Corporate behavior enables businesses to overcome any problems they may face e.g.
Language barriers are likely to increase for organizations creating major problems as day-to-day
business may be disrupted improving flexibility and allowing their employees use the native
language for ease of dealing with customers that have issues with communicating in Swahili or
English.
Due to competition in terms of quality and productivity due to intense competition within
markets e.g. from other service providers, corporate behavior help to fix this by allowing
managers to empower their employees as they are the ones who are able to make a change.
Positive corporate behavior can result in employees feeling happy and content at work providing
their best outcome. This leads to effective teams being created thus resulting in innovative ideas
which is beneficial for the business and helps to decrease labor turnover enabling the
organization to retain its most valuable employees.
Corporate behavior is the actions of a company or group who are acting as a single body. It
defines the company's ethical strategies and describes the image of the company.
Importance of Corporate behavior
It helps to strengthen relationships within organizations’ between individuals, teams, and in the
organization as a whole.
It reflects the values of the business and the extent to which it is ethical. It helps to makes it
different and better than other service providers, portray positive corporate behavior within a
company, facilitate strong brand image creation which in turn strengthens the importance
associated with corporate behavior.
Factors that influence corporate behavior
Corporate behavior may cause Airtel to change the way it operates and nature of change
depends on what is causing the change e.g. political, social, economic, technological,
environmental, and legal.
Politically - Airtel employees may not like new changes made e.g. changes in government
legislation as they would have to change the way they operate in order to implement these
changes and this would end up affecting an organizations’ corporate behavior.
Economically - When there’s recession Airtel may find it has to reduce jobs and this may end up
affecting corporate behavior as business teams would be short of skills and ideas in order to
operate effectively.
Socially - Relationships between employees and Airtel management could be at risk due to
changing social trends in the market. The employees may be required to learn new skills within a
short amount of time to keep up. E.g. Airtel may be forced to change their products or services in
order to keep up to date with the current or new trends.
Technologically- Implementing technology within Airtel organizations could mean more virtual
meetings and fewer face to face meetings thus resulting to weakened relationships between
management and employees.
Legally - Legislative rules such as tax may increase may increase Airtel operational costs in
order to cover these extra costs.
Environmentally - Environmental factors are any factors that prevent damage to the
environment.
Airtel employees may be required to telecommute to reduce the number of employees physically
travelling their offices thus reducing carbon dioxide emissions. As good as it sound, this may
lead to isolation as communication is reduced weakening corporate behavior within the
organization.
Stakeholder influence – If Airtel adopts the stakeholder theory (this is where managers
maximize shareholders' interests in the way that is still permitted by law or social values. This
theory was introduced by Edward Freeman in 1988) it’s likely to appeal more to their
stakeholders as it shows care and commitment towards them. This in turn helps to strengthen the
corporate behavior within a firm and reduces the need for stakeholders to demand change.
Other factors that may influence corporate behavior include:
Personal Relations – Airtel needs to provide a working environment and atmosphere that
promotes harmony and achievement of mutual objectives, have defined goals and standards of
performance to gain productivity and teamwork.
Relationships with supervisors should be that of mutual respect and trust, must observe high
dignity standards, decency, and fairness and maintain integrity at all times
Fair Employment Practices - Airtel should provide an inclusive culture and work environment
where every employee has the same opportunity to reach their full potential. This can be done by
embracing the strengths of our cultural differences, provide equal access to opportunity, treat all
employees with respect and dignity, foster sensitive and open communication, and measure
performance of employees only on the basis of their contribution towards organizational
objectives.
I.
Airtel decisions pertaining to: Recruitment, hiring and training Promotions, pay and
benefits Transfers and dismissals should be objective and based on employees qualifications, accomplishments, experience and merit.
II.
Airtel shouldn’t discriminate on the basis of gender, colour, caste, race, religion,
disability, ethnicity, marital or family status, national origin, or any other characteristic
having no bearing on job performance
Harassment-free workplace - Airtel has forbidden any form of harassment such verbal,
physical or visual or any conduct that disrupts or interferes with another employee’s work or
performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile work environment. All employee behavior must
be conducive to promoting a harmonious and productive atmosphere in the workplace hence
good corporate behavior.
Dealing with Outside Parties
Customers and fair competition- All relationships and interactions with customers will be
based on trust, ethical behavior, communication and responsiveness to their needs. Airtel
conducts its business honestly, fairly and directly, both with customers and competitors and
complies with law and regulation in all its business dealings at all times
Airtel treats customers with the utmost respect and courtesy and also accurately represent the
price, quality, features and availability of its products and services.
Conflicts of interest - A conflict of interest may occur where the interest of benefit to an
employee conflicts with the interest of the Company. All Airtel employee must report conflicts
of interest, whether present or potential, to the immediate supervisor to avoid conflicts of interest
between your personal and professional relationships.
Ethical advertising – Airtel Complies with all legal requirements which include intellectual
property rights. It works extra to avoid any derogatory references or stances towards an
individual, community, race, religion, national origin, ethnic origin, marital status or disability
Dealing with the media and outside community – Airtel employee are not authorized to deal
directly with the media or the financial community, including providing personal opinions, while
representing themselves as an employee of the Company. Any request for information must be
directed to the Corporate Communication Department or to it’s the Investor Relations
Department.
Another corporate behavior to observe is to avoid the following as it may reflect a bad behavior
to the outside community;
Airtel should never mistreat its customers, irrespective of whether they have a valid complaint or
not
Airtel does not participate in trade practices that impose an unjustified cost on the customer
Seek guidance and permission when you do have to interact with the media and outside
community
REFERENCE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_behaviour
https://www.slideshare.net/antuvane/business-etiquette-9411803