Operations Management and Ethics

Operations Management and Ethics

Operations management (OM): Operations management is defined as the design, operation, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver the firm’s primary products and services. Like marketing and finance, OM is a functional field of business with clear line management responsibilities (Chase, 2006).” OM can be described as the strategies employed by an organization to provide a competitive advantage to maximize on all decisions and processes encountered in business practices. A very strong operations management team ensures that company’s daily activities run effectively and contribute towards maximizing profits. For an effective operations manager it is important to consider that ethical decisions are made during planning, review and implementation stages of a process newly introduced or already in effect. This paper will briefly examine the purposes of operations management as well as analyze an ethics decision made with respect to OM within my organization.

Company Background: I work at TD Canada Trust. TD Canada Trust is the second largest bank in Canada and has affiliation world wide serving over 16 million customers worldwide. TD has over 43,000 employees in Canada making it country’s largest employer. It provides financial services to customers pertaining to their day to day needs as well as borrowing and investments, targeting a variety of clientele. For daily banking needs the company provides a choice of various types of chequeing and saving accounts. Investments range from term deposits to bonds, stocks, mutual funds, and discount brokerage services. Mortgages, car loans, business loans, and lines of credit are some of popular credit products. The key businesses include personal and commercial banking across North America, global wealth management, and global wholesale banking. TD is one of Canada's Big Five banks.

Operations Management and Ethics: As technology and innovation moves forward, evolving strategies for management can pose ethical challenges to business and to operations managers, specifically. It is only sound business strategy to create long-lasting competitive advantage, however many times business is short-sighted in making determinations of what is best for business. One of the things often lost in the rush toward profit is ethics. Ethics involve the balancing of the needs of the owners/shareholders against those of the other parties involved, directly and indirectly, with the business. These are often competing and contrary needs, especially when profitability is at stake.

Often the conflicts between ethical action and profit are ignored or downplayed within the business community. Business must act within the acceptable rules and norms of society, as well as within the legal framework; however, sometimes the norms of a given society can be unjust or perceived as unethical (Poesche, 2002). For example, some question the ethical practices of many oil companies operating in the Middle East and Latin America during the late 1970's and 1980's (Perkins, 2004). While the companies operated within the legal framework of the society, they may have acted unethically in their treatment of the indigenous people and their land. Some have proposed that it is morally shallow to consider the sole purpose of business to make profit alone, but that a business must consider all social, moral, and legal and shareholder responsibilities in making decisions (Poesche, 2002). However, sometimes