Smith is purchasing a business named Underground Shoes and Accessories near Lutz, Florida. During the last few years, the business has had several issues with the law because of claims of false advertising and wrongful termination of employees. As a result, Smith is concerned about the ethical culture of the firm. This article seeks to review the concepts of ethics critically, evaluate potential ethical problems in Smith’s business, and help him propose the solutions to his problems.
Based on the above description, it is apparent that Smith will be faced with overwhelming task when he takes control of the firm. For Smith’s firm to be successful, it should have human, financial, and physical resources to tackle the situation (Agarwal, 2010). Similarly, Smith must be sensitive to internal and external challenges.
Through this, he will be required to reengineer and restructure his firm. By doing so, he may be required to reduce or increase the size of his workforce and enhance exceptional leadership skills in the firm’s top management.
To prevent conflicts between his firm and the law, Smith must formulate and implement an appropriate ethical culture with immediate effect. Once he acquires the firm, he should formulate a new code of ethics in the company. The new code of ethics should articulate the accepted standards. To achieve this, he will be required to strengthen ethical culture and promote an ethical workforce within the executive branch.
Similarly, the new code of ethics should be used to institutionalize ethics within the firm. The code of ethics should illustrate a broad value system of an organization, describe the organization’s principles, and detail guidelines for decision making that are in accordance with these principles (Paliwal, 2006). Thereafter, Smith should ensure that the code of ethics is implemented and adhered to at all time.
Likewise, he should appoint a task force to investigate on the allegation of wrongful termination of employees. Through the task force report, managers responsible for the act should be held accountable. Similarly, the task force should come up with recommendations on how to foster the relationship between the employees and the executives.
Through this, the production of the employees will be increased. Equally, Smith should ensure that his firm foster consumer confidence by producing quality products. Similarly, products’ advertisements should be genuine.
To improve the human resource management of the firm and avoid future legal problems, Smith must implement suitable management measures. It is obvious that the previous human resource management team participated in wrongful termination of employees. As such, most of the previous management strategies will lose their validity in the new firm.
While advisers and interim managers can provide some of the management skills necessary to turn around this firm, Smith must be prepared to structure the firm’s management organs (Bibeault, 2002). Therefore, Smith must appoint a new team to enhance the relationship between the employees and the executive. The appointed team should comprise of competent and efficient individuals to salvage the organization from collapsing.
Through this, the company should develop and implement suitable rescue plan. The plan should address the fundamental problems, tackle the underlying causes, and enhance ethical culture. By doing so, Smith will ensure that his firm’s rescue plan is built on a robust foundation. Similarly, the plans should tackle potential legal challenges in the future.
References
Agarwal, O. P. (2010). Turnaround management with business process re-engineering. Mumbai India : Himalaya Pub House.
Bibeault, D. B. (2002). Corporate turnaround: how managers turn losers into winners.. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Paliwal, M. (2006). Business ethics. New Delhi: New Age International.