Greening the Message Ethical Decision-Making

Ethical dilemma occurs in organizations with leaders having challenges in making decisions regarding what is good for the business as well as the environment. Many of the cases, the management's decision for the good of the company may not support the good of the environment. One of the concerns in ethical dilemmas is a company's management to remain environmentally friendly by going green. Ethical decision making is critical to save the organization and provide it with a good reputation (Daft, 2010). This essay aims at evaluating a given scenario influencing the Capsim Core Company and the ethical dilemma that the leader must address by making the appropriate strategic and management decisions that support the good of the company, customer needs, and the environment.

A Synopsis of the Ethical Dilemma

The ethical dilemma in the scenario is the launch of a marketing campaign on the new production process that emphasizes on consumer demand for products that support sustainability while the company has not addressed it is waste output problems. Based on the utilitarianism ethical theory, marketing ethics requires the leader should consider the consequences of proceeding with the campaign both to the company and the consumers (Keillor, 2007). The decision to go ahead with the campaign may lead to damaging the reputation of the company and impact on its long-term sales in the future. However, including all the crucial information of the business and its effort in addressing the waste output will help make a good impression to the customers and ultimately encourage them to buy the company products that promote sustainability. Marketing ethics is a useful aspect to consider during the promotion of company products (Madsen, 2007). From the given four options, the leader should choose the third option that despite protests from the marketing department, utilize the green message in a corporate-oriented campaign, acknowledging improved energy efficiency and honestly stating that production waste has not yet been decreased but that the company is working to achieve that, too.

Conflict Resolution

The agency and stakeholder theories are applicable in reconciling the conflicts in the development of strategic decision-making. The agency theory holds that the agent acts on behalf of the other party and a problem may occur when the agent has different views from that of the principal (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman & Bamford, 2015). To reconcile the emerging conflict between the company’s interests and those of customers, it is important for the leader to take the most appropriate course of action that meets the customer and company values. In this case, the leader must agree to option three as the best course of action and not allow personal beliefs to impact on the outcome of the marketing campaign. 

The stakeholder theory holds that the interests of the company should be taken altogether when making strategic decisions (Lozano, Carpenter & Huisingh, 2015). To reconcile conflicts in the development of strategic decision-making, the leader will meet the interests of all the groups with interests in the company. The Capsim Core Company is to reduce waste output during production and at the same time meet the customer demand for products that support sustainability. By considering all these interests for the collective, the leader will represent the will of the organization and advance the necessary cooperation with the clients. 

Application of the Ethical Theories

The ethical theories should guide the implementation of strategic decisions. The leader should assess the ethical rules that apply in the utilitarianism theory to understand the moral issues arising from the ethical dilemma (Madsen, 2007). In that case, the utilitarianism theory holds that when making strategic decisions, a leader should recognize the consequences of the decision. Therefore, when implementing the strategic decisions, the leader will evaluate the likely costs and benefits for every stakeholder, and decide on the basis of the action that produces the greatest good for all the concerned parties.

Application of the Strategic Planning Process

The strategic planning process is applicable in the scenario to create a plan that details the leadership and management decisions on the ethical dilemma. The process requires the leader to analyze the current state, define the future state, develop objectives and strategies to achieve the vision and implement and assess the plan (Hinton, 2012). Based on this strategic planning process, the leader in Capsim Core Company understands the current state of the business as introducing a sustainable method of production. However, waste output during production has not yet been addressed. Customers demand products that support sustainability. The company wants to achieve a reduction in waste output and provide customers with products that support sustainability. To address the ethical dilemma, the objectives of the marketing campaign will be to inform the customers and the general public of the innovation in the company and the efforts of the business towards reducing waste output levels. The strategies to achieve the vision will entail using the new innovation, wind energy in reducing the waste output to the minimum within the next six months. The leader will proceed with launching the new marketing campaign to outline the current development at Capsim Core Company and then assess the response from the customers to make the needed adjustments where necessary.

Building Competitive Advantage Using the Strategic Management Hierarchy

The strategic decisions that the leader has made to address the ethical dilemma will build competitive advantage for the business. The strategic management hierarchy is a useful tool that helps a leader to evaluate the relationships, levels, and functions in the company, strategies, and sub-strategies to achieve the intended goal (Droege, 2005). Using the strategic management hierarchy, the leader will interact with other department managers in the production, research and development to undertake a bidirectional planning of the marketing campaign. All the aspects affecting the company and the consumer will be put into consideration. The new rules of green marketing focus on winning the consumer and driving the overall growth of the business (Ottman, 2010). Ultimately, the company will gain a competitive advantage through the launch of the new marketing campaign based on positive customer responses.

The Company’s Positioning Strategy

A positioning strategy enables an organization to highlight the specific areas to outshine and beat the competition in the market. A consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of the business, customer, and needs, as well as the competitors' position,  is critical when formulating a company's positioning strategy (Keillor, 2007). Based on the strategic management and strategic leadership decisions, the company’s positioning strategy will entail capitalizing on the company’s effective leadership as strength, address the waste output which is a current weakness, and meet customer needs by producing products that support sustainability as well as launching the new marketing campaigning in an ethical manner before its competitors.

References

Daft, R. (2010). Management. US: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Droege, S. (2005). Strategy levels. Encyclopedia of Management.

Hinton, K. (2012). A practical guide to strategic planning in higher education. Society for College and University Planning.

Keillor, B. (2007). Marketing in the 21st Century. Greenwood Publishing Group.

Lozano, R., Carpenter, A., & Huisingh, D. (2015). A review of ‘theories of the firm’ and their contributions to Corporate Sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 106(1); 430-442.

Marsden, D. (2007). Marketing ethics’, in Littler, D. (ed) Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Marketing. Oxford, Blackwell.

Ottman, J. (2010). The new rules of green marketing: Strategies, tools, and inspiration for sustainable branding. 1^st Edition. Routledge: London.

Wheeler, T., Hunger, J., Hoffman, A., & Bamford, C. (2015). Strategic management and business policy: Globalization, innovation, and sustainability. 14^th Edition. Pearson Education, Inc.