Business Ethics and Responsible Management

This report discusses the case of Ladbrokes Coral and the issue of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) from a business ethics perspective. It explores the factors involved in the ethical perspective of families, employees, government, society, and customers. It also discusses ethical theories and the characteristics of an ethical leader. The report emphasizes the importance of responsible management in maintaining a positive image and ethical standards in the organization.

BUSINESS ETHICS
AND RESPONSIBLE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
a) Explore factors that are included in perspective of ethics for an issue...................................1
b) Ethical theories.......................................................................................................................3
PART 2............................................................................................................................................5
Characteristics of ethical leader..................................................................................................5
CONSLUSION................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Business ethics is conduct of organisation in form of practices and policies that helps in
examining principles ethically that are present in business environment. It is applied to whole
conduct of companies including employees and deals in technical, legal, etc. Responsible
management is described as maintaining balance interest of individuals, environment and
companies for benefits in present and future (Song and et. al., 2015). In this report a case in
presented on Ladbrokes about Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) and related issue of
business ethics will be discussed. This report will include factors including perspective of ethics
including on the issue and its impact on image of company. Ethical theories will be discussed so
that ethics of case study can be demonstrated. At last, this will discuss characteristics of ethical
leader so that they can manage high ethical standard in organisation.
PART 1
a) Explore factors that are included in perspective of ethics for an issue
Ladbrokes Coral is Betting and gambling company situated in London and owned by
GVC holdings. In this case Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) that were super slot machines
of company allows customers to bet £100 in every 20 seconds. This strategies has lead to loss of
money and even families because of the addiction. Then due to many such cases government
stepped in and limited the number of bets to £2. but this lead to financial loss for company which
resultant in closing of many shops and around 50,000 job losses. For this company's senior
managers is conducting test and interview along with data of past performance. Ladbrokes Coral
is now planning to take the business model online and will consider employee score on how
many online accounts of customers they can open. After this personnel will be ranked and
inefficient workers have to lose their jobs. There are different type of perspective by which
Ladbrokes Coral can look into the issue, are as follows:
Ethical perspective of families: From the point of view of families, gamblers are loosing
their money and even staking their families members. There is one of major issue as their
financial stability will be affected and future will be in fear of unknown (Luo, 2018). Financial
stability is one of the strength of individual that they secure for members in family so that they
can fight in case of unexpected events and incidents. These are the individuals who are present in
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society and thus impact image of company as well. This is most unethical from the perspective
of family and company should be held responsible for their actions and business model. They are
stakeholders too in case of company issue and it is clear discussion that it have complete
negative impact on families (Schaltegger and Burritt, 2018).
Ethical perspective of Employees: Due to action of government, Ladbrokes Coral is
facing financial issues and thus wants to close their 1000 shops, resultant many employees will
be losing their jobs. This will create financial and survival issues for them and thus gonna affect
the society as whole. There is need that company changes its business model into ethical strategy
so that same situations does not occur in future. These are stakeholders for company who works
so that Ladbrokes Coral can make profits on ground level but because of closing of shops many
has to lose their jobs and thus results in financial instability for living. This will hinder the image
in public as in future if company will need more employees than due to its image of illegal
dismissal will affect recruitment process (Leung and Gray, 2016).
Ethical perspective of Government: Interference from state is one of major control that
monitor legal and ethical business model that benefits the society. In the case of Ladbrokes
Coral's Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) government find out that it was clearly unethical
and affecting society in negative way. They also play role of major stakeholder as interference of
state can lead to changes in organisation and in its policies as well. Government has power to
shut down company on the basis of rules (SA, 2015). In this government has stake to stop such
activity in Ladbrokes Coral on the basis of ethical policies. It is important that businesses
indulge in those operations which are ethical and have positive impact on the whole society as
well.
Ethical perspective of Society: This is one of major factor which have great impact on
the image of company in industry. According to society gambling is a taboo and unethical, any
company involves in these operations are considered illegal as well. So perspective of society is
one of the major factor while looking in the issue of gambling b y company itself. Society serves
as major influencer stakeholder in context of business because due to their protest government is
pressurised to take legal actions for companies (Tetrevova and Patak, 2019). Same in case of
Ladbrokes Coral, when families were getting affected state intervened and change the business
model which lead to loss for business. This issue therefore will be treated as one of the most
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unethical and Ladbrokes Coral will be held responsible for it. This will create negative public
image in society and thus impacts its operations and revenue.
Ethical Perspective of Customers: Gamblers who were customers and became addict of
Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) machines were individuals from society only. They also
have some responsibilities when it comes to ethical behaviour in as customers. People know that
betting or gambling is not morally or ethically correct and need to avoid for the sake of families
and society. This shows that even customers have some type of ethical perspective when it
comes to buying products or prevailing services (Weiss, 2016).
10 bet is another betting company in UK with experience of approximately 16 years and
deals in betting of around 60 different sports. This company has clearly define all rules and
regulations relating to betting and thus operates ethically (Bhushanam, 2015). Due to its good
choices and ethical operations it is one of the best online betting site which have positive impacts
on society as well. There is need that Ladbrokes Coral adapts their business model and strategies
so that they build their image in public and have sustainable advantage in the industry.
Business contributes in economic development of country by providing employment in
society, provide innovative product, meet customers demand and increase living standard of
individuals (Swanton, Gainsbury and Blaszczynski, 2019). It is important that Ladbrokes Coral's
operations and activities focus on these roles so that they can gain positive image in the society.
Gambling on the other hand impacts related stakeholders in negative terms also in case of Fixed
Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) of Ladbrokes Coral which leads to job losses and financial loss
to customers. So there is need that while taking its business at online platforms it should study
the business model of 10 bet company.
b) Ethical theories
To determine what is right and wrong in given situations, ethical theories are applied
which are principles and rules determining situation analysis. Some of the theories that can be
apply in case of Ladbrokes Coral are as follows:
Normative Ethical Theories: It articulate and advocate ethical code that provides just and
reliable principles that can determine moral and immoral behaviour. It represents systematic
attempts to explain ethical phenomena so that situations can be explained. It comprises of moral
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standards, principles and judgements, moral standards represents fundamental and basic
principles that decide normative ethical theories. Moral principles focuses on general actions to
claim that actions are either moral and immoral (Leung, 2019). Moral judgements are more
specific focus for ethical code. This theory is use to decide what is good and bad according to
ethical and moral conduct, in this case of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) of Ladbrokes
Coral it can be clearly understood that actions of betting are immoral. Allowing customers to bet
£100 in every 20 seconds is unethical and is considered to be immoral action as well. Moral
standard in this case is that gambling is legal in UK and can be considered moral. Principles will
focus on actions which is betting strategies of company will allows gamblers to bet more and
more money and loss it so that company can have more profits. Moral judgements will examine
consequences that families and society is suffering due to actions of gamblers in betting with
Ladbrokes Coral. This theory will only showcase that actions are morally ethical or not, which
can be clearly understood in this case. Thus application or to take corrective actions are not
possible under this theory (Calvosa, 2017).
Another issue is job losses of employees due to closing of shops by Ladbrokes Coral as
company is in financial crisis. To avoid government interference and change business model,
organisation is taking its operations to online betting. Thus there is need that customers have
online accounts so that they can use the facility and company earns profits. To solve this issue
firms have decided to score their employees in terms of online accounts opened by personnel of
customers. They will be ranked accordingly and less – efficient workers have to lose their jobs
and after that there will be interview and checking of past performance will be done by seniors
managers. This is moral standard to cut the job ethically on the basis of efficiency, interview and
past performance but moral principles and judgements will deny this statements and will show
that process of cutting jobs by company is immoral as per the rights of employees. Thus this
theory does not put forward any type of solution or recommendations and simply just states what
is ethical and immoral in situation. In this case of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) and
restructuring workforce of Ladbrokes Coral, with the help of this theory can be explained that
situation is immoral.
Ethical Relativism Theory: It is view moral statements are not true in terms of objectivity but
true in case of society and individual that hold belief (Luo and et. al., 2017). According to this
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theory moral beliefs related to function of, dependent on individual who believes it. There are
two types of ethical relativism, which are as follows:
Individual or Personal Ethical Relativism: There are different ethical statements that
depends on individuals which are correct according to their behaviour. This varies because of
moral beliefs, ideas, objectivity and judgements of person (Arshad, 2016).
Social or Cultural Ethical Relativism: In this statements are given by society on what is
right and wrong. For individuals they decide it by the norms of society and follows it . This is
based on ethical viewpoints and opinions relate to moral and other beliefs prevailing in society.
This theory simply states that when two individuals or society agree or disagree about the moral
aspect of act, both the sides are correct in their own terms (Mežinska, Lapiņa and Mazais, 2015).
There are different arguments for this theory which will describe it more precisely, they are as
follows:
Diversity of Moral Views Argument: The disagreement between individuals and society is due to
the fact that claims are not objective moral truths, on the other hand there are only subjective
moral beliefs (Alexius and Grossi, 2018). It believes that societies and person continue to
disagree on the case of Ladbrokes Coral as according to gambler it is easy way to make money
but from point of view of society it is unethical.
Moral Uncertainty Argument: The fact that given situation of Ladbrokes Coral can be right
which implies that there is no standard of objective in moral statement. This proves that morality
is relative and subjective both in many cases. This implies that there are there are no standard of
moral to address the issue.
Situational Differences Argument: there are many differences in given circumstances of
Ladbrokes Coral machines and cutting of jobs as well. Morality is related to the situation and
there is no universal valid moral norms exist that can address the case of company (Abarbanel,
Cain and Philander, 2018).
Toleration of Differences Argument: There is tolerance for differences in Ethical Relativism
which implies that there can be deviations in view in the case of Ladbrokes Coral as some may
argue that cutting cost to recover financial losses is right but society may get offended because
there are huge number which will loss their jobs.
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This theory implies that if individuals or society differ in viewpoints about gambling and loss of
thousands of employees by Ladbrokes Coral is related to norms and beliefs. There is tolerance of
differences because both the parties is correct based on ethics and beliefs they have.
PART 2
Characteristics of ethical leader
An ethical leader is one who manages and controls his subordinates in an effective
manner (Hibbert and Cunliffe, 2015). They are treated well and there is no biases while offering
duties. Ethical leaders are those who have respect for ethical values and beliefs. They always
fight for dignity and manage business operations effectively. Some of the characteristics that
ethical managers have are as follows:
An ethical leader involved in Making Good Decision for the company. In this way, there
is no problem in managing business tasks (Ransome and Sampford, 2016). Different types of
ethical leadership are justice, respecting others, honesty, humane, value driven decision making,
etc.
An ethical leader is always fair and just. He do not have any favourites within the
employees. But he appreciates all those employees who perform effectively. Within an ethical
leader, there is no employee who has reason to fear from biased treatment on the basis of
ethnicity, gender, nationality, etc.
Other traits for ethical leader includes respecting employees or followers. An ethical
leader always respects other people and this is the reason he is followed by different people. It is
concluded that ethical leader is honest and loyal. Honestly is the most important thing for
increasing the number of honest and dependable leaders. Being humane is another trait of an
ethical leader (Newman and et. al., 2016). These leaders place importance in being kind and this
act in a way which is always beneficial for team.
Ethical leaders always foster a sense of community and team spirit. These leaders have
to make genuine efforts for achieving goals which benefit the whole organisation. Within an
ethical leader, employees are able to flourish and thrive. Employees are given rewards if they
provide innovative ideas and encouraged for doing everything to improve ways in which tasks
are done. Employees are praised for taking initial steps and not waiting for something else.
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Ethical leaders have to provide high efficiency to employees as they have more
expectations form these leaders. An ethical leader will regularly discuss the high values and
expectations that they place on themselves, employees and the organization.
One of the basic characteristics that ethical manager have is that they Focus on Team –
Building, they form teams so that it can work collectively in direction of achieving
organisational objectives (Zsolnai, 2015). They personally monitor that team members works
ethically and in moral terms so that company can build its image in public and have
sustainability in the respective industry.
CONSLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that business ethics is code of conduct that any
organisation follows in its policies and principles. Responsible management is balancing interest
of stakeholders in the society to build and maintain public image to have sustainability in the
industry. There are different factors like customers, government, families and individuals who
have different impacts and perspective of ethics in business and it model to operate and earn
profits. There are different ethical theories like Normative Ethical Theories which states that
there are moral standards, judgements and principles that explain that what is ethical or
unethical. Another Ethical Relativism Theory tolerates differences that there is differences in
perspective of society and individual based in their beliefs and norms. At last, it has included
characteristics of ethical leaders which perform in the criteria of ethics and moral in the
company.
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