First published in Exchange, the magazine of the Brigham Young University School of Business, the following twelve categories were developed to cover the root or cause of most ethical business dilemmas that one might encounter in their jobs. I have summarized them to keep them short and simple.
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1. Taking Things That Don't Belong To You
Everything from taking highlighters from the storage room, to sending personal mail through the mailroom, to downloading unauthorized games to play on your work computer fall into this category. A CFO of a major corporation took a cab from the airport to his home in the city. When he asked the cabbie for receipt, he was handed a full book of blank receipts. Apparently this dilemma of accurately reporting business expenses involves more than just one employee.
2. Saying Things That You Know Are Not True
When a car salesperson insists to a customer that a used car has not been in a previous accident, when it has, an ethical breach has occurred. When a clerk in a store assures a customer that a product has a money-back guarantee, when only trade-ins are allowed, another ethical violation occurred (and perhaps a violation of the law).
3. Giving Or Allowing False Impressions
There is an urban legend in which 2 CD's were being sold on a TV infomercial that claimed that that all the hits of the 1980's were on the CDs. The infomercial emphasized over and over again that all songs were performed by the original artists. When they received the CDs, upon closer inspection, they found that all songs had been covered by a band called The Original Artists. While technically true, the impression given by the infomercial was false.
4. Buying Influence or Engaging in Conflict of Interest
When a company awards a construction contract to an organization owned by the brother of the attorney general, or when a county committee who is charged with choosing a new road construction company is traveling around the state looking at roads at the expense of one of the bidders, a conflict of interest arises which might affect the results of that choice.
5. Hiding or Divulging Information
Failing to divulge information from the results of a study on the safety of a new product, or choosing to take your companies proprietary product information to a new job are examples that fall into this category.
6. Taking Unfair Advantage
Have you ever wondered why there seem to be so many product safety rules and procedures? It is primarily the result of laws passed by government institutions to protect the consumer from companies that previously took unfair advantage of them because Budgeting of their lack of knowledge or through complex contractual obligations.
7. Committing Acts of Personal Decadence
Over time, it has become increasing clear that the acts of employees outside of work can have a negative effect on a businesses image. This is one of the primary reasons companies are minimizing social interactions or events, outside of the office, so that drug or alcohol related events can not be tracked back to the company.
8. Perpetuating Interpersonal Abuse
At the heart of this category of ethical misbehavior is the abuse of employees through sexual harassment, verbal lashing, or public humiliation by a company leader.
9. Permitting Organizational Abuse
When an organization chooses to operate in another country, it sometimes butts up against social culture in which child labor, demeaning work environments or excessive hours are required. It is at this point that the leaders of the company have a choice...whether to perpetuate that abuse or alleviate it.
10. Violating Rules
In some cases, people or organizations violate rules to expedite a process or decision. In many of these cases, the results would have been the same regardless, but by violating the rules or required procedures for that outcome, they can potentially scar the reputation of the organization they work for.
11. Condoning Unethical Actions
Suppose you are at work one day and you notice that a colleague of yours is using petty cash for personal purchases and fail to report it. Perhaps you know that a new product in development has safety issues, but you don't speak out. In these examples, failing to do right creates a wrong.
12. Balancing Ethical Dilemmas
What about a situation that would be considered neither right, nor wrong? What should be done here? Should Google or Microsoft do business in China when human rights violations are committed daily? Sometimes an organization must balance the need to do business with any ethical dilemmas that might arise from doing business.
Mobile applications have now become increasingly popular among almost all business sectors. From eCommerce businesses to different service providers like food delivery, trip planners, hotel booking, healthcare, education, and more, there's no industry where mobile apps have not proved their value in the online market or proved to be the most effective mode of reaching out to the worldwide mobile users or customers.
While millions of businesses have already jumped into the mobile application bandwagon, if you are still behind, it's time to look for an award-winning app development company for yours too. But before that, you must have a clear app idea in your mind and understand what you can achieve from your mobile application.
Here are the major benefits of having an application for your business today.
Mobile apps act as the direct marketing channel:
Mobile applications act as the direct marketing channel for a brand or business. Apps provide functions like prices, dimensions of products, materials of the products, general info about products and services, news feeds, user details, etc. Among all the benefits of a mobile application, one of the major pros is that an app gives complete information of everything to the customers or users. Also, with the help of push notifications, businesses or brands get even closer to the customers. Overall, it can be said that applications act as the direct marketing channel between the users or customers and brands.
Increased customer loyalty:
Building customer loyalty is a tricky and crucial aspect of business marketing. Applications help in smoothening out the marketing process by building a connection between the brand and the customers through constant updates, notifications, and reminders about their products, services, new arrivals, deal, offers, etc. These reminders, updates, and notifications sent to the users or customers create awareness about their offerings and encourage them to make the purchases. Also, offering the customers great deals, offers, and discounts through these notifications keep them engaged with the app, and buy products or availing services from the app, thereby increasing customer loyalty.
An amazing tool for customer engagement:
Proper communication between businesses and customers is important for effective marketing and maintaining consistent customer engagement. Customers love it when brands or businesses give value to their complaints and concerns and resolve the same within minimal time spans. This helps in improved customer engagement. Apart from this, easy accessibility of their desired products or services in combination with reduced costs act as the cherry on the cake when it comes to customer engagement.
Enhances brand visibility:
In the last couple of years, mobile applications have proved to be the best tools for enhancing the visibility of your brand. An engaging mobile application can incredibly improve your brand awareness and brand name. In fact, an application can work like a billboard sign that is used by smartphone users for almost everything today, right from travelling to buying products, booking cabs, reading news, playing games, planning events, and much more. A feature-rich and attractive application can grab the attention of the users, thereby, increasing the overall visibility of the brand. Also, the ease and convenience of using an application plays a major role in improving the brand or business visibility.
Boosts brand recognition:
When it is all about advertising, options like outdoor hoardings, newspaper ads, and flashy signboards do not work anymore and are outdated. Whereas, mobile applications are now the best advertising options that ensure increased brand recognition. When your application meets all the pre-requisites of the customers, then your brand starts gaining more recognition from worldwide customers. Your business will also get noticed by the other competitors and there can be automatic and increased recognition of your brand. Also, the constantly evolving app trends improve brand recognition among the users.
Apps boost sales and revenue:
Apps are easier to use as compared to websites. As per the studies, it has been found that applications are preferred and used more than websites now. All users need to have is the required app installed on their devices so that it can be opened with just a single tap or click on the app logo. And this ease of use has resulted in an increase in sales and revenue as well.
Helps to stand out from the crowd:
The significance of having a mobile application is no more a hidden fact. Applications are the fastest and the easiest way to reach out to a global audience. There's no better and convenient way to grab the attention of the potential users and hold a larger part of the online market share than having an app today. Apps also help in effectively increasing your user base and building a stronger brand. Overall, it can be said that an engaging application can help your business stand out from the crowd.
Now, that you are aware of the key reasons why you should invest in mobile app development, make sure to look for an experienced, proficient, and resourceful app development company for your project. The App Market is already overflooded with different types of applications and to stay ahead you need a highly engaging and competitive application.