Analysis of Personal and Organizational Ethics and Values between For-Profit and Not-for-Profit Organizations

Analysis of Personal and Organizational Ethics and Values between For-Profit and Not-for-Profit Organizations Name: Institution: Course: Tutor: Date: Introduction This paper analyzes personal and organizational ethics and values between for-profit organizations and not-for-profit organizations. The object of the paper is to examine the key problems related to business ethics in these two kinds of organizations and how they apply different methods and theories to solve those problems. The for-profit and not-for-profit organizations to be analyzed in this paper are Google and YMCA respectively. For a thorough analysis, the paper will be categorized into four basic parts; one, an analysis of YMCA including the ethical dilemma it is facing, how it responded to that dilemma and an outline of the legal, social or political outcomes as a result of those actions. Secondly, an analysis of Google company including the ethical dilemma it is facing, how it responded to that dilemma and an outline of the legal, social or political outcomes as a result of those actions. Thirdly, a personal reflection of the ethical actions that were taken by these two organizations i.e. whether those actions were right, or whether the organizations could have done more to improve their situations etc. Lastly, a critical analysis of the ethical actions taken by the organizations and hoe they conform to philosophical theories such as deontology, utilitarianism, egoism, or moral relativism. An Analysis of YMCA YMCA which is basically an acronym standing for ‘Young Men’s Christian’s Association’, is an organization that was started on 6th June 1884 in London. It is a worldwide organization with more than 50million beneficiaries from 125 national associations. These beneficiaries are members and participants who join the organization with a key objective of volunteering and gaining some basic spiritual and health attributes of body, mind and spirit and apparently these three attributes symbolize the three angles of the triangle found in the YMCA logo. The primary activity of YMCA is to develop a healthy lifestyle and personal development for the youth who join it as participants (Frantz, 2005). Since it is anon-profit making organization and does not have a means of making revenues, it welcomes donations from willing donors and members. The organization basically faces challenges to do with health and finances to sustain the organization through serious diseases such as diabetes and the like. Just like majority of other not for profit organizations that receive funds from donors and members of the organizations, the common connecting factor joining the parties involved i.e. the participants or end users and the financiers (donors and members) is the fund. These funds are mainly meant to sustain the youth’s upkeep in the organization and more so cater to the challenges facing them such as health related issues, poverty eradication, keeping them away from crime, educating them etc. Since the funds are strictly supposed to cover the intended purpose and not any other, the organization is always found in an ethical dilemma of channeling the funds to other activities especially if the funds were inadequate for each activity and excess in others. Due to the funder’s insecurity that the funds are going to be squandered, they put in place strict measures on how the funds are supposed to be used without any exception and that places the organization on an equally strict dilemma on whether to prioritize or not. However, to solve this dilemma, these organizations have established their own ways of raising funds so as not to be 100% dependent on donor funds which seems to restrict some of their important activities from progressing. These extra ways of raising funds is through; fundraisings, earnings through income ventures, placement of young men in small companies to earn money for them etc. A more personal ethical issue affecting YMCA is the ethical dilemma of participants to follow the internal guidelines and ethical policies of the organization predominantly because they feel that they are not supposed to be participating or maybe because it was not their wish to be participating in that organization. Due to this challenge, the organization is faced with an ethical dilemma of either chasing away these participants or to continue supporting them. According to Banks (2010) YMCA in the UK as well as all other YMCA branches and all not for profit organizations support youths, often have to deal with participants who possess very low ethical and behavioral values such that their actins are suggestive, violent, or provocative. Dealing with such young men is not easy and requires lots of patience and humility so as to contain them rather than chasing them away. Most of these youths that behave in such queer behaviors are those that are forced by their parents or guardians to join these organizations or the once that do not have a personal reason to be there. Again these youths find themselves in a dilemma of acting in accordance to their interests or the interest of the organization. Often such dilemma will result to conflict of interest between the youths and the organization management (Robinson & Yeh, 2007). However the organizations also has a solution to this challenge whereby they seek help from counselors and psychiatrists to sermon these participants and help them realize what is the primary objective of the organization and what their role as participants really is so that this conflict of interest could be eliminated. The result of these solutions socially is that they have made the trust and good relation between the donors, members etc and that of the participants to be healthy and stronger when they seek to follow the funder’s instructions of channeling the funds into the prescribed ways. Consequently, when the trust between the two parties s made stronger, the organization also grows stronger meaning that more and more participants will benefit from the organizations and thus the society will be full of trained, spiritual, healthy and more so well behaved people. According to Kuti (1996) such solutions to ethical dilemmas such as the solution to engage in extra ways of raising donations will result to good ethical and financial outcomes where the organization will not have to hide their transactions and activities they spend the monies on. In short they will become more accountable of their actions unlike if they failed t source for extra funds and used the restricted funds in activities that were not proposed for. An Analysis of Google Company Google Inc was founded in the year 1998 in Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA. The two founders, Larry and Sergey developed a search engine and named it Google a name denoted fro the word ‘googol’ which stands for a term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Google’s mission statement is ‘Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’ (Frantz, 2005). Since it is a profit making organization, it raises revenues mainly from adverts, licensing, Google results, YouTube and banner results. Recently, the company started engaging in technology gadgets, like phones and satellites so as to curb competition and continue to be relevant in this fast-paced technology world. Currently Google Company has employed more than 33, 000 people and facing the Apple Company as its main competitor in the market. Google Company also faces a lot of challenges and ethical dilemmas during its operations that some times it has to make quick decisions or compromise on the goodwill of the company or expectations of the public. According to Frantz, (2005) Google has come to a point where it could be accused of being equally dominant in its key market sector as Microsoft is in its, and for the first time in 2008, it got to the stage where it was attracting unwelcome regulatory attention. Consequently, a spotlight was shone upon the plan by Google to merge with Yahoo, which would have seen the latter utilizing the former’s web search technology. As soon as it became clear that the chances of such a deal being rubber stamped by the US Government were slim–given just how much market share this would involve - Google declined, before any appropriate investigation could be done. All that time, the company’s founding principle of ‘Don’t Be Evil’ sits in the backstage. And yet while Google is hardly at the point where you could accuse it outright of breaking that principle, there are cracks in its branding and perception starting to show, and for the first time, there are signs that a seemingly invincible company may be showing a couple of weaknesses. Okay, we’re not talking anything that’s going to bring a proverbial house of cards tumbling down, but there’s a growing feeling that Google is facing some serious challenges to maintain its position and perception in the marketplace. Yet as things stand, Google is balanced really quite carefully. It’s where it goes next that’s interesting. It’s very profitable, still retains a predominantly friendly face, and its strategy of launching new ideas and products quickly continues to give it genuine distinction from many of its peers. But it could yet find itself at a crossroads. Just like Apple and Microsoft, it’s dominant in its chosen sector. And also like that pair, there’s an army of analysts watching its every move. Can it maintain its ethos of not being evil? A common ethical dilemma that faces Google Company is that of censorship (Mitroff, 2012). A number of countries have tried to ban the search engine in their territories arguing that it contains some explicit sites that are highly exposed to under age children and other to unauthorized peop...