According to Carter (2011), there is high-demand for social responsibility and green management among fast growing fast food restaurants. The restaurants hire employees and provide a variety of products that include breakfast products, soft drinks, salads, chicken, pizza, hamburger, tacos, coffee, desserts, and French fries. The corporations have to expand their menu to cater for the changes in tastes and preferences of its customers.
The corporations have to acquire large amounts of capital to operate efficiently and survive in the market because of the high demand of social responsibility in the food industry. A restaurant applies social responsibility in its actions to achieve results and maintain good communication with its stakeholders, suppliers, and customers. The business commits serving its communities, customers, and the world by doing the right thing and maximizing the benefits of its ingredients. This builds success of the corporation in attracting and maintaining customers and expanding in larger potential markets (Adams, 2005).
Social responsibility is a self-regulation measure that businesses implement in their commercial principles and citizenship. Social responsibility inspires businesses to monitor the social public perception as an important factor in their existence. Businesses take into account social responsibility in their future planning of operations because of the increasing demand and awareness for businesses with social responsibility practices.
A restaurant engages in various community development projects on health care, education, rehabilitation facilities, and medical research to attain the requirements of social responsibility in the fast food industry. These activities help promote the image and reputation through social responsibility. The social responsibility of restaurants draws from farm produce, paper products, employee contributions in the human resources, and animal products (Carter, 2011).
Environmental Considerations and Recommendations in Fast Food Restaurants
Fast food restaurants began receiving criticisms on environmental policies on the claim for disposable packaging. The business did not want to lose chances on its high profits thereby requiring the fast food restaurants to acquire public acceptance on environmental protection and preservation. However, fast food restaurants have influence on the public opinion and have to make strategies that satisfy the public.
The business enters into serious discussion with the management of environmental protection programs to come up with solutions to issues that could result in environmental protests received through customer mailing, demonstrations, and letters. Fast food restaurants enter into joint ventures with environmental programs to work on the packaging and materials they use in product development (Booi-Chen & Peik-Foong, 2012).
The companies also hold meeting with their suppliers of food and packaging to discuss on the issue of environmental preservation. The companies develop strong environmental policies to declare that the corporations are committed to protecting the environment in response to the needs of the future generations. The corporations state that every business leader must also be an environmental leader.
The programs are to reduce and manage solid waste. The corporations educate their customers on the positions and activities necessary for environment protection and preservation. The awareness programs cover issues on packaging, rainforest, and ozone depletion. The corporations provide the managers with the mandate of enforcing standards and preparing reports for the board of directors on a regular basis (Booi-Chen & Peik-Foong, 2012).
Fast food restaurants involve environmental experts to advise them on the opportunities that improve the environmental performance of the corporations on a constant basis. The business should take time to understand the requirements of the environment to successful achieve social responsibility. The corporations commit to reviewing products used in food services and packaging items annually to achieve goals of waste reduction.
The organizations in the industry hold environmental conferences with suppliers each year on environmental issues to identify opportunities for source reduction. Most of fast food restaurants have decided to reduce the weight of their packaging materials as low as possible and recycling after considering the disposal practices, costs, and infrastructures of maintaining the environment. The corporations are yet to come up with better solutions on the packaging materials to protect the environment (Carter, 2011).
Restaurants invest in source reduction by identifying, engineering operating practices, and researching on possible solutions to the problem of environmental hazards. Fast food restaurants decision on the social responsibility on the environment considered the effectiveness of reuse, recycle, and composting. They recognize the need and value of evaluating impacts of its operations on the environment to create strategies for enhancing better environmental performance in the future. The corporations incorporate the strategies in their target markets as well as data from beverages, food, operating, and packaging supply chains to achieve goals of environmental preservation (Adams, 2005).
Fast food restaurants seek to achieve fewer emissions, less energy, and waste in their operations to reduce environmental impacts not suitable on the planet and that are good for maintaining the financial success of the corporations in the long term. This will involve strategies on innovating sustainable waste management and packaging, green restaurant designs, and energy conservation. The corporations design their restaurants to feature environmental attributes. In response to the environmental social responsibility, the restaurants aim to increase adoption of technology and equipment that consumes energy efficiently to improve the tracking of data on energy consumed in the restaurant, and increase awareness and education on the need to save energy in businesses for the benefits to the environment (Booi-Chen & Peik-Foong, 2012).
Fast food restaurants establish street cleaning programs that design to keep the areas around the restaurants clean and tidy. For instance, the programs can be a regular and structured task for group members to pick up waste from inside the grounds of the restaurant to the neighboring streets. The clean street program also involves attention on the restaurant tray mats, packaging, and car park signage by reminding the customers not to litter. The corporations participate in programs that help monitor the use of water, implement measures that help save water, and identify opportunities for improving the practices of water management (Carter, 2011).
The restaurants should use technology and innovation to measure the performance of suppliers on the environment for energy, water, emissions, and waste. The corporations should therefore collect reports quarterly or annually making it easy to track the improvements and performance of suppliers on the environment. Fast food business should measure the environmental impacts a company creates on the community and use resources to minimize them to create value and benefit of the business to the community than the costs. The business should change its operations from the traditional modes to environmentally oriented ones to acquire the attention and interest in the community it operates. The companies in this business should increase cleaner production, productivity of resources, and active dialogue with stakeholders to support and commit to the programs of environmental management (Carter, 2011).
Moreover, improving the performance of the environment benefits the company by reducing the costs of operations of the business in the long term. This action also creates a good public image and reputation that attract and maintains potential customers to the business. Environmental protections and preservation is a social responsibility that has the potential of maximizing the profits of the fast food business. Social responsibility is therefore good for the profitability of a business and for the environment (Booi-Chen & Peik-Foong, 2012).
Ethical Leadership Considerations and Recommendations
Fast food restaurants have processes and policies in place to operate their businesses ethically. The media recognizes fast food restaurants as one in top companies with the acknowledgements of comprehensive leadership. The corporations commit to acquiring the trust of the public through application of regulations and laws in their leadership. The restaurants create and maintain good relationships with the management, shareholders, and the board of directors to create value in various aspects of the business.
The corporations ensure that they address issues that interest their shareholders. The corporations have various board oversights through committees and the corporate body in charge of social responsibility is one of them. The Committees responsible for social responsibilities act in the advisory capacity regarding the management of the strategies and policies that affect the role of restaurant as a socially responsible organization. The committees address issues on workplace safety, product safety, training, employees’ opportunities, sustainable supply chain, and the environment initiatives (Carter, 2011).
The management systems take these issues seriously, as they affect the satisfaction of shareholders and customers who make the key success factors in the organization. The management ensures that everybody in the organization maintains high integrity and ethics in his or her job. The management encourages employees to address issues openly and with honesty. Most of the restaurants have a telephone line reserved for employees to address issues that comply with ethics. Employees are a major asset to the business. The employees have the power to strengthen and shape the success and protection of the business (Adams, 2005).
The boards of directors are responsible for the business affairs and assets that they must operate in fair, honest, ethical, and diligent manner. The board should believe that good management is critical to achieving the obligations it has to the shareholders. The company should review its principles annually to ensure high performance. The company’s focus on leadership should achieve satisfaction of customers and shareholders. The restaurants should purchase products or services from suppliers that ensure the health and safety of their employees and the welfare of humane and animals in the companies supply chains.
Fast food restaurants should seek to be global and collaborative in compliance with the ethical leadership. The corporations should communicate policies to the contractors, suppliers, partners, and agents, and ensure that they abide by the procedures and processes of communication and authority in the organization. Fast food restaurants should make ethical decisions in favor of their customers and not the net profit margins or costs on their operations to meet social responsibility standards (Booi-Chen & Peik-Foong, 2012).
The behavior of leaders in this business should influence employees to respond actively to their work. In order to improve the performance of employees who learn from their leaders, the firm should establish factors that affect that behavior of leaders both from within the firm and outside. The business should maintain a healthy organizational structure and a strong corporate culture to enable the employees to work efficiently and maximize the use of their potential and capabilities. Leadership plays a key role in the direction of an organization and should be taken seriously by the stakeholders and other decision-makers of the organization (Carter, 2011).
Sustainability Considerations and Recommendations
The public associates the fast food business with obesity and other health conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart diseases. This affects the image and reputation of the business. Nevertheless, the business engages specialist in health matters to engage in medical research and form national health programs to build strong image and recognition for promotion of health in the society. The business responds to the call of the government and the public on change toward healthier habits. Fast food restaurants work with suppliers to promote practices of social responsibility in the supply chain strategies. The industry has a code of conduct that describes the expectations of the suppliers in treating employees in the organizations (Adams, 2005).
The corporations apply social accountability throughout their supply chain to achieve their supply chain strategies. The business supports the suppliers to ensure their satisfaction and loyalty as they work in the organizations. The business engages in a sustainability project to improve the working conditions of the supplying Industries. The projects are to promote practices of good environment in the agricultural land that maintains the supply chain and makes the farms that supply the raw materials maintain a sustainable business. The businesses purchases a small percentage of the raw materials in the farms annually but because of social responsibility, the corporations have taken the initiative of improving the working conditions and building sustainable businesses in the supplying farms to ensure constant and quality supply chains (Booi-Chen & Peik-Foong, 2012).
The fast food business purchases produce from the local farmers helping build strong relations with community in which they operate. Fast food restaurants engage in community development projects as a social responsibility of the company. The company develops the economic conditions of the community in which it operates. The companies engage the communities in the core business activities through providing employment and offering scholarships as a strategy to create a sustainable business. The businesses establish programs to encourage incorporation of research and innovation in farming practices to help them create sustainable businesses. They promote sustainable programs through collaborating with businesses in other industries to increase the production of raw materials and make the food industry a sustainable business (Adams, 2005).
The restaurants donate a percentage of their revenue to charity as part of their efforts to achieve social responsibility. The corporations offer contributions through the Charities to find, support, and create the well-being and health of children and families in the communities they operate. Some of the programs ensure that children in underprivileged communities receive medical treatment in attempts to improve the living standards of children and communities in which the companies operate. The corporations support sports, such as basketball, football, and swimming to promote the health of customers.
Some of the restaurants create virtual business program in collaboration with learning institutions to improve the learning experience of students in the business sector. The business focuses on the well-being and safety of its customers as the first priority. The business invests in its food and supply chain management to maintain a high standard of science and evaluations. The management of food safety in the supply chains has systems in place to ensure coordination of activities in the organization. The companies keep on updating the quality of its suppliers system of management as their social responsibility (Booi-Chen & Peik-Foong, 2012).
Fast food business has efforts in its policies and programs to harmonize audits and food safety standards within the food industry through working with the global initiative on food safety. The business allows its suppliers to focus resources on improving its activities. The business achieves sustainability in the safety, costs, and quality of agricultural practices of production because they the business acquires most of its raw materials from the agricultural sector.
The fast food restaurant business is making efforts to reflect to the high-demand from consumers of greener foods and healthier choices. The corporations attract and maintain customers as the customers trust and enjoy the food they serve. The business has put efforts to increase healthier options on its menu to ensure increase in its sustainability. It conducts research on the needs, wants of customers regularly about its menu, and communicates with professionals from the health sector, health ministers, and other experts on the food it offers. The corporation keeps close relations with health experts to acquire information and advice on nutrition (Booi-Chen & Peik-Foong, 2012).
The business ensures that providing safe food to customers is its first priority and the most essential responsibility. The corporations have a variety of procedures on food safety in place to ensure integrity of the system of maintaining and improving food safety at every stage of the process of food preparation. The corporations make use of nutrition analysts in approach to achieve their business sustainability (Carter, 2011). The business needs to come up with wider expectations on the quality and standard of employees in the work place.
This will help provide customers with good value of their money. The business should put efforts in taking care of the safety and welfare of the employees, improving their motivation and skills, and providing equal opportunities and treatment in the work places. This helps the business maintain high performance and competitive advantage. The fast food business should depend on the prosperity, stability, and health of the people in the community companies operates. The firm should create good relations with the surrounding areas as they provide the business with customers and employees. The company should attract the attention and interest in the community through sponsoring sports, cultural events, donations, and training activities (Adams, 2005).
Legal and Regulatory Considerations and Recommendations
The fast food business reviews the regulatory and legislative matters that affect the operations of the business, and the reputation as a socially responsibility organization. The business has responsibility of paying taxes to ensure development of the community it operates and facilitate equal distribution of wealth. The boards of directors are responsible for reviewing the compliance of the organization in the regulatory and legal areas.
Review and recommendation on the proposals of the shareholders are, according to the principles of the company’s corporate governance and the governance committee charter to ensure regulatory measures in the operations of the business. The committees are responsible for the company’s sole authority and resources to maintain the outside consultants and legal council to advise on the legal matters affecting the organization (Booi-Chen & Peik-Foong, 2012).
The fast food business adheres to the performance-based regulation on reducing obesity rates that formed to create social responsibility in the food industry. The business reacts to this regulation by introducing healthier option in its menu and promoting community sports projects. The business has to account for gas emissions and focus on the ways to reduce consumption of electricity.
The corporation takes part in the government regulation program on environment protection and preservation and the programs reports to media on the use of energy and improvements made in the corporations on energy use. The corporations reports to the environmental programs under the energy reporting Acts and government organizations on environment and the department of climate management publishes the reports of the results in the media (Adams, 2005).
An organization should recognize the laws and regulation on the health, safety, and environmental issues on consumers. The world constitutes of consumer and market transactions, such as daily purchase, sale of stock, and sale of corporate assets by investors facilitating the need for legal and regulatory enforcement in the business sector. Businesses should operate within a price regulation to control the influence of businesses on the market regulations compliance.
The law should penalize and reward markets or businesses on their health, safety, and environmental performances. Corporations should have a social responsibility of producing goods and services, creating job opportunities, instrument to material, instrument to moral support of the society, and creating wealth. The profits should not be the major reason for the existence of income statement, revenues, and expenses in the business but the social responsibility of the business toward customers and the community (Adams, 2005).
The profits belong to the shareholders or the owners and engage in high-risk ventures on their material, financial, and labor resources, but that does not guarantee creating harmful businesses in the community. Organizations should operate under the laws and regulations that managers adapt in their activities and make the necessary trade- off to maximize profits. Businesses should apply control and command in regulations to achieve the objectives of implementing social responsibility in the organization. The fast food business avoids additional costs of complex rules making the business high profitable. However, the regulations need strong enforcement, especially from workers to remain relevant in the business and the market (Booi-Chen & Peik-Foong, 2012).
Conclusion
Social responsibility is an important strategy of a business as consumers want to purchase products or services from companies they trust which have good partnerships with suppliers, and that employees have pride and prestige when working there. The demand for social responsibility is on the increase because of globalization, changes in the social expectations, and increase in the influence of the government and the consumer groups. In order to eliminate production outcomes and activities that could result in the harm to the firm, most companies engage in voluntary activities that edn up being their responsibilities to the public.
Companies practicing social responsibility concern with the living standards of people in the society in which they operate businesses. The companies develop positive public profile through improving the environment they work and live. Companies provide aid to assist the community they operate through assistance with local charities and foundations. The company thrives to change and develop the community through providing access to facilities and infrastructure. Engaging in social responsibility enables firms to create a competitive advantage as they increase their public image. The outcome is that other competitors and other organizations in other industries end up engaging in responsible activities to the public too.
The increase in health challenges in the society because of unhealthy eating habits stimulates the need for long-term processes of change in the fast food business. Social responsibility brings about market differentiation in the fast food industry. Most of the businesses adopt green foods in their menus to promote health and clear the pathway to long-term survival of the business in the market place. The business invests in innovation and search of better information sources to respond to the increasing demand of healthier consumers’ choices in the fast food restaurants. Fast food approaches social responsibility, depending on the key stakeholders and the much influence they have on the organization.
The fast food business relies on keeping the customers happy and maintaining customer loyalty through provision of superior and quality services to make profits. The industry is very competitive requiring the business to engage in responsible toward the environment and the community. The business is under strict scrutiny by the consumer groups and the media making it difficult to escape commitment to social responsibility. Social responsibility in the fast food industry is important in the regulations of the government as the food associates with health problems that add the government’s budgetary allocation on the medical sector.
References
Adams, R. (2005). Fast food, obesity, and tort reform: an examination of industry responsibility for public health. Business and Society Review, 110(3), 297-320.
Booi-Chen, T. & Peik-Foong, Y. (2012). What drives green restaurant patronage intention? International Journal of Business & Management, 7(2), 215-223.
Carter, C. (2011). Restaurants that get it right. Men’s Health, 26(9), 108.