The World’s Most Ethical Companies

            American Express is one of the most ethical companies in the world. It deals with providing goods and services to customers hence enabling them to improve their living standards and promote their businesses. It also promotes social responsibility among its workers and customers by ensuring fair transactions on all their products without using corruption to exploit their customers. They provide quality services to workers hence making them to have trust in their products. It has ensured use of innovative methods in production of their products and services hence ensuring success of the company. It also promotes good ethical environment which ensures understanding in all sectors and goodwill of the workers.

The Company’s Consumer Relations

            American Express ensures customer satisfaction in conducting its business. The Company provides options for return protection to its customers. This option allows customers a period of 90 days to test whether the products they obtained from the company are of good quality. However, if the customer is not satisfied with the quality of the product, he or she can return it to the company before the end of the ninety days.

It also offers extended warranties to their products. The extension period goes above one year over the period dictated by the manufacturer. This allows the customers to have an amble time to fully confirm the quality of the products. These services have enabled the Company to attract many customers since they are assured of getting good quality products which are returnable in case of dissatisfaction.

Environment Relations with the Company

            The company introduced an environment program was aimed at ensuring maximum production without impacting negatively to the environment. This program ensured conservation of energy which was achieved through installation of energy-efficient technology and controls to monitor power usage. The lighting systems were also modified to promote proper usage of power hence conserving the surplus energy.

It also incorporated waste reduction plans which were executed through encouraging workers to consider using of paperless mechanisms in presenting their statements. They also influenced employees in their cafeterias to consider offering organic foods and reusing fryer oils in order to ensure economical utilization of the environmental resources.

Employee Relations with the Company

American Express offers employees with guidance and counseling in order to improve their performance and overcome the challenges which they often face while at work. It also ensures that proper disciplinary actions are taken against the defiant workers in order to promote the overall performance of the Company.

The Company also conducts investigations into the complaints of the employees in order to determine the best actions to be undertaken to ensure satisfaction to all workers. The investigations help the Company to know why some sectors performed poorly hence giving the employees a chance to explain their setbacks. Therefore, it plans for the necessary changes which should be made to ensure improved in performance in all sectors.

Company Policies

The policies of the company ensure that every customer is comfortable after buying their products or services through promoting of privacy. They introduced a data security policy which protects the company and its customers from malicious activities which might be done by hackers. This policy is divided into five sections whereby the first section addresses protection of the data concerning cardholders and authentication of crucial information. It ensures that the data should only be stored to facilitate transactions with the company and not to expose the customers to potential harm. The second section deals with obligations of data incident management. It states that if any issues are noted concerning the data storage, the customer should notify the company within 24 hours. This is aimed at giving the company amble time to manage such situations before any consequences are experienced. The third part is about indemnity obligations during data incidents. It outlines the guidelines which would be used by the company to deals with such cases. The company declares its determination to deal with such matters without violating any of their regulations. The fourth section outlines the procedures which should be used to validate the American Express cards both annually and quarterly while the last section deals with disclaimer declaration which indicates all issuers of American Express cards are not third parties to the company.

There are also card acceptance policies which give the customer a chance to go through documentation of the features and the services which would be rendered through the cards. It then allows them to make decisions whether to acquire the cards or ignore the offer after analyzing their expectations concerning the card. The card involves security features which help the merchants to access to it in case it is altered. These policies ensure that all customers are conversant with the security details in order to help them to know any altered cards.

These policies are comprehensive to ensure that every crucial activity concerning the company and its publics is addressed. This has promoted understanding between all the members interacting with the company hence minimizing the possibility of conflicts. It has complied with the laid procedures of business operations by the government such as renewal of business licenses and disclosing the relevant information to its shareholders. This has ensured close monitoring of the company’s progress in order to make the proper decisions concerning how the business activities can be altered to increase its profits.

 However the company should employ more mechanisms in relation to environment in order to promote good relations with nature. Although the company has undertaken measures to reduce waste and to conserve energy, it should also take further steps to introduce ways of generating energy and providing water even to the neighboring society. These ways can be achieved through starting campaigns for tree planting in the areas. Since trees act as water catchment areas they would assist in raising the ground water table hence ensuring easy access to water. These trees can be useful in improving the natural setup of the area and also in ensuring atmospheric balance. The company releases gases such as carbon (IV) oxide and carbon monoxide which may cause atmospheric imbalance. Therefore, the trees absorbs the unwanted gases and release oxygen during the day which is necessary for human respiration. Planting of trees would also curb desertification within the area which would be brought by cutting down of trees to provide furniture for construction purposes.

It can also sponsor drilling of dams within the area in order to provide enough water for industrial purposes and also for domestic use by members of the neighboring community. This would reduce the competition for natural resources between the company and the surrounding community. For instance, establishment of dams would provide enough water for industrial use in cooling and washing of machines and also for irrigation purposes by the neighboring farmers. This would promote the relationship between the community and the company hence ensuring its success in conducting business operations. It would also create jobs for the local people hence improving their living standards. Therefore, it would have established a good market for its products since the purchasing ability of the locals would increase due to improvement of their living standards. Promoting irrigation within the surrounding environment would also ensure provision of raw materials to the company at fair prices since there would be no high expenses incurred due to transportation costs as opposed to obtaining raw materials from far areas.

Conclusion

The success of American Express has been contributed to by the good relationship which the company has established with its publics. The workers have been comfortable with their working environment since it takes care of their needs. This has established motivation in them and loyalty to the management of the company hence increasing the overall performance of the company. It has also established a friendly neighborhood by creating job opportunities to the local people. This has facilitated towards the smooth running of the company’s operations since it does not face any opposition from the neighboring society.

Introduction of innovative techniques in the production sector has promoted efficiency hence leading to low expenses. This has enabled the company to provide products to their customers at affordable prices while still ensuring profits.

Contesting of State Legitimacy on China’s Internet Today

The incorporation of internet to the leadership of China has led to a great change in the legal system of the country. It has promoted the justice system since judges are able to access the internet to seek for guidance about dealing with cases. It has also laid a platform for activists to argue political matters concerning the state which should be modified.However, this has opened chances for contesting of various parties concerning what is right and the kind of leadership which the citizens of the state view as being favorable to them. The leaders in the legal system of the country face challenges from activists who use the internet to anticipate for change and enlighten other members of the society to demonstrate against decisions made by their government.

            Internet was fully incorporated in to the systems of the state of China in 1994 in order to promote the socialist market economy. However, this decision led to intrusion of other effects from external parties into the internet project.It led to integration of communication through social networks in the state which resulted to formation of movements to protest against some decisions made by their government. Activists used the Internet largely to enlighten the locals about the unfair decisions made by the government and advise them about the revolutionary measures which should be taken to ensure better leadership. Since 1994, the justice system of China has been largely affected by the Internet through being influenced by other elites worldwide on the best methods of leadership which they should consider using. Though Internet has led to significant changes in the country, the Republic of China has taken measures to secure its decisions from being controlled entirely by the Internet sources.

            The government introduced censorship of internet which ensured that it had control over the communications which were being made through the Internet sources. According to Amnesty International, The Republic China registered the largest number of prisoners who are accused of using the Internet to incite the public. Most the cases which these imprisoners are accused of include; inciting the public to demonstrate against corruption of their government, communicating with other activists outside the country, and signing of online petitions. The government was forced to make policies which govern communication through Internet sources due to the immergence of a high number of protests which were aimed at influencing the government to change its methods of governance.

            The government has taken control over provision of information through the internet hence affecting the boldness in communication between the local people because of the fear of being arrested. For instance, in 2001 Wang Xiaoning, a Chinese activist, was arrested because of posting anonymous information on the Internet through his Yahoo Mail Account. He was then sentenced for 10 years imprisonment which scared other activists who were anticipating for change in the leadership of the country.In 2008, Liu Shaokun, who was a teacher in Sichuan Province, was sentenced to one year of correction through labor because of inciting disturbance. He was accused of writing information through the Internet which caused unrest among the members of the society. Shaokun had posted information about the misery which was facing the children who were injured during collapsing of school buildings.

            However, the efforts of the Chinese government to control all communications through the Internet have not fully eliminated the work of the activists to enlighten the members of the society. Bloggers and other Internet users have employed use of coded information which seems to hold simple literal meanings but it triggers a lot of reasoning to the readers. They communicate as if they intend to praise the government of its good governance but incorporate sections of recommendations. These sections help to expose the uninformed decisions which were made by the government to the society using a polite way.

            According to researchers from university of California and New Mexico, censorship cannot act as a perfect firewall to control communications through the Internet. They have shown that there are a lot of communications which pass unnoticed because the screening is impacted on few components of the servers. Therefore, the Chinese government has not fully secured all communication systems on the Internet to ensure that the citizens abide to the set laws.State Legitimacy can only be promoted through advising the local people through the Internet to follow the correct channels in order to present their claims to the government. This would make them to stop relying on activists for advice entirely hence minimizing the likelihood of emergence of rebel movements.

            Internet has exposed the Chinese law courts to public scrutiny were by the decisions in various cases are influenced by other officials, the media and also individual protesters who have different opinions from the ones held by the judges. Therefore, people are allowed to protest against certain rulings made by the court hence making the cases to be set for another hearing.The evaluation ofjudges has also been based on interests of their superiors and not according to the justice standards of the state. This has manipulated them to make decisions according to the majority opinions in order to maintain their jobs.

            The government has been forced to consider the popular opinions in the state even though they have applied censorship of internet communications. This is aimed at ensuring stability in their governance since going against the majority opinion would result to conflicts. Therefore, the Chinese legal system has been based upon interests of the powerful people in the society. This has denied the judges a chance to work independently hence impairing the efforts to ensure justice to all citizens regardless of their social class. The Internet has only provided a chance for activism to the few elites who are courageous to declare their stand regardless of the reaction of the government. This has forced it to consider the recommendations which are proposed by the citizens.

            It has also become hard for the Chinese legal systemto make rulings according to the provisions of their constitution since it is being influenced by other external forces. For instance, the judges are allowed to access the Internet to seek guidanceabout how other judges in other countries dealt with similar cases as they are presented with. This makes them to deviate from their constitution and copy other nations in order to settle disputes in the society. The effectiveness of the Chinese courts has been affected significantly since they cannot be trusted in ensuring justice to members of the high social class. The government prohibited the judges from making rulings which would interfere with the social stability in the country. Therefore, any cases triggering class action in China are rejected by the courts. This makes the low and the middle class members to lose trust in their state’s justice system.

            The contest for state legitimacy in China is mostly between the political elites which form the ruling class and other activists in the society who anticipate for better governance. The struggle for promoting law abidingness among the citizens has taken different dimensions though the government tries to incorporate the systems for ease of monitoring. There has been struggle for dominance of control of information between the ruling class and other elites in the society. The government has ensured that the use of Internet is not directed towards intimidating the government or inciting members of the society. However, even after establishing policies to govern the use of Internet, this has not discouraged activists from protesting against uninformed decisions which are made by the government.

            The government seems to have achieved little in the contests since censoring the Internet acted as a confirmation to the entire society that there are evil deeds which it is protecting from being exposed. Therefore, this has made it easier for the activists to win the majority support and manipulate the government to consider making fair decisions.

Conclusion

            Internet has transformed the legal system of the state and modified the decision making process to include opinions of third parties. Though it has interfered with the loyalty of the state to its constitutions, it has promoted making of cautious decisions in order to avoid conflicts in the society. The move is also based on the selfish interests of the government to ensure ease of governance by eliminating opposition which may be initiated by activists through the social networks.

           

References

Asharf, and Richard. John Locke: Critical Assessments. London: Routledge, 1991.

Dahl, and Robert. Polyachy: Participation and Opposition. London: Yale University Press, 1971.

Dogan, and Mattei. Conceptions of Legitimacy, Encyclopedia of Gevernment and Politics. London: Routledge, 2003.

Lipset, and Seymour Martin. Political Man: The Social Bases of Political. London: Heinemann, 1983.

Sternberger, and Dolf. Legitimacy: International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. New York: Macmillan, 1968.