Moral Responsibility in Business

There is no question that the recent mode of operation in companies requires that all the members must be morally upright to meet the standard of those that patronize them. According to Mahatma Gandhi, “morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality”. There is a general belief that responsibility itself is the product of the standard of living of the people involved.

Moral responsibility is the intentional feature of responsibility that ensures that the actions and inactions of some certain people are beneficial to others. The result of general moral responsibility can better explain the personality of a person. Looking at it from a business point of view, it is safe to say that the quality of formal behavior by which a responsible institution showcase moral attitude such as wisdom, hospitality, good service, and prudence indicate the level of their moral responsibility.

From another perspective, moral responsibility is said to be the awareness that all actions must be accounted for. Moral responsibility, in business, is the feature that everybody associated with it must have (Constantineuseu and Kaptain, 2005) In other words, everybody starting from the principal stakeholder to the lowest worker owes the people they render service to the duty of being morally responsible in all their dealings.

Defining business to suit the context of this article, a business can be defined as an organization (a group of people that come together to act as one) that engaged in professional and commercial activities I.e. they render goods or services to the people they called customers.

Business responsibilities

The bottom line of business responsibilities is that business cannot be treated as one entity. The notion of whether or not a corporation is morally responsible cannot be determined when we view business as a person. We can only describe the moral responsibility of a company by trying to examine their right and wrongs.

A corporation is different from the owner thus, it has a limited liability because it cannot take the total blame of its actions. The people that use the method of individualism to explain the moral responsibility of business will argue that "corporations do not commit offenses, people do" (Bodenheimer, 1980).

The manufacturer of guns produces it for the sole purpose of killing. Can we say they are not morally responsible for creating a weapon for destruction? We cannot say that the manufacturers of guns are not liable for their products; however, they have some liabilities laws that protect them unlike other sectors (Kurtzleben, 2015).

Although businesses may not be responsible for their actions like real people, they must understand the fact that their actions can affect people positively and negatively. Moral responsibility in business includes the right treatment of customers, the right treatment of co-workers, the timely payment of employees, and the provision of a safe working place.

Right treatment of customers

This is a part of a business's moral responsibility to its customers. A company should avoid the use of deceptive words when advertising. A business is expected to be time conscious and be sure to deliver goods at the agreed time. If there is a delay in the delivery of the goods or services, the customers need to be duly notified.

The usage of unclear terms when describing goods and services must be avoided because it can cause misunderstanding. There is a popular phrase that customers are always right so when dealing with customers, a company needs to be very careful to avoid misunderstanding that can dent the image of the business.

Although the owner of the business will set the ethnics of good customer service, the employees are also expected to help promote the moral responsibility of the company in terms of providing good customer services.

Right treatment of co-worker

Almost all the moral responsibilities in a company rest on the shoulder of the employees because they interact with each other and with customers more than the principal stakeholder. Workers must learn to treat each other politely and with respect. Workers must not physically or verbally abuse themselves.

Discrimination of any kind should not be allowed during and after working hours. Although workers do not have to be friends as a matter of obligation, they owe it to themselves, their employer, and customers to always be at peace to be able to keep the business running.

The boss should also lead by example. You want your workers to respect themselves, then you show them how by treating them with respect and not treating them like trash. Therefore, moral responsibility in business starts with the people at the top.

Timely payment of employees

As the popular saying goes “that a hungry man is an angry man”, a worker whose salary is delayed tends to treat customers badly. Delayed payment can cause mayhem in the company. I read of a company that perpetually delays the payment of their workers without prior notice or genuine explanation. All the workers left the company, and they find it difficult to get new workers to work for them thanks to the bad salary reputation that precedes them.

A business organization must manage their finances properly. They must put in place the system of adequate payment of salary and wages.

Provision of a Safe Working Environment

Following the laws of health administrations and occupational safety, it is the duty and the moral responsibility of the employer to provide a healthy and safe working environment. They must make an effort to prevent hazards like fire outbreaks, and exposure to harmful or corrosive materials.

If the business deals with laboratory chemicals, emulsions, corrosive materials, and the material that are toxic to the skin or materials that can destroy organs when inhaled, they must provide safety materials that protect their employees from having direct contact with those materials.

Moral responsibility in business can be determined by putting a bother line between what is right and what is wrong. Knowing and doing what is right is a good ingredient for a successful business.