Business Ethics 2 assignment

1st peep DQ

The Banking on Nature video was extremely interesting.  I do wish that there was a bit more of it to watch.  I thought it was interesting that Mark Tercek left this corporate high-ranking corporate position to go out and save the environment.  However, I feel that being the CEO of the Nature Conservancy is also an extremely important position.  I had no clue prior to watching the video that the Nature Conservancy is the world's largest environmental group.  I did like how he discussed that he started to begin working on ways to make his prior company greener before leaving.  The portion of chapter 2 in the text reading that I thought most about when watching the video is the section on corporate citizenship.  The text defines corporate citizenship as the extent to which businesses strategically meet the economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities placed on them by various stakeholders (Ferrell et al., 2019).  A business's ability to be environmentally friendly will create a space for marketing to a demographic of consumers that have a preference in utilizing products, or working with companies that care about the environment.  We also learned in the video that if one company goes green or does the work to be greener, the other companies that are their competitors will soon follow suit.  The reputation of an organization is thought to be an extremely large asset.  Most companies that have great reputations surrounding their products benefit from word-of-mouth marketing, where an impressed consumer shares their great experience with others, enticing people to purchase the product.  To me, there is definitely a need for more companies to find ways to reduce their waste.  In the Grantham Library I found an article titled Our Environment.  This article discussed the way that Project Clean Lake was utilized to help the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District to separate the sewers that are currently combined so that there is less pollutants being pumped into the lake (Crain’s Cleveland Business, 2015).  At one point, Cleveland got a failing grade on their environmental checkup.  One has to think, how many businesses in Cleveland could help to reduce the waste in Cleveland by making one or two small changes.  What if the group decided to no longer purchase disposable coffee cups? Online a company can purchase 1,000 large disposable coffee cups for $86 dollars.  If the company is purchasing a box a month, they would be putting 12,000 waste items back into the environment.  For Christmas I purchased 100 stainless steel hot cold reusable tumblers for my staff and Doctors.  My thought was that we could save close to $2000 between both clinics by utilizing these cups.  The cups did cost $2,5000 dollars, as they are personalized, however, we will see a return on investment after a year and a half but no longer purchasing large reusable cups.  A similar example would be if the companies decided to eliminate some of their paper use by finding a program to electronically complete items.  This would allow for a reduction in waste and would save money on paper purchases.  Small changes in an organization can also help the organization to save money and the environment.  Another point that I took away from the video, is that stewards of the environment do not always have to be large organizations.  Stewards can also be in the form of individuals and their homes.  We as consumers can work to purchase products that are green, work to reduce waste in our homes, we can recycle and most importantly we can reuse.   

 

 

I was a bit caught off guard at first by the Employee Microchip video, but as I listened, I was more intrigued by the idea.  This video is the first that I have heard about this story and concept of microchipping employees.  I really would have liked to hear more of a background of the story, like what is the company giving the employees access to with the chip, or what will the company have access to.  So, I decided to do some digging.  The article that I found in the Grantham library titled Go ahead, stick the microchip in me, gave me a little more insight.  I feel that the video did not give a clear representation of what the full story is.  From the video I thought the company would be tracking the employee’s personal lives, and what they see, but the article explains that the chip will be implanted in the hand between the thumb and the index finger.  Now, do not get me wrong, I will not agree for any employer to chip me, but, thinking this through, how do we know that we haven't already been chipped.  I know, you are thinking, great another conspiracy theory, but the reality is we don’t know.  What is hard to digest is that 40 people out of 80 that employed at Three Square willingly decided to line up and get chipped.  In my mind, the American way is to work smarter not hard, or be a bit lazy if you will.  Sure, save time on clocking in, just wave your hand.  Who wants to get a badge out to enter the door, just wave your hand.  I can imagine that the mother and daughter employee team seen things differently, as the younger generation is completely electronic dependent.  Actually, I feel that as a 40-year-old, I am more dependent on electronics than I would like to be.  Ultimately, an example of us being tracked are our cellphones and cars.  If you think through the SOS car option, we can be tracked.  The insurance companies are launching apps that track your sped.  Your phone is listening to you, talk about traveling and you will start to see adds on your social media.  I think the difference is, I can get out of my car, or I can leave my phone at home.  The alarming thing for me, is that these employees are having these implants placed into their bodies, and they may think they know all of the capabilities but I can ensure you they do not.  In the article that I read it shares that the chip that was implanted only provides data when requested, but how do you know that the data will only be tracked during your working shift, you don’t.  So, the chip is not just so the employees have access and can utilize their work tools faster, it is also so the company can gain information surrounding the employee.  In chapter 3, integrity is discussed (Ferrell et al., 2019).  Integrity, as I shared in my last discussion, is one of the most important values, not only in work but also in my personal life.  I expect that all of my employees, function throughout their work day with integrity and honesty.  I expect that they work diligently and I extend to them blind trust.  To me, microchipping an employee takes all of that blind trust away.  From a business standpoint however, this chip could help with the low performers.  This chip could track time at work station, could at some point track time in the bathroom or break room to ensure that brake times are adhered to, and maybe even clock employees out when they are not performing work related tasks during work hours.  The capabilities of these chips are endless.  I am so curious as to if others would get chipped, would you?  I do not think that I would.  But one main point that we have seen with the Vaccines that we are currently getting, and that the video pointed out, is that it is a very slippery slope between voluntary and required. 

 

 

References:  

Go ahead, stick the microchip in me: Many Wisconsin tech company employees welcome RFID implants. (2017). ISE: Industrial & Systems Engineering at Work, 49(9), 16. 

Ferrell, L, Ferrell, O.C., & Fraedrich, J. (2018). Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases (12th ed.). Cengage. 

2nd peer DQ post

Happy week two everyone! I hope you all are doing well and learned quite a bit in week one!

The first case study, Banking on Nature, really brought quite a bit of attention to how businesses can make a bigger, or the biggest, impact on their surrounding community, be it a city, county, state, region, and/or country at the very least. The fact that the guest mentioned partnering with a very diverse bunch of big businesses, so as to help them become more environmentally conscious going forward, creates waves in big business within certain businesses or markets that aren't as environmentally conscious. When an organization, that's based on preserving the environment, partners with big business(es), the partnership doesn't just help the big business(es) become more environmentally conscious but ends up creating more awareness on supporting and preserving the areas of the world, if not the world in general, that the company operates within. For instance, I wrote my final project on Wendy's for my last class here at Grantham. One major point of my paper was highlighting that Wendy's created a plan recently to create environmentally efficient lighting and control of energy usage in their restaurants, as well as the most environmentally-friendly ways to acquire the ingredients they need for their production of food. These moves highlighted that, although Wendy's donates to many environmental organizations annually, the company wants to also set the example from the inside as well. Why support environmental organizations while not being environmentally conscious as a company altogether? That just wouldn't make sense. The video spoke on how creating more awareness of the environment to companies, of which can have the potential to negatively affect the environment the most (I.e. chemical companies), can have the potential to create more ways for that company to make sure their practices don't get in the way of their environment growing or getting better. We hear too many stories about oil spills and chemicals being dumped into bodies of water to not support initiatives to correct those mistakes for the sake of our local environment and planet. My values and morals support having an environment around me that supports what I need to live and have a productive lifestyle. For instance, I love to run outside. If the roads are full of litter or waste, I wouldn't be as productive and would have to refocus on the litter or waste before being able to do what I need to be productive.

The second case study, of which spoke on a company creating the option for employees to voluntarily have a microchip implanted on them for use within the company. Whether that means that the implanted microchip would give the employees the ability to automatically access areas of the business without having to worry about having an access card or simply just using the microchip as a security measure, the video is right in saying that there certainly is a generational divide with this issue. The speaker was right to assume that more younger people would be for this measure, mainly due to how comfortable the younger people are with sharing their lives and information daily on social media with thousands of others, if not millions. That assumption doesn't come with a lot of kickback, as there are lots of younger people that prefer to be private, as well as older people that prefer to be less private and potentially more okay with the microchip being implanted within their bodies. Personally, relating to my own morals and values, I think I have more questions than anything else. The interaction between this idea and my morals/values creates the questions, as well as uncomfortability. Questions like, "What does the microchip collect/not collect data-wise?", "Will the implant have side effects during/after the chip being implanted?", and "Why is this so important to my employer?" keep circling around the idea, creating uncomfortability and other questions branching out from the initial questions. I'd really love to dig down into the idea and find out more about the business necessity of the microchip and how it benefits the employer and the employee that takes the implant. On another note, I'd also love to see what the company, that's offering the chip implant, will be collecting information/data-wise from those that accepted the implant. For instance, the microchip could detect things that send notifications to the company about the worker's behavior or actions taken on any given day. This all just reminds me more of a "big brother" feeling where, at some point, someone will always know where we are or what we're doing at any given point in time, relating to the dystopian future that the speak referred to in the video. Personally and professionally, I feel more comfortable in simply having a physical access card physically on me when I need it. Yes, I'd be responsible for it, but that's the easy part, right? This needs to be a bigger verbal discussion. It would be really cool to have that opportunity! Anyone else in?