The primary objective for most organizations is to generate profit. That being said, most companies will do anything in order to achieve this profit. Although some corporate executives may enforce corporate social responsibilities out of pure altruism, many do it in order to enhance their brand image and/or to lower staff turnover rates. However, when the subject is not directly related to profit, many companies tend to ignore indulging in ethical behavior altogether due to the large sums of money associated with acting ethically.
However, I believe that corporations should be more farsighted in their approach as the costs for businesses of not acting ethically is even greater than that of implementing such ethical practices. Take Sauder Frosh for instance. Many bigtime newsites such as Huffignton Post have reported that UBC was “under fire” for the non-consensual rape chants that have occurred during Frosh, sparking an outrage for UBC’s internal and external stakeholders. The chants led by frosh leaders has caused the tarnishing of Sauder School’s brand image. If the Frosh leaders had acted ethically and replaced the bus cheers with healthier material, then they would not have been subjected to the costs of acting unethically such as the withdrawal of the CUS support for all future Frosh activities and the vandalism that had occurred at the Henry Angus building earlier this week (see image).
