PLEASE BE ORIGINAL AN ETHICAL DILEMMA Steven, a junior at Northeast State, just

Question

PLEASE BE ORIGINAL

AN ETHICAL DILEMMA

Steven, a junior at Northeast State, just started working part-time at a local fast food restaurant chain. Although not his dream job, it paid for tuition and books, and the restaurant gave him the flexible schedule he needed for school. After a few months, Steven found he got along well with all of his coworkers, but it was apparent they did not respect the company or the management. The employees made fun of their bosses and treated the work area like a playground. In some respects, Steven thought it was a fun environment to work in, especially after hours when management was gone for the day. They played their music loudly, laughed, and talked with one another during the down times instead of cleaning up their work areas like they were supposed to. Despite the fact there were ethical policies telling employees how they were expected to act in the workplace, these policies never seemed to be enforced. One day, while working with his coworker Julie on the food assembly table, Steven saw Julie accidentally drop a meat patty on the floor. Without so much as a flinch, she bent down, picked up the patty, stuck it back on the bun, and wrapped it up. It happened so fast that Steven wasn’t even sure he had seen right—especially since Julie had done it so casually. Steven watched in dismay as another worker took the hamburger out to the customer. Over the next few weeks, Steven saw others, including the shift supervisor, do the same thing with burgers and other products. Once, an entire cheeseburger hit the greasy floor, was picked up, and was taken to the customer. This time the customer complained the burger tasted funny and sent it back. Steven noticed other unsanitary practices such as employees not washing their hands between handling meat and vegetables and not washing utensils between uses. Obviously, such practices were against company policies and, if reported, the supervisors in charge could get in trouble and the restaurant would face investigations from the health department. However, there was ample opportunity for things like this to occur. There was no one watching them, and the shift supervisor also engaged in these activities. Steven felt it was the company’s responsibility to hire good people, so they were to blame if these things happened. One day, Steven approached Julie and asked, “Why do so many people here serve food that has fallen on the floor to customers?” Julie thought about it briefly as though she had never considered it before and replied, “I guess it’s because it would take too much time to get another beef patty out of the freezer, cook it, and serve it to the customer. This is a fast food restaurant, after all, and I’m not interested in hearing customers complain about the time it takes for them to get their food. Besides, the restaurants with the fastest service get a bonus from corporate headquarters. Last year the supervisors rewarded us with some extra money for doing our jobs so quickly.” Steven was somewhat taken aback by the honest reply and asked, “Wouldn’t you be disgusted if you were served dirty food at a restaurant?” This time Julie’s response was quick. She said, “What I don’t know won’t hurt me.” She walked off. Several weeks went by and the same practices continued. Steven became more and more concerned about the consequences that could happen in an environment so laid back and unconcerned about safety and health. It seemed like the more time that passed, the worse everyone’s attitude became. One day, at the beginning of his shift, Steven noticed the walk-in freezer had been left open. As he went to shut the door, he discovered a smell of rotten meat. It almost made him vomit. “How could this happen?” he wondered. He threw away the rotten meat without asking anyone because he was afraid of what the answer might be. After Steven threw out the spoiled meat, he began to wonder how the culture of the restaurant got to the point of supporting such practices. He realized the seemingly minor unsanitary practices allowed major issues to arise that could possibly hurt someone. Steven felt he should say or do something, but to whom? He sat down and pondered what he should do. QUESTIONS | EXERCISES

1. Describe the nature of the organizational culture in the restaurant. What kind of opportunities are there for unethical behavior to occur? Are there any opportunities for ethical behavior?

2. What are some of the incentives employees might have to engage in this type of behavior?

3. If the organizational culture of the restaurant does not change, what are some likely outcomes and consequences?

PLEASE BE ORIGINAL

Explanation / Answer

1. The nature of the organizational culture seems to be a friendly and liberal one without much restriction. There are no strict rules which allowed the employees to interact freely and even make fun of their managers. The supervisors did not monitor or control the employees which led to many unethical practices.

The opportunities for unethical practices include the free environment with no restrictions from the management. Though there were written policies, the same was not enforced by the supervisors. The management did not monitor the employees and the processes and did not try to control the employee behavior. Shift supervisor also followed these unhealthy practices. The leadership gave more importance to quick delivery than quality of food. All these factors contributed towards unethical behaviors like serving fallen food to customers and unsanitary practices like employees not washing the hands between handling meat and vegetables and not washing utensils between uses.

There are opportunities for ethical behavior if the management monitor and control the process and enforce the policies. The leadership should act as a role model by following ethics and should not encourage such unethical practices. The performance evaluation should be based on quality of food and the healthy practices followed instead of quick delivery to ensure ethics.

2. The incentives should be given to employees for being consistent on providing quality food to customers. There can be incentives awarded to the employees who follow healthy behavior at work. When the quality plays an important role in determining the performance bonuses, employee attitude towards work will change and they would not follow such unsanitary practices.

3. If the restaurant follows the same practices, some likely outcomes and consequences are as below.

Customers would identify the truth that they are served with unhealthy food and will sue the restaurant.

The restaurant chain would lose their credibility and the reputation would become so low that no one would like to have food from the restaurants under the specific organization.

Good employees would not like to join or continue in the organization.

The health department would investigate against the allegations and may cancel the restaurant’s license.

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