Ethical Dilemmas in Hospitality and Restaurant Industry

This article discusses the ethical dilemmas faced by the hospitality and restaurant industry and explores the theories that can be applied to make ethical decisions. It also provides solutions to maintain efficiency and avoid legal consequences.

Business Ethics

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.....................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................9

 INTRODUCTION
 Hospitality and restaurants industry often face ethical dilemmas for which ethical
decisions have to be made. Ethics is a branch of Social Science that governs the moral
principles and values of a person. Further, it helps in distinguishing between right and
wrong, fair and unfair, moral and immoral. Business ethics is the concept of conducting
business activities in a right way and to deal with controversial issues by applying
policies and procedures (Noddings, 2013). A businessman providing goods or services
should not engaged in unfair trade practices such as promoting misleading
advertisements, charging high price and cheating the customers with weights and
measures, etc. Further, the owner and all the staff working in an organization should
follow set of rules and principles suggesting code of conduct while carrying business.
o It is an emerging industry in UK and all over the world and contributes majorly to
the GDP of a country. These two industry provide different services which
compliment eachHospitality and restaurants industry often face ethical dilemmas
for which ethical decisions have to be made. other. it offers diverse facilities
ranging from providing accommodation to tourist, seminar halls, banquet hall,
restaurant etc. The services offered are for tourist, travelling outside their homes.
It is a very fast growing industry in the world which offers many job position so
as to adequate number of employees for managing the guests (Ho, 2012). Further,
the organizations operating in the sentence we have to make sure about providing
services that will fulfil the customer satisfaction and increase their interest in
availing them again. Hence, it is likely that they face many ethical issues.
o Customer satisfaction is the priority for hospitality industry, thus, it is necessary
to behave in an ethical way in order to reduce the challenges that hotels or
restaurants may face in future. This industry in UK is facing many ethical issues
such as technological advancement, food choices, management of employees
working hours in order to remain competitive. Further, the report covers key
ethical issues affecting the industry, description of various types of theories and
selecting an appropriate theory (LaRossa and Bennett, 2018). Along with this,
critical analysis of ethical frameworks in order to analyse business conduct to

create responses ethical dilemmas. Furthermore, application of expertise for
solving ethical dilemmas that an organization may face arising from the internal
and external business environments.
 MAIN BODY
 Ethics in a business is important to provide fairness in the society in which it operates. It
is a set of principle which is applied in day to day life as well as in organizational
activities. In the words of Crane and Matten D, Business Ethics is defined as the study of
business activities and decisions where issues of wrong and right are addressed. there are
various types of Business Ethics available which can be applied to an entity. It is divided
into consequentialist theories and non consequentialist theories (Bailey and Burch, 2016).
The former is related with and focuses on consequences of a particular action. On the
contrary, latter is concerned with intentions of a person for making ethical decisions
about particular actions.
 Hospitality and Restaurant industry has huge number of challenges and ethical issues due
to various internal and external business environment. There comes a situation when a
decision between right and wrong has to be made to meet customers expectations and
increase their satisfaction level. Further, the activities, hotels and restaurants conduct
should use resources such as electricity, funds, manpower, land, infrastructure etc. in an
acceptable manner by complying with code of ethics. Apart from the customer
satisfaction, other major ethical issue is termination of employees from the organization.
When an entity set up its business in a society, it is presumed that it has to return the
favour to society by creating jobs for people living in a country. Moreover, personnel of
multinational companies face workplace harassment, a pregnant women have not been
approved of maternity leave, bullying and many more.
o This various challenges affect companies' operation, goodwill, profits and brand
image in a negative way. These may cause huge loss in both financial and non-
financial ways (Davidson and Stevens, 2012). Hence, appropriate theories as
mentioned below, may be chosen to apply in order to make ethical decisions and
overcome these challenges:

 Consequentialist theories: these are based on the fact that moral duty for determining
the rightness or wrongness through the outcomes. Thus, potential consequences of an
action determine whether it is ethical or unethical.
 Utilitarianism: this theory is based on the ethical choice that will create benefits for the
greatest number. It is commonly used in businesses to ascertain maximum outcomes by
accounting the cost and its benefits. It is considered as most ethical theory which can be
used for choosing between right and wrong, however, the advantages are unlimited.
Hospitality and Restaurant industry make contribution of certain percentage of their
profits to feed the needy and underprivileged children (Reamer, 2013).
 Egoism: the theory revolves around doing actions for self interest. The consequences of
decision or act considered as the ethical only when it benefits the doer. The word ego
means I, which is the base of this theory. Further, the intention is that one is morally
obligated to avoid being concerned for others if by doing so it does not for the route on
interests. The Chosen industry can establish an institution for various skills development
wherein candidates looking for their career in hospitality industry may take admission by
giving a very nominal fee (Kaptein, 2017). Once they complete the course, they will be
allotted jobs in various organizations operating in this industry.
 Non consequentialist theories: These consist duty based on consequences that are being
tested on the basis of act, system of rules, goodness and badness of the outcomes.
Furthermore, it consists of various theories which are as follows:
 Deontology: This theory was given by Immanuel Kant. It focuses on doing acts by
following certain set of principles and rules without considering the outcomes. the major
aspect of the story is that one should not steal, lie or cheat. It is completely opposite to
utilitarianism theory. Hence, this theory requires every human to act in a moral way and
all the decision should be independent of personal intentions and desires. Hotels and
restaurants should provide good quality foods and services by avoiding practices like
adulteration, charging high price for bad or inferior quality products, embezzlement of
money employees, and many more similar acts (Kim and et. al., 2013).
o Theory of justice: This theory is based on equal distribution of benefits and
burden in a society. Further, a person has equal basic rights and liberties. There

are certain principles on which this theory is applied. Along with this, every
citizen has right to vote, freedom of speech and other civil rights such as to hold
personal property etc. Furthermore, everyone should get equal opportunities.
Hospitality and Restaurant industry should provide offer chances and
opportunities to all the personal irrespective of their nationality, sex, religion,
marital status, disability etc.
o Virtue theory: The theory is concerned with the role of character and virtue in
moral philosophy and not about good or bad consequences. A person is
considered ethical who has ideal character traits. It is a natural tendency which
grows with the time and can be seen in the decisions one makes. The leaders in
the hospitality and restaurant industry may set example for rest of the
organizations and new entrants to develop characters to help others and advise
correctly (Khadartseva and Agnaeva, 2014).
 Case study 1: Radisson hotel group
o The hotel has been accused of breaching the regulation of General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR). It is a large hotel chain operating in majority of developed
countries. The confidential information of some of its members in which their
information other than their credit card, passwords or previous or prospect
reservations were exposed.
o Radisson did not provide the number of people affected from this. An
investigation was conducted, which disclosed that names, addresses, country of
residence, email addresses etc. were exposed. Further, the hotel claimed that third
party may have accessed to all the personal information.
o The case was clearly unethical and the theories that can be applied are
utilitarianism in which it should have abide by GDPR compliances as it is
compulsory for the hotel to protect information affecting large number of people.
o Virtue theory as the hotel is considered good and preferred by tourists. Hence, this
makes it to act with honesty and in a reliable way.
o The last theory that could b e applied deontological theory, under which it
Radisson should have followed GDPR regulations without thinking about its

consequences. Furthermore, the security systems should be improved so that no
such incidents take place in future.
 Case study 2: Marriot Hotel
o The hotel was sued by a housekeeper, Leticia Vallejo. The petitioner said that a
drunk male guest groped her while she was doing her housekeeping work. This
incident happened at hotel lobby bathroom. Further, he also offered $50.
o When she narrated the incident to one of her supervisors, he responded in a funny
way and took that as a joke. Also, commented “ he should have offered you
$100.” She was working in the hotel from last 18 years and has been a victim of
such incidents on a regular basis. Also, she said that, majority of female staff,
especially housekeepers face such acts.
o She filed a lawsuit in the high court, which passed the decision to sue Marriot
after examining various facts, issues and evidence.
o The theories applicable here are theory of justice, in which all employees should
be treated equally. The supervisor should have taken appropriate actions in order
to promote safety within the organization. The comment was extremely vulgar
and inappropriate.
o Deontology theory suggest that actions should have been taken without thinking
about the results. The hotel's supervisor should have taken this matter to higher
management for further action.
o Egoism theory can also be applied here, where the hotel, when came to know
about the matter should have reported the matter immediately to the police
without being protective about its reputation.
Hotels and restaurants often face ethical dilemma in the lifespan of their business
activities. This requires solution to maintain the efficiency of an entity and avoid any
legal consequences. Ethical dilemma refers to completely undesirable events to choose
from. The cause for such situations may be conflict of personal values and organizational
goals, personal character or many other similar reasons. It affects the organizations'
profitability, competitiveness and relationship with stakeholders. Hotels and restaurants
should take a better decision in such circumstances as ethical dilemma has great impact

on conflicts going on and may increase such disputes in future. For reaching an
appropriate and effective decision, the above discussed theories can be applied.
Furthermore, ethical Framework can help developing set system through which business
can be analysed and solutions can be made to create responses to ethical dilemmas.
Ethical frameworks formed to help identifying rightness and wrongness of a specified
course of actions through which ethical decisions can be made. Ethical dilemmas are very
important to resolve quickly (Ethical Frameworks, 2017). It provides the ways through
which these are solved.
There are dilemmas arising from the internal and external environment such as high
employee turnover because of termination due to poor, using the technologies which are
environmental friendly but expensive to bear the cost, providing foods of customer's
demand, not to discriminate employees on the basis of their background and many more
similar problems. These are major problems which can be solved by applying to theories
which are utilitarianism theory and deontology theory (Adelstein and Clegg, 2016).
Former can be applied in a way to create maximum benefit to the society by creating jobs
not just for men but women also. This will give an opportunity to the women out there to
work so that they can earn money to lead a good life. This theory consider not just the
quantity of happiness but also it’s quality. In other words, one must always look for
higher level of happiness. However, there are certain limitations of using this theory is
that one cannot measure the pleasure and pain, therefore, no accurate result can be
produced. Further, a person can break or neglect his promises, if something else will
create greater happiness. On the other hand, deontological theory can be applied in the
way to implement and follow honesty in all the activities without being concerned about
the outcomes. In other words, one must follow the basic required principles and duties
which are right and should be applied in day to day life as well as in professional life
(Pope, 2013). The theory is used universally as it maintains a consistency in moral
behaviour and operates on the basis of democratic theory of equality and liberty. It has
failed to apply in the situations where a person is confused between doing right and
wrong. For example, there are two persons A and B former tells a secret to latter and ask
him to not to disclose it to anyone. So if a third person ask about this secret, if A tell the

secret then this will mean breaking the promise and if he remain quiet, he is not speaking
the truth. Hence, in such circumstances this theory is unsuccessful to apply.
 CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that ethics are very basic and
important thing not just for individual but also for business organizations. By
following code of ethics, correct decisions can be taken by distinguishing between
right and wrong. Along with this, it provide an uniformity and consistency in the
policies and procedures followed in operational and other activities of an entity.
Hospitality and Restaurant industry is a growing market due to the reason that
people use the services provided by them. They have to maintain good hygiene,
train their employees and staff so that their knowledge can be updated, use the
technologies that do not produce harmful emission or damage its surroundings.
Along with this, there are various theories of ethics which can be applied for
solving the conflicts and ethical dilemmas. However each of these have their
individual application and concept, one must understand the underlying meaning
before selecting a theory. Furthermore, ethical frameworks should be used to
make decisions that can be considered ethically right so that these produce
outcomes which will create huge benefits. The advantages and influence that
ethics have, can have significant impact on the profitability, goodwill and brand
positioning of the entity. Hence, ethics should be made a part of personal as well
as professional life.

 REFERENCES
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Ethical Frameworks. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.brown.edu/academics/science-and-technology-studies/framework-making-
ethical-decisions>.