BUS707: Structured Literature Review on Business Ethics

This report presents a structured literature review focusing on business ethics within the hospitality industry. It begins with an overview of the growing concern regarding ethical dilemmas faced by hospitality professionals, spanning from restaurants to tourism-related operations. The review explores the impacts of ethics, ethical decision-making approaches (deontology and teleology), and the influences on decision-making processes. The analysis incorporates findings from four academic articles from 2010 onwards, examining common and differing themes, as well as the evolution of ethical considerations. It highlights issues such as employee honesty, discrimination, and the significance of ethical codes. The report emphasizes the importance of ethical conduct in maintaining service integrity, guest satisfaction, and profitability, along with the need for hospitality managers to possess personal traits like trustworthiness and integrity. The review underscores the impact of ethical discourse set by management on the entire organization's conduct.

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Table of Contents
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................3
1. Ethics in the Hospitality Industry.......................................................................................3
1.1 Ethical decision making in the hospitality industry......................................................4
1.3 Impacts of ethics in the Industry...................................................................................5
Reference List............................................................................................................................8

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Literature Review
1. Ethics in the Hospitality Industry
The concern regarding the business ethics of the hospitality industry is growing in
Australia. This is owing to the ethical dilemma that are faced by the hospitality professionals
in the course of their regular operations. Complex as well as interesting ethical issues has
heavy impact up on this industry where the business spans from the restaurants to other
tourism related operations. Because of the nature of the hospitality industry, the customers as
well as the employees are often placed in tempting situations along with attracting abuse.
Opportunities that entice stealing, arises on several occasions, majorly owing to the wide
spread cash flow and also due to the vulnerability of this sector towards dishonesty. An
instance dating back to 1989 can be provided. The manager of the Savoy Hotel as well as the
chef were discharged for accepting food deliveries of less weight as well as extorting
commissions from the suppliers thus making use of the hotel for ensuring personal gain as
well as profit.
Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara and Guerra-Baez (2016), informs that the hospitality
managers of the recent times face these as well as other complex issues related to employee
honesty. Empirical analysis by Jones Hillier and Comfort (2016), reveals that interviews
conducted with the hospitality managers regarding daily challenge faced by them in the
course of their operations evoke several ethical complications arising between the employee
and the customers, employees with the employer as well as with the employees and their
colleagues. In this context, Martínez, Pérez and Del Bosque (2014), has stated that the
increment in the diversity along with multicultural back grounds in hospitality industry
furthermore aggravates the tricky nature of the ethical issues. In fact the managers in the
hospitality industry of Australia comes across accusations like that of theft, discrimination,

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harassment based on age, race, gender, belief and at times lead to complaints that often
account to lawsuits. The cost of the legal actions is very high as well as time consuming and
it is obvious that none of the hospitality organisations would like to be directly involved with
a lawsuit.
Most of the times when a complaint is launched, the definite ethical action is not
clarified. That is why the hospitality managers should gain deeper understanding related to
the various ethical issues. Many people consider unethical or questionable behaviour
indispensable for getting ahead and at times makes one perceive that the others are dishonest.
Researchers like Köseoglu et al. (2016), have also opined that some people consider that they
are more ethical as well as moral than the colleagues in their workplaces. An amalgamation
of such factors in companion with high turnover of the sector as well as regular usage of the
part-time employees is indeed one recipe for ethical issues in this busy sector. In this context,
Bavik (2016), has opined that there is scope for the initiation of considerable changes in
physical environment. Again, as per the implications of Travel and Tourism Council (2002),
the hospitality sector impacts as involving energy consumption, purchasing and waste water
management, water consumption as well as chemical use and atmospheric pollution.
1.1 Ethical decision making in the hospitality industry
As scholars have suggested in the empirical researches, there are two most poignant
approaches to ethical decision making in the hospitality and the tourism industry, namely
deontology as well as teleology. Deontology is mostly concerned with universal principles as
well as truths that must be held without respect to the situation. This philosophy argues that
the person who faces a challenge is occupying a position of responding constantly and also
complying with the moral principles of them and feel happy with decision made considering
the perspective of the others (Gibson 2016). In contrast, the perception of the teleological

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philosophy can be considered to be consequential. Ethical decisions are made by the
managers from an outlook for expected results, which helps in getting rid of the universality
of the decisions as well as assisting principles to the context. Again in contrast, Wang (2014)
states that a general perception regarding these two approaches is that the first philosophy
emphasises more on the means than the end whereas in the latter one, the end always justifies
the means. A comprehension of the two theories helps in the efficient usage of various tools
for controlling of the hospitality sector spanning from mechanisms that are market based like
taxes to further control as well as command mechanisms like legislation. For any
deontologist, which goes against laws, would help in breaching of the view of ethics. On the
contrary, teleologists are more interested in consequences which are not abided by rules and
would also weigh consequences which are against advantages of breaching of the laws.
In case, if the hospitality managers adopt teleology for solving ethical dilemma,
legislation can only be expected to be efficient in case it goes in alignment with the severe
penalties Which helps to stop Forbidden behaviour and thus there is no need of understanding
the way the decisions are being made. The growth in popularity of the ethical codes that the
tourism as well as hospitality industry uses is one important tool that can offer guidance to
the Employees while they make their decisions (Gibbs, MacDonald and MacKay 2015). The
Global Tourism Organisation has approved the ethical codes to be maintained at an
international level for tourism as well as hospitality industry merging and strengthening
previous editions as well as making a declaration for responsible tourism.
1.3 Impacts of ethics in the Industry
1.3.1 Decision making
The act of making ethical decisions is primarily infected by the kind of issue that is being
faced; the classification of ethical dilemmas occurs based on their strength with the

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participants who responds more likely in alignment to the ethical principles in case of
dilemma is considered to be an important aspect. In the later part of the last decade Europe
has seen and increment in the recognition of the fact that natural resources are actually
Limited and scarce which has being followed by heavy rainfall spent of laws pertaining to
environmental ethics. Natural environment constitutes of an inherent value that is obviously
more important than its value as a leisure asset. The ethical performance of an organisation is
greatly influenced by its higher management and the determination of the discourse of its
actions also depend upon that. It is the ethical discourse that the organisation values which
has a direct impact on the ethical conduct that the entire organisation exhibits (Jauhari and
Bharwani 2017). The process in which the management works, particularly setting the
priority level of various actions in the organisation really impacts the level up to which the
various stakeholders realises the value of ethical conduct and are able to identify the inherent
values which the management gives maximum importance to.
Hospitality managers share the liability to maintain the integrity in the highest level
of service as well as guest satisfaction and also maintaining the optimum return on
Investments. For meeting such objectives the hospitality manager should delivery services
that suits the needs of the customers also. However at the time of daily operations
management conference an error of ethical issues that can cast a permanent impression that
can be positive or negative in the minds of employees, customers as well as management
also. The hospitality managers mostly confronts ethical issues regarding cases of yield
Management, empowerment, equal opportunity, sexual harassment, guest rights,
departmental relations and so on. There is evidently a positive relation of profitability as well
as ethics (Beck, Kim and Schmidgall 2016). Managers need to understand the way in in
which they can manage material component of Hotel that incorporates resources prophets as
also the value component that incorporate morality ethics. An immense dilemma is faced by

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the managers who have to choose one between guest priority and profits. It is evident that the
primary goal in Hospitality Management is generation of profit however they have to do so
bearing the mental Framework that they must provide value to the customers against the
money they provide and that is the only feasible way of profit maximization
The hospitality training primarily emphasizes upon foreign languages as well as economics,
however ethics as well as morality are not much stressed upon. This is why Lynch (2017) has
opened that it is essential that the hospitality managers have some most important personal
traits which includes trustworthiness, respect for others, accountability, reputation, loyalty,
honesty, fairness, integrity, commitment to excellence and so on. These are the traits that the
managers should reflect on a daily basis in their decisions as well as the behaviour they
exhibit towards their business partners as well as their clients.

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Reference List
Bavik, A., 2016. Developing a new hospitality industry organizational culture scale.
International Journal of Hospitality Management, 58, pp.44-55.
Beck, J.A., Kim, S. and Schmidgall, R., 2016. The ethical judgment of private club senior
executives. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 17(1), pp.27-42.
Gibbs, C., MacDonald, F. and MacKay, K., 2015. Social media usage in hotel human
resources: recruitment, hiring and communication. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management, 27(2), pp.170-184.
Gibson, S., 2016. Mobilizing hospitality: The ethics of social relations in a mobile world.
Routledge.
Jauhari, V. and Bharwani, S., 2017. An exploratory study of competencies required to
cocreate memorable customer experiences in the hospitality industry. In Hospitality
Marketing and Consumer Behavior (pp. 159-185). Apple Academic Press.
Jones, P., Hillier, D. and Comfort, D., 2016. Sustainability in the hospitality industry: Some
personal reflections on corporate challenges and research agendas. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(1), pp.36-67.
Köseoglu, M.A., Sehitoglu, Y., Ross, G. and Parnell, J.A., 2016. The evolution of business
ethics research in the realm of tourism and hospitality: a bibliometric analysis. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(8), pp.1598-1621.
Lynch, P., 2017. Mundane welcome: Hospitality as life politics. Annals of Tourism Research,
64, pp.174-184.
Martínez, P., Pérez, A. and Del Bosque, I.R., 2014. Exploring the role of CSR in the
organizational identity of hospitality companies: A case from the Spanish tourism industry.
Journal of business ethics, 124(1), pp.47-66.

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Wang, C.J., 2014. Do ethical and sustainable practices matter? Effects of corporate
citizenship on business performance in the hospitality industry. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(6), pp.930-947.
Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara, P. and Guerra-Baez, R., 2016. Exploring the influence of ethical
climate on employee compassion in the hospitality industry. Journal of business ethics,
133(3), pp.605-617.