M7D1: THERE IS NO BUSINESS CASE FOR SUSTAINABILITY

M7D1: There is No Business Case for Sustainability

Complete the following:

Describe two possible ethical issues that Sustainable Goods ( the company from

your Final Project) could face based on cultural differences that might lead to unethical

employee behavior and how to mitigate the risk of each.

Analyze the two countries you selected for your Final Project. State at the top three

reasons that there would NOT be a business case for sustainability in each of your

countries (you need three reasons for each country). Support your analysis with scholarly

evidence. This is an opportunity for you to conduct a counter-thesis analysis and help

mitigate the likelihood of a biased analysis of your two countries.

How would you measure how sustainable your Final Project company Sustainable

Goods business practices are? Cite at least three measures that you would use and how you

would collect the data (what data and how often you would collect it).

Ethical Issues that Sustainable Goods Company Could Face Based on Cultural Differences

The application of ethics in the operations of an organization is key to inducing integrity

among the employees. In turn, a well-functioning workforce guided by the principles of integrity,

transparency, and ethical standards promises high-performance rate is giving the organization an

opportunity to create a competitive advantage over the others (Kellen & Wolf, 2003). The ethical

issues based on cultural differences that the company may face include perceiving employees

from third world countries as incompetent to run the affairs of the organization. Also, treating

one group of people as superior to the other.

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In the case of perceiving employees from third world countries as incompetent to run the

affairs of the organization, it opens an opportunity for mistreatment because of the where they

come from. As the organization is destined to open shop in one of the developing countries, it

needs to source and recruit the employee from the host country in a competitive merit

assessment. In turn, this will mitigate the problem as it assures of the qualifications and skills just

like any other employee in the organization undermining the escalation of unethical practices

based on cultural differences.

Secondly, the point where one group of people is treated as the superior to the other, the

practices exists due to westernization and racism syndrome. The open challenge where the

workforce in third world countries are neglected at the expense of their developed nations'

counterparts emanates to the escalation of unethical practices (Pitta, Fung & Isberg, 1999). The

Sustainable Goods Company ought to draft policies that protect all its employees equally and

subjected to the standards. Also, there should be opportunities for managerial positions for the

third world population to assert equality in the organization.

Analysis of the Two Selected Countries

An analysis of the case for sustainability in various countries has been key to influencing

the success of the organization's onset to their operations in different parts of the world. Firstly,

the analysis of no case for sustainability in Kenya would prevail due to various reasons that

control the business environment that facilitate the operations and success of the company. One

of the reasons for no case for sustainability is argued to be the ability of the country to regulate

the volatility of prices between the producers and suppliers as it's a free market economy

(Schaltegger & Ludeke-Freund, 2012). This may threaten the organizations operations as the

price of goods may be too high. Second, the escalation of corruption undermines the onset of any
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company in a new destination. Third, the political influence and their impact on the success of

the organization, in turn, develop a no case for sustainability.

In the case of the United States, the country has been strafed with high competitions

undermining start-ups to take off with a potential thrust for success. Second, there are many legal

obligations to conform with before being allowed to operate freely posting stringent measures

that monitor the operations of the company (Schaltegger, Ludeke-Freud & Hansen, 2011). Third,

the US market has highly sophisticated skills and expertise which are a good thing to impose a

case for sustainability for the company. But, on the contrary, the expertise is too expensive to

purchase posing a significant challenge to the organization culminating in a no case for

sustainability.

Measuring Sustainable Goods Business Practices

The sustainability of the companys business practices is measured in line with Critical

Success Factors (CSFs). The CSFs assists in monitoring and managing the business practices and

help assess their implications to the company (Lambert, 2016). The CSFs include a measure of

financial performance, customer relation and satisfaction, internal business process, creativity

and innovation, leadership, and achievement of goals and objectives of the company (Neely, Ed.,

2007). This allows Sustainable Goods to assess points of sound and weak business practices

giving the company an opportunity to improve their performance elevating their sustainability.
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References

Kellen, V., & Wolf, B. (2003). Business performance measurement. Information

Visualization, 1(312), 1-36.

Lambert, L. (2016). Measuring for Success: Focus on Key Areas to Reach your Goals, so your

Valuable Time isn't Wasted. [Online]. Retrieved from

http://www.business.vic.gov.au/marketing-sales-and-online/growth-innovation-and-

measurement/measuring-for-success [Accessed on 2nd August 2017].

Neely, A. (Ed.). (2007). Business performance measurement: Unifying theory and integrating

practice. Cambridge University Press.

Pitta, D. A., Fung, H. G., & Isberg, S. (1999). Ethical issues across cultures: Managing the

differing perspectives of China and the USA. Journal of consumer marketing, 16(3), 240-

256.

Schaltegger, S., & Ldeke-Freund, F. (2012). The'Business Case for Sustainability'Concept: A

Short Introduction.

Schaltegger, S., Ldeke-Freund, F., & Hansen, E. G. (2011). Business cases for sustainability

and the role of business model innovation: developing a conceptual framework.