Hospitality Industry and its Forms of Exploitation: An Ethical Perspective

The hospitality
Industry and how
it deals with its
forms of
exploitation

Table of Contents
PART 1 A .......................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Ethical issues and its importance............................................................................................1
Ethical issues faced by the company......................................................................................1
Role of business in society.....................................................................................................2
Affected stakeholders.............................................................................................................3
Examples of good and bad ethical practice............................................................................4
Recommendations..................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5
PART B............................................................................................................................................6
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................6
Discuss and apply two theories of ethics together with its advantages and disadvantages....6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
PART 2..........................................................................................................................................10
Reflective essay on Ethical Leadership management..........................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

PART 1 A
INTRODUCTION
Although the travel and tourism industry has been unprecedented growth in the recent
years, the risk of exploitation issues and ethical dilemmas is also rising steadily as hotel chains
are much less concerned with booking their rooms rather than preventing any illegal practice
from taking place in those same rooms. The role of business ethics is very complex when it
comes to the hospitality sector and in order to make the businesses more sustainable and to
prevent shareholder exploitation, the hotel establishments globally must look to streamline their
ethical stances regarding the various operations that their hotel chains partake in (Goryushkina,
and et.al., 2019).
This report will highlight the role of business ethics in the hospitality sector and study all
the ethical issues the industry is currently facing such as sex trafficking, employee exploitation
and supply chain transparency within the context of the case study report of 'Beyond Compliance
in the hotel sector: A review of UK modern slavery act statements'.
Ethical issues and its importance
It has been established that ethics is defined as the moral values of the business
organisation or an individual to conduct their day to day activities. It is very important for the
business organisation to be ethically upright in order to be effective within the society. Business
ethics defines the culture which need to be followed by the management and employees for the
business enterprise. It is very essential for the organisation to work in a right path in order to
achieve the goals and objectives of the business organisation. The business ethics is concerned as
the matter of concern for the organisations to prevent the harmful effects within the external
environment (McCoy, 2020). According to the case study, various hotel chains have failed to
address the ethical problems that are currently prevailing in this sector such as sex trafficking
and employee exploitation.
Ethical issues faced by the company
Since the hotel company that I work as an employee in is very popular and owns multiple
chains all around UK and has also been involved in extensive franchising, the current ethical
issues being faced are numerous which are stated herein.
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 The extensive supply chain network is very non-transparent and it involves multiple
institutions and supplier networks whose employee practices and ethical focus is very
vague
 The hotel is currently focusing on filling as many rooms as possible through attractive
marketing and lucrative discounts but is not concerned with what happens inside the
rooms
 The hotel is suffering from the same problem as rest of the hospitality industry which is
no existence of robust policies which would prevent workplace exploitation
 The staff employed in departments like housekeeping and cleaning have constantly
complained about harassment by both clients and other personnel
 The amount of work done by the employees does not reflect their current level of pay
Role of business in society
It is overbid that the main aim and the role of the business in society is to generate
revenue and serve best to the society. It is identified that the profits which are earned by the
business organisation by satisfying the customers’ needs and demands. It is very significant for
the business enterprise to prepare the proper code of conduct so that the organisation can focus
on taking initiative in making a positive impact and which can lead to the benefits of the business
organisation. The CSR activities and ethical campaigns are conducted to ensure the welfare of
the society in order to attract them towards achieving the objectives and goals of the business
enterprise (Ruiz-Palomino, and et.al., 2019). This will help the businesses to achieve its
objectives without facing the major challenges and obstacles.
As per the case study and after identifying the current issues that are being faced by my
hotel branch, it is evident that more focus on ethical sustainability is the way to go forward.
Hotels which are currently displaying unethical standards face the fear of getting negative public
backlash along with getting their brand perception and strength reduced significantly. The case
study report makes it clear that after detailed research, many hotels are not possessing any
framework to prevent exploitations such as harassments and workplace discrimination. If hotels
of UK do not pay close attention to the current malpractices then it would not only reduce the
sector's profits but make the situation worse for the government. The report found that only 14%
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