EST1 Task 1
(Ethical Situations in Business)
Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Company Q is a small grocery store that faces multiple roadblocks that a bigger national chain does not normally face. These roadblocks may include things like brand recognition, disposable income, sales on their stock, advertising and the capability to help other stores that maybe facing poor sales.

Being a smaller company they may operate with a different code of ethics and have different areas of emphasis. A large chain store may have the capability to absorb losses that resulted from theft, etc. but a smaller chain store may not be capable of doing so. Company Q has had to close down a couple of stores due to these stores not being able make a profit. With this closure they have had to redirect there priorities. At the end of the day it is about money and Company Q is not a non-profit organization so they have to be primarily accountable to their financial statements to survive.

With the food bank asking if Company Q would donate some day old organic foods, Company Q had to make a choice. The socially responsible choice would be to donate food to help out the people within the neighborhood, however Company Q has legit concerns in regards to the possibility of employees stealing the donated food and taking it home instead of donating it to the local food bank. Company Q made the choice to dispose of the food instead of dealing with the possibility of theft from their employees. I think Company Q did not to initiate the time and resources to develop a policy to mitigate risk of theft from their employees. They had focused their priority on sustaining the financial bottom line. I don’t think this company could afford to give away this amount of food and at the same time handle the effects of theft that could possible occur without a policy.

Company Q lacks any form social responsibility in this regard. Company Q feels that their loyalties should be focused on the owner(s) of the company and not so much the local community. This is proven by the act of Company Q closing down the two stores in the high crime rate areas citing the continual decline of money from these stores as a reason. Also the rejection of the food banks requests confirms the perception of total deficit of social responsibility Company Q has for the surrounding community.

Here are my recommendations I see that will assist them in adjusting their attitude toward the significance of social responsibility.

The first recommendation that I would have is to create, modify or enforce a code of ethics if one already exists. The ethics code could contain the primary focus and direction of the company. A code of ethics will provide a framework of behavior that is expected from employees. This would affect how employees treat and engage with each other and also with the public. How they engage with the public will be the key here. If people e are treated well while shopping they are more likely to overlook other things that they may not like about the company. For example their refusal to donate the day old food to the food bank.

Second there should be a comprehensive list of primary stakeholders and they would be listed from primary to secondary. The primary stakeholders are the stakeholders that have some kind of regular transaction with the company. A list like this would need to be known by management and all important decisions that are made would have to take this list into full deliberation. In having this list available some of the big tough decisions would be much easier to negotiate. For example if the most significant stakeholders are the customers, then they are the ones that would have the most influence on the progress of the stores. So if there is a request by enough “significant stakeholders” to bring in certain types of foods, the leadership would have been able to move on that quickly because they would want to satisfy their primary stakeholders the customers. If they had the will of the customers in mind when the first store broke ground they could have already had a policy in play on how to handle this situation. This policy would give them a guideline on to handle certain types of requests they could submit to.

The final recommendation I would have for Company Q is to get involved in the community by actually going in the streets with “food vans” and give out free food to those people who come out to get it. I would have managers out their too. These managers would have tags or badges that would indicate that they are managers as well. In having the managers and the employees engage in the local community and serving the public, the public’s opinion will change of Company Q. The public will observe that Company Q really does care about the local community.

With these recommendation, company Q could really turn around their public image and they will get kudos on social responsibility. Company Q could see a huge increase in sales and at the same time ensure the happiness of stakeholders and also the local community.