Quality Management, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibil

According to Garvin (1988, cited in Kok, et. al. 2001: 285), there are four distinguishable periods in the development of quality thinking. Quality has been related primarily to the products or services and their performances in the first stage. In the second stage, the focus shifted from production line to the process. In the third stage, the focus has moved from process to system. The fourth stage can be called as the Total Quality Management (TQM) stage, in which quality has become a more strategic issue and the focus is broadened towards the quality of the organization and its relationships with its environment such as customers, suppliers, competitors, and society at large.

Recent interpretations of TQM refer to concepts like organizational learning, business ethics, social responsibility, and governance, which go beyond improvement of production related processes.

VW succeeded to stand up on its feet with the help of prior strong brand image, re-conceptualized VW identity, effective recall strategy, and various customer loyalty programs; but many companies failed to do so and vanished. That’s why it is very critical to learn about ethics and act ethically in a business environment where most consumers value ethical actions implemented by businesses.

Ethics generally deals with norms and values, with questions of what is right and what is good, what one ought to do and ought not to do, and what is a good person or life.

An ethical behavior in business can be defined as ‘‘behavior that is consistent with the principles, norms, and standards of business practice that have been agreed upon by the society’’ (Trevino and Nelson, 2011:17-19).

Ethics asks;

• what action it is right (or wrong) to take,

• what kind of person it is right (or wrong) to be, and

• in what kind of a world it is right (or wrong) to live (Scharding, 2018: 13).

Here is the percentage of employees who say they observed certain behaviors in the previous year, according to a survey of 2,852 workers by the Ethics Resource Center: • Lying to employees (19%) • Engaging in conflicts of interest (16%) • Lying to outside stakeholders (12%) • Engaging in health and safety violations (11%) • Producing poor product quality (9%) • Stealing (9%) • Sexual harassment (7%)

Ethical issues become more complicated outside one’s home country. With increasing globalization, more managers find themselves in an international environment full of ethical challenges that increase when culture and language are foreign, the manager is under stress and there is a huge increase in the number of stakeholders, which makes decision-making very complex.

As a philosophical view, focusing on consequences is often referred to as utilitarianism. Pragmatism The belief that there are no absolute principles or standards, no objective truth, and no objective reality. Deontology Refers to moral philosophies that center on the rights of individuals and the intentions associated with a particular behavior. Virtue ethics Focusing on the character of the person involved in the decision or action.

An ethical dilemma is a problem or issue that confronts a person, group, or organization and that requires a decision or choice among competing claims and interests, all of which may be unethical (i.e., against all parties’ principles).

Whistleblowing means revealing wrongdoings in an organization to the public or to management of the organization. When there are no protective measures, whistle-blowers suffer, and the company may continue its unethical or illegal practices.

A code of ethics is a formal statement of the company’s values concerning ethics and social responsibility; it clarifies to employees what the company stands for and its expectations for employee conduct (Daft, 2008:397).

The following is an exemplary code of ethics developed by Stimson (2005) based on Deming’s principles: 1. Meeting customer expectations. 2. Honesty. 3. Non-delegable quality. 4. Traceability, which reduces occasions for waste and fraud. 5. Respect for privacy and avoidance of conflicts of interest. 6. Antidiscrimination. 7. Empowerment through organizational freedom, responsibility and authority. 8. True reports. 9. Integrity

The following are the examples how TQM can foster ethical behavior within organizations (Nayebpour & Koehn, 2003: 37-41): • TQM leads to clear communication of commitments and goals.• TQM fosters the development of good listening skills. • TQM leads to early identification of problematic behavior. • TQM promotes honesty and fair dealing. • TQM helps eliminate the atmosphere where people look for someone to blame. • TQM highlights the ethical dimension of production. 

Aşçıgil (2010:9) states that businesses may take advantage of CSR only for marketing purposes without penetrating all management processes if there is no tool to translate ideas into processes. Yet, both CSR and quality management are intertwined; when they are taken together, they will reinforce one another’s strengths (Aşçıgil, 2010:18).

Corporate social responsibility is the idea that firms have obligations to society beyond their economic obligations to owners or stockholders and also beyond those prescribed by law or contract. Both ethics and social responsibility relate to the goodness or morality of organizations (DuBrin, 2012: 91). Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the work force and their families as well as the local community and society at large (The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, cited in Douglas, 2009:25).

Among the most common CSR practices are: • Reducing the organization’s carbon footprints, • Improving organizational labor policies, • Committing to fair trade, • Charitable giving for various causes, • Volunteering in the community initiatives, • Developing policies for environmental protection, • Making socially and environmentally conscious investments, • Charitable acts such as donation of money

Two personality variables influence an individual’s actions according to his or her beliefs about what is right or wrong: ego strength and locus of control. Ego strength measures the strength of a person’s convictions. Individuals high in ego strength are more likely to do what they think is right and be more consistent in their moral judgments and actions than those with low ego strength. Locus of control is the degree to which people believe they control their own fate.