Ethical Issues and Responsible Management in Ladbrokes: A Case Study

This report discusses the ethical issues faced by Ladbrokes, a gambling company, and their impact on society and stakeholders. It explores the role of business in society and provides examples of good and bad ethics in the industry. The report also includes recommendations for responsible management and discusses ethical theories and their application in the context of business.

Business Ethics and
Responsible Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1 – A (REPORT)..................................................................................................................3
1. Ethical issue or issues..............................................................................................................3
2. Role of business in society......................................................................................................4
3. Five Stakeholders....................................................................................................................5
4. Examples of good and bad ethics............................................................................................6
5. Recommendations...................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
PART 1 – B (TWO THEORIES).....................................................................................................8
1. Describe the theories...............................................................................................................8
2. Application of theories............................................................................................................8
3. Critical analysis of theories..........................................................................................................9
4. Recommendations........................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
PART 2 (REFLECTIVE ESSAY).................................................................................................11
1. Ethical leadership management in organisational culture.....................................................11
2. Analysis of how to maintain integrity and compliance in business environment.................11
3. Reflection on own experience and knowledge......................................................................11
4. Conclusion.............................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Business ethics refers as the policies and practices that organisations follow in order to
ensure ethical working within firm. These includes some potentially controversial subjects such
as discrimination, corporate governance, fiduciary responsibilities, insider trading, corporate
social responsibility and bribery (Buchanan, 2017). Managing responsibly can be defined as an
integrative approach to ethics, sustainability and responsibility that enables administrators to deal
with such challenges in an effective and competent way. This report consists of two parts, that
are ethical issues and theories and the reflective essay. Part 1 is based upon a case study of
Ladbrokes: The online way to save your job which includes ethical issues that company faced,
impact of those issues on society, affect of ethical problems on stakeholders and
recommendations based on that. Moreover, ethical theories and their application in context of
business are included. Part 2 is a reflective essay which covers Ethical leadership management
and the way business maintains integrity and compliance in business environment. At last
reflection on own learning and experience along with conclusion are included in report.
PART 1 – A (REPORT)
1. Ethical issue or issues
The present report is based on the Ladbrokes case study and its main purpose is to
determine the various issues that company faced due to the different unethical practices in which
the organisation is indulged and the way these impacts on society and its stakeholders (Corlett,
2016). In context of Ladbrokes, it is identified that the firm is becoming the victim of
predominant closure of gambling shops according to the instructions rendered by government.
The employees are being fired on the continuous basis by the top most authority of the
organisation. At workplace, this developed interest if conflict as the firm is now opting for
unethical activities or practices for firing employees, In United Kingdom, the employment rate
was also negatively impacted by this as due to closure of 1000 shops from 3500, there were
around 5000 people who loose their job (Ladbrokes Coral fined after customer lost £98,000,
2019). In that situation, the unethical practice that was conducted by business was to choose
particularly some people to terminate them. Customer service managers are the main target of
company for coping up with the huge loss. They are judged partially based on the performance
in online test which is responsible for 40 percent of their score, whereas that past disciplinary

record is count for 10% and face to face interview is 20%. The further score of 30% is based on
the figures of customers they can persuade to open online account (Ladbrokes staff told to sign
gamblers to online accounts to avoid redundancy, 2019). The company asked to its staff
members to take advantage of assailable individuals and urge them to set up their online account.
The employees of company are dissatisfied for the practice of being judged on the basis of
encouraging gamblers to open up their online accounts. This is the ethically wrong practice that
is conducted by company as it creates a dilemma for employees to indulge directly or indirectly
in an unethical practice of influencing gamblers to set up their account for securing their job
(James, 2017). These entire activities has affected adversely on the brand image of business
entity in market place. Apart from this, the company also indulged its customer service managers
in unethical activities. Middle manger of Ladbrokes have been developed this report to his/her
senior manager with the aim of aware them regarding the entire scenario of conducting unethical
practices by firm and the problems they are going through. This report focused mainly on ethical
issues that are determined in Ladbrokes related to restructuring of its manpower. In the overall
scenario, the company has focused to retain only those staff members who enabled to influence
more gamblers towards online gambling by set up their account. This issue harms the image of
company as it is indulged in gambling practices for its own profits which is totally unethical.
2. Role of business in society
It is the social responsibility of every organisation which is operating in business
environment to perform its all activities in a manner that it can not harm the society and people
living in it (Pennock, 2015). But, the practice of influencing people to set up gambling account
impacts adversely on society. The customers lost huge amount of money in gambling activities,
they are being harmed and the money which is stolen flowing through the business. The
unethical practices of Ladbrokes resulted in closure of thousands of shops which leads to creates
unemployment and impacts negatively on employees of company and people of society as well
as their quality of life is also impacted. One of the main issue of gambling is that the gamblers
get into huge debt and their family members, colleagues and friends directly affected with it.
This may leads to breakdown in many family relations and children and other members of
society are being victim of it.

3. Five Stakeholders
As the Ladbrokes is indulged in various unethical practices, it also impacts its
stakeholders (Schwarzenbach, 2017). The manner in which stakeholders impacted are mentioned
below:
Stakeholder Influence on each stakeholder
Customers They are considered as the main stakeholders of company on which its
success rely upon. The unethical practice in which Ladbrokes is indulged
have affected negatively over its image in public. It resulted in negative
perception of customers regarding company and they prefer to switch to
some other rival firm for getting the services which are associated with
gambling. The another negative impact of unethical practices of company
is that it put gambles into huge debt which adversely affects their family
members too along with friends and colleagues.
Employees Employees are the main assets of company and has high contribution in its
success. These stakeholders of Ladbrokes were impacted badly as they
have the fear of loosing their jobs if they are not able to influence
customers to set up their gambling account. At the same time, an ethical
dilemma was also facing by them that they have to influence people
towards gambling for securing their job (Wenar, 2017).
Society Ladbrokes closed it thousands of shops which have impacted adversely on
society and the people living in it as people have lost their job resulted to
this act of company which in turn created unemployment in London.
Owner For the success of business, adequate support from investors is crucial. As
the Ladbrokes indulged in unethical practices, owner may not get support
of investors that leads to create financial issues for it. Also, it will result
in declining profitability and market image.
Government Ladbrokes is involved in online gambling and forced employees to attract
more people towards it to secure their job. This has affected government
or legal authority of country too (Levy, 2016). For dealing with this,
government requires to develop strict policies and practices against it so

that gambling can be restricted and these activities will not repeat in
future.
4. Examples of good and bad ethics
In gambling industry, there are some companies which indulged in good ethics and
some are indulged in bad ethics. One of the examples of company with good ethics includes
Grosvenor Casinos which is a UK based casino, owned by the Rank group. The company
operates in various cistis and towns in United Kingdom (Wiens, 2016). The company indulged
in social activities and follow ethical practices in buisness. The company conducted live event in
year 2011 in which its workforce played highest poker tournament in which 3500 feet stunt was
attempted in order to raise money. The main reason of conducted this event is to collect funds
for Marie Curie Cancer Care charity. The firm was awarded with Casino Operator of the Year in
2013 and Women in gaming award in 2012 for the successful intitiative of human resource team
of company which emphasized on employee recognition.
On the other hand, the example of bad ethics includes Ladbrokes Coral which is a betting
and gambling firm of Britain. The company was established in year 1886 and is listed in London
stock excahnge. The firm indulged in unethical practices of forcing employees to influence
people to set up gambling account in order to secure their job. It fired to those employees who
are unable to attract buyers. This unethical practice creates dissatisfaction among its employees
and ruin its image in society also (Wiens, 2016).
5. Recommendations
As per the above discussion, it can be said that gambling is an unethical activity that
harms society in negative manner. It creates bad impact on the family members and children of
gambler. The unethical activities of company hampers its image largely in market as it forced its
employees to influence customers to open up gambling account. So, in order to improve its
image, it is recommend to Ladbrokes that it should indulge in fair and ethical practices and
ensure that such kind of activities will not be conduct in future that may harm the image of
company. Apart from this, the firm should bring transparency in its policies and procedures and
ensure effective communication of those among stakeholders to keep belief and interest and of
stakeholders towards it in positive way.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Buchanan, A., 2017. A critical introduction to Rawls’ theory of justice. In Distributive
Justice (pp. 175-211). Routledge.
Corlett, J.A. ed., 2016. Equality and liberty: analyzing Rawls and Nozick. Springer.
James, A., 2017. Constructing justice for existing practice: Rawls and the status quo. In John
Rawls (pp. 69-104). Routledge.
Pennock, J.R., 2015. Democratic political theory. Princeton University Press.
Schwarzenbach, S.A., 2017. Rawls, Hegel, and communitarianism. In John Rawls (pp. 133-166).
Routledge.
Wenar, L., 2017. Why Rawls is not a cosmopolitan egalitarian. In Rawls and Law (pp. 499-517).
Routledge.
Levy, J.T., 2016. There is no such thing as ideal theory. Social Philosophy and Policy, 33(1-2),
pp.312-333.
Wiens, D., 2016. Assessing ideal theories: Lessons from the theory of second best. Politics,
Philosophy & Economics, 15(2), pp.132-149.
Online
Ladbrokes Coral fined after customer lost £98,000. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49175515>.
Ladbrokes staff told to sign gamblers to online accounts to avoid redundancy, 2019. [Online].
Avaliable through: <https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/feb/05/ladbrokes-
staff-told-to-sign-gamblers-to-online-accounts-to-avoid-redundancy>

PART 1 – B (TWO THEORIES)
1. Describe the theories
Ethical theories renders the base on which decision making in an organisation rely. Kant
and Utilitarian ethical theories helps in determining the degree to which firm breached the codes
of conduct (Idowu and et. al., 2013).
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that helps in determining the right from wrong by
emphasizing on the results. It seeks to differentiate right activities from wrong ones by focusing
on outcomes. This approach ensures engagement in such activities which guarantee greatest
good for majority of population. The theory considers the interest of others and moves beyond
scope of individual's own interest. This approach follows 3 universal principles to develop an
ethical structure or framework for society. These includes actions are correct only if they can
increase pleasure for large population, only if the outcomes of them increase anything which is
bad or whatever is good and happiness is the only thing which is good in society.
Kantianism
Kantianism theory takes into consideration the ethical principles when taking the crucial
decisions of business. This theory emphasizes on giving respect and regards to people linked
with the decision. This approach is a based on the view that good will is the only intrinsically
good thing, an act can good only when if it is maxim. Duty to the moral law is the principle
behind it (Ismaeel and Blaim, 2012).
2. Application of theories
Utilitarianism theory:
By considering the beliefs of Utilitarianism theory, the practice of company to forced its
workers to influence customers to set up account and participate in online gambling for securing
their jobs position was ethically wrong. Based on the fact stated in theory, the unethical act of
Ladbrokes did not prove good for any individual inside or outside the company. For saving the
company's gambling operations from being closed after the government law passed, it indulged
in such practice which is unethical. However, no stance can justify the unethical act of
Ladbrokes as the utilitarian theory was breached which results in adoption of unethical practice
by organisation (d’Adda and et. al, 2017).

Kantianism theory
In respect of unethical practice or act of Ladbrokes, it can be said that the practice of a
company was not intended at provision of respect to any of the stakeholders of firm. Rather, it
breached the law or ethical code of practice and also involve its employees in the unethical
activity of influencing people to open account and engage in gambling. It is entirely an unethical
practice of Ladbrokes as per the perspective of Kant theory (Lawton and Páez, 2015).
3. Critical analysis of theories
Utilitarianism theory
Utilitarianism is the theory that helps in distinguish between right and wrong on the basis
of outcomes. There are some advantages and disadvantages of this theory which are mentioned
below:
Advantages:
 The theory follows democratic principles that provides fairest and fastest way to
Ladbrokes to make decisions to balance distinguishing interests of people. It utilizes an objective procedure to decide between wrong and right.
Disadvantages:
 The outcomes of theory are unpredictable while dealing with future.
 It does not emphasize on the act itself in order to form judgements (Weiss, 2014).
Kantianism theory
The advantages and disadvantages of Kantianism theory are mentioned below:
Advantages:
 This theory aims to treat each individual fairly in order to corrects the idea of utilitarian
theory. It based on reasons and is very straight forward that makes it accessible to everyone.
Disadvantages:
 The theory is an abstract and it is not always applicable easily (Ali Chughtai, 2016).
 The principle of universability principle can be utilize to vindicate practically anything.
4. Recommendations
As per the above discussion, it is suggested to Ladbrokes to provide employees with few
training sessions as this will help them in getting information about ethical practices along with
legal norms that are needed to be follow when working within company. It also assist business

entity in keeping itself away from any kind of unethical acts or practices in the future. Apart
from this, company should implement ethical policies and codes of conducts at workplace so as
to ensure ethical working within firm.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Idowu, S. O. and et. al., 2013. Encyclopedia of corporate social responsibility (Vol. 21). New
York: Springer.
Ismaeel, M. and Blaim, K., 2012. Toward applied Islamic business ethics: responsible halal
business.Journal of Management Development. 31(10). pp.1090-1100.
Weiss, J. W., 2014. Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-
Koehler Publishers.
Ali Chughtai, A., 2016. Can ethical leaders enhance their followers’
creativity?. Leadership, 12(2), pp.230-249.
d’Adda, G., and Et. Al, 2017. Do leaders affect ethical conduct?. Journal of the European
Economic Association, 15(6), pp.1177-1213.
Lawton, A. and Páez, I., 2015. Developing a framework for ethical leadership. Journal of
Business Ethics. 130(3). pp.639-649.

PART 2 (REFLECTIVE ESSAY)
1. Ethical leadership management in organisational culture
Ethical leadership refers to the practice of being virtuous and honest in the role of an
administrator. An ethical manager possess several responsibilities and obligations including
holding each one to similar standard, setting an excellent example and making the expectations
clear (Crane and Matten, 2016). In an organisation, ethical leadership means act as per the moral
principles in day to day decision making and business life. The ethical leadership can be manage
in the culture of organisation by staying true to the moral principles or values while being aware
of ethical issues complexity and being sensitive to dissent views of workforce and resolving
conflicts that may takes place. There are some qualities of leader that helps them in maintaining
ethical leadership within culture of organisation. These includes justice, gratitude, humility etc.
2. Analysis of how to maintain integrity and compliance in business environment
There are some ways that can be use by an organisation in maintaining integrity and
compliance within business environment. By treating every one with respect without
discrimination based on cultural differences, beliefs, attitudes, age, position etc., a leader can
maintain integrity at workplace (Godemann and et. al., 2014). Apart from this, developing and
maintaining trust among employees or team members will also helps manager in promoting
collective working within firm which ultimately assist in developing integrity. On the other
hand, for maintaining compliance, leaders and managers are requires to ensure open lines of
communication within firm so that all members can interact with each other effectively and
standards and codes of conduct can be communicate effectively at workplace. Proper
communication of practices and policies helps in ensuring the compliance in more better manner.
The main aim of compliance within company is to eliminate criminal behaviour. Bringing
transparency in policies and procedures and continuous review and audit processes also supports
business entity in maintain compliance (Hibbert and Cunliffe, 2015).
3. Reflection on own experience and knowledge
Based on the above discussion, it can be said that by executing ethical practices within
firm, I can enable to develop healthy and sustainable workplace environment. This discussion
helps me in gaining my knowledge regarding ethical leadership and its management within
organisational culture. It also helps me in knowing about the various ways through which

integrity and compliance can be maintain within firm. Apart from this, my knowledge regarding
other subject areas is also improved. As a result, it supports me in creating effective culture at
workplace in positive way.
4. Conclusion
As per the above mentioned discussion, it can be concluded that it is very necessary for a
manager or leader to maintain ethical leadership within the culture of organisation as this will
improve motivation of employees and boost their performance. Maintaining integrity and
compliance supports in ensuring ethical working within firm.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that following ethics in
business operations assists in ensuing ethical working in company. Gambling is an unethical
issue that pose adverse impact on society. It ruins the image of company and reduce the interest
of investors within firm. Utilitarianism and Kantianism theories assist in distinguishing between
right and wrong actions by taken into consideration that outcomes. Managing ethical leadership
within firm support in developing ethical culture. Integrity and compliance are the two crucial
aspects that requires to be maintain within firm in order to gain sustainability in market.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Dierksmeier, C., 2011. The freedom–responsibility nexus in management philosophy and
business ethics.Journal of Business Ethics. 101(2). pp.263-283.
Godemann, J. and et. al., 2014. United Nations supported principles for responsible management
education: purpose, progress and prospects.Journal of Cleaner Production. 62. pp.16-
23.
Hibbert, P. and Cunliffe, A., 2015. Responsible management: Engaging moral reflexive practice
through threshold concepts.Journal of business ethics. 127(1). pp.177-188.