Food Safety and Quality Control at Delectables
In business, ethics is taken in three important contexts. First, ethics is concerned with not breaking work-related regulations and laws, in which case, would be interpreted as criminal. Second, is to avoid any activities or rather actions that would result into the filing of law suits against a business organization.
Lastly, ethics requires that employees and the management of business organizations act in a way that promotes the image of the business organization and not otherwise (Fieser). Therefore, lack of business ethics in a business organization or company can result to severe consequences for the company or business organization in question.
It is the lack of ethics that is the root cause of the tribulations of Georgia’s Delectable food products manufacturing company. Both the senior management and the casual employees at the company act with complete disregard to the ethical requirements in doing business.
What the human resources at Delectables need is ethical appraisal and not laying off as many would suggest. The employees need to be trained on ethical and legal issues of doing business (Fieser). The Kantian theory of ethics would be a good point to begin in order to bring change to the state of affairs at the Delectables food manufacturing company.
A new graduate hired by the Delectables Company in Georgia has good prospects to apply his fresh ideas in business ethics to transform, bring change with regard to business approach, and make a difference at the company.
To begin carrying out his responsibilities, the newly hired low-level manager will seek to have the answers to several questions. These answers will be instrumental in helping him or her to effectively perform his/her responsibilities which include improving the plant’s operations, increasing efficiency and saving costs at Delectables. The new manager will have to determine how he or she will introduce the theory and principles of ethics in business at Delectable.
Another important question that must be answered would be how to revolutionize or rather improve the quality control system at Delectables. Improving the quality control system will ensure that their products are safe for consumption with reference to the recent claims of salmonella contamination on Delectables food products.
Another issue would be how to gain competitive advantage against competitors such as Prince’s Fare. Lastly and most importantly, would be to determine what business management approaches to apply in achieving these major objectives.
The responsibility of the new manager is surely complex and it would be crucial that he blows the whistle in order to be able to bring system change at Delectables. In justifying his decision to blow the whistle, the normative theories of ethics would be of significant importance.
These theories include the Kantian theory of ethics, the Utilitarian theory of ethics and the Contract ethical theory. The problems and challenges facing Delectables stem from unethical and illegal activities and actions of the company’s management and employees.
Therefore, these three ethical theories of business ethics together with the underlying principles would provide an insight into what needs to be done at Delectables. Most importantly, the three normative theories of ethics will provide guidelines on what ought to be done in order for the manager to realize his tasks of improving the plant’s operations, increasing efficiency and saving costs at Delectables.
It would be beneficial for the new manager to blow the whistle since by doing so he will be protecting the interest of many. The contaminated food items being distributed by Delectable in addition to the deplorable condition under which the food items are being manufactured pose health thread to the intended consumers.
By blowing the whistle therefore, the new manager would be acting in an ethical manner. The Kantian principle of ends, emphasizes that individuals and business organizations such as Delectables need to put into consideration the interests of others in all their actions and decisions.
This principle prohibits individuals and business companies from disregarding the interest of others and uses them as a means to achieving their intended financial gains (Normative). The others in this case should also be an end in themselves.
Normative ethical theories and principles shape business organizations and individuals to act in an ethical and morally acceptable manner. Normative ethical theories and principles stipulate what individuals and business organizations ought to do.
They explain that the actions of individuals and business organization should be moral and ethical (Normative). For instance, employees and the management of business organizations ought to be honest. The principles of the normative ethical theories are important in assessing as well as justifying the decisions, actions and activities of employees and businesses such as those at Delectables.
James Fieser in his “Business Ethics article” posits that business philosophy advocates for morality in business operations by addressing issues that are concerned with what is right and what is wrong with regard to conduct, actions and activities.
As such, business philosophies just like the normative theories and principles of business ethics emphasize the importance of morality in keeping a business company and its employees out of trouble. Trouble may arise due to a breach of the regulations and laws formulated to govern business operations and activities. In the case of Delectables, employees and the management acted in an immoral manner by deliberately releasing into the market contaminated food products.
The application of the Utilitarian ethical theory business would mean that managers and employees alike act or rather make decisions that result in as much good compared too other available alternatives. With regard to the Delectable case, they have other alternatives in their operations other than the ones they are engaged with.
The act of utilitarian encourages decisiveness as one can not serve two masters at the same time. The utilitarian rule is that an act can only be right if it conforms to the laid down rules, laws and regulations (Normative).
The harm principle of the utilitarian theory of ethics stipulates that the society has a responsibility and is justified coercing individuals and organizations that act in a way that is harmful to the society. The actions of Delectables with reference to the utilitarian principle of harm are harmful to the society. The society in this case is the intended consumers of the contaminated food products both in Georgia and in San Lopez.
Regarding the signing of the quality control form, it would be against the expectations of the ethics in business. Signing the quality control form would mean the manager’s agreement with the rest of the pack to sell harmful food products.
The quality control director at Delectable despite poor work environment improvised “stickers” method to help with quality control at the company. Delectable lacked a proper food safety and quality control system. The improvised system was equally effective as the director was able to identify harmful food products, those that needed further testing and those which were safe.
If the new manager signs the quality control form, he would be acknowledging that all the food products manufactured by Delectable were safe for human consumption which was not he case. It would be immoral and unethical to sign the quality control form (Fieser).
In order to improve the food safety and quality control at Delectables, the new manager must first look into the potential cause of the problem. Poor employee working condition, in addition to the reluctance of the management to institute proper rules on the processes and procedures of food production, are the major causes of contamination at the Delectables food company.
The World Food Program emphasizes that food safety deals with the aspects of food products production from production, purchase, transportation, storage, processing, as well as distribution (Normative). Any activity that does not adhere to hygiene standards and the federal laws and regulations that guide the manufacture of food product is likely to jeopardize food safety and quality at any stage during production and distribution.
The quality control director at Delectables was realistically effective in his efforts to ensure that the products released into the market for human consumption met the appropriate standards. His efforts were however sabotaged by the Delectables plant supervisor, the foremen and the casual employees who acted without considering the ethical consequences of their actions.
The management of Delectable was not interested in following up whatever was going on in the company. The management should have investigated the allegations of contamination to help them with the improvement of the quality control system.
Government Role in Assuring Food Safety
Governments and regional authorities are mandated to formulate laws and regulations, as well as standards to guide the manufacture of food items by companies such Delectables. Both the federal government and the Georgian authorities had the responsibility of ensuring that Delectables adhered to laws and regulations governing the manufacture of food items. This would have minimized the chances of food contamination that is a major challenge to the giant food manufacturer.
As Fieser posits, enforcing regulations and laws to ensure food security is an important role of the government. The authorities should follow all the actors in food manufacturing industries to ensure safety and quality of food products.
The US federal government through its agencies and in collaboration with authorities in Georgia, should carry out regular inspections to ensure companies such as Delectable adhere to hygiene standards to prevent any chances of food item contamination during the process of the manufacture.
Governments are faced with numerous challenges in dealing with the challenge of food safety and quality. These challenges include lack of public awareness on issues, regulations and laws on food safety and regulation. Lack of updated food products safety and quality laws is another challenge to the governments and its agencies.
Inefficient and weak government inspection and supervision on food product manufacturing companies such as Delectables, contributes to the problem of poor quality food products which are not safe for the consumption of the general public (Thompson & Ying 13).
Regional authorities such as Georgia need to adopt effective approaches towards dealing with issues affecting food safety and quality especially those that relate to the manufacturing companies such as Delectables. The authorities must demonstrate a greater understanding of the issues that they face and formulate strategies to help them in addressing the challenges.
The federal government on its part must build the capacity of its various agencies mandated to ensure the safety and quality of manufactured food products. This would enable the agencies deal effectively with the challenges that hinder their effective operation in dealing with issue that violate the requirements of regulations and laws on food safety and quality (Thompson & Ying 13).
Despite the numerous challenges that governments face, they can make food manufacturing industries more socially responsible by enforcing more stringent regulations and penalties on companies that violet the requirements of the regulations.
Governments could also offer incentives to food manufacturing companies that demonstrate high standard of ensuring their food products meet safety and quality requirements. However, governments should not let food companies to regulate themselves. This is because some of the food companies may want to save their costs operation and this might jeopardize the quality and safety of their food products (Thompson & Ying 13).
According to the normative theories of ethics, product dumping due to their low quality is unethical and is not ought to be done. The supervisor was of the opinion that the company dumps its contaminated food products in San Lopez at subsidized prices.
What the supervisor should have done in line with the normative theory of ethics is to propose the destruction of the contaminated food products with the red sticker. Selling of these food products to customers is unethical since they are harmful to consumers (Normative). The food products with the yellow stickers also ought not to be damped but taken back for further examination.
Kantian principle of ends stipulates that individuals and businesses should act in away that their actions do not use others as means to an end but rather act in away that others are also an end themselves. According to the utilitarian harm principle, this behaviour is immoral and the society would be justified in coercing the behaviour of such individuals.
By dumping the contaminated food products, Delectables would be causing harm to the intended consumers. It is important that the supervisor puts into consideration the interests intended of the customers in San Lopez (Normative).
Advise to Delectables
The image of a business company is of the greatest importance. Business ethics require employees to act in a way that protects the image of the business company. By offering to sell substandard food products in San Lopez, Delectables would be harming the image of the company.
With regard to the ethics of doing business, this is immoral. With reference to morality in business, both the government officer and the official from the superstore in San Lopez were unjustified to ask for a bribe from Delectables. Both the scenarios are illegal and unethical. It is impossible for a situation to be legal and at the same time unethical.
Works Cited
Fieser, James. Approaches to Business Ethics. Web.
Thompson, Drew, & Ying, Hu. Food Safety in China: New Strategies. Web.
P. Fellows, B. Axtell, M. Dillon. Quality Assurance for Small-Scale Rural Food Industries. Web.
Normative Ethical Principles and Theories: A Brief Overview. Web.