Unethical Behavior on the Brand Image of an Organization-Analysis

Question: Analyze the impact of unethical behavior on the brand image of an organization. Answer: Business Research topic The topic selected for this research paper is to "analyze the impact of unethical behavior on the brand image of an organization." Recently it is seen that unethical behavior of the organizations regarding Environmental pollution, Discrimination, Bribing and gift giving and mistreating employees can create negative impacts on the customers and can harm their brand image among the existing and potential customers (Leonidou et al. 2013. However, the fact is not clear that how and which factors are affecting the brand image of the organizations mostly. That is the reason that it was necessary to conduct a research on this topic. Literature Review The purpose of the study is to discuss the factors of ethics while doing business. According to Jones and Gautsch (2013), if an organizations product strategy pricing strategy and promotional strategies are better than any other existing organization in the market it can give them a competitive advantage. However, if the body structure of that organization is unethical towards its employees, or, if that organization has implemented internal strategies that are unethical, then it can create a negative impact on the customers, as they will start to reject the products and services of that organization (Stead 2013). However, there are several arguments that try to prove which behavior can affect the brand image of an organization at most. Some of the most severe unethical practices of the organization are mentioned below. Environmental pollution The first major unethical concern in business ethics is environmental pollution. In most of the organizations, the executives used to choose simplest solutions in order to get rid of toxic waste. This simple solution of them was highly inappropriate for the environment as it might pollute the environment. Nowadays, environmental pollution is considered as a very unethical as it can harm the stakeholders of the firm that is polluting the environment. Besides, recently the Government has also become very strict regarding pollution reduction rules and regulations of business organizations. None of the customers would like to buy a product from an organization that pollutes the environment while manufacturing those products. Discrimination Discrimination is also considered as an unethical behavior of the organization. As mentioned by Sekerka et al. (2014), discrimination in the organization is known to be the most unethical factor of an organization, even more than environment pollution. According to Rawwas et al. (2013), one can discriminate in many forms. The most famous and well-known examples of discrimination are based on race, sex, national origin and age. It is highly wrong if an organization discriminates its employees just because they belong to one of the examples given above. If an organization is discriminating its employees, then it is obvious that the stakeholders especially customers will not consider that organization as their preferable one. For example, according to Cheng et al. (2014), Wal-Mart lost its market position and it's customer base after the employees accused the organization of forcing discrimination in the workplace. Bribing and gift giving According to Holtbrgge et al. (2015), another major unethical concern in business is the presence of bribing and gift giving. For example, when an organization is paying some extra money to the Government of a particular country then this behavior will be considered as a bribe. As mentioned by Sekerka et al. (2014), in a research, some of the managers said that they will not bribe any Government of a country to get business done. However, some of the managers stated that bribing or gift giving is acceptable in some countries and therefore it would be a good investment. For example, in China, their social tradition supports gift giving and most of the organization is bound to follow this while doing business in the country. From this statement, it is clear that organizations must investigate that whether gift giving is ethical and unethical in a country where they are conducting their business. Most of the customers expect that the product that they are buying are manufactured by an organization that is not only maintaining all ethical rules and regulation in their organization but also not doing something which might be considered as unethical and illegal. Therefore, if an organization is using bribing and gift giving methods against the legal rules, then the customers will not buy from that organization. Mistreating employees Another unethical concern that is considered as one of the most dominant factors that harm the brand image of an organization is the mistreating with employees Cheng et al. (2014). For example, Wal-Mart is a well-known example in the way they treat their personnel. Most of the employees in Wal-Mart are given low wages and they do not get extra payments for overtimes. On the other hand, Wal-Mart does not provide extra benefits to their employees such as health care benefits and pensions. Besides, the employees are forced to spy on each other and report to the superiors. When these facts came out, the customers of the organization switched to other retail companies such as Tesco, Asda and K-Mart. This is the reason that the organization lost its leading market position in the UK retail industry (Jones and Gautschi 2013). Misrepresentation Last but not the least; misrepresentation is the fifth major unethical practice that is mostly adapted by small organizations. Those organizations force their sales personnel to the customers about the performance of a product. Bigger organizations do the same thing but in their advertisements by making them misleading. According to (Rawwas et al. 2013), this unethical behavior of the organizations by implementing misleading advertisement is still taking place frequently and it is very hard to prohibit such behaviors (He and Lai 2014). In both of the cases, when customers find out that the information is wrong on which they bought a product, it is obvious that they never buy that product again which will hamper the brand image of that firm. Research Question What are the most influential unethical practices of the organizations? What should be done if an organization is found using unethical practices in their workplace? How the brand image of an organization can be affected if it is using unethical practices in its place of work? Research Methodologies The research process Research Process for this study was started with its first step, which is to select an effective and appropriate research topic. In order to do this study, "the impact of unethical behavior on the brand image of an organization" is selected. As a second step, the research problem is identified that is organizations are losing their market position and brand value because of practicing unethical practices. Then the research questions were identified in which the entire research will depend on. The hypothesis for the study will be set in the following way, H1: Unethical behavior of an organization creates a negative impact on its brand image H2: Unethical behavior of an organization does not create a negative impact on its brand image After that, a literature review was build including all the most important unethical practices of organizations. Some examples were also added where is seen that because of those unethical practices those organizations are slowly losing their market share and brand image. Data Collection and Analysis process In order to complete the research based on the selected topic, it would be better if both primary and secondary research methods were used. Primary research methods are used in order to collect real-life data from a particular population (Brannen 2012). On the other hand, secondary research method is used to find out the results of previous researches that were done on the same topic (Onwuegbuzie and Leech 2012). In this study, it is highly important to find out what the customers are thinking about the unethical practices of the organizations and how they are changing their buying behavior according to that. On the other hand, it is also important to conduct a secondary research to find out the differences, if any, between the behaviors of customers for the same issue in the past and the present (Freshwater 2012). For the primary research quantitative method will be used which will help to gather probability sample from a huge population of the country (Cameron 2012). In order to gather this data, survey questionnaire will be distributed to 50 participants or customers of some organizations. Their responses will be then evaluated in table and chart format to find out expected research outcome (Toloie et al. 2012). Secondary research will depend on authentic and credible journals, articles and previous research reports on this same study to find out what the previous results showed (Ellis and Levy 2012). These sources will help to gather valuable and credible data in a lesser time and effort, which will support the research by providing understanding and knowledge related to unethical behavior in business (Truscott et al. 2012). Expected Research outcome After conducting the research, it is anticipated that the final data will show whether the unethical behavior of the organizations is creating a negative impact on the customers and forcing them to change their buying behavior or not. On the other hand, this research will also find out which unethical practice of the organizations is more harmful to their brand image. Gantt chart Part 1 Figure 1: Gantt chart part 1 (Source: Author) Part 2 Figure 2: Gantt charts part 2 (Source: Author) Conclusion From the study, it is clear that the study will mainly focus on various unethical practices of the business organization in order to find out how those practices are affecting their brand images. 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