Ethical Situations in Business – Task 1
Businesses are increasingly becoming involved in society and show a growing interest in social responsibility. Social responsibility means the obligation of management to undertake certain activities that will contribute to improving the welfare of the whole society. The current attitude towards social responsibilities of Company Q shows that they’ve made poor ethical choices by putting company first and community, customers and employees second. The situation of Company Q is a function of a week organization system where ethical culture is not well promoted. Their insensitive attitude towards customers, community and the employees is driven by profit margins. Closing the stores, limited supply of healthy/organic foods and not trusting employees are the three decisions made by Company Q that are hurting their reputation. Company’s Q attitude towards social responsibility needs to be improved. Closing the two stores in an area of the city that is already having difficulties and is labeled as a higher crime rate area was a lack of social responsibility towards their customers and the community. The reason given was “loss of profit” without any further explanation. Was theft one of the reasons they were constantly loosing profit? If that was the reason they should’ve installed cameras, hire a security officer, and maybe add a lock box for cash. Were they looking at the needs of their customers in that community? Did they offer the products needed by their customers? What about employees who lost their jobs? An easy analysis in customer demands and needs could’ve brought them more profit and helped keep the stores open. By making these changes they would also help people keep their jobs..
A growing number of people are aware of the importance of eating healthy. Company Q was offering healthier/organic products in a limited supply regardless of the demand and high margins these products were bringing. If so, were they able to keep up with competition? In the dynamic environment in today’s market it is important to build and maintain a good relationship with customers by offering the products in demand. Specifically, attract customers and maintain good long-term relationship with them is one of the areas in which it is possible to create a competitive advantage. Company Q should offer a variety of healthy/organic products to be available to their customers.
When asked to donate a day old products to a local food bank, management declined due to lack of confidence in their employees. . Company Q didn’t support a culture of trust in their organizations. It is showing that
Company Q needs to build trust in the employees they hire by providing their employees with a clear, fair, structure and freedom of action and expression within those limits. At