Essay Sample on Business Ethics and Responsible Management

Introduction

According to Lewis 1985, business ethics represents a fusion of regulations, principles, codes, and standards that are meant to maintain sustainability, instill the right behaviours as well as integrity in the world of business, and this acts as a bridge between the shareholders' justice and the cooperate social responsibility framework. Therefore, this report's main aim is to pinpoint the ethical dimension of the gender pay gap in Lloyds Bank. However, the report is written and presented from a middle manager's perspective to senior management officials. The first section of the report assesses the severe issues as well as the incidences of the gender pay gap between the male and female by employing concepts and theories to expound on the ethical dilemma, why should female employees be paid a lesser salary than their male counterparts in the same position and doing the same job?

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The second part of the report is structured as a reflection emphasizing the values that an ethical leader can add to an organisation. Gender inequality becomes a widespread concern that presents itself in the gender pay gap, generating persistent inequalities amongst the working population, both men and women. Centered on the Lloyds Bank, the report pinpoints the causes of the gender pay gap in the organisation and how it influences society based on critical analysis and offers recommendations on how to resolve it.

Identification of Ethical Issues

Discrimination at work: gender inequality is connected to human inequality that experience in the world today. And most individuals tend to analyze and evaluate salaries concerning the idea of what a fair wage should be and, therefore, create a gap between their expectations and the actual pay they receive. Research employees with a lower wage expectation are most likely to think that a low wage is fair for themselves and others (Baska, 2019). Therefore, gender remuneration inequality issues are related to Lloyds' reputation in the industry or marketplace and society.

Bringing gender inequality in Lloyds bank regarding the pay wages among the employees would benefit the organisation and the community at large. In the year 2017, the report released, but the bank has shown that the company had every intention of minimizing the gender pay gap by promoting inclusion. It has been realized this one of the banks in the United Kingdom is planning on increasing the number of women employees in the bank senior positions (Baska, 2019).

However, various research or studies on the United Kingdom companies reveal that the country will take a substantial amount of time to bridge the gap in terms of the gender pay gap. Therefore, the gender pay gap has created room for improvement for all the organisations across the spectrum (Rubery and Koukiadaki, 2016). Lloyds banking had av vision to increase the number of women in senior position by the end of this years. If this is feasible, then the company would improve its reputation as gender pay gap issues can considerably affect the organisation's reputation across the country (Tippin, 2019).

The Role of Business

Corporate social responsibility, commonly abbreviated as CSR, is a self-governing social phenomenon assisting many organizations in the market to be accountable and be internally and externally interactive with their stakeholders such as customers, employees, and the public authorities. By engaging in corporate responsibility activities, the businesses can operate to improve the environment around them by driving value and operational changes rather than negatively impacting the environment.

It is important to note that society is made up of both male and female roles, and there is no one particular role that is specifically tailored for a creating gender only. Therefore, the gender pay gap may cause biases between men and women, which has a negative impact on the entire community. The gender pay gap can also pose challenges concerning public policy concerning economic output reductions as it discriminates against women regarding pay and deters them from joining companies. This then increases dependency on the younger working population in old age as they have no money to save up for retirement.

Additionally, it poses the issue of homelessness on the aging population, and this is since the women employed at a lower wage rate compared to their male counterparts doing the same tasks are not able to save for retirement or afford mortgages; hence retire without enough saving to sustain them in their old age. Additionally, the gender pay gap issue promotes devaluation of what role women play in society.

Impact on The Stakeholders

The issues with the gender pay gap affect a range of stakeholders and create variations in the community. Stakeholders are defined as a group of essential individuals for the survival and long-term profitability of an organisation (Phillips, 2019). Additionally, they are critical to the achievement of firm objectives and goals. Therefore, if an organisation creates value for its shareholders, this will positively impact the organisation. It might affect the organisation as a whole, the customers, the suppliers, retailers. According to Friedman, the primary objective of any organisation is to maximise its shareholder's values. Therefore, the managers tasked with this responsibility must use all the available resources to ensure that the stakeholders' interests are taken care of. Therefore, issues with the gender pay gap may affect the stakeholder's interests.

Employees

According to the previously released reports specifically in the year 2019, 36.1 percent of the women working in the Lloyds bank are paid a higher salary than the remaining 72.1 percent of the total number of women working in the bank. This statistical data can be concluded that there is a wide gender pay gap in the company (Lloyds Bank, 2019). The same report also mentioned that the bonus pay gap carries a substantial gap for both genders in the target banking group. The average bonus paid to women is 66.4 percent, which is lesser than what is paid to their male counterparts. The gender pay gap seen in this particular banking group could be why the decline in the employee satisfaction level leads to a decrease in the number of female employees (Khoreva, 2012).

Organisation

The gender pay gap can significantly affect the overall production as well as the presentation of an organisation. This is owing to the level of dissatisfaction of employees. The inequality presented in terms of gender pay makes the discriminated population less motivated to work, which affects the individual employees' productivity and the organisation's productivity (Lloyds Bank, 2019). Therefore, it is essential to note that the organisations that implement a gender equality payment for all the employees occupying the same positions record a greater employee and organisation performance level or outcomes.

Investors

Investors are essential in an organisation as they provide the funds needed for the running of the daily operations. The investors are attracted to an organisation that has a robust standing reputation and positive revenues. Therefore, issues with gender pay gap issues may discourage investors from investing in Lloyds bank group as this does not create a reasonable business practice. And the fact that the pay gap means dissatisfied employees and loss in the long run (Tippin, 2019). Additionally, this bad reputation in the company may derive the already existing investors away.

Customers

It is critical to note a correlation between the employees' level of stultification and their customers. More satisfied employees mean increased productivity and better services to their customers. Therefore, customers are more interested in the company's ethical practices, and this means that the organisations involved in pay malpractices are less attractive to customers. Consequently, Lloyds banking groups must narrow down their gender pay gap to attract more customers (Lloyds Bank, 2019).

Retailers

Especially for a retail industry that is mostly dominated by women, balances, and equal opportunities are vital in the workplace. In this case, equity applies to the wage rate and equal access to retirement and health insurance. Therefore, the company could be significantly affected if the gender gap increases because women significantly dominate sectors.

The Good and Bad Illustrations

The Royal Bank of Scotland has a smaller gender pay gap than Lloyds bank (Lloyds Bank, 2019). The analysis of the report released in the year 2019 showed that RBS has a lesser gender pay gap in the ratio of 61.5 to 50.0 percent ion men and women, respectively (mclaughlin, 2019). The report further indicated that the Royal Bank of Scotland is proud of its salaries regardless of gender. Additionally, the bank is aware that there is still room for improvement, and therefore it is committed to making its remunerations fair and equal among all of its employees. Easyjet, on the other, had has recorded a larger gender pay gap compared to Lloyds bank. With women at this airline earning 47.9 percent less than their male counterparts. Despite the airline increasing their female employees, the gap in their pay has continued to grow.

Action Taken

According to Lloyds' report in 2018, the mean gender pay gap was 32.8 percent (Lloyds Bank, 2019). Therefore, there is still more than the company can do to narrow this variation in pay. Thus, the company is recently committed to building inclusivity as well as diversity in the workplace. Over the past few years, the company is continually reviewing their pay to ensure that both men and women are paid equally for the same job done with equal benefits and deductions. According to the report released last year, the company points that if the Workforce remained constant throughout the grades, the organisation would reduce the gender pay gap to 2.5 percent. The company bonus pay for the employees to percent (Lloyds Bank, 2019).

Therefore, Lloyds needs to promote or hire more female employees, specifically in mind and higher organization positions. However, it is essential to note that the gender pay gap reduction is a slow and time-consuming process. However, the increase in female leaders and employees in the organization will be accompanied by increased employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction and hence overall productivity and attractiveness.

Conclusion

Additionally, to effectively mitigate the salary gap and enable the organisation to offer an equal and fair salary for all employees. It is essential to revisit the historical records and revise its remuneration procedures. The organisation must establish a base salary for the newly employed staff for ascertaining duration as they are on the provision. They are to be accorded the same fair pay and bonus as the rest of the same category and perform the same tasks.

It is also vital that the company employs effective communication procedures that are essential in ensuring transparency regarding the scales of wage payment.

References

Baska, M., 2019. Closing the Gender Pay Gap Is Top Priority for Majority of UK Firms. [online] People Management. Available at:
https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/closing-gender-pay-gap-top-priority-uk-firms.

Khoreva, V., 2012, 'Gender Inequality, Gender Pay Gap, and Pay Inequity: Perceptions and Reactions in Finnish Society and Workplaces,' Helsinki.
http://hdl.handle.net/10138/36748.