Abstract
Ethics can be applied in any profession. Ethics denote a set of laws or moral systems that provide a basis for discerning whether an action is correct or erroneous. This paper reviews the applicability of ethical and legal principles at the Chipotle Restaurant. Chipotle has a strong code of conduct for its members of staff besides a series of social initiatives aimed at promoting ethical behavior. The restaurant should adopt ethical education and continuous intervention strategies to enforce adherence to its code of conduct. Lastly, the company may roll out corporate social responsibility programs such as fitness initiative, free clinical camp initiative, and partnership with the community in the development and social projects.
Chipotle’s code of conduct
Chipotle has strong ethical principles that guide other employees when carrying out their duties. The ethical code consists of laid down structures to keep staff in healthy and stable mind in their duty of serving the interests of the restaurant through regulatory, ethical communication models. These models are the motivation to acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend. Therefore, a proactive behavior control system for the restaurant functions within a structured reward system. Since the system functions within accepted parameters, employees have developed a self-consciousness to deliver quality services and defend the organization as part of a family unit (Chipotle Mexican Grill, 2013).
The levels of moral responsibility within the Chipotle have three building blocks of learning consisting of a supportive learning environment, concrete learning processes, and practices leadership that reinforce innovation. The managers are expected to play a significant role in setting up the learning environment for their employees. This culture is meant to create an ideal climate for innovation and communication among the employees. The teamwork ethics spell the rules of engagement, expected behavior, and repercussions for misconduct. These rules appreciate diversity and uphold integrity in judgment (Chipotle Mexican Grill, 2013).
Steps to obedience to the code of conduct
Human process-based intervention strategies are presented as directed at improving the general state of relationships between individuals and within and among groups in an organizational setup. To attain this, a sensitive form of social responsibility testing should be done at Chipotle to ensure that both management and employee teams remain accommodative to the basic needs of their counterparts. Therefore, the elements of moral responsibility should be dynamic to accommodate the aspect of free will in exercising moral responsibility (Bazerman & Moore, 2009).
Besides, the restaurant should implement continuous ethical education. The main aim of ethic education is to create a sagacity of moral responsibility of the staff at the earliest time possible before they join the management ranks. Thus, to control any possible ethical dilemma, the restaurant’s culture and moral goals should be used to enforce disciple among the employees (Bazerman & Moore, 2009).
Engaging the community
Chipotle should realize that the promotion of its products is not merely an advertising function but a responsibility in promoting community participation in trust funds and projects. Therefore, the restaurant should be at the forefront of sponsoring community projects. Besides, Chipotle can also develop a joint venture with other organizations such as the health clubs and partner with them in sponsoring healthy living programs in the surrounding community. Lastly, the restaurant might annual rollout campaigns on giving back to the community through sponsoring mobile health camps where free medical services are offered to the community. These may be in the form of programs on education trust, health clubs, environmental conservation, and provision of social amenities (Bazerman & Moore, 2009).
References
Bazerman, M.H., & Moore, D.A. (2009). Judgment in managerial decision making (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publications.
Chipotle Mexican Grill. (2013). Code of conduct. Web.