THE IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF A BUSINESS ORGANISATION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Ethics and social responsibilities of a business and their organization has been extremely important to every society and Nigeria at large. Every society makes sure that those who engage in any form of business should engage in good morals in their daily activities. Ethics and social responsibilities are related concepts that pay special attention on moral conscience of business. The idea of ethical responsibilities has to do with those issues and problems that concerns people in business, and their faithfulness to their organization and to their customers also. Social responsibilities and its problem is the interest and need of every society.

There are laid down rules that govern every profession. In enabling us understand what “ethics” actually means, we shall quickly look at the following phenomena that could rapidly be misconceived as ethics. We are referring to such phenomena as law and morality: Laws are laid down rules made by administrations, communities, governments etc. And the motives of these laws are primarily to regulate or check discrepancies or misconduct as may be observed in human character or behavior. Summarily; laws improves human character, which when absent could bring about disorderliness and chaos.

Morality on the other hand is related to the opinion principal of good and evil as it affect human conduct. It comes from the mind to differentiate good from evil. We can in other words refer to morals as love and ethical virtues. Finally morals involves individual character considered by the winning standard of moral honesty. Ethics has been defined as the principal of right and wrong conduct by the American heritage dictionary (second college edition). It is also the general study of the entire nature of morals and the specific moral choices made by a person as it affect his relationship with his fellow individuals. Those used in an organization in achieving it’s objectives, makes up the workforce of that organization and also of competence of any organizational objectives.

A very high level of performance and efficiency has to be attained by the staff as a workforce: Efficiency is a function of so many different factors like, political, social, societal and economical, just to mention but a few. The staff is an essential factor of production in any given establishment since their proficiency and contributions can either promote or demote the efficiency of an establishment. In the eyes of an ordinary person, a staff could be considered as a group of individual or persons that operate in an establishment in order to achieve a common purpose. They also indulge in accounting, managerial and clerical functions. A good staff is one that uses his intellect and positive opinions to make suitable decision not beyond the scope of approved governance without having to be monitored and also with a reasonable degree of moral standards.

Members of every professions are being guided by some codes of conducts; such professions include, Lawyers, Doctors, Customs, etc. There are some ethical conducts that are written down on paper, whereas others are verbal or unwritten. The said rules are made known to the members of a particular profession. To be ethical means, keeping these rules in your relationship with your fellow staff whereas, to be in ethical means not abiding by these rules.

Social and ethical obligations are concepts that concentrate o the conscience of business managers as an image-maker of an establishment with the outside world. This is normally achieved by the reasonable use of telephones, faxes, letters, etc. To an extent, this encourages positive public reaction towards the organization depending on the moral character of the staff. It is therefore of interest that since the staff engage in various forms of business administration ranging from agriculture to production and manufacturing, they should be socially and morally obligated to the community where they operate so as to excel in their operations.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

An office personnel should be a mirror through which an organization restructures its duties and functions. This implies that the personnel should portray the good image of the said organization, since high social responsibilities and moral demand are expected from them. The quality of services rendered by the staff can be influenced by the environment where they operate. The environmental situation can be changed if its moral status is low, but on the other hand, the staff should be encouraged to adapt to the environmental standards if its moral status is encouraging.

So an organization should have a dynamic social responsibility to enable it influence its environmental positively for viability and stability. The objective of every organization should be to maintain a worthy inter-relationship amongst its staff, the organize person and its environment in order to enhance cordial outcome.  Finally; the organization that it exists.

1.3   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This project is geared towards serving some useful  purposes and everything that can be done, will be done to ensure that these objectives are not defected. The advantages of this project that makes it obviously imperative are as follows:

To support the promotion of productivity especially where the ethics of business profession is adhered to suit us organizational motive.

To indicate to controlling authorities, essential areas and shortcomings that needs necessary attention.

This work will support the education of every top management, of the ethics desired of them.

1.4    PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The objectives of this study is to ascertain the extent of social obligation and ethics of the staff of NICON instance co-operation. These includes the following:

1. To know if there is a proof that NICON Insuracne co-operation is ethically and socially responsible.

2. If the co-operation has any inadequacy that stops them from being ethically and socially responsible.

3. To know if these problems bring set back in the workers productivity.

4. To know if there have been any case of compliant of unethical practices by the staff in your co-operation.

5. If the co-operation benefits from being ethically and socially responsible.

6. To know if ethics training is provided for top management, middle management, supervisors and other employees, if the training is very important or significant in the operation or function of the business.

1.5     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. Are there any proof that NICON Insurance co-operation is ethically and socially responsible?

2. Has your company any inadequacy that stops them from being ethically and socially responsible?

3. Do these problems bring set-back in the workers  productivity in the co-operation?

4. Has there been any case of compliant of unethical practices by the staff in your co-operation?

5. Does your co-operation benefits from being ethically and socially responsible?

6. Is ethics training provided for top management, middle management, supervisors and other employee, if it is very important or significant in the operation or function of the business?

1.6    DEFINITION OF TERMS

Productivity: An estimated rate of work

Organization: A place where business is transacted

Law: The rule made by given society, groups etc

Morality: Is the judgment principle of right and wrong

PRODUCTIVITY: This refers to an estimated rate of work.  It also means the rate at which goods are produced, compared with the work, time and money needed to produce them.

ORGANISATION: It means a group, such as a clubor business that is formed for a particular purpose.  It also means the act of planning and arranging things effectively.

LAW:  This is a whole system of rules that citizens of a country, an organization or a particular community should obey and abide by.

MORALITY:  Morality deals with the principles of right and wrong behaviour.  It consists of all behaviour, which conforms to the social standards of a society, which is carried out voluntarily by the individual.

MANAGEMENT: This refers to the act or skill of directing and organizing the work or performance of a company or an organization effectively.

COMPETENCE: This is the ability and skill to execute a job properly or the skill required to undertake a particular assignment.

ENVIRONMENT: This refers to all the situations, circumstances, events, people etc that influence the way in which people live, work and operate

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