Values, Ethics, and Working Collaboratively Assignment
TASK 1
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Ethics and Factors influencing ethics
Ethics can be defined as a code of conduct or a moral practice carried out by a person or a group of people. In the same way, business ethics deals with ethical practices in the business intending to maximize profitability in a framework of what is right and what is wrong (Ferrell et al., 2019).
Also, ethic refers to the study of the concept of the moral rights and moral wrongs, moral bad and moral good or any system of code of conduct, values, and principles which can be related to aby religion, profession or culture or any group of society which is characterized by its outlook which is of moral. The subject of ethics involves basic issues related to decision-making practice and its one of the important concerns judgment of human action based on good or bad and right and wrong (Sroka and Szántó, 2018). However, ethics has been perceived as a branch of philosophy that has a link with many other areas of study such as biology, politics, sociology, etc. however, ethics is different from the other subjects as it does not deal in any factual knowledge but it has to do with the application of the sets of principles and the normative theories to the practical problems of an individual.
In today's business world, businessmen are well aware of the ethical issues that have to be practiced in an organization. The businessman follows the ethical guidelines by self-regulation which produces impressive results (Martin, 2019). Besides, several factors influence the ethical decision taken by the managers and the upper-level management in an organization. These factors include the following;
The individual code of conduct is one of the important factors which influences ethics in a workplace. If there is good morale within an individual, then automatically the person will adhere to the ethical code of conduct in the workplace as well.
The policies of the company are another factor that influences the ethical decisions carried out by managers. The organization has strong work ethics always stands out from the rest of the organization who do not follow or at least follow the ethical standard of the business.
Another main factor that influences the ethics of the workplace is the ethical environment of the country where the business operates (Ko et al., 2018). If the ethical standard of the country is poor then it can be a possibility that it can go bankrupt if the company does not follow the company ethical norms while the large businesses can still survive.
Furthermore, the manager's decisions are greatly influenced by the ethical standards imposed by the superior. If the superior promote unethical practices in the business, the manager or the subordinate will consider those unethical activities are as normal and acceptable practices within the organization.
Importance of the Workplace ethics
For effective and productive business operations, every organization follows an ethical code of conduct that helps in decision making and maintains its goodwill. With ethical behavior, the staff finishes the work with honesty and integrity and by honestly working as per the policies and procedures of the company, the staff can meet the organization's goal to achieve maximum profit (Dingus, 2021). Besides, ethical practices bring about the below change in the organization which helps in building reputation and increase the profit of the organization.
With an introduction of an ethical environment, there is the alignment of the behavior of the employees which helps in building trust and partnership among the employees. When there is ethical practice, the employee is aware of the expectations of the management and hence he can perform better in the organization.
When there is a good ethical practice in an organization, it builds up good public image especially for high profile companies and nonprofit organization which highly depend on the donations from private institute and grants from governments.
With the help of ethical standards set up in the company, the employee is made to feel secure as the upper-level management treat employees equally and there is no harassment. Disciplinary actions are taken in case these ethics are violated to have a better and secure working environment (Jurkiewicz and Giacalone, 2019).
Good ethical practices laws in the UK
To maintain the ethical standard of an organization, the government of the United Kingdom has set out certain regulations. These regulations have been discussed below in detail.
Equality Act 2010
This act protects legally protects employees from any discrimination in the workplace. This law has replaced various previous anti-discrimination laws such as the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Race Relation Act 1976, and Disability Discrimination Act 1995 which have made the laws easier to understand and implement. Under the Equality Act 2010, various provisions help in eliminating discrimination at the workplace. These provisions include provisions related to disability which extend the protection against indirect discrimination to disability and eliminating the possibility of screening out the disabled people when applying for jobs etc (Egdell et al., 2018). The provision related to work also falls under the Equality Act 2010 in which there is an extension of the protection in Private clubs to religion, beliefs, gender reassignment, and maternity.
The Human Rights Act 1998
This act outlines the fundamental rights and duties of the people in the UK. It includes the rights that were established in the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic British law. This Act came into force in October 2000.
The Human Rights Act is a set series of articles and each article deals with different rights of the people of the UK. These are also known as convention rights and are taken from the European Convention of Human Rights. There are 13 Articles and articles 1 to 13 that do not include in the act as it is already included in the Human Rights Act 1998.
According to Dzehtsiarou et al., 2021, this Act helps in seeking justice in the British Court of Law, it helps in getting the respect of the rights by Public bodies, and also the new laws are compatible according to the convention.
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The initiative falls under Corporate Social responsibility. The term corporate social responsibility is an act of organization that has a positive impact on its surrounding environment and the world as a whole. In addition to the aim of maximizing profits by an organization, the company intends to fulfill the social responsibility that it has on society is a key idea behind corporate social responsibility (Agudelo et al., 2019). The company often perceives corporate social responsibility as an important part of the image of the brand as it is being believed by the companies that being ethical helps in building trust among the customers. Therefore, the activities related to corporate social responsibility are an important part to build good public relations, and sometimes, the founder of the companies engages in the activities related to CSR due to their personal choice (Abbas, 2020). With the initiative from CSR, several areas are benefitted. For example, the environment as there are companies which takes step towards improving the environmental sustainability towards their operations by using measures such as installation of the renewable energy sources and by purchasing carbon offsets so that there is less impact on the environment due to the operations. The CSR activities are mostly carried out by large companies, small businesses also involve in CSR on a smaller scale through donations to charities and sponsoring local events.
Levi Strauss & Co. is a company that puts its efforts into CSR activities. By acting in human rights and environmental causes, Levi's approach is to reduce the environmental footprints. It also has a "Worker Well Being Initiative" which focuses on improving the lives of the employees. Levi has also a campaign named Water<Less which aims at using less water at the time of manufacturing of its products (Maqbool and Zameer, 2018). The saving of the water by Levi is over one billion liters and aims at reducing the consumption of water in near future as well.
Ethical Issues faced in organizations
As an employee of the organization, everyone has to face some external and internal organizational issues such as lack of integrity and regulatory changes. Some of the issues that are commonly faced as an employee of the organization such as the issues with colleagues are one of the main problems that are prevalent in any organization (ABUBAKAR et al., 2021). These issues include discrimination and dealing with people who do not communicate well. There are also team members who are trouble makers and bullies who can cause misunderstanding and stress which can affect performance and confidence. This issue however can be overcome by promoting teamwork and equality by setting a suitable ethical standard. Also, since everyone wants to achieve their career goal, they can do anything to achieve that goal by practicing unethical behaviors such as deceiving, lying, and stealing (Rodríguez and Juri?i?, 2018). These practices destroy the trust between the people working together can hence impact the overall performance of the organization. This issue can be eliminated by valuing employee contribution to the organization and promoting the behavior that aims at working as a team.
Some of the rules and regulations that are imposed on the employee to fulfill the expectation of the public and the clients have been mentioned below:
Every employee is entitled to follow the rules and regulations related to policy and working guidelines.
The employee should show formal and acceptable behavior according to the ethical code of conduct set out by the company.
Every employee should be responsible to safeguard the company assets and documents.
The employee should not be under the influence of any alcoholic beverages during working hours.
The employee should not drive the company vehicle under the influence of alcohol (Sharma, 2018).
Legal rights related to GDPR
GDPR is legislation that aims as protecting the personal data of people and businesses as well as protecting their rights. There is a commitment from GDPR especially designed for the European people which outlines eight rights that the Europeans are entitled to. The eight user rights have been discussed below in precise.
Right to Information which falls under Article 13 and 14 of the GDPR which states that a person should provide his/her information while obtaining data from a direct source.
The next right is the right to access which falls under article 15 of the GDPR which allows to access the personal data of another person.
Then another right is the right to rectification of data which allows European data with the right to modify or change the data if the data is inaccurate or is out of date (Mangini et al., 2020). The right to rectification of data go simultaneously with the data accuracy.
Article 17 of the GDPR states the user's right to erasure which is also known as the right to be forgotten. In this case, a user may ask the controller of the data to erase the data without any delay in the circumstances like, personal data is no longer necessary for the purpose for which they have been collected or processed or the personal data is processed unlawfully (Ogriseg, 2017).
The right to restriction of processing is another right that falls under Article 18 of the GDPR which states that the data should be stopped for processing until further advice. Which means the data is temporarily stopped for processing.
The rights to data portability of Article 20 states that it is the right to receive the data held by the controller of the data in a common format and send the data to another controller or it can be used by them (De Hert et al., 2018).
Article 21 of the Right to Object states that the data subjects have the right to object to the data processing, profiling basis on the relevant grounds.
The Right to Avoid Automated decision making under Article 22 of GDPR states that the data subject has the right to avoid the decision made solely by the Automated device (Pandit et al., 2018).
TASK 3
Collaborative Working
Collaborative working is also known as a joint partnership where two or more two organizations come together for a specific period to complete a given project. This can be changed to a permanent full merger. The common goal of the organization or mutual advantage or to benefit end-users drives the organization to work collaboratively (Mora et al., 2020). Working jointly with others can result in many benefits or opportunities such as the delivery of new and more integrated and innovative services, the cost is shared and as a result, there is saving by the organizations, share information and knowledge and develop a much stronger and united voice.
Strategies used in collaborative working
Working in collaboration is a key to the success of any organization as it increases trust, improves performance and effective engagement of the workforce. Here are some strategies that will help achieve the common goal of the organizations.
Sharing the companies mission over and again is one of the strategies that the organization can use as defining the company mission and vision is the first step in bringing the people to work towards a common goal (Crick and Crick, 2020 ).
Setting out the expectation for the collaboration is another strategy that can be used such as defining the job description of the employee will help in setting out what is expected out of them.
Defining and then communicating the goals of the team on daily basis could help in gaining the benefits of working collaboratively.
Appreciating the work of the employees is another strategy for the success of working in collaboration.
There should be honest and open communication so that there is no confusion in team members as the clearer the conversation, the effective the work will be (Anwar, 2020).
Values guiding collaborative working
While collaborating, the values of collaboration should be kept in mind to achieve success. These values include the following;
Efficiency
There should have a short and crisp meeting rather than an unnecessary and time taking meeting. This would help collaborative working an efficient one (Trube et al., 2020). Setting up agenda for the meeting would be more productive than meeting without any agenda.
Trust
The feedback should be genuine and constructive and people would feel safe while giving feedbacks which can only possible in an environment where there is trust among the people.
Clarity
Clarity is one of the important values that is required when working collaboratively as since there are many people involved, it is necessary to be on the same page for everyone in the team as people have their priorities and agenda. Therefore, a clear message or communication should be there among the team members to move the project forward.
Accountability
For a successful project, each task is assigned to different employees and each employee is accountable for the task assigned to them (Ito and Umemoto, 2021).
skills for collaborative working
The skills help in overcoming the challenges during working collaboratively and help in making a business successful by making it easier and effective. Some of the skills include setting up a goal of the project as it is necessary for everyone to understand the vision and mission of the project so that there can be successfully achieved. Also, before handling any task, the intention of the task should be clear and the teammates can know what is expected out of them (Ching, 2020). Clear communication is hence required to make the project an effective one. Furthermore, listening actively and responding is one of the many soft skills required while working collaboratively. Finally, management of time is the lost required skill while working in collaboration. One should prioritize the task according to the task priority and ensure the deadline is met with the help of time management skills (Markowski et al., 2021).
Benefits of working collaboratively
According to David, 2020 Working in collaboration comes up with huge advantages. For any project, time is an important factor that is considered. By working as a team, it is easier to manage time. For example, placing the document in one centralized platform where everyone can access it reduces the time and effort as everything is available and accessible within few clicks. Also, there is improvement in the atmosphere of the workplace as people with different cultures and backgrounds get mixed up and acquainted with one another resulting there is development in the team spirit and there is a reduction in the conflicts. With this said, when people work closely with each other through tools such as instant messages, social media which make the employees more productive (Sprung and Harness, 2017).
Promotion of equality and diversity at the workplace
One of the major concerns of businesses in the UK is workplace discrimination. To overcome this, equality and diversity are promoted in the workplace such as putting the policies such as the Equality Act 2010 in the place where the employer has the responsibility to protect its employees from harassment and discrimination in the workplace. As stated by Ashe and Nazroo, 2017, the employer and employees should identify and prevent unconscious bias. Also, minding the language can be effective while promoting equality and diversity at the workplace where the language should be in such a way that it does not make feel people unequal and vulnerable to discrimination.
British Values embedded in collaborative working
The British values that are embedded into collaborative working as the British values include the values such as democracy, differentiation between right and wrong, mutual respect, and tolerance. These values are also used while working in collaboration as these values are considered by the employee and employer to have effective decision making and success of the business (Kennedy, 2018).
Consequences of poor collaborative working
There can be several side effects for a poor collaboration. some of them are expensive to handle and some of them create legal problems for the company. One of the results of poor collaboration is when the right tool from the collaboration interface is not used properly which can affect the team morale and can cause stress among employees (Romijn et al., 2018). With collaboration, there are various internal confidential data shared and If the same is not protected then there can be security breach risks while sharing the data.
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