There are also drawbacks to the firm for being socially responsible and these are listed below:
- The business might have to find alternatives in order to because responsible and these might cost the business more because the alternatives might be costly e.g. Replacing plastic bags with paper bags will cost the business more.
- Different people might have different views which might clash.
- The market can affect the business because if it’s doing well than the managers will be focused and can concrete on the social side. for example if the business is running low on profit than the managers wont be able to spend any money on any environmentally friendly equipment because they will be busy with finding ways to improve the business.
Ethical
This is a view about what is right and wrong and what is moral. For example in a business this can occur when a employee who is alcoholic is been hired and one employer believes that this person will be right for the job disregarding the problem while the other believes that it won’t be right to hire him. This also has benefits and drawbacks to the business and these are listed below:
Benefits
- Positive company image: by the business been ethical more customers will be satisfied and so the business reputation may increase. For a school Muslim parents will be satisfied when the school gives extra time for Muslim students to pray at the mosque.
- Increase in sales: because the customers are more satisfied they are more likely to buy goods from the business.
Drawbacks
- Effect on Profit and expensive
- People might have different views about what they thing is ethical and what isn’t e.g. the head of the school might say that giving extra time to Muslims students might not be good for their education while other teachers might say that it wont have any major effects,
- Communication of ethics within the organization e.g. other students might find this problem to be unfair so they might also want extra time.
Recruitment Laws
These are rules which the employers must fallow when hiring anyone, if these are broken then there are consequences which the person or the business will have to deal with. These are to protect the person who’s applying for employment because there are many different things that can affect an employee below are the different laws that will affect a teacher when s/he applies for a job.
Discrimination
This is when someone treats others unfairly on the bases of sex, age, race, color, ethnicity, and religion or disability .e.g. only white people are allowed to work at a posh restaurant. It is different from been prejudice because that is a thought and discrimination is bringing that thought into action. there are however places where discrimination does occur for example in a girls school, in which only girls are allowed to attend and boys are not allowed this is discrimination but its allowed by the government.
Sex discrimination Act 1975
This law states that no one should discriminate anyone directly or indirectly due to their sex. This will protect the person I’m hiring because they won’t be treated by their gender so if I am hiring I need to make sure not to offend them by not giving them a job because of their sex. E.g. one female and one male employer are chosen for a job the male gets that job because the work is hard. This will help the business because all the employees will find it comfortable working for the business because they will know that they are not different from any other employee, in the recruitment process it gives a fare chance to all the employees not matter what sex they are.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/DiscriminationAtWork/DG_10026665
Employment Equality (Religion or Beliefs) Regulations 2003
This law states that no matter what religion or beliefs a person has s/he should be treated equally to others. This will protect the employee because they won’t be judged by their beliefs or religion. E.g. you are refused to get a job because you are a Muslim or because you are a theist. while I am hiring an employee I need to make sure that I don’t judge on what their religion is I can ask them what religion there are so that I can make sure that if their may be anything in the job role that may offend them but I cant make a decision if to hire them on not because of their religion or what they believe in.
Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
This law states that people should not be treated different because of their sexual orientation. If I am hiring someone I need to make sure not to ask, if they are gay or a lesbian e.g. a female is refused to get a job because she is a lesbian.
Race Relations Act 1970
This act was introduced in order to stop people from being prejudice to race. This stops any racist comments or abuse from occurring in a business. When I am hiring a person I can ask them what race they are but I can not decide on if to give them a job because of their color. Racism can also occur in the school so I need to make sure that the person I will be hiring doesn’t get offended. For example a teacher applies for a job and is rejected because of him being a black person.
If any business does not follow the race relation act 1976 then the employees who are being discriminated can take legal action against the business. And the business will have a bad reputation meaning that they will find it hard to get new employees to work for them because employees wouldn’t want to work in a place where they may be discriminated. This may also mean that even if they find new employees they may not be the best one for the job so this can cause further problems for the business.
Equal Pay Act 1970
This law states that all the types of people should get the same pay if their job role and working hours are the same.this e.g. a person who is disabled receives a lower pay than a person who is not disabled. If this law is broken than it can cause problems between employees as they will complain about their pay because they will find it to be unfair and also it might cause employees with less pay to be less motivated at work.
Disability Discrimination Act 1995
This law states that no one should be discriminated due to their disability and this law stops people who are disabled to be discriminated because of their disability. Employers should make sure that they don’t decide on hiring a person according to their disabilities, as long as they are able to work .e.g. a person is refused to get a job because he can’t walk. In my chosen school the staff must not treat disabled staff differently because this can lead to bad school reputation and further recruiting problems as described before.
The employers have to make sure that the employees are in good health to work, they need to work all the safety equipment while at work they should also be thought the procedure of what to do in case of fire etc.
Breaking any of these acts can cause problems because the employee can sue the business and so taking these acts under consideration is really important. This can also have a major affect on the business reputation because employees won’t like to work for a business where they believe that they will be treated unfairly, they might also sue the business which can cause further problems for the business. When the employees arrive at an interview they should be made comfortable so that they are happy to work for the business.
Bibliography
Recruitment Laws
Collins, AQA, AS, Applied Business, Pg 84
Further information on law
Ethical definition
Socially responsible definition
Collins, AQA, AS, Applied Business, Pg 84
Moral definition