1.3.1 Honesty and Trust
Most corporate administrations professionals diagnose the essentials of the corporate responsibility agenda and its potential impact, for better or worse, on the reputations of their establishments. Honesty and Trust are the best corporate policies and the most important dynamics for an organization’s reputation. Consumers thought that both trust and honest practices in an organization being an “Organization I can trust” are extremely significant as Robert and Dowling (1997) defines it.
The most effective corporate responsibility offer stakeholders series of portraits of an organization’s commitment and performance as works in progress. This kind of approach is steady with the developing spirit of corporate responsibility as a continuing process.
The value of honesty in corporate has apparent and delicate implications. Questioning who profits from corporate honesty can explain why quality is also important. Examining the negative effects of dishonest corporate practices provides insight into the importance of honesty. In fact, it is as supportive as looking at the benefits of corporate honesty. Doing what is ethical because it is the right thing to do is as essential as practicing ethical behavior for the positive consequences.
When honesty is misplaced there can be no trust. You cannot encourage an environment of trust in the absence of ethics and honesty.
When the organization works with ethics it should build trust because it’s a part of its strategic choice. Managers who build trust with their stakeholders will increase their performance but with cautious, it’s not the full trust but the ideal one that varies with different religions and different culture.
Basically, the commitment to honesty will be shown when the organization pays its bills and its employees’ full rights, when it files taxes, reports to investors and makes commitments to its customers. Looked at it from another angle, failing to meet organization responsibilities creates a climate of mistrust and potential illegality, and result in bad reputation.
1.3.2 Promise-keeping
Ethical organizations can be trusted because they make all reasonable effort to achieve the Spirit of their promises and commitments. They do not understand arrangements in an unreasoningly technical or legalistic way in order to rationalize non-compliance or create justifications for escaping their commitments.
1.3.3 Valuable and Qualified Employees
Hiring right persons in the right positions is very critical because wrong people destroy reputation, but good skilled employees play an important role to enhance the business image. The problem is that if employers don’t have enough experience in selecting their employees they will face problems and it will be too late.
Valuable employees will always be in demand, not for their skills but for their commitment this is what makes a difference between employees.
The mirror of an organization considered as competitor in the market and in demands is its staff.
- Qualified employees listen to instructions carefully to reduce mistakes, to fulfill their job seriously without waste of time.
- Take responsibility, take initiative as a self-motivated employee
- Performing cheerfully
- Being dependable and involved to reach a good level of quality and excellency.
1.3.4 Integrity
The keys of integrity are: system, judgment, development, and process these are the basics of an organization. Business executives with high integrity are more open to stakeholders concerns, this fact is intangible, but managers are protecting their business this way to be accountable, the judgment integrity to handle behavioral issues, and the developmental is to prepare leaders for responsibility in managing integrity as organization asset.
Ethical organizations earn the trust of others through executive’s personal integrity. Integrity refers to a completeness of character demonstrated by consistency between thoughts, words and actions. Ethical executives are principled, honorable, upright and scrupulous. They fight for their beliefs and do not sacrifice principle for expediency.
“Within an organization, integrity should not “trickle down” from the top but instead travel in a circle”, Emerson, (2010) says that It starts with the board and CEO, goes through the director of operations and department managers and on to employees at every level. But then it comes right back to where it started. Ethics and integrity mean being honest and true to the vision and mission of the organization, he explains that “At the end of the day, you have to believe that you did the best you possibly could and were as fair as you could be with everyone you came in contact with … while knowing that it’s not a perfect world,” he explains.
1.3.5 Transparency
Transparency is a procedure of power and it’s indispensable in business success. The most reputed firm is who optimize the needs of its stakeholders, It carries power to all over the organization transparency which leads to a better quality management, better performance ,and will affect reputation and corporate personality.
Studier asserts that organizations with cultures of openness and free-flowing information fare better in difficult economies. That’s because (among other benefits) transparency helps employees stay connected to financial big picture, reduces complacency, sparks creative solutions, creates organizational consistency and stability, and leads to faster, more efficient execution.
Transparency is about sharing all the information the receiver wants or needs, and not just the information that the sender is willing to share. It is about putting all facts on the table, even when some of them are uncomfortable. It is about being honest and open about what actions are taken, by whom and on what grounds. It is about removing any barriers that hinder people from accessing the information they could need to be better at their jobs. It is about making people and their skills, knowledge and ideas visible and accessible to all their colleagues.
Here’s how you can create a more transparent organization:
- First, make sure senior leadership is aligned.
- Close the perception gap between senior leadership and middle managers.
- Help people understand the true financial impact of decisions.
- Put mechanisms in place for communicating vital issues to frontline employees.
- Prepare managers to answer tough questions.
- When you have bad news, treat employees like adults.
- Keep people posted.
1.3.6 Accountability
Ethical organizations acknowledge and accept personal accountability for the ethical quality of their decisions and omissions to themselves and their stakeholders. Accountability works with foremost industries and other organizations to develop tools, strategies, and standards for organizational accountability that drive sustainable performance.
Organizational accountability eliminates the tendency of excuses. When employees make strong and exact commitments for their own work, entire organizations become aligned and realize specific measurable outcomes.
Organizations face ever growing calls to be accountable to their stakeholders; including customers, employees, local communities as well as investors.
Organizational accountability needs to motivate knowledge and influence decision-making in ways that move responsible practices beyond compliance towards strategy, innovation, and performance. This means aligning an organization’s reaction to stakeholder concerns and environmental issues with their plan for long term achievement.
1.3.7 Stakeholders’ Satisfaction
A survey to evaluate the needs of the stakeholders must be conducted (Holmstrom, 1999). Leaders should be educated to deliver the best quality that will have the greatest impact on stakeholder’s happiness. Stakeholders will finish less satisfied if leaders work alone without their assistance and will consider the performance of leaders unfair and this will lead to a high turnover.
The corporate brand contributes not only to customer-based images of the organization, but to the images formed and held by all its stakeholders, including:
- Employees;
- Customers;
- Investors;
- Suppliers;
- Partners;
- Regulators;
- Local Communities.
Everything the organization do or say may affect all its stakeholders even if they are not closely involved. Therefore, organizations need to make sure their entire figure and not just the front office is involved with their brand values.
Eventually, organizations must take a full approach to brand and reputation and make them almost compatible.