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Ethical Situations in Business
Overview
310.2.1-05
Directions
Evaluation Method
Part A - Evaluation of Company Q's attitude toward social responsibility
Company Q is a small local grocery store chain in a large metropolitan area. They are challenged with many of the same problems other small businesses face every day. One of these challenges is to be socially responsible. A definition of social responsibility is an organization's obligation to maximize its positive impact on stakeholders and to minimize it negative impact. In this section I will evaluate Company Q's current attitude toward social responsibility and what impact their attitude might have on their most important stakeholders.
The first situation is that Company Q has recently closed a couple of stores in high crime areas. They say it is because of these stores were constantly losing money. I believe Company Q is not acting socially responsible in this case because they may not have thought of the negative impact on two of their most important stakeholders, customers and employees. The customers of these closed stores may no longer have a place near their homes to shop. Many people in high crime areas come from low income households and may not have the means to travel far distances to do their shopping. Many customers are local to the neighborhood and must walk to the stores they frequent. The employees of these stores most likely live in the surrounding neighborhoods as well. They are faced with the same challenge of finding transportation to and from work. When their place of employment closes they are faced with becoming unemployed and having to find new work, which may be a far from home. A low income community is dependant upon their local businesses for support. I believe Company Q did not take into consideration its local stakeholders when they decided to close these stores.
The next situation is that Company Q started...