MBALN703 – Business Ethics

Business Ethics

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART A...........................................................................................................................................1
McDonald’s overview and its ethical environment.....................................................................1
CRITICALLY ANALYZING THE CSR ACTIVITIES OF MCDONALD’S...............................2
Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions......................................................................................2
Environmental sustainability.......................................................................................................3
CSR in the field of education.......................................................................................................4
PART B...........................................................................................................................................5
Overview of the company............................................................................................................5
The concept of a code of conduct................................................................................................5
DEVELOPING A CODE OF CONDUCT......................................................................................6
Be honest with clients..................................................................................................................6
Misuse of company time..............................................................................................................6
Violation of the internet policy of the company..........................................................................7
Harassment of employees............................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business ethics refers to set of norms, social rules and policies that provides the right
direction to business by differentiating between right and wrong practices (De George, 2011).
The business ethics assists management to take the right decision in context of different business
activities including supply chain, corporate social responsibility, employment and general
business operation (Weiss, 2014). In this context, the present report critically analyzes the ethical
practices adopted by the food brand McDonald’s through analyzing its Corporate Social
Responsibilities (CSR) with the deep evaluation of the CSR report. Further, for this purpose,
different CSR activities of McDonald's have been identified with critical evaluation of different
practices including reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, environmental sustainability, CSR in
education, etc. Besides this, , a code of conduct has been explained by considering the National
milling company of Guyana Inc. In this regard, ethical issues faced by modern businesses in term
of misuse of company’s time, violation of internet policy of company and harassment of
employees, etc. are identified and analyzed.
PART A
McDonald’s overview and its ethical environment
McDonald’s is an American company which deals in fast food products. The company is
operating the business from last 78 years in the United States and several other nations.
McDonald's has been covered a common area of 100 countries along with 36,900 outlets as per
the report of 2016.Moreover, the company is dealing with a wide variety of products such as
Chicken, Hamburgers, Soft drinks, Coffee, Desserts and Breakfast, etc. With its constant efforts
of being successful international business, the revenue of the business by the financial year 2017
is around $22.820 billion (McDonald’s, 2018). Further, McDonald’s employs approximate
2,35,000 who assists business in delivering quality products and services to number of buyers.
Being international business, company is involved in several CSR initiatives through which
interest of different stakeholders is considered. Also, the sustainability initiatives of the business
facilitate in increasing brand image and competitive edge of the business (McDonald’s, 2018).
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CRITICALLY ANALYZING THE CSR ACTIVITIES OF MCDONALD’S
McDonald’s performs different CSR activities to maintain the ethical environment at
global level. Further, the company is focused towards different issues including reduction in
greenhouse emissions, sustainable environment and CSR in education, etc. which helps in
increasing its sustainability (Scribed Inc., 2018; McDonald’s, 2015).
Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
CSR activities are helpful to develop a sustainable environment through valuing the
stakeholders. According to the CSR report of 2017, it has been assessed that McDonald’s is
focusing to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions occurred through transportation and
manufacturing restaurants. In this context, company targets to reduce CO2 emission by 36% by
the end of the year 2030 due to global changes in climate. Further, the company has chosen to
reduce the rate of emissions intensity to 31% towards suppliers by 2030 (CSRwire, 2018). In this
context, Frenken and Kiersch (2011) asserted that a reduction in greenhouse emission has
significant contribution to improve environmental performance through the protection of
biodiversity as well as freshwater resources, etc. It would be helpful for corporation to ensure
safety of environment and accordingly meet the expectations of different stakeholders including
general public, government, suppliers and customers. In this context, Zhang et al. (2012) argued
that greenhouse emission is not an easy task for the companies even if they are operating at
international level because, for the upgradation, organizations require skilled and cooperative
workers to expand the work culture and sustainable environment.
The pressure of protecting environment is increasing for McDonald’s because of
increasing population and awareness of customers towards the environmental factors. On the
contrary, Watson et al. (2011) asserted that the reduction in greenhouse gas emission would
provide a systematic environmental protection which also helps in recycling the waste and
promote the healthy environment. Moreover, it can be suitable for companies to maintain a
sustainable as well as equal food quality at all global level stores. By considering this, the
concept of reduction in greenhouse gas emissions will grow the targets and business of
McDonald's without interruption of emissions in the food processor. Further, to meet the climatic
challenges and minimize the ratio of emissions, McDonald's is focusing on plantation around 3.8
billion trees on the sides of the road. Furthermore, for controlling the carbons, the company is
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