1. Social and Ethical Environment of Business

2. Human Resources People are a firm’s most important resource
Finding and retaining qualified workers is more important than finance, technology, product innovation, or international business
Workers help businesses achieve organizational goals
Issues caused by changes in population and lifestyles have a direct bearing on business operations

3. Population How can population statistics help businesses?
How does population affect GDP?
Population increase in US by almost 10,000,000 between and 2014 (3.3%)
Population increase in New York by almost 400,000 between 2010 and 2014 (1.9%)
Chenango County decrease by 1,000 (-2.1%)
Norwich decrease of 2.5%
Broome County decrease by almost 3,000 (-1.6%)

4. Growing Population
Growth rate is determined by birth rate, death rate, and level of immigration into the country
Standard of living increase
Birth rate falls
Longer lives (better health care and public health system)
What is going to happen in the next years?
Growth is largely due to immigration

6. Why is it important to know this?

7. Changing Population Baby Boom Baby Bust
Due to a high birth rate during 1945 and 1965
More people between ages
Why is this important to us as employers?
Why is this important to product development?
A shortage of younger workers (called busters)
More retirees due to baby boom generation
How can we manage such a shortage?

8. Moving Population Migration Sun Belt Rust Belt Frost Belt
Before the recent recession, on average, in a year, 1 out of 5 Americans changed his or her address
Movement from city to suburbs effect a city’s ability to sustain
Southern states have seen an economic boom. Why?
Frost Belt
Sun Belt
Rust Belt
North central and northeastern states where the major manufacturing firms once dominated
Warmer southern half of the country
Colder northern half of the country

9. Labor Force
Mostly people 16 years and older who are available for work
Employed and unemployed are included
Labor Participation Rate
Percentage of the labor force that is either employed or actively seeking employment
Over past 3 decades participation increased
Women working (career driven, delayed marriages)
Opportunities for retired
Opportunities for disabled

10. Labor Force Economic shifts cause changes in populated areas
Technological advances have created new jobs
Technological advances have caused other jobs to dissolve and a shortage of qualified workers
Opened up hiring foreign workers and outsourcing
How has this affected high school graduates?
Strength of the US is the ability to create new jobs
Service industry boom
Computer programming, banking, insurance, leisure, food services, and healthcare

11. Poverty
Those who live in poverty are usually poorly housed, clothed, and fed
Usually live in inner city or rural areas
Kids: usually have minimally educated parents, low-paying jobs, and/or work minimally due to cost of child care
Gap widening between rich and poor
Government intervention
Minimum wage rates, unemployment benefits, financial and/or food aid, subsidized medical care
Programs to increase skills and education within the workplace
Social Security has helped poverty among the elderly

13. Equal Employment Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Though laws are in place, some discriminations still occur
Racial, Gender, Disability, Age – Why would these be considered problems?
Glass Ceiling
An invisible barrier to job advancement
Mainly minorities and women
Sticky Floor Syndrome
Obtaining minimally educated/skilled work and the inability to advance

14. Comparable Worth
Paying workers equally for jobs with similar but not identical job requirements
On average, women are paid 77 cents for every dollar men earn
Questionable:
Equal training/education, very different jobs, but one pays more than another
Risks, special skills, physical, responsibility, education, etc.
Predominantly gender dominated work

15. Review Who is accounted for as part of the U.S. labor force?
Who is accounted for in the labor participation rate?
When people encounter difficulties in being promoted to management above a certain level they have encountered a __________________.
What factors are contributing to the growth of the U.S. Population?
What has caused the decline in the number of younger workers in recent years?
16+ available to be employed
Anyone who is actively looking and employed
Glass ceiling
Immigration, birth rates, standard of living (living longer), healthcare
Employment opportunities for persons with disabilities, retired individuals, veterans, etc.

16. Societal Values

17. Changing American Values
The household has a new “norm.”
What “use to be” is no longer
Both parents working or divorced parents/single parenting
Fewer siblings
No children or choosing to have children at an older age
Increased competition:
Keeping competitive and maintaining low costs
More employee responsibility
More stressful workplace
More stressful home life
Job insecurities
Discourages workers from taking time off
Work longer hours without the matching pay
Employees are becoming more use to this way of working: a new “norm”

18. Changing American Values Continued….
Generation X (baby bust)
Post baby boom
Less loyal to employers than previous generation
Net Generation
Born between 1977 and (later = Millennium Generation)
More emphasis on spending and leisure
More spending on dining and entertainment
More emphasis on safety and active lifestyles
More women who became entrepreneurs
Increase in violence
Expansion of personal security – gadgets, guns, gated communities, prison construction
Workplace romance/relationships increased
Harassments also came to the forefront
“Law-suit happy”
Quick to file law suits – businesses are especially protective to analyze and comply to safety standards and operations

19. Question: Which of the following is NOT true for the Net Generation?
A. they expect to change jobs many times during their careers
B. they were born between 1977 and 1997
C. they are the post-baby-boom generation
D. they feel less loyal to a particular employer

20. Employer responses Many societal issues overflow into the workplace
Employers have attempted to create conditions where the worker feels less stressed and feel challenged so not to worry about personal issues
This is not to contradict the overflow of responsibilities and its stressors!
Examples: Increase in leisure time, onsite fitness centers, child day care, etc.

21. Employer Responses Redesigning Jobs Repetitive tasks Job rotation
Boredom, decreased productivity, decreased morale
What can we expect from employees at these times?
Job rotation
More valuable to the employee and employer
Gain more skill and knowledge, more valued employee
Can fill in for others who are absent, thus minimal decrease in productivity during an absence
Increase teamwork and decision making abilities
Increases empowerment

22. Employer Responses Improving Health and Safety
Incentives to improve health
Smoke free, fitness centers/programs, counseling services, addiction treatment programs
Why would the business fund these programs?
Family-Friendly Practices
Family leave by law (unpaid or paid)
Daycare services
Flex scheduling
Time alterations to accommodate needs of employee and employer
Telecommute
Working off-site and communicate electronically (internet, , mobile phones, etc.)

23. Natural Resource Issues
Increases in purchases means more resource issues
Examples?
Managing the environment
Reducing the growth of waste and recycling, reusing products and packaging
Conserve nonrenewable resources
Oil, natural gas, iron ore
Using more renewable resources
Electricity generated from solar power, water, wind
Supply works against our goals
Abundant supply of coal generates more pollution – natural gas is in short supply

24. Natural Resource Issues
Controlling Environmental Pollution
Current Law Suits?
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Help control and reduce pollution in the basic areas of air, water, solid waste, pesticides, noise, and radiation
Enforces Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Resource Recovery Act, Federal Water Pollution Control Act, Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act, Noise Control Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
Waste disposal rules can be costly – can lead to unethical practices
Issues when weaker laws reside in foreign countries

25. Get with your team and discuss at least 4 ways in which your company would demonstrate environmentally safe practices
A product of the oil spill in 1989 along the Alaskan coast that killed masses of marine and wildlife

26. Review: Pollution can, in part, be controlled through a. recycling
b. EPA regulations
c. following the CERES Principles
d. all the above
List at least 4 employer practices that have enhanced the quality of work life for employees
Give at least 2 examples of how environmental goals can be at odds with energy conservation goals. d.
Related to job redesign, efforts to improve health and safety, and family-friendly practices
Coal is plentiful but causes more pollution. Natural gas causes less pollution but requires opening new gas fields

27. Ethical Issues

28. Business Ethics Ethics Business Ethics
Refers to standards of moral conduct that individuals and groups set for themselves, defining what behavior they value as right or wrong
Close link to personal values (beliefs and attitudes)
Question that must be answered:
Is this action right or wrong, regardless of what the laws state?
Business Ethics
A collection of principles and rules that define right and wrong conduct for an organization
Any action that does not conform is considered unethical
Not all firms have the same rules of ethical conduct
End of slide – give Rayshawn Case

29. Business Ethics New positions – Chief Ethics Officers Code of ethics
Ensure that workers are trained in how to comply
Code of ethics
Formal, published collection of values and rules that reflect the firm’s philosophy and goals
Accepting gifts, employee privacy, personal use of property, confidentiality
Removes or reduces opportunity for unethical conduct
Nike
School Code of Conduct – why? Must be enforced for effectiveness
Unethical conduct now can affect your future: stealing and ability to be bonded
Nike Code of Ethics page 8 & 9; page 25: questions

30. Ethical Dilemmas Unclear if actions are illegal Question: Answer:
What is the value or worth of a specific behavior for society as a whole?
Answer:
The best behavior is that which does the most good for the most people
Examples?
Forests? Fracking? Oil drilling?
“Stacking the deck?”
Foreign practices
Use own policy or theirs?
Remind: Rayshawn revealing that the site is dismantling
Foreign practices: In Japan it is customary to offer an expensive gift; however, it is not customary, and even frowned upon, in our own country to do so. What do you do?

31. Social Responsibility
What is business’s responsibility to help solve society’s problems?
Not a simple answer: profit motive of a business often collides with what is good for society
Profit Motive – the use of resources to gain the most profit
Should businesses accept lower profit in order to keep jobs in a declining community?
Businesses decide for themselves what is right and wrong

32. Social responsibility continued…
Primary goal of business is to make a profit for the owners
Businesses cannot survive without investors being rewarded
Another goal has risen: social responsibility
Refers to the duty of a business to contribute to the well- being of society

33. Social Responsibility Continued…
Stakeholders
Any individuals or groups that are affected by the firm’s actions
Examples?
Owners, customers, suppliers, employees, creditors, government, public
Stakeholders expect a business to be responsible and responsible to their interests
Donations, sponsoring cultural events, scholarships, training for the unskilled, supporting employees, etc.
Contributions to community well-being = favorable publicity = more sales and profits
Ben and Jerry’s
Expensive hormone-free Vermont dairy farms and 7% of pretax profits to charity

34. Social responsibility continued…
Businesses review social programs regularly
What is the business doing to fulfill its social responsibilities, its success in accomplishing its goals, and its plans for pursuing future activities
Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)
Group problem-solving method in which group members write down and evaluate ideas to be shared with the group
Neither government nor for-profit (developed by UN)
Influence through lobbying, publicity and pressure tactics
Greenpeace, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Sierra Club (Motto: Explore, enjoy and protect the planet)
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU – “Because Freedom Can't Protect Itself”)

35. The Future
Economic and social data provide an in-depth picture of changes occurring in American society
Racial and ethnic mix of the labor force
Internet dramatically altering how people communicate and businesses operate
Computer-related jobs – increase in entrepreneurships
More social services to the community
Environmentally consciousness continues to increase
Balance of home and work life
As societal values change, each business will continue to shape and be shaped by the society in which it functions

36. Review
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Sierra Club are examples of __________________
Telecommuting means:
Stakeholders could include (name 3):
Explain how the movement of people from cities to suburbs and from the Frost Belt has affected cities and businesses.
Describe the actions that the federal government has taken to protect the environment.
List at least 2 reasons why businesses should be socially responsible
NGO
Working via communication technology instead of showing up at the office
Business owners, customers, creditors, suppliers, government, public, etc.