Ethics Reflection

Ethics Reflection Paper

December 16, 2009

Ethics Reflection

Many things influence strategic planning in today's business world. A firm must take into account all of its stakeholders whether they are realized or not and must maintain a certain code of ethics and social responsibility. "Corporations are no longer free to function merely to maximize profits while ignoring the environment and its occupants. Corporations must look upon profits as a long-term objective (Robideaux, Miles, & White, 2008)." The following paragraphs will define the role that ethics and social responsibility play in strategic planning as well as discuss how my ethical perspective has evolved throughout the program.

Since the downfall of Enron, many businesses have been pressed to be clearer in their business practices. In Enron the stakeholders who included stockholders, employees, the government and the community discovered that the company was operating less than ethically. The results were disastrous, as more and more information was leaked about the bad business practices of Enron the worse things got for the companies many stakeholders. The downfall of Enron led to the passing of Sarbanes Oxley Act. The act was passed as a means to hold companies accountable to their accounting practices in the hope of making companies more transparent.

The culmination of these events have driven many companies to reevaluate their mission statements to be more stockholder friendly as well as revamp the way they do strategic planning. When performing strategic planning it is important that any company properly define their stakeholders and get a firm grasp on what the needs are of these stakeholders. "In defining or redefining the company mission, strategic managers must recognize the legitimate rights of the firm's claimants. These include not only stockholders and employees but also outsiders affected by the firm's actions (Pearce & Robinson, 2009, p. 51)." Properly identifying stakeholders and their needs will make the strategic planning much easier.

The next step then becomes understanding the needs of the stakeholders. In understanding the needs of the stakeholders companies have the opportunity to create action plans to satisfy these needs. With action plans in place organizers must prioritize these needs and begin comparing them with the needs and action plans of other stakeholders. The purpose in comparing the needs is that certain needs may overlap with the needs of other stakeholders and when finalizing any strategic plans a company will want to be as efficient as possible when satisfying these needs. Satisfying or at least attempting to satisfy these needs will go a long way when developing a strategic plan