Personal Integrity and Business Success: Business Ethics Essay

Introduction

According to Murthy (2010), business ethics involves the moral principles and guidelines that set the standard in the world people do business. In the modern world of business, organizations have a social, economic and legal responsibility to obey the laws and standards set either by the local, federal, state or international authorities. The organization should also meet the social obligation not described in the law. Lastly, every organization has a corporate social responsibility towards the community which helps the organization maximize its effects towards the general public and at the same time helps minimize its negative impacts ("Business Ethics: Oxymoron or Good Business?" n.d.). One of the ethical issues faced by an organization is sexual harassment or otherwise.

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Harassment (Sexual or Otherwise)

Harassment whether sexual or non-sexual is an ethical issue because it unfairly focuses of the satisfaction at work, advancement or promotion that one gets, retention of employees rather than those factors that determine the ability to do the job ("Harassment: Sexual and Otherwise," 2016). Harassment at workplaces has resulted in absenteeism and high employees' turnover at workplaces which in the long run affects the productivity of an organization and the employees' morale to work. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) shows that there exist two kinds of harassment that go against the civil rights of human beings (Calabresi, 2003).

The first harassment in regards to EEOC is the "quid pro quo harassment" which when translated means "this for that" (Calabresi, 2003). In this kind of harassment, sexual favors come to play in exchange for a promotion, hiring, higher wages and other job benefits. "Quid Pro Quo" could also happen in case an employee has been threatened with a demotion, termination or punishment as a consequence of not meeting the sexual demands (Calabresi, 2003).

The second kind of harassment is referred to as the "Hostile Work Environment" whereby employees are subjected to offensive sexual conduct which in turn interferes with how they perform their work since a hostile working environment is created ("Harassment: Sexual and Otherwise," 2016).

Any form of sexual harassment should be dealt with severely and should result in severe disciplinary actions which should include termination of employment. When employees are sexually harassed, they should write a verbal or written complaint to their supervisors or any other member of the management they feel free to talk to. This should open an investigation and discretion should be observed, and all form of investigation treated confidentially to avoid victimization (Calabresi, 2003). If any employees are found to have violated the harassment policy, they should be disciplined according to which should include immediate termination of the employment contract. In cases of false accusations, again the employees that made a claim should as well be disciplined which would sometime result in their immediate discharge ("Harassment: Sexual and Otherwise," 2016). During the investigations, employees who filed the case should be assured that their case will not bring any harm to them in the course of the investigation and after the investigations are concluded, they should be informed about the results.

Ethical Issues at McDonald's

McDonald's works with various charities as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) whereby it handles activities that involve the communities. However, they have faced a fair criticism as part of their CRS work has been accused of children exploitation issues. Also, McDonald involves itself in small demographics during its charity works. It can improve on this by ensuring that the CSR involved a more extensive demographic coverage and donating more charities and more community work (Murthy, 2010).

The other ethical issue faced by McDonald involves the working conditions, wages and human rights of their employees. There have been strikes at the industry as workers demanded their pay and also the right to form a union (Murthy, 2010). There have been constant reports of wage theft, mistreatment of pregnant employees and meager wages as some of their food chains. They have been accused of abusing the human rights of their employees especially in the developing countries who are given poor working hours thus affecting their health conditions. Most of their employees in these second and third world countries are underpaid.

The third ethical issue faced by McDonald involves corporate governance. Its corporate governance can be described as lacking validity because of a large number of negative issues that are often reported revolving around the company. There was evidence of the workers at McDonald repackaging expired food thus making their actions unethical towards their customer. The way to face this issue is by changing their suppliers so that they can improve on the health of their food and often ensure health checkups to ensure that the food packed is suitable for human consumption (Rendtorff, n.d.).

The fourth ethical issue with McDonald is about the care that is supposed to be given to the environment and their surroundings. There have been accusations of negligence to protect the environment of the company with their many companies around the world that pollute the environment (Rendtorff, n.d.). They also continue to use paper bags, and plastics cutlery which pollutes the environment when disposed of like plastic and polythene papers are hard to break down. They can improve on this by using alternative means of packaging materials that are easily decomposable.

References

Business Ethics: Oxymoron or Good Business? (n.d.). Issues in Business Ethics, 51-65. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-4984-2_3

Calabresi, G. (2003). Perspective on Sexual Harassment Law. Directions in Sexual Harassment Law, 47-50. doi:10.12987/yale/9780300098006.003.0003

Harassment: Sexual and Otherwise. (2016). Ethics in the University, 201-221. doi:10.1002/9781119346449.ch9

Murthy, C. S. (2010). Business ethics. Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House.Rendtorff, J. D. (n.d.). Business Ethics, Strategy, and Organizational Integrity. Business Law and Ethics, 759-773. doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-8195-8.ch039