Questions:
1. Ethics and corporate social responsibility?
2. Introduction of McDonalds?
3. Social implication?
4. Three social issues faced by McDonald?
5. Business activities?
6. Issues of the business?
Answers:
Introduction:
Business ethics includes the actual business policies and practices regarding the controversial issues. The organisations follow the ethics to get the proper outcome of the business. The issues of business could be corporate governance, bribery, trading and discrimination, corporate social responsibility and fiduciary responsibilities. In this context, the researcher has analysed the business ethics of McDonalds through analysing different aspect of the business process in the market. The researcher has discussed some social issues and the core business activities. The researcher has analysed the business issues of McDonalds in an appropriate manner (Ahmed and Goodwin 2012).
1. Ethics and corporate social responsibility:
An organisation has an economic responsibility in the market. The company must earn enough return for their stockholders. The corporate social responsibilities suggest the social responsibility that the organisation must maintain to enhance the business opportunity in the market. It goes beyond the economic responsibilities of the business. Corporate social responsibility facilitates the organisation to expand the business in the large demographic. It includes all stakeholders such as employees, customers, suppliers, local population, local government, international organisation etc (Azubuike and Oguzor 2013). some business follow the social responsible for increasing the brand popularity in the market as it plays a major role to maintain healthy relation with the consumers and other members of the society.
On the other hand, the managers and the higher authority of the organisation must follow the ethical responsibilities in order to run the business in a systematic manner. The superiors of the business often follow their own code of conducts to enhance the business profitability. Over the years, many organisations and firm have been trying to develop the code of conduct. Through the engagement of the business ethics, the organisation could achieve the employee loyalty (Brigham and Johns 2012). It also strengthens the management team bond.
2. Introduction of McDonalds:
McDonalds is the most popular chin of hamburger fast food restaurants in the world. The organisation provides the flawless services to 68 million consumers in 119 countries. It has more than 36000 stores across the world. The stores are operated either by the franchisee or by the business itself. The entire profits of the business come from several sources such as rent, royalties and the fees paid by the franchisees in the market. The main products of McDonalds are hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and chicken, French fries, breakfast items, desserts, milkshake and soft drinks (McDonald’s.UK. 2016).
The business was first opened in the United States in 1940. The restaurant starts their business as a barbecue restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald. Ray Kroc, a businessperson joined the business as a franchisee agent in 1955. The organisation collects the revenue from various franchisee sources. McDonalds directly own 15% of their entire restaurants and the rest part are operated by various franchisee and joint ventures. The organisation has total assets of US$34.281 billion as of 2015. The net income of the business is US$4.529 billion dollar in 2015. However, the company is the most popular fast food chain in the world; they have some issues on the core business ethics (McDonald’s.UK. 2016).
3. Social implication:
The social implications suggest those strategy of the organisation that impact on the society. These problems are related with the number of activities such as follows:
- Financial Morals
- Principals of human resource management
- Manufacture related beliefs
- Morals of the sales and marketing
- Ethics in intellectual assets
In economic dealing, there is a chance of unethical behaviour in the business. The business regulations and the voluntary codes attempt to follow the ethical practices. Finance ethics have other parts such as corruption, executive pay, insider trading and lobbying. Corruption or bribery is a form of corruption where the financial powers want to gain their business unethically in the market (Business operations 2016).
Ethics in human resource management ensure that there is no discrimination in the advertised-job. Production of goods can be the ethical problem for the business. Some business tries to generate the revenue unethically from the market. In some cases, businesses own the creative work unethically to enhance the business opportunity in the market (Fiene 2013).
4. Three social issues faced by McDonald:
a. Obesity:
Obesity is a growing problem of McDonalds in the market. Initially, it was an American problem. The French fries are the most common food of McDonalds and it leads up to the future health issues for the customers. It is observed that 40% of kids are facing the diabetes problems. It cases the overweight issues for the teenagers and others consumers. The calories of the foods are very high. The average fast food meal of McDonalds contains 1500 calories. However, the overeating may cause the obesity issues. The health problem like diabetes can take away 27 years of life from an individual. The effect of this issue creates a negative image in the market. Two teenagers and two Bronx franchises have frequented damages related to their obesity (Business operations 2016).
b. Animal cruelty:
Animal cruelty is a big issue in McDonalds. The eggs used by McDonalds in the US come from chicken farm. It is the most abusive factory farming system. The cages used in the firm are very tiny and the chickens can barely move in those cages. They have received many negative feedbacks for their chicken processing system and hence, the organisation has stopped that process. In Europe, McDonalds has received awards for removing this system form their business (Murray 2012).
c. Globalisation or Genetically Modified foods:
The organisation has been facing issues for using the genetically modified foods. The primary attraction of McDonalds is French fries and therefore, they use the genetically modified potato to enhance the taste of the food. As a result, the consumer faces health issues. Genetically modified potato may have the better taste but very unhealthy. Theses potatoes are modified using a technology called RNA interference, which effectively silence the genes that instigate browning (Pardamean and Setyodewi 2014). Therefore, the organisation has analysed this facts and has decided to avoid the genetically modified potato for their foods.
5. Business activities:
The business activities of McDonalds can be described as follows:
a. Finance:
McDonald restaurant in UK is a subsidiary of the US. The parent company first opened their UK restaurant in Woolwich in 1974. There are 1200 restaurants making business in the country, which represents the 4% of all restaurant chain across the world. It contributes the 7% of global profits. It makes the UK, a strong financial market for McDonald’s shareholders. The business knows the vales of integrated accounting and the finance function. Each individual in the organisation is structured as an independent business.
b. Human Resource:
Within the McDonalds, the human resource team actively supports the business to get success in the market. The business has been growing in the large demographic and it encourages the HR team to motivate the employees and all staff for better productivity in the business. They conduct regular staff surveys of the entire process and motivate employees. The higher authority of the organisation provides different tools to the managers so that they could track the employee performance (Pezet 2014). The managers try to provide the best environment for their employees. It allows the organisation to collect best experiences of their customers in the market.
c. Production:
McDonalds has different number of suppliers and manufacturers for all products. These suppliers are from the UK and around the world. For examples, the beef patties are made of 100% British and Irish Beef. The sole suppliers in Scunthorpe make these. The organisation collects their fresh onion from the America (McDonald’s.UK. 2016).
6. Issues of the business:
There are many challenges of McDonalds such as bring back customers, take on products for low income people, tackle the bad customers by paying staff more, obesity issues, and animal cruelty. The organisation has been facing the biggest issue on obesity. Most of the teenagers are reportedly claim that they are facing health issues like obesity and diabetes. It affects their business environment in the market. The organisation has previously affected by its animal cruelty behaviour in the firm. However, they stopped that practices in many places. The stakeholders of the organisation face problem in maintaining proper business flow in the market, as they have to consider the negative feedback such as obesity issue, pricing issue, animal cruelty and others (White 2013). However, the organisation has taken initiatives for resolving the problem. Some of the issues are been eradicated from the process. For example, the organisation has decided to avoid the genetically modified potato for making their favourite French fries.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that the business ethics and corporate social responsibilities facilitate the organisation to maintain the flow of the business in the market. In this context, the researcher has provided the detail analysis of the business activities of McDonalds along with its core issues in the business. McDonalds is the most known fast-food chain services in the world. In spite of having several issues, the organisation has been making effective business growth in the market. Therefore, the researcher has enlightened the research study by analysing the internal business ethics of McDonalds.
References
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