Business Research Ethics
Week 2 RES/351
Business Research Ethics
Purchasing and research are essential to the growth of any business. Without accurate and continuous up to date research within the purchasing field any business allows their company to be at the risk of a financial crisis. Vendor sourcing and cost reduction are two of the vital purchasing duties that call for research. Researching vendors requires one to fully understand the demand of product that the company is requiring. The senior buyer, or buyer must then conduct research to locate potential vendors to conduct business with. This research requires the buyer to obtain at times company history of safety rules and regulations, this documentation is called OSHA logs. At times it is required that the business history with other companies is provided as references to support the companies’ quality of product or work. Samples are requested for new product pieces and even tooling for product establishment. Price comparison in today’s market is vital and shipment delivery estimated time of arrival is part of the research and decision making process. Research is required throughout the whole process of purchasing as it specially reflects how well a buyer, senior buyer and or purchasing manager understands the company, the business, and the market.
Purchasing has many ethical practices that should always be respected and applied daily. Unethical practices not only discredit the department but effect finances to where investigations are necessary. Senior buyers and buyers must always confirm new vendor or business existence and reliability. Playing a vendor or supplier against another by disclosing price and product is one of the biggest unethical practices that take place within the purchasing department. Proper protocol would be to request bids from each vendor and base decisions upon the bidding request information. Orders must not be requested or conducted without a purchase order as the purchase order is a binding contract. Purchasing is responsible to ensure that all requested orders are for business purposes rather than personal purposes, as this can raise the question of how finances are allocated.
Finance, accounting and purchasing all pay the consequences for unethical behaviors that part take in the workplace. Majority of the daily decisions made within the purchasing department include finances and therefore money is always a factor. If purchasing happens to not perform the research of assuring the business is authorize, capable and a viable source to deliver the requested product or service, yet pays in advance for such. Purchasing costs the company to have acquired a loss that more than likely will not turn into a return. Such discrepancies can cause extreme circumstances to take place such as lawsuits, business integrity diminished and company finances lost. Investors typically work close with purchasing and finance to assure that they are looking forward to a return rather than a loss. Unethical decisions made not only affect the department but the buyer, senior buyer or purchasing manager. Such consequences that the employee faces can lead up to one losing their job and possibly being exiled from working in such a department within another company. The company as a whole usually loses business with clients internally and externally and in most cases vendor refuse to work with these unethical business as well.
Warranting a standardize process and training is one of the solutions to confirming that purchasing is running ethically. Appointing an individual that understands the