Identification of ethics and social responsibility issues facing the company
Toyota Motor Corporation is an international automobile and financial company, respected for its quality and reliable products; to remain competitive; the company’s management makes timely decisions. In all operations, the company aims to be ethical; it also extends a hand of appreciation to the public through corporate social responsibilities (CSRs). When determining the operation base and the CSRs to undertake, the company considers different issues likely to influence the direction of the projects or decisions.
There has been come ethical issues faced by the company, for example in early 2010, Toyota Company was faced by a problem when some fault vehicles got their way to the market and lead to deaths particularly in the United States of America. The company was considered not to be taking good care of its customers and the public.
The brands of vehicle could accelerate themselves to an uncontrollable level they even led to death. The move or the experience that the company got at the time forced the management to appraise in person on the case and recalled all faulty automobiles.
The case of Toyota was broadcasted in international and national media a point that made the sales of the company reduce (Habisch, Jonker and Martina 1-123).
Toyota being in the automobile industry has been blamed for environmental damage; the damage has been attributed to the company’s products, vehicles, which use fossil fuels to run.
When fossil fuels are burnt, they produce green house gasses that have been a major talk in environmental debates, for the reason the company has been considered unethical. However, despite the moves and criticism gotten from environmental conservatisms, the company has continued to improve its products and has innovated battery vehicles (electronic vehicles).
Identification of key stakeholders and explanation of their involvement and influence
There are a number of stakeholders in Toyota as far as ethics and corporate social responsibilities plans are concerned. The stakeholders are both internal and external players; internally Toyota is divided into departments performing different tasks. Internal team is expected to be creative, inventive and innovative to come up with approaches to ethical and CRS programs.
The company has embarked on enforcement of its operating strategies: the company operates under five principals, they are Kaizen (continuo’s improvement), teamwork, Challenges, Respect and Genchi Genbutsu (go and see): to be ethical, the company aims at fulfilling the above objectives.
Another set of the company’s stakeholders that affect the ethical code of business in the company is the external environment like customers and the society; there is a level of quality that customers expect from the company, the level forces the company to adopt high ethical operations. The company takes social corporate responsibilities as advertising and marketing tools, they offer the company a competitive advantage as communities value the efforts made by the company.
The government and community-based organizations are other stakeholders; the main areas that these organizations get involved is in offering a minimal base and rate of operation that the company should uphold, for instance the environment movements require some level of emission from the company’s products and operations.
When the company is compiling with such regulations, then it has to conduct its businesses ethically. International bodies and regulations are other stakeholders which the company has as stakeholders, there are a number of international conventions, protocols , and agreements that define the way business should be conducted, they include Kyoto protocol, Stockholm agreements, Doha round of talks, Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992, European Commission, and The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
However, these organizations are more concerned on pollution matters and environmental protection. The company is listed in Asian stock exchange whereby the public can buy shares in the company. The employees have a policy that ensures that they also have shares in the company, all this are stakeholders.
The government and the public also would like to get ethically correct products from whichever the company and thus are included in the context of stakeholders. Shareholders are recognized by paying them dividends and the government by taxes. The public benefit from social corporate responsibilities programs (Habisch, Jonker and Martina 1-123)
Identification of company’s stance
Although Toyota has been concerned on ethical and CSR issues, it waited until 2005 when the company developed a CSR policy, in the policy the company’s stance which is “CSR POLICY: Contribution towards Sustainable Development.” The policy team section has been upgraded to full departmental level managed by team of experts; the sector looks into economic, social, political and environmental issues in the company. The department has been successful in innovating environmental technologies in both products and processes.
The stance is seen as a combination of pragmatic, ethical, or strategic stance; the broad approach of the stance offers flexibility in country. The success of the structure can be seen in different areas which include development of products that are internationally accepted and automating its process to meet international standards. The stance is not limited to guidance in CSR and ethical issues but takes massive research to advice the company on consumers expectations. The following are the policies that are contained in the stance:
- Contribution towards a prospectus 21st century society
- Pursuit of environmental technologies
- Voluntary actions and
- Working in corporation with society
The above action policies are implemented using the framework of:
- Action plan
- Toyota Green purchasing Guidelines
- Biodiversity guidelines
- Initiative at the new Toyota R&D center
Let us evaluate the success of the company using a Carroll’s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Carroll Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility is as follows:
At the base of the pyramid, the company profit objectives; when the company economic welfare has been looked into, the company lays the base of other corporate responsibilities and ethical code of conducts.
The pyramid can be expanded as follows:
The efforts of the company look into all areas of ethical concern, the major drive of the company is to have products that are accepted internationally and whose connect with the people (Toyota official website).
The automobile industry is quite demanding as far as ethical and social responsibilities are concerned, they are at the point of focus by national and international bodies more so when it comes to the issues of environmental conservation and being efficient.
Mitsubishi is another international automobile company; it has ethical and corporate social responsibility functions at it heart, in every automobile it produces, it ensures it meets international accreditation of quality, before releasing to the market, the company quality team has to ensure that ever thing is intact.
The efforts have not gone untested; the company’s Glanti model has been accused of brake failures and color fades. There are a number of corporate social responsibilities that the company has embarked on; they include environmental conservations, public educations, and has embarked on massive automation to facilitate ethical business.
According to environmental report 2009 by US Environmental Agency, Mitsubishi has reduced its water wastage by 50%, this is through recycling and proper water use. The recycling is seen as a move to conserve the environment in line with EU environmental rules and Kyoto protocol.
US Environmental Agency has congratulated the efforts taken by Mitsubishi to conserve the environment. It is of the view that if other motor industries follow the same trend, then the world is likely to reduce emissions by half. Pollution from Mitsubishi Motors Corporation can be controlled as a form of corporate responsibility (internal) or a company can embark on massive cleaning of the environment.
Mitsubishi is also a key player in carbon emission reduction through:
- Adopting fuel efficient production methods like use electricity instead of coal when heating, this is estimated to reduce its in factory emission by 20% A project to develop electric motor vehicles is in an advanced stage
- The company has embarked on improved technology on it vehicles to ensure that they are fuel efficient
- The company have started making bio-diesel engine vehicles; they are seen as the breakthrough to future environmental conservation
When comparing Toyota and Mitsubishi, Toyota is doing better; this is so because of the massive innovations that it has come up with in products and processes. Although Mitsubishi is having effective CRS, its coverage is lower than that of Toyota, this may be agued its because of the differences in operating base, since Toyota is the world largest automobile maker while Mitsubishi comes in as seventh (Mitsubishi Corporate website)
The areas that both companies should look into are weak points and leakages in the company resulting from lack of 100% seal of holes that might result to unethical businesses. The company’s quality report of 2009 has almost claimed that the company’s products quality is incomparably high, however, it was a matter of time before they believe failed the test of time.
The five operating policies adopted by the company are strong source of drive and should shape the company’s direction, when it comes to ethical matters, the policies should be adhered to the dot. Advocators for good citizenship acknowledge the benefits that can be acquired from continuous improvements; they are of the view that businesses need to undertake research in their line of business to invent and innovate better ways of working than the current ones.
Summary
From the course, I have appreciated the benefits that a company can derive from being ethical and the power of corporate social responsibility as a marketing tool. Previously, I had less interest in CSR programs and their effect on a business, after the course I clearly understand the benefits and the approaches it should take. The course was an eye opener; I now can tell companies that are ethical, them who respect stakeholders and those who have no interest.
The efforts made by Toyota can be applauded, the company has automated its internal structures and is making products that are ethically accepted; to attain the ethical objective as required by the policies; the company is constantly innovating and inventing other ways of operating that are environmentally friendly.
Some of the projects that the company has implemented as corporate social responsibilities have continued to change lives; for example the company’s education programs in developing countries has eradicated poverty and assisted communities. Such systems have a life touching effect; other programs that are aimed at environmental conservation are building to much needed sustainable development agendas attainments.
The efforts made by Toyota has slightly made me respect the company and wish I would get a chance to work with the compact; at least it has made efforts and the efforts are yielding positive results. On paper and according to Toyota code of conduct, the company complies with internationally ethical values and has CSR efforts. The processes that the company has adopted in the efforts of being ethical are a great blessing to the company and societies; they include automation, recycling processes and refurbishment of products.
The moves are compliant with international environmental conservation measures; the invention of electronic motor vehicles (EMVs) is seen as a major breakthrough in energy industry which has been threatened by increasing use and chances of depletion of oil reserves. on the other hand emissions from motor vehicles have been a major contributor to green gasses, the invention is expected to assist in a great deal.
The company has embarked on quality management policies, they include TQM (total Quality Management), Six Sigma, and CRM (Customer relations management) policies; although the policy has made the company more profitable, its spillovers are ethically accepted moves like reliable, affordable and efficient automobiles.
Conclusion
In modern contemporary societies, there is a growing concerns on environmental conservation, management and restoration; this has been facilitated by enlighten among consumers and other business stakeholders calling for companies to act ethically and involve themselves in corporate social responsibilities.
Toyota has embarked a number of measures to make its compliant with international ethical code of conducts. To act ethically, the company is guided by its CSR Policy document of 2005 and guidance of its implementation team.
Works Cited
Habisch, André, Jonker Jan, and Martina Wegner. Corporate Social Responsibility across the Europe. Heidelberg: Springer. 2005. Print
Mitsubishi Corporate website. Mitsubishi,2011. Web.
Toyota official website. Toyota, 2011. Web.