The first word that comes to the mind of most people when they hear the word business is profit. There is a balancing act that any business enterprise needs to perform between maximizing their profit and meeting the needs or the demands of the consumer to sustain itself in the market. There are certain ethics which a company must depict to show professionalism, towards their stakeholders, employees, consumers etc.
One of the main dimensions of exhibiting ethical responsibility is towards employees.
McDonalds, which is a world renowned franchise, is also famous for its unethical approach towards its employees.
Factually, a quarter of a million dollars was donated by one of its founders for Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign and in turn a legislation was passed which allowed companies like McDonalds to pay 20% less than the fixed wage rate to the employees who are in their teens. McDonalds also didn’t allow their employees to form unions. For instance, it immediately closed the formed group in Quebec as soon as they got to know of the presence of a union.
This was a classic example in which money and power combined to have such a damaging effect on the image of the franchise from the consumers and the employees’ point of view.
There is absolutely no way by which a company can survive for a long period of time if the consumers and the employees related to it show any kind of disinterest in it. A company is justified for taking decisions to maximize their profit but it has to also factor in the interest and the satisfaction of the employees. Although, an unhappy group of employees hampers the image of the business in a very small way but this disinterest is shown so evidently that the consumers also get aware of it.
Let’s take the case of WalMart, a company which is commonly used as an example while discussing bad ethics.
Various law firms take WalMart to the court regularly alleging the company for unethical practices. In some instances, the reason of the registered case was that it forced workers to work overtime and without any pay for the extra hours the employees put in. It also denied health insurance to their employees.
Such an unhealthy and most importantly unethical approach of such big companies is disheartening to know about. Some companies don’t understand the fact that this unethical practice shows in the behaviour of the interested and concerned parties like the employees and this unpleasantness continues to flow and ultimately reaches their consumers. The companies need to realize the importance of understanding the impact of practicing business ethics in the appropriate way as quickly as possible.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
- www.brighthub.com/office/entrepreneurs/articles/115557.aspx
- Google Images
