Business ethics refers to the rules and regulations that any business must follow to stay afloat in the competitive world of business. Different businesses employ different tactics to achieve their goal of making profits. Without these rules, a business will soon find itself outpaced by its competitors. Hooters restaurant is a case in question. Its management employs only girls as a business strategy. This has caused many controversies with human rights bodies who feel that Hooter’s strategy contravenes the set rules. To understand this it’s important to ask ourselves several questions.
Is Hooters’ employee selection critical to the effective implementation of its strategy? Do the job specifications for Hooters restaurant servers have a discriminatory effect against male applicants? Does Hooters management appear to have a bias against males?
When hooters opened its doors to the public in 1983 its main objective was to present a brand to the public that could not only enable them to make more profits but also keep them and especially men entertained. It is for this reason that they came up with the Hooters Girls. It’s therefore important to learn here that the Hooters management only employed ladies in the department commonly known as ‘front of the house chores’. These are the positions of bartenders, waitresses, and hostesses.
When the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) says that the Hooters management has a bias towards men I think this is not only false but misplaced as well. It’s important to learn that all other positions in this restaurant are open to both men and women alike. This is a clear pointer that the management in Hooters does not have any kind of discrimination neither does it have a bias against men as alleged by the EOEC
Do you agree with Hooters’ position that the female gender is a bona fide occupational qualification for the position of restaurant server? Do recent court decisions support management’s arguments?
As I have stated earlier when Hooter’s opened its doors from day one they had the vision to reach the large American population and especially men. To achieve this goal they came up with a strategy just like any other businessman would do. This strategy was to use beautiful American girls in their marketing. They knew that through their charisma and their all- American sex appeal men would be drawn to their restaurant. Over the years this has proved to be a very effective strategy for their cause. In 1996, less than 14 years since its inception Hooters Inc. was expecting a turnover of $300 million! The important question then to ask ourselves at this point is; how did Hooters Restaurant get here? The answer is plain to each one of us. It was their strategy that has seen more clients’ stream into their chain of restaurants. The ‘Hooters Girls’ is what draws clients to this place. Extending it to incorporate ‘Hooters Guys’ would destroy the essence of this business.
In recent days there have been court cases against Hooters by the EEOC and disgruntled men who feel that they have been discriminated against. Though none of these cases has been concluded, it’s important to learn from other precedent-setting cases to learn of the way forward for Hooters. In the case of Dothard v Rawlinson, 443 in the U.S 321(1977) supreme court the judge ruled that though the line differentiating which cases are Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) or not is thin, one thing that the judge brought out was that if an organization didn’t employ people of a certain gender, then the essence of their business would be undermined. This is what constitutes the bona fide occupational qualification. To me since Hooters had in mind employing ladies as a business strategy means that changing this to anything else would damage the essence of their existence. So yes, employing ladies is a case of bona fide occupational qualification to them.
As I stated right from the beginning, any business objective is to make profits. Hooters restaurant has achieved this objective while at the same time creating jobs for thousands of girls. Each one of us must support their idea without criticizing them. As someone once said, the end justifies the means. Hooters has continued to be a major market player in the hospitality industry. Putting them out of business would not only mean a loss of income to the owners, but this would also constitute the loss of jobs for the masses employed directly and indirectly by Hooters Restaurant.
Works Cited
Nancy H. Leonard, Larry R. Steenberg et al.”Hooters restaurant and the EEOC” Business Case Journal (1998): 660-666.