Example Of Essay On Target Organizational Ethics

The US retail industry has always been very competitive, but in the past few decades, rising consumer awareness of ethical business conduct, competition has included winning the consumers’ hearts and minds. With 1778 stores across 49 states and the District of Columbia, Target Corporation is easily among the biggest players in this industry, which have had a considerable presence in the corporate social responsibility. Responsible corporate citizenship plays a central role in the creation and sustaining of competitive advantages, including lower costs, low staff turnover, improved investor relationships, positive environmental visibility and brand recognition. Target and other leading company’s move towards lawful and ethical business practices is in part also driven by the increasingly stringent regulatory requirements in the US and elsewhere in the world (including voluntary frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative). This paper discusses Target Corporation’s ethical practices and traces their origin within external social pressures, analyzes their influence on internal decision-making, and relates legal and ethical issues at the organization.
The retial indutry is driven by the daily consupmtion needs of the market, and since most consumption decisions happen every second a customer walks into the door of Target store, the company’s internal practices must be in line with the consumers’ social factors. These external social factors include customer loyalty, gay rights, environmental susitainability, employment practices, community service and excellent bottomline. The market across the world is increasinly aware (especially with the liberalization of the media and the emergence of social media) of the practices of different companies and the value that they add to their communities. The growing expectations of corporate expectations, coupled by the fact that many corporate competitors are already involved in different communities and social activities, whole industries have to be involved lest they lose legitimacy, brand value and market shares.
It is easy to see the influence of the external social environmental on Target’s CSR policy. To begin, with, Target’s areas of commitment include education, environmentral sustainability, safety, health and wellbeaing, human capital development, volunteerisma nd responsible sourcing. These areas are heavily influenced by what the sociaty are the most pressing issues in the modern life, and which is why Target needs to be seen to identify with the society’s expectations. With regard to sustainability, Target’s ethical practices include fosotering sustainable living, efficiency, smart development, sustaibale production practicers, and sustainable product. The company hopes to encourage sustainable lifestyles and eliminate wastefulness. Interesting, in recognition of the rising cost of living and difficult economic times, Target adopted price positioning strategy that is in line with the consumer behaviour. Country-wide price cuts and bundled products offering to make its products accessible to multiple income groups.
Corporate social responsibility, whether voluntary or mandated by existent regulatory frameworks, has become an important marketing strategy, especially in building brand recognition and customer loyalty. Target also recognizes the importance of sustainable sourcing, especially in the wake of most leading cpountries sourcing their products from countries and companies with poor human rights records. Target imports 30% of its products directly and it makes certain that the highest ethical standards are followed. Target also has a loyalty program geared at keeping its customers. Other ethical practices pursued by the company that have a foundation in the external social ecnvironment include workplace diverisyt, team member well being, supplier diversity, and voluntary compliance with the GRI reporting requirements. Without these measures, there would be a divergence between the company’s internal strategies and the market, which ultimately hurts the ability of the brand to connect with the market. This can be potentially disastrous in an industry that is highly competitive.

Relationship between legal and Ethical Issues

While legal issues are mandatory for organizations to follow, laws fall short of addressing ethical and social challenges that faces societies and business organizations. For instance, since Target Corporation imports 30% of its products from abroad, US regulations have no jurisdiction in those countries (including China and Vietnam) and thus there is little to prevent companies sourcing from companies that use child labour for instance. Some issues are legal but unethical. Similarly, some things may be ethical, but not specifically provided for in law. For instance, climate change remains a politically divisive issue, which has ensured that regulatory framework is not as stringent (MarketLine, 2014; Target Corporation, 2015).
However, as public awareness about climate change increases, Target and other companies cannot simply follow the regulatory framework, but have to go an extra mile. To this end, Target has adopted ambitious environmental sustainability, including reducing wastage, saving energy, reduced water withdrawal by source, lower greenhouse gasses emissions, and recycling among others. Further, unlike legal issues, which are mandatory, ethical compliance has a marketing value to it. For instance, the Ethisphere Institute ranked Target Corporation as one of the most ethical companies in the world, which in turn gave the company considerable exposure. This has positive implications on the brand loyalty and equity, which in turn leads to a more profitable company.

References

Global Reporting Initiative. (2013). Sustainability Reporting Guidelines: Implementation Manual. New York: Stichting Global Reporting Initiative .
MarketLine. (2014). Target Corporation. New York: MarketLine.
Target Corporation. (2015). Business Conduct Guide. Target Corporation.