Define the following

Business and Society

Assignment 9&10

• Regarding observations of sugary cereals, I do not eat cereals on a regular basis to know a difference. However, as I read some nutrition labels on cereals sometimes, I do notice that sodium is a high content of it. Cereals mostly have carbs, and then sodium, which amount is as high as in a can of soda for a single serving.
• Lock Heed Martin is a government contractor of many defense products. I thought they would be the most ethical company because their products are parts of defense of a country. I find is surprising that they would have such low ethical standards and show so much negligence for their products.
• Ethics: moral principles that govern a person’s thoughts and actions
• Business ethics: is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations.
• In addition to legal issues, ethical business decisions foster trust in business relationships.
• I do not agree or disagree with any of the companies in the least or most admired companies. I generally do not believe polls and statistics because they do not reflect long-term ethical standards of a company. A company can have a good PR team to build a front image for the company.
• True, the legal system provides a formal venue for businesses to settle disputes.
• Ethical issue: a problem, situation, or opportunity requiring an individual, group, or organization to choose among several actions that must be evaluated as right or wrong, ethical or unethical.
• A Ponzi scheme: fraudulent investment operation where the operator, an individual or organization, pays returns to its investors from new capital paid to the operators by new investors, rather than from profit earned by the operator.
• Bullying in the workplace: hostile workplace where someone considered a target is threatened, harassed, belittled, verbally abused, or overly criticized.
• Conflict of interest: the situation of an individual who must choose whether to advance his or her own interests, those of his or her organization, or those of some other group. For example, a reporter writes a favorable article about her family’s business. She has two conflicting interests: write a neutral article to accurately reflect the business for the public interest, and her family business is a personal interest.
• Accounting Fraud: someone who violates accounting principles for personal gains. Marketing fraud: intentional misrepresentation or deceit during the process of advertising, promoting or creating a product.
• Affirmative action programs: includes those policies, practices, and procedures that the contractor implements to ensure that all qualified applicants and employees are receiving an equal opportunity for recruitment, selection, advancement, and every other term and privilege associated with employment.
• Sexual harassment: any repeated, unwanted behavior of a sexual nature perpetrated upon one individual by another.
• Organizational culture or corporate culture: a set of values, norms and artifacts shared by members or employees of an organization
• Ethical climate: part of a corporate culture that relates to an organization’s expectations about appropriate conduct that focuses specifically on issues of right and wrong.
• Significant others: superiors, peers and subordinates in the organizations who influence the ethical decision making process
• Opportunity: a set of conditions that limits barriers or provides rewards
• Example: in my previous job I was cashier and I held my ethical standards, I do not steal from the cash registers. I always made sure that I was careful in counting and auditing the cash at the end of every day.
• In responsible business debate, I oppose Zicam for the fact that they withheld information because it makes product looks less desirable and less safe. They put their interest above the interest of customers, and I disagreed with such behaviors.