Thesis
It is a company’s responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of its customers. Companies are expected to provide their customers with healthy and safe products and a safe environment. They should also treat customers well and with respect.
An ethical event in Starbucks
Description of the company
Starbucks is a coffee company and one of the largest fast-food restaurants that operate globally. Starbucks Canada has 1,200 chains licensed and operating Canada. This company deals with coffee and fast foods. Starbucks Canada is under the leadership of Michael Conway as its president (“Starbucks Coffee Company,” n.d.).
Example of event
Due to an incident at Starbucks in Philadelphia, the United States whereby two black men who had been initially denied to use the washroom and later arrested, Michael Conway, the president of Starbucks Canada, ordered for all the stores to be closed through a memo in order for a training to be conducted on its employees (The Canadian Press, 2018). The training session was based on improving business ethics by addressing implicit bias as well as promoting conscious inclusion. Starbucks Canada strongly believes that ethical standards have to be observed. Therefore, before such unethical incident or racial bias happens in Starbucks Canada, the president saw that it was important to close down the stores one of the afternoons in order to conduct training that was aimed at addressing implicit bias and also promoting conscious inclusion (The Canadian Press, 2018).
Result
As a result, the employees were able to get refresher training on their acceptable ethical conduct at work. All employees were able to comply with the corporate ethics of this company and act ethically (The Canadian Press, 2018). After the training, there was no incidence of any unethical conduct that was reported. This shows that the training was effective in teaching Starbucks employees how to behave ethically and treat their customers well.
An unethical event in McDonald’s
Description of the company
McDonald’s is a fast food restaurant operating globally. It is under the leadership of Richard and Maurice McDonald. There are about 1400 McDonald’s stores in Canada (“McDonalds Canada,” n.d.).
Example of event
A certain 8 months pregnant woman was served a cleaning solution in place of latte that she had ordered. She passed by a drive-thru in Alberta Canada to buy a cup of latte. Unfortunately, one of McDonald’s employees ignorantly served her cleaning solution instead of a cup of latte. This was because of the lack of proper cleaning procedure and also the absence of labeling that help in guiding the one serving the drinks (BBC, 2018). Additionally, the employee acted unethically by ignorantly serving Sarah Douglas the customer with a cleaning solution in place of a latte without confirming and checking if the drink was healthy for drinking. It is the responsibility of McDonald’s employees to ensure the safety of their customers by ensuring that they serve them healthy food (BBC, 2018). McDonald’s, therefore, acted unethically by failing to fulfill its duty of ensuring the safety of its customers as well as serving its customers with healthy food.
Result
As a result, this incident led to damage to McDonald’s reputation. In fact, the customer would not accept another cup of latte as compensation because she had already lost trust in McDonald’s food (BBC, 2018). To save their reputation, the management took immediate action by reviewing their proper cleaning procedures and also added signage as a reminder so as to avoid confusion.