Ethical Issues in Business

SUBDOMAIN 310.2 - ETHICS



Competency 310.2.1: Ethical Issues in Business - The graduate can determine ethical and socially responsible courses of action in a given business situation.



Objective 310.2.1-05: Evaluate a given situation to determine a company’s attitude toward social responsibility.

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Introduction:



Many believe that business entities should have an ethical duty to be socially responsible, to work towards increasing its positive effects on society while decreasing its negative effects. Many organizations look for opportunities to be socially responsible while also creating shareholder wealth.



Given:



Company Q is a small local grocery store chain located in a major metropolitan area. They have recently closed a couple of stores in higher-crime-rate areas of the city, reportedly because these two stores were consistently losing money. After years of requests from customers, all of their stores have started offering a very limited amount of health-conscience and organic products—all of which were high margin items. When asked by the area’s food bank for donation of day-old products, management declined deciding instead to throw the food away, citing worries over lost revenues due to possible fraud and stealing by employees who might say they are donating the food.



Task:



Write a brief essay responding to the given statement (suggested length of 2–3 pages) in which you:

A. Evaluate Company Q’s current attitude toward social responsibility.



B. Recommend three actions that Company Q could take to improve the company’s attitude toward social responsibility.



C. When you use sources, include all in-text citations and references in APA format.