Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases Book Report by O.C. Ferrell
Introduction:
The book “Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making & Cases” by O. C. Ferrell, John Fraedrich and
Linda Ferrel is the 10th edition of book; the book was published by the Cengage Learning in 1st Jan, 2014. The length of the book is 656 pages.
The book is the best seller, as the writers of the book was publishing interesting books since 1990, regarding business and economic matter that how business could be successful and what types of decision or strategies should be taken to strengthen the business. I chose to read this book, as I get knowledge regarding business, the writers are best aware of the business and market, they know that how an organization achieve the marketing performance by following ethics. The book seems to me interesting, the author O.C. Farrell, have participated or written the 20 books and 100 articles, regarding the business purposes, the ethics texts in “Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making & Cases” with the John Fraedrich and Linda Farrell, is one the best leading business ethics texts in today’s leading business (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2014).
The book is very interesting to read, especially for the one who is going to start a new business, and for the people who want success in their business. The book could be helpful in knowing, or getting the knowledge about the business ethics, the ethical decision making by the manager can boost the business, by giving examples and by using managerial framework, author helped the businessmen to understand the best practices, which are associated with the successful business plans, and ethics programs. The business environment relating with the decision-making provides all the concepts about the business process, purposes, that the best practices or best decisions can be supportive in strengthening the business. There are various strategies that can be helpful in taking the business initiatives, the strategies or the decisions are the key towards the goals and success.
There are discussion and examples of the high profile companies or organizations that how they get success, the most up-to-date example are the part of this book, there are 20 original cases in the book that can provide the knowledge to the reader that how effective steps could be taken to get the advantages from the business, there are also discussion about the customer relationships that how to satisfy the customer, and how the best services are given to the customers. The book is the best learning for one, who is interested in establishing the business, it can give the opportunity to the students to learn and then apply the best practices appreciated by the market.
Relates to Book:
There are successful business plans in the book that can help the reader to see the ethics of business; the ethics in the business can be integrated or helpful in making ethical decisions. According to the authors point of view the customers, suppliers, shareholders and other people related to the business are the stakeholders of the company, for any company it is important to provide the best services to the related bodies or the stakeholders, the stakeholder if complaint about product or the services then there are need to notice the situation that where the company is lacking. The stakeholders can provide the tangible and intangible services to the company, to retain them is important or essential for the long-term growth of the organization. Stakeholders can also have the significant ethical issue that need to be noticed.
The social responsibility could be used in the term of ethics, it is the obligation of the organization to care for its clients, the social responsibility by any organization can lead the organization to maximize its positive impact on the society and minimize its negative impact in the society, hence, the social responsibility is very important to maintain. There could be issues in the social responsibilities, the issues could be regarding the consumer protections, security issues, corporate governance or the sustainability, there could be different types of social issues, and it is the duty of the directors to avoid the ethical misconduct in the organization. There is need of leadership to maintain the organizational ethical misconducts or the conflicts, the managers and director need to have the oversight about the processes taking place in organization, they need to understand the problems or issues, and the accountability system could be effective in taking the decisions that could save the organizations from such delinquencies.
The authors have described the business that to maintain the business, to value stakeholders is very necessary. Recognizing the ethical issues is main step to understand the business, through honesty, integrity and fairness, business objective, accomplishments could be achieved. The business people must understand the under-laying causes that are affecting business, fairness can play an important role in participating to satisfy the customers. Services based on fairness, equity, equality, morality can motivate the employees and customers to stay motivated, if the employees, know that they are getting the incentives and appreciation based on fairness, then they will be stay motivated, and work hard for the attainment of the goal, they will respect their organization and business will face no difficulties or issues (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2014).
An organization need to understand the value of the hour, the organization need to be intelligent; intelligence is something that make the organization, aware of the current situation, of the market conditions, political conditions, socioeconomic conditions etc. an organization can only stay updated if there are changes in the strategies regarding the changing trends in the environment. Organization need to have the tricks that can participate in knowing the market, analysis of the market by hacking or by using other techniques need to be understand. Discrimination is the one factors, which can lead the organization towards failures, the discrimination is illegal in the United States, the discrimination should not be part of any organization, the clients and employees need to treated on fair basis, there should be no issues on one’s color, religion, sex etc. There should be no fraud in an organization, there is a need to make the workforce that is trained, and there should be no sexual harassment in an organization, no fraud to the consumers, there is need of active and corrective actions if the company is facing any problem or issues, active supervision and deep assessment of the causes is needed.
Before running the business the local communities and societies need to be understand by the businessperson, through the marketing programs the organizations can contribute towards the significant amount of money that can be given to the educational sector, environmental causes and the help the charitable organizations in generating funds etc. this will create the goodwill of the organization, social concerns can promote the competencies and the societal or community needs.
It is explained by the author’s that how much decision-making process is important for any organization, and decisions could be explained by the individual’s background, ethical decisions need to be made, the decisions can be helpful in making or explain the actions. Decision-making can be helpful in attaining the goals, the author’s explained that many organization failed in getting or attaining their goals as they are not focused on making the strategies or decisions properly, for many managers the profit or making money is the ultimate goal of their business. However, making money goals could impact the business, and the decisions for the society, as unethical conduct can lead the company towards the failure. Market research or marketing can promote the decisions, when the organization know about the consumers preferences and the trends of the market, the decisions will be made according to the requirement of the societies, marketing can help the organization in comparing the product and services, effectiveness can be increases in this way, ethical needs; need to be understand and must be fairly given.
Summary:
The book has discussed about the process of the business that how a business could be successful and what should be needed to retain the customers and employees, there are focus on the social security and responsibility, that social responsibility is needed to achieve the success and for the good reputation in the market. The book is very helpful for the businesspersons are they learn the tactics of the business from several examples, decision-making according to the market and culture, is really helpful for any organization, and can lead the organization success and completion of the targets or goals.
There are focus on the laws in the book; the discussion in the book, can be helpful for one to understand the ethics that government need the businessmen to understand, the laws are beneficial for the organization and for the customers, if the business follows all the laws, then there will be no barriers in running the business and getting the success. Authors have mentioned the example of Whistle-Blower Protection that how of public companies account the unethical behavior, and how the steps are taken to improve, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act motivate the employees, and stop the employers to take the unethical actions. The federal system helped the employees and companies to get save from the problems and how to protect the social rights of the consumers, the consumer’s financial protection bureau, check the safety and prices of the products before the products was launched in the market. The lawsuits on, unethical behaviors to customer also protect the customers from various problems.
The strength of the book is that it’s provide the various concepts about the strategies, that how strategies should be managed, and what role managers need to play for the accomplishments of the organizational goal, the success could only be achieved if the customers happy, and to make them happy, every decision should be made based on laws and regulations provided by the government, if one not follow the law there could failures. The book is focused on giving or providing the equal services to the customers and employees, as this is the way to tell the stakeholders that organization really care for you; stakeholders can give long-term benefits through the supporting them.
The book also have some negative aspects, there are too much focus on the social responsibility, and the major part of the book is based on telling the importance of social security and responsibility. The book need to tell more about the competitive advantage that how company can train and retain the employees for the better services, as the employees are the important asset for any organization. The more strategies need to focus than the social responsibility.
Other than that, the book provides the best knowledge that the how business ethics can participate in organizational goals, I will recommend this book to other also, as the book can provide the complete knowledge to one who want to get success in the business.
Reference:
Ferrell, O., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell. (2014). Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making & Cases (10 ed.). Cengage Learning. Retrieved 2016