Ethical and Socially Responsive Business
BUS 100 Intro to Business
12/14/14

The company that I have chosen to be CEO over is the Cheesecake Factory . One key area of their Code of Ethics and Code of Business Conduct Policy (http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/10/109258/Code_of_ethics.pdf ) is the first section outlining the Standards of Conduct. Having that relationship of trust, loyalty, honesty, and responsibility from your employees is huge because they are your frontline employees and are in without their commitment the business will not run smoothly. As it states in the textbook the Universal Ethical Standards includes Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness. Caring, and Citizenship (Kelly, M., McGowen, J.,& Williams, C.(2014).BUSN(6th ed.).Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.) With these guidelines a business has a foundation that it can build upon with its employees. Another key area of importance is noting that no employee has the authority to direct another employee to break any laws. This is important because some employees can abuse their power and try and find loopholes to have another employee do illegal acts. Also, to go with some employees abusing their power having the no conflicts of interest policy is good to have so they can try to limit as much favoritism as possible. Another one of the important areas in the policy is keeping Confidential Company information protected. Whether it be business trade secrets or recipes making sure to keep this information protected is huge because if competitors had this information they would have a competitive advantage. The single most important area of the policy though is making it clear that all employees deserve to be treated with fairness, dignity, and respect and that they will not tolerate abusive, discriminatory, harassing or unprofessional behavior from any manager, supervisor, vendor, guest or co-worker. This is especially important because it makes it known that no one is exempt from this rule and it will be dealt with if the type of behavior is exhibited. Key steps that companies can take to make sure that employees follow the code of conduct is making sure every employee gets a copy of it and also has to sign a copy to keep in their file, same goes for any copy that is revised or updated. Also, during orientation make sure that HR goes over the policy with all new hires. According to Ethics.org another key step that the company can take is ensuring that the organization's commitment to the code is unambiguous and clear to every employee (http://www.ethics.org/resource/what-do-after-your-code-conduct-written ). Also, ensure that every employee understands his/her personal responsibility to abide by the provisions and standards laid out in the code. Finally, ensure that employees are exposed to abundant examples of the code's utility, and how common questions about its intent and application have been resolved. One way that Cheesecake Factory can engage in socially responsive activities in the community within which it operates is giving back to the community by donating time and money to helping improve the community. Another way is that they can donate money to charitable organizations. Lastly, they can create awareness for potentially harmful activities of organizations.