1. Purpose of CSR

Corporate social responsibility is used for varied purposes by organizations. Among them is building a positive workplace environment, establishing public relations benefits, and increasing media visibility. When it comes to the positive workplace environment, CSR helps the employees to have the feeling that they are working for a company with a true conscience. This increases the enthusiasm and engagement in their jobs. This is something that has the ability to increase teamwork and hence productivity (Chandler & Werther, 2013). Public relations on the other hand is an integral ingredient of shaping consumer perception and also helps in building the company’s image. When it comes to media coverage as a result of CSR, this acts as free advertising for the organization. More people tend to learn about the organization hence generating an increase in the number of potential consumers.

A1. Primary and Secondary Stakeholders

Primary

Owners-They have invested in the business hence they will incur any losses involved in case the business is operating poorly.

Consumers- Failure to maintain high ethical standards is likely to result in production and distribution of faulty toys to consumers.

Secondary

Surrounding Community- They are the ones to be affected by any form of pollution emanating from the company.

Media- They are likely to keep track of the company’s operations given that it is a manufacturing company. Manufacturing companies are usually marred with scandals that range from pollution to labor exploitation, and this puts such companies in the spotlight.

A2. Responsibility to Stakeholders

The first way the board of directors would meet the corporate social responsibility of the stakeholders is through the development of an interactive training program. Through this program, everyone involved with the organization will have the ability to attain knowledge regarding the relevant values that are expected of them to help uphold the company’s ethical prospects. When the systems are operating ethically, the company will be able to meet the ethical responsibility of the relevant stakeholders (Chandler & Werther, 2013). Individuals found breaching the ethical standards after undertaking the training program should be liable to punishment. The board of directors should emphasize the importance of maintaining the company’s ethics by including them in the performance review process.

The second way that the directors would meet the stakeholder’s corporate social responsibility is ensuring that they maintain strong information security protocols. This will ensure that there are high trust levels when it comes to handling sensitive information such as the customers’ financial details. Despite putting other measures to ensure that such information does not fall into the hands of third parties, it is good to ensure that the people involved with the company are highly ethical since they can access such information. This means that the employee recruitment program will be quite aggressive to ensure that the employees recruited have the ability to uphold the company’s values.

B1. Importance of Ethical Culture

Developing an ethical culture is important for the organization as it brings numerous benefits. Among them, there is asset protection, maintenance of public image, teamwork, and productivity, and retention of employees. An ethical culture helps in asset protection since the employees are operating within these ethics and they take it as their responsibility to respect and protect the organization’s assets. There is also a discouragement from stealing and misusing the available assets. Maintenance of public image comes with the ethical choices that the organization makes. An aspect like reducing of waste discharge with the objective of enhancing corporate social responsibility will lead to the organization being viewed with integrity and honor (Shen et al., 2017). Teamwork and productivity are enhanced because an ethical culture helps to align the needs of the employees with those of the organization. Employee retention on its part is made possible since they are satisfied with the way they are being treated.

B1A. Fostering Ethical Culture

Paradigm toys’ leadership can play a significant role in fostering an ethical culture. Among the roles it can play is leading by example. The leaders ought to comply with varied values that are embedded in the company’s ethics, and this will help employees to follow in their footsteps. The leadership should also be vigilant in hiring and retention prospects to ensure that the selected employees have the skills and capabilities that are embedded in the organization’s values. The leaders should also monitor the employees from time to time to help identify potential unethical behavior. When employees are conscious that they are being monitored, they will strive to act ethically at all times.

B2. Ethics Audit

It entails the investigation into a company to assess if it conforms to the prescribed ethical standards within the relevant industry or society. An ethics audit may assess the company’s ways of addressing grievances, financial disclosures, own practices, cultural practices surrounding the business dealings and treatment of whistleblowers (Ferrell et al., 2013).

B2A. Value of an Ethics Audit

Paradigm Toys could benefit from an audit ethics. Among the values that it would bring is that it would help the company to identify areas of vulnerability, more so the ones associated with lack of openness and hence make the relevant adjustments. Paradigm Toys will also have the ability to meet societal expectations that are not being met at that moment. There will also be the ability to learn the issues that motivate employees, identification of specific problem areas in the company, provision of a baseline for future improvements and clarification of the values that the company upholds.

C1. Ethical Dilemma

An example of an ethical dilemma is one that involves discrimination where one is a boss in an environment that is predominantly male. When a female employee is brought in, it stirs conflict since there has not been sensitivity awareness that has been conducted in the company before. Some of the male employees start making inappropriate remarks towards the new employee. The employee files a complaint with you, and you sanction the individuals responsible. The dilemma here is what is the right course of action. Moving the female employee to another position or dealing with the status quo?

C2. Potential Solutions

The first solution to the dilemma would entail moving the employee to another position where she is less likely to draw less attention. This is meant to ensure that the female employee is not subjected to an environment that she will be harassed.

The second solution is to initiate a sensitivity program where the existing employees are educated on being accommodative of female employees. This will help build a culture where female employees can work in that environment without being harassed.

C3. Explanation of Choice

I would recommend the second solution of creating sensitivity. This would be a long-term solution since the company will be able to create a culture where any employee can work in any position without being harassed. Moreover, the first option would be viewed as treating the female employee differently due to her gender and with regards to responding to a harassment complaint, and this can be regarded as unethical and discriminatory conduct.

D1. Key components

-Employees’ code of conduct

-Product quality and safety

-Handling of confidential information

D1A. Explanation of Key Components

Employee’s Code of Conduct

This is meant to inform the employees what is expected of them. There is an outline on the behaviors that employees are expected to demonstrate while dealing with the company. The company can include various ethical values that they expect the employees to demonstrate hence making it an integral part of the ethics training program.

Product Quality and Safety

This ensures that relevant stakeholders including suppliers, employees among others are aware of the quality of standards that the products manufactured by the company are expected to meet. This will help in the development of quality products, something that will go to help actualize corporate social responsibility on the side of customers (Shen et al., 2017). Given the level of competition in the industry, customers will only remain loyal to the company if they can derive value for their money.

Handling of Confidential Information

This is an important aspect since different stakeholders will involve themselves with the company when they are sure that they can achieve the confidentiality that they desire. It will take an ethical culture to ensure that confidential information is handled appropriately at all times.

D2. Justification

The delivery method that I recommend for the training program is face-to-face workshops. Things like workshops, presentations, and seminars might be regarded as traditional training methods, but they are highly effective. Face-to-face workshops can be used for any type of training and bring the desired results, and this is what makes the method ideal in this case. The method helps the individuals involved to understand the importance of the training. This is a method that helps the participants to bring up examples that would likely fall under ethical grey areas and get the necessary clarification.

References

Chandler, D., & Werther, W. (2013). Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders, Globalization, and Sustainable Value Creation. SAGE Publications.

Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2013). Business ethics: ethical decision making and cases. Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning.

Shen, H., Wu, H., & Chand, P. (2017). The impact of corporate social responsibility assurance on investor decisions: Chinese evidence. International Journal of Auditing.

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