, with Internet technology rapidly expanding the role of Social Media and business ethics has rapidly found itself increasing. There are numerous examples in which companies have realized that consumers have become more volatile and their opinions can largely impact business. Consumers tend to voice their opinions using social media example failed orders on Amazon often end up being part of social media and should be dealt with appropriately.

Harassment and Discrimination:-

Harassment and Discrimination involve gender bias, or any other reason such as religion, caste or sexual orientation on the basis of which employees or customers in general can be discriminated with. It is a realistic problem because of the rise of women empowerment and the fact that they see larger participation in todays time. Companies realize that they need to actively adopt policies that can prevent such problems at workplace respectively.

Data Privacy

The issue of Data Privacy can be researched from the recently implemented policy of GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation which ensures that all collected data about an employee or a customer is out of choice and that no business can be allowed to collect data without permission. Further if the employee wants his data can be deleted at any point of time.

For the purpose of the case study we have selected the famous company PWC or Price Water House Coopers which is one of the biggest auditors across the globe and selected Accounting problems which are explained in detailed and are as follows:-

Case Specifics:-

Accounting is a very noble career which most people take up because the amount of money which one can generate over a period of time is very large. On the other hand, ethical accounting is very necessary as it increases overall credibility which an organization exhibits and can lead to ultimate failure or success

In the middle of the debate PWC was caught red handed in India when it dealt with a famous technology company Satyam,

The problem here was that the company had manipulated its accounting records with the help of the auditor and increased the overall value of its assets way beyond their existence. This resulted in over valuation of the shares of the company which people bought unknowingly and occurred huge losses once the prices of the shares corrected themselves.

As a result, PWC got itself into legal trouble for not reporting to the relevant authorities the presence of practices which resulted in over valuation of shares in the organization and lost its mandate to be able to conduct auditing activities in India for a period of 2 years

This also impacted the overall business that the company saw internationally since investors lost confidence in the accounting practices which were implemented by the company.

As a suggestion, the company needs to owe up to the fact that the situation exists and also take corrective measures to ensure that this does not happen in the future. Erring employees need to be fired and the company must understand that long term success is possible only by falling into the correct lines of auditing.

Conclusion:-

The issues of business ethics today are much higher than they ever were. For this companies need to be more responsive and need to assess the fact that long term success can only take place when it tackles problems in a better manner.

For the purpose of this case study, therefore it is important to realize how PWC violated norms and what was the result of the same. Long term success can only happen for a firm if it regularly monitors the actions of all employees and can set in policies which restrict inappropriate behavior respectively.

Please feel free to ask your doubts in the comments section