Business ethics in employee motivation

‘What are the role and importance of business ethics in keeping the employees motivated and to increase the productivity in Virgin Media?’

Background to the Study

Organizations are run in a tremendously huge competition today. Due to the huge competition in these organization, organizations has to bring in and implement different strategies to survive and as well as for expansion.

Apart from the competition a range of outer and inner factors affects for the business success. Those are the economical factors, political factors, environmental factors and as well social factors. For an example an economic crisis in a society may modify the total demand for a particular product or service. Also factors such as social tendency can change the demand for a product. Likewise there is variety of factors which can be critically affected for functionality or a demand for a product.

Therefore operating a business in a financial system is not just a simple task. So as a result organizations need to bring in several strategies for survival and as well for the expansion of the business.

In introducing diverse strategies the human resource of the organization is an important factor which should be managed properly to ensure the employee motivation. Employee motivation is highly essential for an organization for its success. Without motivation of employees, they do not develop as dedicated team where who works exceptionally to achieve organizational goals while achieving personal goals and objectives.

Accordingly in this study the deliberation was given to study the role and importance of business ethics in keeping the employees motivated and review its impact for the Virgin Media.

This research proposal identifies the background to the problem justification, scope and limitations, objectives, methodology and the literature review of the study.

Objectives of the Study

To clearly define what is employee motivation

To realize what is meant by business ethics

To find out the impact of business ethics on employee motivation

To find out the impact of business ethics on Organization Productivity

Research Question and Justification

“What is the relationship between productivity and employee performance” – In today’s competitive business environment organizations are retained in the business as a result of productivity which comes through competitive advantage of the production. When the productivity is lost, the organization losses its competitive advantage, market share, trusts of customers etc. Therefore if an organization is losing its productivity, it’s equal to reach the organizations demolish. So if we examine the reason for decreasing the productivity of organization one of the main reason which stand is that the employee performance are getting lower or it has gone down extensive.

“What is the relationship between employee performance and motivation” – Employee performance decreases due to range of reasons. So if we can identify the reasons which decreased employee performance we can find an answer to increase it and then to increase the productivity and ultimately to reach organizational success. Accordingly this research study is focused on employee motivation which is a critical factor which enhances employee performance.

“What are the factors effect for employee Motivation”- The employee’s are motivated due to various factors, it may be financial motivators, non financial motivators etc. The motivational factors range in a diverse area.

“Whether business ethic is a factor of motivation” – Accordingly in this research study the consideration is given on a non financial motivator which is the own business ethics of the organization. So it is analysed the role and importance of business ethics in keeping the employees motivated and help to improve the productivity in Virgin Media.

This topic will enhance the knowledge base into an important area in employee motivation and ultimately to the well being of Human Resource Management.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

Employee Motivation is not an outcome of one reason; a range of facts determines employee motivation. For an example recognition is a one factor which improve employee motivation, likewise there are series of factors which affect for employee motivation. Business ethics of the organization where an employee works is also a crucial factor which highly affects for employee motivation. Therefore my intention of this research study is to examine how the business ethics of the working organization motivates the employees. Accordingly this research scope is to examine what are elements of the business ethics which affect for employee motivation and how those elements have been affected in the selected case study organization which is Virgin Media.

Although this research examines an important area which affects for employee motivation, there are certain limitations too. The main limitation of this research is that this research focuses on only one main key factor which affect for employee motivation which is the business ethics, but as mentioned above there are many other factors which affect for employee motivation, so here in this research it is considered or assumed that affect of all the other factors are zero. Also this study has been done only for one organization, and its my own proposal and idea to further conduct this study for more two or three organizations where it will give an idea to employers to consider how they must develop their business ethics to get motivated the employees.

Literature Review

This literature review is considered on aspects. One is the study has been identified the literature on defining employee motivation and then it has been found out the literature on business ethics after that a literature study has been done on Virgin media which provides a better idea about the business and finally the literature has been found about the Effect of Business ethics on Employee Motivation.

What is Employee Motivation?

There are several definitions has been identified by several professionals on motivation.

The Lecture notes of Amarasingha. D. For the Professional Qualification in Human Resource Management of Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka, informs that the term motivation has been replication of the term from a Latin word ‘Movere’ and simply its meaning is something that moves people to action. Further it is described this may be a physical or mantel thing which moves people for action, in the work environment there are physical and mental environment which can be given to employees to move employees for action.

According to AMTA-LIMRA (USA) employee motivation is the only tool which is available to make people to do what they have to do. This says that motivation is the one and only tool which can be exploited to get the maximum from the employees.

According to Jucius. M.J. “motivation is the act of inspiring someone or oneself to get a preferred path of action, to push the right button to get desired action.”

The meaning of this is that motivation is an achievement which should be carried out to get completed some work from set of employees or from people. And further it describes the motive factor for every person will not be exact, it will be different person to person therefore in motivating employees, and the employer should recognize the correct motivator for that particular person.

And also there is a different definition of motivation which speaks that “Motivation is an inner state of mind, which straits or directs behaviour towards the achievement of pre-determined goals.”

This definition elaborates that for every people they have there own states in there mind where they want to achieve, accordingly in motivation the motivator should clearly identify the needs of that particular person or group and act accordingly to there requirements.

The Lecture notes of Amarasingha D. For the Professional Qualification in Human Resource Management of Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka, further discusses that motivation is not just means of money and it’s a mixture of finance and non financial motivates. Accordingly when an employer needs to motivate his team he should clearly define what type of motivators will be the motivators for an exact group or group of people.

Accordingly it can be concluded that employee motivation is factor which enhances employees performances and as well as knock down under performance of employees, the motive factors of employees may be non financial motivators such as bonuses, incentives etc, or non financial motivators such as rewards, recognition, etc.

But as our research area is rather different from these motivating factors it is required study the effect of business ethics for the employee motivation. So the next consideration was given to identify what it means by business ethics.

Motivation Theories

Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic motivation is considered as motivation which comes from an individuals’ outside. Rewards such as money and grades are good examples for external motivation factors. This reward provides satisfaction and pleasure for someone and it is caused to motivate them.

(Source: Motivation and Rewards, [Online], Available From:

http://giftedkids.about.com/od/glossary/g/extrinsic.htm [Accessed 20th December 2010])

Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation is considered as motivation that come from an individual’s inside. It is difficult to create to someone is given force and that person should have real interest for that, as an example if someone require to generate intrinsic motivation in an individual, he or she need to create that relevant person’s interest to involve in the related task or action

Maslow’s Theory of Motivation – Hierarchy of Needs

Dr. Abraham Maslow, in 1943 introduced new concept relevant to the motivation with physiological aspect. It is called Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and it is generally display as a pyramid. Most basic needs are displayed in the lowest level of pyramid and top of the pyramid is displayed most complex needs

Figure: 1 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

(Source: Employee motivation and theories, [Online], Available From:

http://www.google.lk/docsiva.files.wordpress.com[Accessed 20th December 2010])

How Impact Motivation on Growth of Business

Proper Human resource is essential part of any company to increase its productivity and performance. Employee motivation is the key factor to success in any business. Each and every person has their unique motivation and personal incentives to work in effectively and efficiently. Some employees can be motivated by appreciation and company business ethics, and others can be motivated by cash incentives. In the work environment, there are many motivation factors and money is not only the motivation factor. Incentive programs and company proper ethics code for employee gives ensuring employees feel recognition and volubility. The importance of this company ethics is not individualized. Company ethics should be matched the needs and wants of employees in the organization. Company ethics increase motivation because it is not only inspiring dynamic performance but also it show employees the company cares.

The most important effect of improve employee motivation is that increased productivity of business. This is a one of central aim when creating the business ethics. If any business can improve employee motivation, its productivity will increased according to that motivation increment.

What is Business Ethic?

According to the definition of Cheryl Cran (2010), Business ethics is the actions that a business clutches to in its daily dealings with the world. The ethics of a particular business can be varied. They apply not only to how the business act together with the world at large, but also to their one-on-one dealings with a private customer.

And also as Gwendolyn Cuizon defined the Business ethics need that a company inspects its behaviour in the direction of the outside world. It obtains into deliberation morality, right reasoning and ethics application. For example, the manager’s ethical beliefs are depending on the situation of manager’s ethical philosophy. Moral and beliefs are relevant to the overall guiding belief system at the back the individual’s perception of right or wrong.

Business ethics are applied in order to make sure that a convinced required level of faith exists between customers and a variety of types of market contributors with businesses. For example, a case manager must provide the same deliberation to the selection of family members and small individual shareholder. Such practices assurance that the public is treated fairly.

Effect of Business ethics on Employee Motivation

As the organizations accountable for maximum customer satisfaction for their business purposes, organizations should keep their liability of keeping their employee dedication in their dedication in their field of work. In Business ethics, part of this liability of the entire organization and their obligation is enclosed in the core values and principles. The business ethics are also guild the business and their leaders to make decisions. It is because business ethics consist with the principles in laws and regulations, inner policy, and actions. Mostly organizations try to uphold the business ethics connected to product quality, Healthy, safety, and competency and to achieve these goals most organizations keep up such ethics as being truthful, working with honesty, admiration, and justice and allied according to the principles and so on.

There are many issues in the business ethics when involve in the practical level.

Dedication to the environment

Keep the welfare of the community

Enhancing the honesty in business transactions and reducing corruption will help the entire organization overcome the part of development problem.

Employee satisfaction means respond the needs of the people and importance of job design and job involvement.

(Info Abstracted from: Baker G. [2001], Motivation through needs, job design and satisfaction. The Mc Graw – Hill.)

This is a case study of American Xtal Technologies which can be recognized as an example for the outcome of business ethics to long last Over 500 of employees were left unemployed.

In this case American Xtal Technologies which is also famous as AXT was not able to perk up the safety conditions of their workers, the factory itself functioned with less strict health regulations in the working environment. This cause to make the organizational physical surroundings creates potentially ill workers and diseases.

The short of information, short of hazardous training, and lack of making safety measures to make sure that the air was not over toxic limits are all fixed issues which caused an ethical problem for AXT and its previous employees.

Even before begun observe the air excellence in the plant; the business had carried out an internal air monitoring. The internal monitoring had been exposed that their workers had been uncovered to over twenty one times the tolerable limit for huge dust since 1999 and did small to notify, educate and improve conditions for their employees. So accordingly long last with the bad standing for the AXT management, because that they have played the leading role in the misconduct for the organization’s employees.

From this example we can clearly recognize that how the business ethics can be affected not only for the employee motivation but even for the total fall down of the organization. Because if they had an ethical approach on occupational health and safety they may can clutch the status of that and result for even the success of the business.

(Source: The Essay Paper of AXT Case Study and its Deadly Effects. [Online],

Available From: http://www.oppapers.com/essays [Accessed 20th December 2010])

An organizational culture most likely to shape the high ethical standards in one that’s high in risk acceptance, low to moderate in violence, and concentrated on its means and same as outcomes (Benefits). Managers in such a business are supported for talking risk and innovating are dispirited from appealing in unbridled competition and will pay concentration to how goals are achieved as well as to what how goals are achieved.

If the organization culture is powerful and it helps standard ethical frame for organization, it should give a very strong and very positive impact for employee behaviours.

For example Johnson and Johnson have a powerful culture that has long stressed corporate obligations to customers, employees, the community and shareholders in that direction. When poisoned Tylenol (a Johnson and Johnson product) was found in store shelves, employees at Johnson and Johnson across the United States separately pulled the product from these stores before the management had even issued a declaration concerning the tampering. No one had to tell these individuals what was morally right they knew what Johnson and Johnson would expect them to do.

(Source: Torrington, D. Hall, S. and Taylor, L. (2002), Human Resource Management, 5TH edition, Pearson Education – reference book for human resource management with a good section on development.)

Literature on the Virgin Media

Virgin Media is a British supplier of TV, cell phone and broadband internet services to household and industry clients in United Kingdom.

It is headquartered in New York City, and employs 17,000 people. The company recorded revenues of £3,602.2 million during the fiscal year ended December 2006, an increase of 85% over 2005.

Management

At the centre, Virgin Management Ltd (VML) gives the consultancy and managerial help to every one of the diverse Virgin companies and their specialist Sector teams around the world. Their employees in London, New York and Sydney present provincial support and between them and the Sector teams they manage Virgin’s safety across the whole of the Virgin Group.

SWOT Analysis

To have a comprehensive understanding on the organization of Virgin Media it was focused on situation analysis of the Virgin Media and the method which was used to analyse the situation of the organization is that the SWOT Analysis. Accordingly the SWOT analysis of the Virgin Media is as follows.

Strengths

Weaknesses

The prestige of the product name and the novelty that the brand Virgin presents.

Virgin Media is the only business in the UK that presents all 4 of the main media services merchandise jointly,

i.e. digital TV, broadband, permanent line phone and movable phone correspondence.

As they are offering all the services together, the company has obtained advantages of scaled economies as it is combined to lots of its general roles such as management and funding, accordingly permitting the firm to value more competitively for the advantage of their clientele.

technological capability and communications are also two of the key inner potentials, which are been browbeaten to construct a market leading position

The amalgamation between NTL and Telewest is still relatively effect for the organization and there are cultural conflicts between the two approaches and the up-and-coming Virgin style.

Recently, with their attempt to cost cutting of the organization have effected to several redundancies and outsourcing of customer services. This has caused for disturbed performance and be short of faithfulness from employees

Because of the size and complexity of the administration, there is a potential of fragmentary disagreements which will require to be supervised whether this civilizing move will not bombshell on the purchaser experience.

The bank does not plan to pay dividends on its shares until the second half of 2009 and this make less attractive to investors in the year.

Opportunities

Threats

The media sector is developing an outstandingly speedy manner, resulting to giving space to grow the business more over in the future.

Ability to offer value supplementary services such as online gaming or more unfailing broadband connections

Technical innovations may available for companies can adopt.

Competitors from other parallel medium firms such as Orange or BT who stay on as great group of actors in promote.

Virgin Media is alleged to have problems with their infrastructure dependability, which can probably allow challengers such as BT to boost their marketplace

The medium division as a entire is tremendously speedy moving; then, the main danger is that Virgin Media might be unsuccessful to stay hurry, therefore trailing its client base to a new pioneering corporation

Methodology of the Study

The methodology of this research study can be divided into several sections.

The first section of the research study deals with the literature review on several aspects, firstly it finds out various articles, definitions, different studies to exactly define what employee motivation is.

After clarify above from the literature, another broad review of literature has been carried out to identify what is meant by business ethics.

The next segment of the study deals with identifying how business ethics affects on employee motivation and accordingly a literature study has been conducted about the Virgin media in order to get an overall idea about the organization.

After that a complete questioner survey will be conducted with the employees’ of Virgin Media which will exactly find out the impact of business for employee motivation. Apart from the questioner survey a direct interview will be conducted with selected relevant mangers of the Virgin media to further analyse the findings and come to a conclusion. The data analysis can be done through the use of thematic analysis system which will analyse the themes of business ethics which can effect for employee motivation and productivity.

Ultimately the study will be concluded with successful findings on employee motivation in terms of business ethics of Virgin Media.

Data Analysis

In this Research will be used basically qualitative and the quantitative data .Relevant to the data source graphical method and simple statistical methods will be used for the purpose of the data analysis and data presentation. Some statistical software as SPSS can be used to data analysis all the statistical method can be used according to the data, situation and purpose of analysis.

Conclusion

This dissertation proposal is focused on the topic of “Title: What is the role and importance of business ethics in keeping the employee motivated and to enhance the productivity in Virgin Media”. It means study on identifying How Does business ethics of Virgin Media affects for the employee performance of the organization. As this is a beginning of a research we cannot conclude an exact answer but any how attempts were given to summarise all the idea in to one section here.

Virgin Media (officially Virgin Media Inc.) is a British supplier of TV, telephone and broadband internet services to local and business customers in the UK.

Main Objectives of the study is that to clearly define the concept of employee motivation, to understand what is meant by business ethics and to find out the impact of business ethics on employee motivation. Accordingly this proposal report is focused on providing background to the study including research objectives, research problem, and scope and limitation of the research, methodology of study.

Apart from that the main focus of this proposal was given on the literature review. Accordingly in the first section of the literature review was focused on the organizational background has been provided and then a comprehensive literature study has been carried out to identify what is employee motivation and as well to deeply identify what is business ethics. Accordingly it was found out how significant of the business ethics in order to employee motivation.