Introduction
The given assessment will evaluate a Dubai-based organization DP World on the basis of its ethical management practices in accordance with Dubai’s environment. It is a transportation company that operates as a global center of container shipments. In order to fully understand the underlying reasons for the company’s issues or the lack of them, it is important to understand the structure of the organization. DP World’s corporate governance consists of several committees, such as board committee, remuneration committee, and audit committee.
Executive managers are mostly regulated and monitored by non-executive members of the board committee. The company’s corporate social responsibility is manifested in the fact that it strives to create a highly sustainable environment both in the company and Dubai. However, the notion of sustainability and environment are the biggest issues of DP World, because the company operates on large piece of land with high number of transportation systems and machines. In addition, DP World employs specialists from a wide range of specialties and nations of origin.
Therefore, the company is directly involved in ensuring that human rights are preserved by conducting the business on the notion of equality (Sundarakani, 2017). The latter is manifested in fair trading and corruption elimination, which are regulated by remuneration and board committee through channels of whistleblowing hotline. Legal and regulatory compliance and business practices are conducted by strictly adhering to the DP World’s code of ethics and anti-bribery, which are the cornerstones of the company’s success. In addition, the following ethical rules lead to a major development in the working conditions, which are further improved by ensuring employees’ safety. However, DP World also requires that its employees and managers understand their individual ethical responsibilities. For instance, whistleblowing hotline is put in place in order to allow each person to provide essential information on corruption acts without putting himself or herself at risk (Alawadi, 2017). Thus, DP World has strong ethical demands for its workers and managing directors.
Groups of Influence
It is important to note the fact that the board committee and the remuneration committee, alongside with audit committee, are the major regulating groups of influence in regards to ethical business operations. Adapting business behavior and responding to ethical pressures are monitored and controlled by the board committee. Implementing ethical practices, including financial ones, are ensured by audit groups, whereas the company’s reputation and public image are handled by the public relations department. Conducting the above-mentioned business operations ethically is needed because it ensures that the company is sustainable and reliable in the eyes of both investors and the public.
The latter is transformed into stakeholders and pressure groups, who adjust DP World direction of development. Having a strong public image is critical in order to increase the company’s competitiveness because many large corporations, such as DP World, are in need to be a leading example of business ethics. Adding value and ethical trade is partly regulated by the audit committee in order to ensure that the company remains profitable without committing unfair practices. The company’s code of ethics is compliant with Dubai’s regulations, the UN Declaration on Human Rights, and the UN Global Compact (“Governance,” 2020).
These compliances are needed in order for a company to be both locally and internationally accepted as an ethical business, which allows DP World to cooperate with international companies and be an attractive place for investements. In addition, its economic activities are tightly monitored by both the board committee and the audit committee because economic misconduct can severely hurt the company’s financial performance.
The global social implication of business ethics in DP World is manifested in the fact that it is well-known and respected on the international scale. The corporate environment and legal compliance are improved by following the ethics of sales and marketing, whereas business policies and practices are adherents to the ethics of production and finance. Employees and consumers are addressed by the ethics of human resources management and the ethics of production and marketing. All these ethical business practices in DP World allow the company to socially accepted. In addition, these ethical rules enable the development of social stability and economic growth not only for the company but also for Dubai.
Most companies punish their employees for offering or receiving bribes, expensive gifts, taking or participating in decisions that are in their personal interests, unjustified overstatement or underestimation of prices, intransigence in a conflict of interest, personal behavior that damages the company’s reputation, falsification of data on the situation in companies, illegal political activities, unethical behavior (Dentchev, Haezendonck, & van Balen, 2017).
Important components of corporate codes are fair competition, environmental responsibility, and social responsibility. In addition, intellectual property preservation and protection is critical part of ethical business, because the lack of it can lead to hindrances in innovation. The social component is becoming increasingly important in activities not only at the macro but also at the micro-level. With the development of economic integration interactions and globalization processes, a need arose to increase the level of incentive mechanisms and control over compliance with business ethics and unification of ethical standards up to the achievement of international approvals.
The primary concerns of Dubai communities, where DP World operates, are ecology and environment. Therefore, the company strives to increase the sustainability of its business and Dubai by investing in new technologies. The company has a strong corporate social responsibility because it is involved in various non-profit activities that address the community’s issues. Globalization and cultural imperialism are not concerns for the communities because Dubai’s regulations are in place (“Governance,” 2020). In addition, local rules strictly prohibit child labor, corruption, unfair trade, and limit outsourcing. There are no concerns about personal attitudes, and whistleblowing is embraced through the relevant hotlines.
Improving Strategies
DP World could further improve its corporate governance and corporate social responsibility to UAE by creating more independent committees with the non-executive member that address corruption, environment, sustainability, and fair trade as their primary concerns. However, the current level of regulation is relatively effective because they already tackle the issues of working conditions and individual ethical responsibility (Liu & Lin, 2016). Legal and regulatory compliance of the company’s business practices can be considered as highly ethical, and thus, no improvement is needed.
DP World should put even more focus on its environment and sustainability by cooperating with local and international ecologists. In addition, it is important to adhere to human rights and improve the working conditions for the employees through more deliberate implementation of the code of ethics. The latter is applicable to DP World’s business practices, which also need to be conducted according the code. The company’s trading operations can be considered as fair because no unethical misconducts were identified. Corporate ethics provides for certain forms of solidarity, a system of mutual support, but often it turns into so-called nepotism. Any ethics, including corporate ethics, as its component, has the principle of publicity and openness (Dentchev et al., 2017). Moral decisions cannot be behind-the-scenes, with the exception of rare cases concerning privacy secrets.
UAE regulations on business ethics are mostly similar to Dubai’s local legislative acts. DP World adapts various business practices by preserving the stakeholders’ interests, whereas their response to ethical pressures conforms to UAE laws (Sundarakani, 2017). Ethical practices are implemented through the code of ethics, which also ensures that the company complies with the code of practice and UAE legislations. DP World’s reputation and public image are well-handled by its PR, but the ethical trade, adding value, and competitiveness are concerns of audit and board committees. It is important to understand that DP World is a member of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Global Compact because they allow the company to operate internationally. Economic activities are regulated by UAE laws, where financial misconduct is severely punished. All these actions ensure that the company remains as an attractive place for investments, thus, the impact is that both current and potential stakeholders consider DP World as prospective.
DP World global implications are manifested in the fact that it is a transportation company on which a number of international businesses rely. Therefore, it operates by adhering to business ethics. The ethics of sales and marketing improve the company’s corporate environment and legal compliance, whereas the ethics of production and finance ensure that business policies and practices, as well as consumer protection, are in place. Employees are handled by the ethics of human resource management, which addresses various issues of DP World’s workers (“Governance,” 2020). The social implication of the given ethical practices allows the company to a leader and example of outstanding corporate governance both in UAE and the globe.
Directly affected communities by DP World are people living in Dubai and UAE in general. The primary focus of the company lies on the issues of sustainability and environment, which are also influenced by pressure groups, such as Greenpeace (Liu & Lin, 2016). Globally, the company indirectly influences cooperating and partner businesses. DP World could improve its stance in ecology, corruption, and fair trade by tightly cooperating with pressure groups, such as the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, and Friends of the Earth. There are no issues related to child labor, whistleblowing, and personal attitudes in the company due to the fact that its committees oversee such problems. In addition, the UAE legal environment plays a major role in controlling the level of globalization and cultural imperialism in the businesses, such as DP World, thus, no improvements can be made in this regard.
Conclusion
However, the company could outsource some of its operations to more efficient firms in accordance with UAE laws. Corporate ethics, it makes sense to raise the issue of the role and place of morality in economic life and business. The socio-political, economic, and cultural changes that are taking place both in Dubai and the UAE and around the world increasingly give reason to believe that people are the main driving factor and core value in all the diversity of their relationships with other people (Alawadi, 2017).
Thus, the collective social influence from groups and the public, such consumer, pressure groups, and international organizations ensure that the norms of business ethics are practiced and improved. Economic life, in particular, entrepreneurial activity, which in modern society plays a significant, not to say, leading role, does not stand aside from these processes.
References
Alawadi, K. (2017). Place attachment as a motivation for community preservation: The demise of an old, bustling, Dubai community. Urban Studies, 54(13), 2973-2997.
Dentchev, N. A., Haezendonck, E., & van Balen, M. (2017). The role of governments in the business and society debate. Business & Society, 56(4), 527-544.
Governance. (2020). Web.
Liu, C.M., & Lin, C.P. (2016). Corporate ethical values and turnover intention. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 23(4), 397-409.
Sundarakani, B. (2017). Transforming Dubai logistics corridor into a global logistics hub. Asian Journal of Management Cases, 14(2), 115-136.