The contempt for customers, indifference to quality and service and employee are not typical of American businesses I have experienced. This is because time has changed the way business premises are administered. Ethics in businesses and corporate social responsibility are becoming the basic tenets in running businesses (Long and Spuma, 1995). Furthermore, businesses regard ethics as tenets of social-economic development.
Consumers have shown knowledge of their rights through demonstrations and legal approaches. This is because customers are becoming more empowered and vocal. This forces businesses to change their approach, unlike the restaurant. Furthermore, consumers expect social responsibility on the part of businesses hence businesses are focusing on profits by devising market tactics in line with social issues. For Sheehy’s fast food industry, this is not the case as the way they approach their customer is unethical. Since profit is the main motivating factor for most businesses I have experienced, they go an extra mile to satisfy their customers by improving their image to the public. This is unlike the employees at the restaurant who wanted to get rid of customers as fast as they could and had the contempt to the extent of provoking customers to seek management’s intervention (Long and Spuma, 1995).
According to Josephson Institute Reports, “good ethics carries many benefits and the opposite many penalties” (Long and Spuma, 1995). The implications include a reduction of sales as evidenced by survey conducted in 2003 by Wirthlin which showed that about four out of five people refuse to buy goods or services from businesses with unethical behavior. In terms of reduction in stock price, the report depicts investments in businesses with records of unethical behavior earns negative returns over long periods. This is supported by a similar survey which showed that about three out of four people decide to buy stock shares depending on their perception of a company’s ethics (Long and Spuma, 1995).
Unethical behavior poses great implications on the image of future American businesses. An indelible stain which is permanent occurs where the public perceives the company in bad light. Economic bankruptcy, as a result of worsening employee fraud is another implication with devastating consequences on the economy and costs businesses 20% of each dollar and 6000 dollars per year (Josephson Institute Reports, 2005).
The national business and ethics survey points out that productivity is affected because “…when workers don’t trust each other and their supervisors, morale is low, stress is high and output is undermined” (Josephson Institute Reports, 2005). Under such circumstances, productivity is reduced even more if businesses lack a code of ethics. This in turn reduces efficiency as the increased employee misconduct worsens conflicts. Unethical behavior has implications on communication human resource including recruitment and retention of employees. This is because misconduct is rarely reported and businesses lose skilled employees (Josephson Institute Reports, 2005).
In a capitalist American society, business is the primacy of society hence it is reasonable for people to devote their time to their jobs to produce quality in terms of customer service unlike Employees in Sheehy’s work place. The core reason for the existence of businesses is to make profit and achieve individual success. Furthermore, it is reasonable to see people go about their activities as the concept of making money is the primary goal of every individual in the market economy. This is similar to employees at Sheehy’s work place who believed that they have to work for an employee to make money and achieve success and earn a living. This is evidenced by the fact that some of the employees in the fast food restaurant, who were youth from a higher social class, were engaging in scamming approaches to accumulate resources (Long and Spuma, 1995).
American culture is a culture which is characterized by consumer capitalism and a society for perpetual growth. Furthermore, the primacy and basis of the culture of consumer capitalism is that consumption of commodities is the reason for the well being of individuals. Moreover, the central player in the capitalist culture is the consumer, the laborer and the capitalist. Employees in businesses are often driven by the culture of capitalism and desire for perpetual growth for maintenance purposes, exploitation of resources and winning over customers to their businesses. For the success of people’s capitalistic goals, it is reasonable for them to be more devoted to their jobs, more concerned with quality and customer service, since the gains in capitalist America is a result of the control of the labor market (Long and Spuma, 1995).
Employee theft in Sheehy’s essay can be justified by the utilitarian approach, a dominant moral philosophy in business ethics. In line with the utilitarian view, the employee scamming behavior was focused on determining a course of action which determined the greatest good for the greatest number of employees. Therefore, it was the ends (being successful) which determined the morality of the employee actions rather than the means (theft). Since utilitarianism acknowledges good consequences for some people and bad consequences for others, the action of employee theft was justified as it brought the greatest good to the employees (greatest number) and bad consequences to the management (least number). Employee theft is worsened by the culture of accumulation of resources and individualism which is bred by the American capitalist society (Garret, 2002).
Employee theft can also be justified because the restaurant business was indirectly run by employees based on the theory of social justice by John Rawl, as employees to a larger extent influenced the mode of operation of the fast food restaurant. According to these employees, the business premise was a ‘means of distributing social justice’ and was not a business premise (Garret, 2002).
In a capitalist society, there is individualism in extreme proportions and success is solely attributed to an individual and is not shared. For example, employees at the restaurant described by Sheehy engage in scamming because their behavior is bred in a capitalist society where one is either a winner or a loser and the winners take it all. This may go to the extent of defrauding people as the employees do. This is because the culture of capitalism focuses on success in total disregard of how it is achieved. Moreover, successful people accumulate resources and strive to remain successful to control a greater market share as the employees show when they claim that their desire is to scam “all the way to the top” (Garret, 2002). The culture of pursuing maximization of profits leads to intentional fraud (Garret, 2002).
Individuals in capitalist’s societies are motivated by profit maximization to enhance economic productivity. This breeds a culture of disregard for human rights, morals and the environment. Individuals perceive business activity, employment and consumerism as the primacy of a market economy. In a capitalist culture, Capitalist thoughts are spread to non believers who do not believe in resource accumulation. Such people therefore regard business activity as absolute in the society. A capitalist culture breeds the employee attitudes (at the restaurant) because almost everything is perceived in monetary terms. Such a culture, entrenched in a capitalist environment, breeds the attitudes which the workers portray at the fast-food restaurant (Long and Spuma, 1995).
References
Garrett, J. (2002). Justice versus Utilitarianism. Web.
Josephson Institute Reports (2005). The hidden costs of unethical behavior. CA: Josephson Institute Press. Web.
Long, M., & Spuma, R. (1995). The wealth effects of unethical business behavior. Journal of Economics and Finance, 19 (2), 65-73. Web.