Ethical practices and behaviour
Introduction
Ethical practices and behaviour are suitable for any organization as it involves the critical moral principles such as honesty, equality, diversity and, most important individual rights. The main focus of the assignment is to provide a critically evaluated study to know where the companies are operating within an ethical supply chain management as is expected in the present situation. And also to discuss whether it is possible to operate withi ethical conditions at all levels of the supply chain management. An indeept study is made in the assignment by coding sources as literature review from different journals, books and new articles then discussions are made on the review made by the scholars, lastly the assignment ends with a proper conclusion.
In the article the Journal of “Cleaner production” the authors Qinghua and Kee-hung Laito ensure that the companies are working under the ethical supply chain system, the authors mentioned that the researches have been extensively increased in the recent years mainly addressing the corporate social responsibilities in the supply chain management of any company. Numerous studies have showed the interest of the stakeholders, performance evaluation, sustainable production and ethical sourcing . the purpose of the research paper here was to draw attention towards the development of more systematic and depicting knowledge structure and programs related to intellectuals based on Corporate Social Responsibility for supply chain management. the extensive research work done by both the authors are based on bibliometric analysis along with network analysis . the aim is to systemically evaluate the publications related to ethical supply chain management and corporate social responsibilities. The research analysis was based on the participation of 628 peer reviewed analysis articles that are identified critically for influential works. The other techniques such as the data analysis techniques incudes the involvement of citation analysis, co-citation analysis or co-word analysis. The main findings from the research included
- A discussion based on the analysis of five main sub-fields that mainly comprise the intellectual structure of both ethical supply chain management and corporate social responsibility.
- Extensive work of theoretical and conceptual studies in the important domains of both the fields.
- The topics such as sustainable development and its consequences on the economic as also social status that are frequent topic of discussion even within the scholars
- The gap ares of the research incudes the lack of practical research models and consideration from the perspective of suppliers in economic emergencies.
Thus the findings from their research work suggests that future research studies on the paper is needed which would then lead to emergence of deeper depth of knowledge on practical and modeling grounds of analysis to enhance the theories.
The article mainly deals with the academic and corporate chains in supply management has found increased interest in the recent years. This is mostly seen in the numerous paper and journeys published in the recent times based on the topic of ethical supply chain management.
There is no doubt that researches of even present days are dominated by the issues that are raised by the environment. The review preached by both the authors might find usefulness in companies for the practitioners or in other academic fields. Further the research by the two authors have discussed the special features of sustainable supply chain and shortcomings of the existing present researches , thus stimulating other scholars to research on the topic in the future days.
The research work done by resrchers such as Amer Jazairy and Robin von Haartman stated that there is growing trends in the recent days of incorporating the green or sustainable measures into the supply chain management of the company is in action at present day because of the increased rise in the global pressure along with the intentions to preserve the planet. Among the different sectors of supply chain management the logistics as well as the transportation supply chain management is considered in the major contributor in the process. Various treats of the environment such as pollutions, global warming or resource depletion can be taken care of to a considerable extend if the transportation and the logistics supply chain management takes required measures on it through ethical supply chain management. About 20% of the global energy that are consumed are emitted from the transportation or from the transportation industries. Even worst than that the road freight traveled tonne kilometers has been expected to increase drastically between 2015-2050 because of the latest development all through out the world, expectation in the economic rise and hence increasing global demands, thus leading to more emittion of the toxic substances in to the air causing pollution and more environmental harm. Thus this expands the burden on the transportation and logistics industries even more to expedite the process of Greening and sustainable and ethical practices into their supply chain operation functions even more. Though the LSPs are not the only agent that are responsible for stimulating the green and ethical logistics practices and approaches but also the scholars and researchers have started realizing that shippers and transporters plays a major role .
The journal that was published in the year 2019 named as An updated inquiry into the study of Corporate Codes of Ethics mainly based on the analysis of 100 papers studying the codes of ethics in the supply chain management in corporates presented by scholars such as Maira Babri and others. The research reviewed the papers starting from the year 2005 to 2016 thus marinating a time period of approximate 11 years after the early review of the literature. The review papers are broadly considered as content oriented, transformation oriented and output oriented. Thus this review have shed lights on the empirical focus, questions addressed, context, methods, theories and outcomes. Thus the outcomes are once again discussed in terms of three subdivisions and aggregates, hence the stock of empirical studies on Corporate supply chain ethics.
In the article managing supply chain uncertainty with emerging issues of ethics there is a vivid discursion about the challenges that the corporate faces in keeping up with the supply chain ethics to an absolute level. The purpose of the empirical investigation was to investigate into 14 sources of the supply chains with uncertainty with specific emphasis on the uncertainties or strategies that mainly involves the ethical issues.
The research used couple of theories such as Manufacturing strategy theory, contingency theory as its theoritical ground. And multi case study data were being collected from 12 different companies in Indonesia industries of local manufacturer, food industry, four tier suppliers and four tier customers.
The outcomes of the research included the appropriate aligned management strategies in addressing the 14 companies in uncertainty where three empirical studies of ethical issues were identified.
- Collusion between the suppliers to rational suppliers and increased pricing
- Abuse of the power of the large retailers in expense of the small competitive industries
- Unethical experience based on governmental policies
Thus the joint ventures are to be the main strategies that must be applied in order to combat these ethical issues.
The limitation of the research was that it was only limited to the food industries of Indonesia and hence further studies must be facilitated in order to know the outcomes of other cultures or context. Management that takes initiative to reduce the uncertainty in its source are later better able to manage the supply chain performance.
There is a saying by futurist gerd Leonhard that the companies needs to start caring when the customers start using their products and that is what is ethics according to him. So the main question that arises here do the supply chain managers and the companies work for this ethics the same way they would act in operating and conducting their business. Here if the answer is “Yes”as mentioned by the scholar Oinghua and Kee-huna Laito , then where are this companies investing their money and time in ? or more importantly what is ethical supply chain according to them?
Hence these are the main centre of conversation between the Scholars in the articles mentioned above. None of the articles are clear on the resons of launching a project in understanding the organixation better at current state or the future intentions related to the supply chain. The concept of ethical supply chain has drawn the attraction of many scholars at recent days. A survey that was conducted for scholars of this field showed a finding result of 83% of the supply chain professional schalrs believe that ethical are extremely while 30% said that it holds importance. This could be because of the fact that people are not aware of what they expect. Though it does not seem to be that suprising from the article written by Amer Jacairy where according to his findings from his research concering the supply chain management executives , suppliers, customers, trading partners has said that ethical matter should be treated as a priority and thus his article indicates the forefront of the global supply chain.
But there are lots of instances where the practices falls short of the theories, for example most of the companies posses a supplier compliance initiator than actually auditing their supplier performance. The research articles sheds light on merely what the organizations are doing rather why they are doing so, hence a lot of work has to be done in the research filed.
Over the past decades it has been seen how the supply cahin management has taken up a more strategic role in the companies. Where usually in the past the supply cahin aws only relied on the cost of the drive nad efficisncy but now at current scenario supply chain has became strategic initiator for manay companies. Thus the supply chain mangemnt of the companies are not only working in the back room but also taking the customer demand seriousy along with product time, timely custome delivery and so on. In the era of high competition this makes the companies to susatn in the market. If in a minute a company discovers that their supply cahin is compromised, then there are high possibility that it faces complete overhaul.
Customer at recent days are demanding about the products that they buy are socially, ethically and environmentally integrate ways. Here scail media plays the role of quick access to the information that can facilitate a purchasers decisions. Most of the schhoalsr mentioned above in the assignment suggests that the companies must be adhere to socially and environmentally sound and responsible ways and practices and be transparent to their customers. The pactice of the companies toconduct a supply cahin management transpracy and visisbility to its customers, employees and stakeholders has more significant meaning when it comes to assuring the ethics related to supply chain. According to the article of Amer Jazairy , building ethical supply chain is just not only a requirement but alos an opportunity for the companies as this is where the supply chain management of the company can really demonstrate their values.
While Oinghua and Kee-huna Laito while in their article discussing about the corporate social responsibilities and the theics related to supply chain management ethics has said howthese two are becoming increasingly important in the recent days in business world because of both internal nad external pressures. Government, activities and media houses are most of the times holds the companies responsible for any implication that may have occurred socially because of their cation. Though in broader terms internally it hass given rise to retain quality people in the company who want their employees values as that of their own. The elements of the ethical supply cahin includes right labour wages, less discrimination, no human trafficking, green certification and innovation and sustainability.
Though there can be difficulties in maintaining the ethical supply chain throughout the supply chain the difficulties as describes in the article Supply Cahin uncertainity with emergencing issues where the scholar says about the different emergy situation staht may arise within the organization where following the path of ethics becomes impossible at all the stages of the supply chain. As in the areas of good communication there also lies the idea that a organizations develop and maintain a high level of trust among its stakeholders in the supply chain but with the critical conditioning where the suppliers are alos required to arrive as promised to complete certain project of the company with the stakeholder in timely manner. Moreover the suppliers are also requird to know that there are interest for everybody’s own and that all the members accossicated with the project are profitable.
Another cause that can hinder in maintaining ethical approaches in supply chain is the lack of internal communication. According to the author Supply chain maangeemnt is one of te most neglected departments in an organization. Hence without any direct communication the purchasers are somethimes not aware of the issues along with that the when the internal communication is so weak there are high chances of falling into similar traps with the vendors or supppliers. A supply chain is also seem to be most effective when the poepel involved in are in the procurement process. This involves everyone starting fro the purchasers to the sellers to logistics experts and end users.
Cost control can be other reason accrding to that the companies fail to indulge in ethical practices in the supply chain level most of the times. As depending on the company there is a constant fluctuation on the cost of the products, transportations, material used etc, whereas on the other hand the demand and values also keeps on fluctuating. So keeping all this in minds it becomes tough for many small and medium companies to meet their desird profit hence they tend to go for unethical practices in such situations.
Thus ethical practices may not be alwys achievable at all levels of the supply chain management but it is not impossible to conduct ethics in the supply chian.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the decision made that it is possible to ensure ethical practices throughout the theical chain. Since the sustainable procurement should consider the environmental, social , economic, ethical consequences through out the supply chain other parameters such as use of non renewable materials, innovative nad manufacturing sustainable products, logistics service deadlines, recycle reuse etc. All these parameters should be considered in selecting a particular approach in different supplier relationships that are usually adopted by buyers. Thus with the increasing expectations the organizations would be operating within the ethical supply chain boundaries.