Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility: EA Games Loot Box Report

This report delves into the business ethics of EA Games, particularly concerning the controversial use of loot boxes in their games, such as FIFA. It analyzes the ethical issues involved, the role of the business within society, and the stakeholders impacted by these practices, including customers, shareholders, and the government. The report presents examples of both good and bad ethics within the context of EA Games' operations and provides recommendations for improvement, such as reevaluating the loot box system. Furthermore, it discusses two relevant ethical theories, utilitarianism, and deontology, offering a framework for understanding the ethical dimensions of the company's decisions. The report concludes with a reflective essay on ethical leadership and its importance in navigating these complex ethical challenges.

Business Ethics and
Responsibility
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
A) Report.........................................................................................................................................3
Ethical issues involved in having loot boxes as part of business model................................3
Role of business within the society:.......................................................................................4
Stakeholders impacted due to the issues and how..................................................................5
Example of good and bad ethics.............................................................................................5
Recommendations..................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
B) Discussion on two ethical theories..............................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
PART 2............................................................................................................................................9
Reflective essay of ethical Leader..........................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Business ethics are the set of rules which the company must follow so that they can
efficiently accomplish their goals and objectives in the specific time period. It offers various
advantages to the company as with this they can efficiently improve the operations of the
company as well contribute to the better organisational image. With the help of this the
organisation ensures the impact of their business activities on the environment by considering the
right and wrong in their activities. The unethical practices adversely affect the overall
performance of the organisation which also had direct influence on the profitability of the
company. In this report the case of EA Games: FIFA, Loot boxes and Whales is taken into
consideration which is an American gaming company. The report is divided into two parts, the
first part is based upon a case study on which a report is prepared by the middle managers to the
senior manager in context of the issues of business ethics which are faced by the company along
with its impact on the stakeholders. While in the other part various ethical theories are discussed.
In the next half of the report various factors related to the ethical terms in context of a leader is
discussed.
PART 1
A) Report
The system of ethics guides the behaviour of the people, values and the decision making of
the company as with the help they can ensure that performance of the company is better and in
favour of the society. It ensures the profitability of the company both for the long term as well as
for the short term because this makes the company responsible for their actions and operations
(Etzioni and Etzioni, 2017). Business ethics offers various advantages to the company such as
positive image of the company, fair market practices, satisfied stakeholders and many more.
Ethical issues involved in having loot boxes as part of business model
The company EA Games is an American company which is engaged in developing and
distributing games throughout the world. The case of EA Games is related to the loot boxes that

attracts the players but has been creating issues for the parents. The participants took part in the
games with the aim for getting rewards through these loot boxes but they are unable to get so.
According to the companies officials it is for fun and quite ethical but because money is involved
due to which some believes that it leads to gambling that is unethical (Hemberg, Syrén and
Hemberg, 2018). To deal with this situation, UK Parliament decided to examine whether the
matter of loot boxes should be regulated or not and whether it is ethical or not. According to the
vice present of the company the act of loot boxes are quite ethical and are just for fun, with this
the company aims to provide rewards to play and to create interest in the games.
Role of business within the society:
All the activities which are conducted by the organisation must be systematic and ethical
so that various advantages can be taken by the company. But if the ethical issues are not focussed
then the companies may have to face legal proceedings. It is important to consider various
factors such as ethical codes with which the contribution to the society can be improved.
Ethical perspective of the issue: The ethical perspective of this issue from the view of the
company is that they have added this feature with the aim to attract the gamers and which is quite
ethical as with this they will get rewards due to which they will ask others to join the game. But
the parents and others are not in favour of this as the children spent a lot of money, due to which
the bank accounts of the parents are emptied by the children (Kaplan, 2017). This leads to the
opinion that it must be considered as a gambling activity.
Influence on the image of the company: This has affected the performance of the
company as the parents gave adverse reviews for the practices of the company as they developed
features such as loot boxes in the games which have affected the lifestyle of the children and
their psychology.
Alternative ways to think about the business role in society: It is important for the company
to rethink upon various features of the games and must let their customer know their perception
behind any innovative features while launching such game. With this they can ensure the ethical
practice of the company in context of the society. Another way could be to let them know that
with whales and loot boxes the company only aim fun for the gamers not and monetary benefits
rather it will lead to increase cost for them. If the company can efficiently make the public
understand the pro and cons of the features of the loot boxes and whales then they can clear the

view of their unethical practices and this can lead to better and improved image as well
performances of the business operations (Hutchings, 2018).
Stakeholders impacted due to the issues and how
Stakeholders are crucial for the organisation as with the help of their satisfaction level the
company can ensure growth and their survival. Due to unethical practices and issues the interest
of the stakeholders from the company reduces and this has impact on the companies as well as it
leads to reduction of the sales thus the profitability of the company. The impact of this issue on
various stakeholders of the EA Games is given below:
 Customers: For any company customers are most important stakeholders as they make
purchases from which the company generate their revenue and due to this their
satisfaction level is crucial. The game are designed by the EA Games for fun but due to
adverse impact of this features of loot boxes the customer base of the company
significantly lowered down as this affected the level of trust.
 Shareholders: The investors invest within the organisation with the aim of earnings on
the basis of the performance of the company. The unethical practices of the company lead
to losses in terms of sales and also the faith of the investors due to which they withdraw
their investments. This reduces the reduction in the share prices which increases financial
loss to the investors (Tavani, 2016).
 Government: Various governmental bodies regulate the operations of the company with
the aim of protecting the interest of the consumers. The government supports the
companies because they contribute to the economy and also to the income of the
government in terms of taxes. But the unethical issues faced by the company leads to
various challenges for the government as they have to take necessary actions against the
company so that they can reduce the chances of the greater loss to the society by taking
harsh actions against the company. This affects the economy as well as the revenue of the
government.
Example of good and bad ethics
Ethics are adopted by the companies with the aim of supporting the operations in an ethical
manner. But the outcomes of the ethics so adopted define them as good or bad ethics. For
example, The National Health Care organisation treats their patients efficiently and in a
systematic manner with various ethical codes (Wettstein, 2015). This is an example of good

ethics where the outcome of the application is positive. While the development of games with
loot box features and Whales has affected the customers adversely due to which they have to
face various losses. This is an example of bad ethics because even with the implementation of
various such ethical codes they could not manage the satisfaction level of the customers. If EA
Games could efficiently adopt good ethics then they can easily manage their operations and
ensure accomplishment of their goals. But the impact of the bad ethics is severe on the
organisation as due to this they significantly loss their customer base and thus their market share.
Recommendations
On the basis of the analysis of various situations it is recommended to the company that the
adoption of various ethical practices improves the image of the company. The EA Games must
focus upon reducing the impact of loot boxes and Whales by either removing the feature or by
making it without any pay which will satisfy the parents. This will also improve the ideology of
the public in context of the fact that it is not gambling but just the game for fun. The suggestions
must be taken directly from the gamers and even from the society through feedbacks so that
additional features can be incorporated and can be offered to the people in an ethical manner.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Etzioni, A. and Etzioni, O., 2017. Incorporating ethics into artificial intelligence. The Journal of
Ethics, 21(4), pp.403-418.
Hemberg, J., Syrén, J. and Hemberg, H., 2018. Ethical Leadership in a New Light: As Described
by Leaders in Public Healthcare. International Journal for Human Caring, 22(4),
pp.179-188.
Hutchings, K., 2018. Global ethics: An introduction. John Wiley & Sons.
Kaplan, A., 2017. European management and European business schools: Insights from the
history of business schools. In Management Research (pp. 211-225). Routledge.
Tavani, H.T., 2016. Ethics and technology. Wiley.
Wettstein, F., 2015. Normativity, ethics, and the UN guiding principles on business and human
rights: A critical assessment. Journal of Human Rights, 14(2), pp.162-182.
B) Discussion on two ethical theories
Ethical theories are important for the organisation as with the help of this they can
significantly manage various challenging situation and decisions. With the use of effective
ethical codes the adverse impact of the operations of the company can be reduced on the public

and thus on the stakeholders which can be the government, employees, customers, investors etc.
The ethical theories regulates various unethical practices with which the frauds, scandals, illegal
activities can be managed. Incorporation of various ethical codes enables the companies to
comply with various regulations and laws so imposed by the government due to which their
intervention can be reduced. The ethical theories that can be adopted by the EA Games are give
that can assist them in avoiding or dealing with various unethical issues such as issue of loot
boxes. Some of the ethical theories are given below:
Utilitarianism: The theory of Utilitarianism was given by John Stuart, according to him the
ethical action or morally correct actions are those which give happiness to other while they make
people unhappy then they are termed as morally wrong (Kagan, 2018). This theory is based upon
the idea that ethical decisions are dependent upon the consequences of the decisions so taken by
the organisations due to which it is also known as consequentialism theory. The aim of the
theory is common good and due to which a central gaol is established to maximise the benefits
and happiness to other by minimising the suffering of the people associated. The Utilitarianism
theory has two types Act Utilitarianism and Rule Utilitarianism, in which prior one aims to
benefits others irrespective of their personal feeling and societal constraints while the later one
focuses upon the benefits of other but in just and equitable , fair means.
This theory can be adopted by EA Games and at the time of developing the games they must
consider such features with which both the parents and the children can be made happy and
satisfied. For this they can restrict the number of hours a person can play games as with they can
prevent the situation of being addictive for the game (Fletcher, 2017). With the help of Rule
Utilitarianism, they can consider various features such as the interest of the parents regarding the
use of money as due to the feature of loot boxes their bank accounts got emptied. This will
enable them to manage their features and just and fair manner as required and expected by the
parents.
The benefits of this theory are that with this the good to a large number of people can be
ensured by the company by compromising with the value to an individual. With this the EA
Games can ensures that benefits of the company and the game develop comes after and du to this
the preference to the customers interest must be given. With this they can lead to solution to
many by oppressing the needs of an individual.

Deontology: This theory of ethics suggests that the people which are related to the decision
making process in relation to ethics then they comply with all of their obligations and duties. It
implies that the rights of the humans must be considered and treated with dignity with the help of
which the companies can establish better relations with their customers (Magelssen, Pedersen
and Førde, 2016). The attributes which are taken into consideration within the theory are all
positive attributes but it has some flaws which are that there does not exist any logical basis for
deciding the duties and obligations of an individual. Due to this many times conflicts can arise
among the people in regard to the duties.
EA Games can apply this theory within their organisation as with they can ensure that they
respect each and every people which are accosted with them as with they can respect the dignity
of their rights and interest. This will enable them to manage the relations with their stakeholders
(Ahmad and Gao, 2018). Deontology theory will encourage the company to get over the feature
such as loot boxes so that the interest of the parents as well as children can be kept within the
company.
The pros of Deontology theory is that it can be applied to the company efficiently as with
this they can deal with actual problem by considering their interest and rights. It will make the
company responsible to respect the dignity of the associated people (Miller and Eggleston,
2020). But it becomes complicated when the duties of the people have to be identified to manage
the things as there is no significant basis on the basis of which the duties can be identified. For
EA Games incorporating this theory will be beneficial as with this they can maintain their
relations and consider the expectations of the customers with which they can manage the interest
of both the parents and children by eliminating the feature of loot boxes.
REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Magelssen, M., Pedersen, R. and Førde, R., 2016. Four roles of ethical theory in clinical ethics
consultation. The American Journal of Bioethics, 16(9), pp.26-33.
Miller, D.E. and Eggleston, B., 2020. Moral Theory and Climate Change: Ethical Perspectives
on a Warming Planet. Routledge.
Fletcher, C., 2017. An Ethical Life: A Practical Guide to Ethical Reasoning by Richard
Kyte. Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 37(2), pp.191-192.
Kagan, S., 2018. Normative ethics. Routledge.

PART 2
Reflective essay of ethical Leader
Ethical leadership is defined as a eldership which considers ethical beliefs and values at the
time of managing the people associated to the business with dignity and respect. An ethical
leader monitors and controls the actions of the people with the help of their ethical values and
beliefs. With they can make their team members follow the same path that can take the entire
organisation to consider honesty, trust and dignity towards the people who are associated with
the company. It improves the culture of the organisation and enables them to adopt ethical
practices that contribute to the overall performance of the company (Greenwood and Freeman,
2018). Better integrity can be developed among the employees with the help of building
understanding and trustworthiness among the employees of the organisation and this will make
them capable of dealing with their roles and responsibilities. Thus it will make the organisation
to achieve their goals and objectives efficiently.
Leaders with their influencing ability can make their employees understand the benefits of
adopting the path of ethics with facilitate them to regulate their behaviour. This improves the
efficiently and improves their morale to be consistent towards ethical practices. By developing
understanding among people they aims to integrate their efforts as with the help of this they can
resolves the issues which are faced by the company in a much better way (Shapiro and
Stefkovich, 2016). With this not only the organisational efficiency can be improved but their
ability to manage relations with others and ability to satisfy their customers also enhances.
Being a leader I adopted various strategies so that I could manage my actions and with
which I can influence the behaviour of my entire team. With this I could manage the conflicts
that arises among the team members without affecting the belief and side of any member as this
will morally be not good. More and more involvement of team members implies that they will
develop better understanding and to ensure this I use to conduct various such activities so that
effective communication can be made possible among them and an understanding among each
can be developed. This will make sure that they all work together with integrity and respect for
each other. Whenever I had to take decisions I consider ethical attributes which motivates other
to adopt the same with the aim of considering ethical behaviour in their performance. While

allocating various roles and responsibilities for executing various tasks I use to consider the
abilities, skills, knowledge and understanding of ethical codes so that all the target can efficiently
be achieved. It motivates other to get through such ethical code of conduct so that they can be
given more opportunities as others and this improves their overall performance (Ali Chughtai,
2016).
On the basis of above discussion it can be analysed that ethical eldership has greater impact
on enduring the ethical behaviour of the employees within an organisation. A leader is the one
who can ensure the compliance of ethics as they motivates and influences their employees to
consider such factors while undertaking their roles (Xu, Loi and Ngo, 2016). They can efficiently
encourage the people by integrating them and their performances with the aim of developing
trustworthiness among all. This will make them take effective decisions and can ensure that each
and every team member work on the same path.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that it is important for all the organisations to consider
the business ethics as part of their business activities as with this they can achieve their business
objectives efficiently. With this the image of the company can improved among the customers
and this improves their profitability as well as market share. But if an organisation fails to
manage such ethical practices then their stakeholders gets affected to a greater extent. To manage
such issues the companies are recommended to use various ethical theories so that such issues
can be resolved. In addition to this ethical leadership also contributes in managing the behaviour
of the employees and to encourage them to follow ethics while executing their job.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Ahmad, I. and Gao, Y., 2018. Ethical leadership and work engagement. Management Decision.
Ali Chughtai, A., 2016. Can ethical leaders enhance their followers’ creativity?.
Leadership .12(2). pp.230-249.
Greenwood, M. and Freeman, R.E., 2018. Deepening ethical analysis in business ethics.
Journal of Business Ethics .147(1). pp.1-4.
Shapiro, J.P. and Stefkovich, J.A., 2016. Ethical leadership and decision making in education:
Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.
Xu, A.J., Loi, R. and Ngo, H.Y., 2016. Ethical leadership behavior and employee justice
perceptions: The mediating role of trust in organization. Journal of Business
Ethics, 134(3), pp.493-504.