As an organizational leader, one of your primary roles is establishing programs and policies that ensure the organization operates under ethical considerations and legal mandates. This responsibility includes informing employees of the organization's code of ethics, communicating the code of ethics, providing training, and ensuring that operational aspects are administered in a legal and ethical manner.
In this task, you will assume the role of a leader who must decide what leadership power you will use to develop a strong organizational ethical climate. In your position as a leader, you will need to satisfy the concerns of stakeholders, understand the organization's ethical standing, examine a code of ethics, and develop a training program.
Scenario:
You are a business manager or administrator of Paradigm Toys, a publicly held company. The board of directors has asked you to conduct an ethics audit of Paradigm Toys, a fictitious company that is a retailer and manufacturer of children's toys, and report to the board the need for ethics training.
A. Explain the purpose of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
1. Identify two primary and two secondary stakeholders that influence Paradigm Toys.
2. Analyze two ways that the board of directors at Paradigm Toys should meet their corporate social responsibility to the primary and secondary stakeholders identified in part A1.
B. Reflect on the importance of ethical leadership by doing the following:
1. Explain why it is important for an organization to develop an ethical culture.
a. Discuss the role that Paradigm's leadership can play in fostering an ethical culture.
2. Explain what an ethics audit is.
a. Discuss the value that an ethics audit could bring to Paradigm Toys.
C. Develop the ethical framework that you would use if you were faced with an ethical dilemma by doing the following:
1. Identify and analyze an ethical dilemma in a business setting.
Note: You may also choose an ethical dilemma you have witnessed at your current place of employment.
2. Evaluate two potential solutions to the dilemma.
3. Explain which solution from part C2 you would recommend and why that solution would be the more ethical choice.
D. Design a proposal for implementing an ethics training program at Paradigm Toys by doing the following:
1. Identify three key components that you would include in your training program.
a. Explain why you would include the three components from part D1 in your training program.
2. Recommend a delivery method that you believe would be most effective for the training program and justify your recommendation.