CSR and Organizational Ethics

Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

Business ethics governs what is right, equitable, and wrong, and management relies heavily on it in decision-making. Firms’ ethical philosophy has a huge impact on their growth, credibility, and bottom line. A good and optimistic reputation, in theory, boosts employee happiness, which enhances efficiency and retention. Corporate social responsibility, on the other hand, emphasizes the need for corporations to serve as responsible corporate citizens by obeying the rules, engaging in actions that promote the health of society, avoiding waste, and efficiently managing scarce resources. Continuous participation of the firm in corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays different roles such attracting customers to the business products and reducing employee turnover thereby increasing productivity. Moreover, CSR attracts investors and keeps the company’s share price high hence winning more financial support and good image. Therefore, this paper looks into ethical and corporate social responsibility practices for Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed’s Ethical Program

Just like other global companies, Lockheed Martin is also committed to integrity by complying with different laws and regulations put forth by the government. Lockheed Martin aims at doing right while dealing with clients and in various activities it engages in to meet overall objectives. Its corporate vision aims at making it a global leader in supporting its client’s mission, advancing scientific discovery, and strengthening security. Importantly, Lockheed accomplishes its mission by doing what is right, respecting others, and performing with excellence. Despite being clear about the position of the company on enhancing compliance with ethical imperatives, what matters most is the effectiveness of the measures couched to ensure everyone stay focused on implementing them according to the plan (Copeland, 2015). To enhance compliance and commitments to morality, Lockheed provides ethics awareness program which gives voice to values, informs employees how to react to situations that require ethical decision making, and required standards to be embraced or portrayed by workers. The training is provided to all ranks of the employees in the organization to ensure the entire workforce embraces best practices.

Lockheed Martin’s Focus on Integrity

Lockheed Martin accords the highest importance on integrity because this apparently helps in winning new contracts. The company is more determined in ensuring ethical issues are adhered to by junior workers; however, Daniel Terris note that Lockheed’s moral program does little to avoid ethical breaches at the highest level of the firm (Terris, 2005). Evidently, the employees of the company are given education that ethics is pertinent to organizational success and individuals who infringe moral regulations face disciplinary action. According to Terris, Lockheed Martin lacks the most appropriate mechanisms to reinforce ethical principles among the senior management (Terris, 2005). I agree with this observation because ethical principles have existed for a long period but the top officials have found in different scandals which culminated in substantial fines. It is evident that most of the mechanisms established by the vulnerable for leaders sidestepping privileges and powers and collective innocence which might end up plunging the company into significant problems. Consistent commitments in training junior staff do not adequately address ethical issues across the organization. Some of the weaknesses that existed in the company in the recent past are still unaddressed; therefore, I support Terris assertion and suggest that the company should make significant changes to increase the commitments of the executives on adhering to ethical postulations.

Opinion on the Efforts Put Forth by Lockheed Martin

Senior executives play a major role in bringing change in the organization, guiding others on what they ought to do, formulate different decisions on how general activities are to be implemented, and other roles. Sometimes, top officials may advocate for a specific culture by just talking but not taking ensuring established mechanisms are followed to the latter. Despite subjecting executives to the ethical training program, I feel this strategy is inadequate to address the unethical culture among the top officials. Further measures should be established to root out executives who have developed immoral behaviors that contravene its determination in meeting customers’ demands and partnering with businesses that do the right, respects others, and performs with excellence. Moreover, Lockheed Martin officers work in isolation which negatively influences those who might be determined to incorporate lessons learned from ethical training program into practices (Terris, 2005). The company’s support structure focuses on informing employees rather than establishing the most appropriate measures to enhance the high level of compliance. Ethical training alone is not an intensive practice to eliminate immoral behaviors among the officials; hence, it is essential to concentrate on implementation process such as taking stern measures on the few caught defiling set policies. Essentially, Lockheed Martin ought to complement the training with other practices such as creating an independent anti-corruption team and ethical team to oversee moral issues and carry out disciplinary measures against top-level employees found liable. Also, moral imperatives are not incorporated in the regular administration of the Lockheed despite the provision of education on the level of ethics for the junior and senior employees. Therefore, it is beyond doubt that training program offered by Lockheed Martin to its low and top-level employees in inadequate to overcome ethical minefield experienced by leadership in the company.

Things that Should be Done to Deal with Issues Related to Ethics at the Higher Executive Levels of Lockheed Martin

Apparently, providing ethics training and compliance program alone is not enough to transform the immoral culture in the top-level management. First and foremost, Lockheed Martin should create a written code of conduct to define the ethic to be maintained and consequences for every act of contravention delineated (Terris, 2005). Determining what ought to be done and organizational position in ensuring compliance to ethical imperatives remains a priority guides employees and may warn those with selfish intentions of committing unacceptable activities such as corruption. Training will basically remind or inform executives about the organization’s expectation from them; therefore, the policy will serve as a binding contract where top officials will be compelled to commit themselves for upholding the highest value to be emulated by junior employees (Copeland, 2015). Secondly, Lockheed Martin should establish a formal organization and governance structure to set clear roles and offer discretion within the internal oversight of the senior executives. Such structure will engage and facilitate effective communication with stakeholders and provide adequate governance & monitoring of all levels to enhance compliance to ethical imperatives.

What Lockheed Martin should do to Address Group Dynamics and Impact Ethical Situations Really

Lockheed can change the focus on individuals by learning group dynamics which will culminate in the development of the most appropriate strategy that takes into consideration various perspectives such as culture, diversity, and more. Ethics and culture influence how individuals act and behave in the organization; therefore, the company ought to factor a wide range of issues that affect employees’ behavior. It is crucial to creating a positive culture that supports best practices and condones immoral acts among the employees. For instance, the organization should encourage teamwork to increase collaboration in ensuring jobs are executed according to the plans (Copeland, 2015). Furthermore, Lockheed Martin should empower various institutions including ethics committee to handle various matters without due influence. Finally, Lockheed Martin should provide different forms of rewards to employees who uphold best practices or achieve outstanding performance relating to integrity.

Conclusion

Wrapping up, complying with moral provision has a significant impact on the performance of the company. The most important thing is that it creates a positive image about the business, increases employee retention, improves motivation, and others which ultimately lead to success. Lockheed Martin is committed to ensuring its employees uphold and practice high ethical standards which are, however, not applied to the high-level management. For instance, giving ultimate confidence in the ethical and compliance training is inadequate to guarantee in the executives. Therefore, this approach ought to be used alongside other forms to ensure no one irrespective of the rank contravenes ethical imperatives.

References

Copeland, M. K. (2015). The importance of ethics and ethical leadership in the accounting

profession. In Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting (pp. 61-98). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Terris, D. (2005). Ethics at Work. Creating Virtue at the American Corporation. Brandeis

University Press. Waltham, M.A. Retrieved from ProQuest ebrary