PROFESSIONAL PROJECT REPORT 10
Running head PROFESSIONAL PROJECT REPORT
Professional Project Report on Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Student’s Name
Student Number
Institutional Affiliation
Tutor Name
Content List
Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………….2
- Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………..3
- Project context………………………………………………………………………………….3
2.1 Profession………………………………………………………………………………………3
2.2 Management….………………………………………………………………………………..4
2.3 Management as a profession…………………………………………………………………..5
- Project proposal…………………………………………………………………………………5
3.1 Background and problem definition…………………………………………………………..5
3.2 Aim & objectives………………………………………………………………………………6
3.3 Literature review………………………………………………………………………………7
3.4 Research methods……………………………………………………………………………..8
3.5 Project plan……………………………………………………………………………………8
- Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………9
Reference List……………………………………………………………………………………10
Executive Summary
Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility are the main points of study in this professional project report. Management has been chosen as the profession to handle the situation related to the given topics. The complete report demonstrates a detailed explanation of aim, objectives, problem context and the research method used to simplify the circumstances.
- Introduction
Professional Project Report is the detailed description of a profession and a topic related to the profession about practical situations. The goal behind the preparation of this project report is to give a better understanding of a profession and an organizational situation related to it. From a variety of profession, I chose ‘Management’ as my profession and Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility as the topic to demonstrate the project report. In this report, I will explain why business ethics and corporate social responsibility is relevant to maintain in an organization. I will also briefly illustrate the effect of business ethics and social responsibility if it is not maintained in an organization. The next part of the report carries the detail explanation
- Project Context
2.1 Profession: – The word profession is related to a will to demonstrate the practical knowledge and theoretical educational qualifications in real life situations. A person always wants to apply his knowledge and skills in some practical field to earn money and social status in society. A profession provides him the platform to fulfill this wish (Saks, 2012). There could be several options to choose a profession, but the significant profession is related to the acquired skill and knowledge only. Without a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities to be done in a profession, the purpose couldn’t be successful. There could be several types of profession, the crucial are:-
Management Profession
Marketing profession
HRM profession
Finance profession
Accounting profession
Doctor profession
Actor profession
Consultant profession
Advocate and law consultant profession
(Norton, 2010)
2.2 Management: – Management is the act of managing people tactfully by practicing management principles, business ethics, and corporate social responsibilities. Management is a broad area that includes many specializations related to business activities. There could be a different meaning of management for different work situations, but the basic guidelines are same at all (Shishodia, 2011). Management does not help in managing people comfortably, but also it facilitates a business in several areas, they are:-
Minimizing business risk
Achieving organizational goal
Planning and decision making
Innovative ideas manipulation
Research and developmental activities
Other than these functions management also make easy the business as per the need of the situations. The functions of management are based on five M’s including men, machine, material, money, and method. These five M’s are closely associated with any business activities (Abraham, 2015).
2.3 Management as a profession: – In the modern business world everything is complex and need to be solved systematically. Management has simplified the way to solve any complex business situations (Khurana et. al. 2005). A management professional is well aware of the strategy and techniques needed to invest his managerial skills, abilities, and knowledge effectively. The management functions go through planning, directing controlling, decision making, and analysis. A management professional always utilizes these functions to shorten the difficult circumstances. A management professional can be a consultant, business leader or an employee with executive management responsibilities, but the work tactics are same in all areas (Khurana, 2010).
- Project Proposal
3.1 Background and problem definition
Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility has been the mandatory guidelines and practice that every organization performs. The motive behind the practice is not gaining profit but to facilitate the organizational activities effectively. It is not a case that the organization is related to accounting, consulting, healthcare or consulting; as same guidelines are applied at all places. A management professional strictly practices the ethical rules and performs the social responsibility deliberately. The basic need to perform the activities related to the topic is to acquire appropriate and relevant knowledge and learning, without it the application can’t be done successfully (Joseph, 2013).
Every business environment is associated with the social, cultural and legal environment. The societal factors affect the business activities consequently. The business expansion, factory expansion, factory transfer and environmental pollution due to the company are the problem definitions of an organization. These all problem definitions can be maintained by arranging alternative solutions in an effective way. On the other hand, as an organization is a setup in a society and the society has a wide contribution to the sales growth; it’s a responsibility of an organization to take care of the society as much as it can. Business ethics are the guidelines and rules to obey in performing business activities. If an organization doesn’t obey the ethical rules and guidelines, it may create a complex situation and may attract the law and order punishments for an organization (Dimitriades, 2007).
3.2 Aim and objectives
Business ethics and social responsibility create its value if they are maintained systematically, but if not they affect the business environment drastically. Every organization has an internal as well external environment; both business ethics and social responsibility are related with it directly. Business ethics are the ethical work practices without which a business may face several circumstances. In another hand, corporate social responsibility is the social activities a company does for the favor of the public. When business ethics make the organizational activities easy, social responsibilities creates a positive image of the organization at the market (Post, 2017).
The focal objective of business ethics and social responsibility is to strengthen the status at both the internal people as well as the society. Every organization needs to perform the activities in a systematic way. Suppose, at the time of commencement of a new business or project; a business has to pass through the legal requirements. Without passing the legal requirements, the subsequent steps can’t be performed significantly. Every organization has the optimum knowledge of ethical guidelines and value in executing a situation based on the planning made. The corporate social responsibility also should be performed by analyzing the necessity of the responsibility and the financial condition of the company. As the social works don’t generate revenue, it should be balanced as per the requirement only (Gomez et al. 2010).
3.3 Literature review
Donaldson and Fafaliou (2003) have conducted their research on business ethics and corporate social responsibility to learn the effect on the business activities. They suggested several points perform business activities smoothly. They closely studied the real situations of several companies in the USA and noted some common issues related to business ethics and social responsibility. They are: –
Rising expenses due to consulting fees, auditing fees, lawyer fees and architecture fees
Positive discrimination situations
Product safety activities
Solving whistle blower issues
Loss due to strikes
They illustrated in the journal that these issues arise in an organization by performing business ethics and social responsibility. A business should minimize the cost related to corporate social responsibility activities by understanding the actual necessity of the situation only.
Cruz et. al (2015) commenced their research on SME sector companies in Romania to study the impact the leaders are bearing by performing ethical and social responsibility activities. They found that the activities are impacting the business positively and the customer attraction is increasing gradually. As the small-medium enterprises need growth opportunities, social responsibility activities are arranging a platform by strengthing the company image at the society. They related the activities to promotional activities and found that the rate of customer attention is high when an organization promotes the company with its social activities for the public. The authors also studied the impact of business ethics and got that maintaining an ethical environment in the organization and obeying the legal rules facilitates the organization to run the business smoothly.
3.4 Research methods
Research is the act of finding the solution of a given circumstance. The sole purpose behind the research activities is to gain systematized knowledge and practical examination of the situation under practical consequences. A researcher may perform the research by using qualitative or quantitative methods. Both the methods are done to achieve the common research goal only. Qualitative research is based on the psychological judgment of the researcher after observing the practical situations where as, quantitative research is based on the recording and analysis of numerical data. The research result may differ from each other as both the techniques are related to their significance level only (Wyse, 2011).
A researcher may choose to conduct the research based on primary and secondary data. Both the case is distinguished by the originality of the information collected. Primary data aims to conduct original examinations where as secondary research uses the data results of primary researches (DeVault, 2017). As a management professional, it would be easy for me to make the report comfortably after observing the activities of management professionals and studying literature related to the topic assigned.
3.5 Project Plan
- Conclusion
The explained sections contain close aspects related to the practical situation faced by a business leader in an organization. As a management professional, it would be quite tactic to keep a balance between business ethics and corporate social responsibilities activities. With a significant analysis and by utilizing management theories success possibilities can be maximized.
Reference List
Abraham, D. (2015). The importance of management development in an organizational system. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/importance-management-development-organizational-system-dunmade.
Cruz, S. E. et. al. (2015). Business ethics and corporate social responsibility attitudes among the SME leaders in Romania. International management conference.
DeVault, G. (2017, February 2). The difference between primary research and secondary research. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/differences-primary-and-secondary-research-2296908.
Dimitriades, Z. S. (2007). Business ethics and corporate social responsibility in the e-Economy: A commentary. Electronic Journal of business ethics and organization studies. 12(2).
Donaldson, J. and Fafaliou, I. (2003). Business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and corporate governance: a review and summary critique. European research studies. VI(1-2).
Gomez. F. G. (2010). The integration of corporate social responsibility into the strategy of technology-intensive firms: a case study. Original scientific paper. 28(1), 9-34.
Joseph, L. (2013, December 10). The importance of business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Retrieved from https://blog.udemy.com/importance-of-business-ethics/.
Keeping, J. (2012). The ethics of corporate social responsibility. Retrieved from http://www.lawnow.org/the-ethics-of-corporate-social-responsibility/.
Khurana, R., Nohria, N., and Penrice, D. (2005). Is management profession. Retrieved from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/is-business-management-a-profession.
Khurana. R. (2010). Why management must be a profession. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2010/07/why-management-must-be-a-profe.
Norton, A. (2010). 10 things that define a true professional. Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-things-that-define-a-true-professional/.
Post, J. (2017, April 3). What is corporate social responsibility?. Retrieved from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4679-corporate-social-responsibility.html.
Saks, M. (2012). Defining a profession: The role of knowledge and expertise. University Campus Suffolk: UK. 2(1).
Shishodia, A. (2011). Definition and importance of management. Retrieved from http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles/education/definition-and-importance-of-management.html.
Wyse, S. E. (2011). What is the difference between qualitative research and quantitative research?. Retrieved from https://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-qualitative-research-and-quantitative-research/.