Leading Strategically - Free Paper Example

Introduction

Barnes & Noble, Inc. is a United States privately owned bookseller company based in New York. The company has a vast number of retails shops around the country. In leading strategically, managerial integrity and ethical behavior are of utmost importance for a company. Leading strategically is an integral part of the corporate strategy of a company. Managerial integrity and ethical behavior set the tone of the top management which should be followed by the junior workers of the organization. Any unethical behavior within the company should not be seen as an isolated occurrence. A single unethical behavior can have dire consequences for the whole company. People will see the lack of integrity and unethical behavior as the values, norms, and culture of the organization.

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Code of Ethics

Thus it is the duties of mangers to ensure they set the code of ethics the organization abides to. Today’s legal environment is tough to maneuver and it is very easy for a company to be sued for lack of integrity or unethical behavior. Barnes & Noble has also set out its ethical guidelines to be followed. Integrity and ethical behavior have been integrated into the company's operations. Internal controls are also set to ensure that anyone violating the Integrity and ethical behavior code is reprimanded.

In 2018 the chief executive officer Demos Parneros of Barnes & Noble was fired for unethical behavior. He was accused of bullying other colleagues at work and sexually harassed a female worker. The management had to take action as it was against the code of ethics of the company. If the management had let him continue as the CEO it would have set a bad precedence to the other employees of the company. It would have been seen as the company does not abide by any ethical and integrity values. This would have been disastrous to the company's reputation and strategic leadership.

According to court filings by Barnes & Noble Inc. the CEO was fired because of sexually harassing a female employee and bullying his colleagues (Trachtenberg). He further undermined the authority of its board which was trying to sell the company. Earlier that month the company was traversing the market in a bid to start a selling process. The filing further said the CEO discouraged a potential buyer from acquiring the company by talking negatively about it (Trachtenberg). The CEO consequently did not receive a severance package. In August Parneros filed a case for wrongful dismissal and that Barnes & Noble Inc., had defamed his name. He has insisted that the company founder Leonard Riggio is behind the move to fire him (Trachtenberg).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the board of directors after receiving counsel from its lawyers decided to terminate the contract of the CEO. The repercussion of Parneros actions could be disastrous to the company had the board not acted immediately. Managerial integrity and ethical behavior were not shown by the CEO. As the leader, the fellow workers look up to him to guide the company through his actions. The stakeholders of the company believe he has the best interest of the company which was not the case. A company reputation is its intangible asset and it takes many years to build one. Such a scandal can lead to a reduction in customer loyalty. The source of the story was the Wall Street Journal published in 2018.

Works Cited

Trachtenberg, Jeffrey. "Barnes & Noble Details Why Former CEO Demos Parneros Was Fired". WSJ, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/barnes-noble-details-why-former-ceo-demos-parneros-was-fired-1540935642. Accessed 11 Sept 2020.