Business Ethics Sample

CPT – HRE 4M1 Ethical Issues in Our Society

Introduction

Business ethics also known as corporate ethics deals with moral or ethical problems faced by a business environment. It deals with several moral aspects of business activities. Business national or international has to be responsible towards the environment and not only look towards its profit. These ethics apply to all aspects of business handling of every individual working for the organization and the entire organization (Jennings, 2014). It stresses the fact that environmental and human safety comes first then profit. It targets various issues like environmental concerns, labor practices, animal welfare, health concerns, etc. Various business companies under pressure from the government, human-right groups, stakeholders, trade unions, and customers are trying to justify that their business activities are held on terms of ethics.

Task 1

1.1 Issues related to McDonalds: –

Several issues are associated with McDonald’s. Issues like obesity, noise, litter, animal rights, deforestation, globalization, etc. Obesity has become a common health problem for human beings who tend are frequently eat various fast foods in their day-to-day lives. Mcdonald’s is a fast food company whose eatables contain a lot of oil, calories, and preservatives. Heavy consumption of these fast foods can cause obesity in individuals. Not only are the presence of different chemical preservatives responsible for causing health problems like nose congestion and headache (Jones, Gautschi, 2013). Several foods and beverages from Mcdonald’s are packed in cardboard boxes and plastics which are thrown outside the Mcdonald’s outlets even though there are dustbins that cause the problem of litter. Different fast food firms use animal meat that they get from animal farming industries. Most of the animals suffer in misery and are forced cruelly to breed and are deprived of their basic life. Setting up different firms requires space which also leads to deforestation and globalisation.

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1.2 Factors affected by ethics for McDonald’s

Ethics have affected activities like finance, marketing, operations, HR, legislation, etc. In finance, unethical actions like bribery and all other forms of corruption are eliminated. Higher payments to top executives are kept under check. In marketing spamming and lying to the clients by doing false advertisements is stopped as both are unethical means of marketing. In operations, the experiment on animals is tried to be minimized as using animals for one’s profit can be very unethical (Qiu, 2013). In human resource management, it is kept in view that no discrimination on any basis is done. Every employee and staff should treat other employees and staff with equal respect and proper behavior. It should also ensure the safety of customers and hear their grievances to solve their problems. Many new rules and regulations are formed on the track of ethics (Reidenbach & Robin,2013). These legislations may range from finance in stopping corruption to HR in ensuring equality.

1.3- Social Implications of business ethics facing McDonald’s

Social implications involve different business conducts and their effects on society. The different fast foods processed in McDonald’s contain high calories and preservatives which affect the health conditions of the consumers. According to ethics, it has started using healthier supplies for better quality food (Rossouw & Van, 2013). Mcdonald’s puts considerable effort into controlling the littering of cardboard and plastics used by it. Hence, leading to fewer complaints from neighboring people. Mcdonald’s also trains farmers to produce better coffee beans and also gives them the required tools for better production. Hence it has a positive impact on society creating a good impression on consumers.

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1.4 Stakeholders and their effects on them

Stakeholders are the people who can be affected or can affect the objectives, actions, and policies of the organization Mcdonald’s being a food industry can have employees, staff, government, customers, and suppliers as its stakeholders. Customers and the government are external stakeholders while employees, staff, and suppliers are internal stakeholders. Stakeholders will be both positively and negatively affected by the ethical issues and McDonald’s steps to solve the issues (Shaw,2016). McDonald’s has changed its ingredients for the better and healthier. Hence customers as stakeholders will profit as they get to eat safer and nutritious food. Customers will have improved health conditions and they will be happy with the changes. On the other hand, suppliers will be negatively affected as McDonald’s will drop many of its previous suppliers and rely on new suppliers for healthier and natural products. The new suppliers being more costly will increase the cost of production which will increase the price of food products (Tsalikis & Fritzsche, 2013). Suppliers will lose a large amount of income and they will have to look for another company to supply. Customers will have to pay more prices to buy a food product. The government won’t be too much affected instead it will keep earning huge income from the franchise and increased customers.

McDonald’s has handled stakeholders’ issues effectively. Mcdonald’s has started producing healthier foods using natural products which reduces obesity and is profitable for both the company and its customers. McDonalds has stopped using its mascot to avoid child exploitation (Weiss, 2014). It has stopped serving its famous chicken McNuggets and McBurger due to a scandal in Hong Kong. It has enforced specific rules that deal with the equalization of all staff and employees helping in a good working environment thus comforting employee stakeholders.

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Task 2

Ethical concerns of communities on British Petroleum:-

British Petroleum was involved in a big oil spill on the coast of the United States. On 20th April, 2010 there was a huge malfunction in an oil rig named Deep-Water Horizon. The malfunction caused a blowout having a combination of Water, natural gas, and mud. The explosion not only killed 11 employees but also caused the spilling of millions of gallons of oil in the surrounding environment. Several ethical concerns of different communities emerged regarding BP and this incident.

People in the Gulf of Mexico were highly affected by this accident. The oil spillage caused severe environmental problems to the local community. The local industries suffered huge financial losses as they were not being able to work due to oil spillage. The local seafood farming industry suffered loss as oil spillage made it almost impossible for them to carry on their business activities (Hoffman, Frederick & Schwartz, 2014). Due to pollution in the sea, many seafood industries had to shut down. Various health issues also came up due to this disaster. According to a survey, almost 72% of residents suffered from cough, eye irritation, headache, and irritation of the sinus.

Communities in Florida, Mississippi & Alabama that were highly affected were concerned about the damaging effects of oil spillage on wildlife and the environment. Oil spillage adversely affected the lives of several aquatic animals. It was a high risk for both humans and wildlife (Jennings, 2014). The impacts on seafood are still found on aquatic animals. Abnormal growth of several aquatic animals has been noticed due to toxic chemicals present in oil.

BP is associated with the production and association of several fossil fuels that have limited supply. Different communities not only got affected by the oil spillage accident but also got affected when BP tried cleaning up the mess it created. The nations that were outside the Gulf were affected when BP tried to break and evaporate crude oil. This caused various chemicals to be released into the earth’s atmosphere not only causing pollution but also increasing the risk of Ozone layer depletion and a rise in global temperature.

The harmful chemicals were released by BP into the atmosphere while breaking and evaporating the spilled oil. If wildlife or humans breathe this toxic chemical may cause severe lung disorders aggravating health issues (Arnold, Goodpaster & Weaver, 2016). People in local regions have reported that there was the smell of oil in the air even after 1 month of explosion. They also reported that their health conditions became worse due to that.

Tourism also had to bear the impact of oil spillage. Tourism plays a major role in the economic development of the Gulf region. Tourism revenue decreased in 2010 after the oil spill incident (Arnold, Goodpaster & Weaver, 2016).

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Conclusion

Business ethics is something that every organization should follow for the betterment & safety of both humans and the environment. Different business ethics along with effects on the stakeholders of Mcdonald’s have been discussed. Ethical concerns of different communities arising from oil spillage incidents caused by British Petroleum are explained.