REFLECTIVE BLOG ASSESSMENT
2-2:
In this week’s assessment we
will be analyzing Canada’s leading supplier of quality outdoor gear, clothing,
and services aimed at helping people enjoy the benefits of self-propelled
wilderness-oriented recreation, Mountain Equipment Co-op. They are best known
for their principles and values towards environmental protection and other
causes. The company's organizational environment is supported by the
principles and values of a co-operation. Which the company defines on their
website as "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to
meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through
a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise." (MEC,
1995)
The company also has in place
7 strict principles that affect MEC's customers and suppliers. They are as
follows:
1. Voluntary and Open
Membership - allows anyone the opportunity to use their services without
discrimination.
2. Democratic Member
Control - all MEC members can actively participate in the setting of company
policies and decision making process to ensure a democratic organization that
is controlled by its members.
3. Member Economic
Participation - MEC members each contribute equitably to the capital of their
co-operatives. Their allocation of surpluses go towards; developments within
the co-operatives, setting up possible reserves, overall benefits for MEC
members, and other activities which are supported by the membership.
4. Autonomy And
Independence - before agreeing to any agreements with other organizations,
which could include the government, or capital from external sources, MEC must
do so on terms that ensures democratic control by their members and maintaining
their co-operative autonomy.
5. Education,
Training and Information - MEC contributes to the development of their member
by providing effective education and training.
The natures of these benefits
are made available to the general public.
6. Co-Operation
Among Co-Operatives - MEC is able to effectively strengthen their co-operative
structure by working autonomously with local to international members.
7. Concern For
Community - MEC prides itself on not only meeting their members' needs but the
world they live in as well. They accomplish this through the sustainable
development of their communities supported by the policies accepted by their
members. (MEC, 1995)
As with any company, MEC
faces opportunities and challenges from environmental forces. A perfect example
of such a force being back in 2009 when the company decided to boycott all
products made in Israel due to that country's handling of the Palestinian issue
through Apartheid. (MEC,
http://blog.mec.ca, 2009) This concern came to MEC's attention through
a major response by members demand to take the right moral position on this
issue. The move went through and was community supported the company's
decision which aligned with MEC's ethical sourcing policy.
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REFLECTIVE BLOG ASSESSMENT
3-3: SHORT ESSAY
In this
assessment we will be looking at how the “New Generation” or “Generation Y”
students are changing the face of the nonprofit organizations. As
discussed in the case in chapter 3, there has been an increased interest in
volunteering and starting up for nonprofit organizations, especially among
students aged twenty and up.
The example the book focuses
on is student named Jesse Harmonic who decided to set up a charity called
Student Harvest to help people in need in his city. The ethical motivation
behind this endeavor came from walking past the homeless on his way to and from
school every day and realizing how fortunate he was to be able to afford to go
to school while these people do not have enough for food that day. Also he
found that many of the charities in his area made it very inconvenient for any
to even want to volunteer to help the homeless. So this motivated him to start
his own charity for other students to volunteer and give back to those in their
community who need it the most.
The interest in nonprofit organizations from the new generation is also affecting the older generation before them who have worked hard to gain their place in the nonprofit sector, now anyone can startup their own nonprofit charity if you have an internet connection and some a couple press releases. The older charities see this speed process as amateurish because what took the students a couple of months it took them years to setup. But some of the older generation are not so sour towards the students and see it as a good thing that they are rising up to the occasion and see them even as “natural leaders”. All the Jesse Hamonics out there have impacted how the traditional management practices were ran, now to accommodate the mass amounts of volunteers they have had to revamp their recruiting strategies. Personally I see this as just another stepping stone in human history, as I believe the next generation after Generation Y will be even more surprising!
In this next part I will be evaluating the ethical principles and social responsibilities of the famous company Google. The company was on Forbes Magazines Top 100 Most Ethical Companies in 2010. Google first started out as a privately held company in 1998 with its initial public offering in 2004. They began with just a simple search engine but as they got vastly more known in the past decade they have to expanded their products and service to include; advertising, productivity tools, and enterprise products.
Comparing Google to the
ethics model illustrated in our text book; Google aims to be a company that
does things differently. They realize it’s impossible for them to foresee all
possible ethical scenarios that they might face. So instead, they rely on one
another’s good judgment to uphold a high standard of integrity for themselves
and the company. They expect all employees to be guided by both the values and
principles of their code. Sometimes, identifying the right thing to do is a
difficult decision. If an employee is uncertain, they encourage them to ask
questions of their manager, especially if it has to do with legal, ethics and
compliance.
Google has 7 principles in
their code of ethics; I will be going over 4 of them.
The first code being to Serve Our Users, this is broken into five sub-categories; Integrity, Usefulness, Privacy, Security and Freedom of Expression, Responsiveness, and Take Action.
The first code being to Serve Our Users, this is broken into five sub-categories; Integrity, Usefulness, Privacy, Security and Freedom of Expression, Responsiveness, and Take Action.
The second code: Respect
Each Other; this is separated into Equal Opportunity
Employment, Positive Environment, Drugs and Alcohol,Safe Workplace,
and Dog Policy.
The third code: Preserve
Confidentiality; this includes Confidential
Information, Google Partners, Competitors/Former Employers,
andOutside Communications and Research.
The fourth code: Protect
Google’s Assets; this is made up of;Intellectual
Property, Company Equipment, The Network, Physical
Security, Use of Google’s Equipment and Facilities, and Employee Data.
Google’s code of ethic in
full detail can be accessed here http://investor.google.com/corporate/code-of-conduct.html
The company realizes that
along with their ethical principles they must also be socially responsible.
Here is the description of what Corporate Social Responsibility is all about
“Since its founding, Google has been firmly committed to active philanthropy and
to addressing the global challenges of climate change, education and poverty
alleviation. Since 2007, Google also jump-started a series of social
initiatives in China. We hope that by leveraging our own strengths and
resources in-country, we will raise awareness of the importance of corporate
philanthropy, and encourage society to participate in and contribute to the
development of social responsibility” (Google,
2011) Some examples of social responsibility from Google are
supporting earthquake relief efforts, Google Grants, and Google China Social
Innovation Cup for College Students.
As an individual part of
Generation Y, I consider myself to be very fortunate to have been able to grow
up in the age of change, where we have unlimited access to communication and
information. We can use these tools to change millions of lives in a day thanks
to popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. These
tools are efficient and easy to learn. All these things have affected my
outlook of the world around me. It has affected how I am able to learn things
and how I can apply them. But I also personally believe that it is important
note to forget how we got to where we are, this means to never forget the
generation before us and how their mistakes and accomplishments have brought us
to where we are today.
