Ethical Leadership and Management: Ladbrokes Case Study Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the ethical challenges faced by Ladbrokes, a British betting and gambling company. The report begins with an introduction to ethics and its importance in business, followed by a report to a senior manager regarding the company's decision to reduce its workforce due to government regulations. It explores the ethical implications of these decisions, focusing on job security, public image, and stakeholder impact. The report then applies two key ethical theories—utilitarianism and rights—to evaluate the ethicality of Ladbrokes' actions, concluding that the company's decisions were not ethically sound. Finally, the report examines ethical leadership and management, proposing alternative approaches for Ladbrokes to operate responsibly and address its corporate social responsibilities. The document is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib, a platform which provides all the necessary AI based study tools for students.

ETHICS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
Report to Senior Manager...........................................................................................................3
Two Ethical Theories Implication...............................................................................................5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................7
Ethical leader and management of your business to compile with higher ethical standard........7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending
concepts of right and wrong conduct. Ethics is the word generally used to describe the desirable
and the morale value according to the society and the individual. Ladbrokes Coral is a British
betting and gambling company. It is based in London. This report is based on the case study of
the Ladbrokes organization about the decision taken to reduce the workload. This report
highlights the report which need to be presented to the senior manager regarding the decision
which has been taken by the organization on behalf of the employee (Bigo, 2018). After that the
reprot goes on to highlights the two ethical theory to be applied on the case study of the
organization to prove the decison was unethical. After that the report goes on to explain what
makes a leader the ethical leader and how does ethical leader can operate the business operation.
PART 1
Report to Senior Manager
Ladbrokes is organization who have seen good rise in the revnue of the company by introducing
the Fixed Odds Betting terminal (FOBT). As this terminal allow the punter to bet with no limits
which has eventually resulted in increasing revenue for the company, which has drive the
company to open 3500 shop across the nation but as now the goverment has steped into it by
reducing the mazimum bet from £100 to £2. As a result Landbrokes has closed down 1000
shops of their 3500 shop and decided that the organization will be redundant some employee and
contract of the employee will also be reduce (Rumens and Tyler, 2015).
Why should the company be looking at this issue from the perspective of ethics?
This issue should be looked in the persepective of the ethics also as in the ethical
environemnt all the employee are given the job security in the organization and also organization
try to build a trust factor among the employee so that the number of the conflict and the issue can
be reduce in the organization. Contrasting to the statement Landbrokes are tring to fix the
competition in between the employee in the organization, which will eventually build the
negative environment in the organization and will also make the employee of the organization
uncertain which is against the ethical behaviour of any organization. As it is the ethical
responsbility of the organization to understand the need and requirment of the employee and try
to fullfil the same.

How might this issue influence the public image of the company?
As the employee used to be one of the importnat asset for all the organization and they are the
one who used to play a very crucial role in building the image of the company in the market. As
they ar the one who used to serve the employee with the best availabel resources with them. As
company in looking to shortened down the workorce in the organization it will eventually affect
the goodwill of the company as it will pass on the message in the market that the company is
uncertain position which may result that the company see the less number of the customer
(Pullen and Rhodes, 2015). As no customer in the market will love to gamble their money on the
company who is uncertain about their operation. Another impact which will be seen is that the
employer brand value of the company will also be affected by this issue as in the future it may
happens that the organization is not able to get the best employee from the market to carry out
the operation of the business. As all the employee will be not sure about their future in the
company which will eventually affects the organization in getting the best employee in the
future.
What alternatives ways are there to think about a business’ role in society?
All the organization used to operate with the sole motive of making the profit and achieving the
organizational goal by providing the product to the consmer in the society (Mukherjee,
Bhattacharjee and Singha, 2016). In real there are many other responsbility of the business
toward the society which has to be followed by all the organization. Way throug which the
Ladbrokes can handle the issue and will also help them in managing the CSR of the of the
busienss are as follow:
Expansion of the business: As Ladbrokes has seen the good amount of the revemnue, company
is in the good financial position to invest in new venture. As also the organization is also having
a good amount of the human resource they can divert the interested employee in new venture.
This will eventually help the compay in expanding their business which may result in increasing
productivity. At the same time will also able to serve the variety of the different customer which
will help the company in satisfing the social responsibility of the business.
Who/what are the stakeholders impacted in the scenario you are reporting on and how are
they impacted on?
In the above scenerio employee and the goverment of the nation will be the one who will be
mostly affected. Both the stakeholder will be affected in the positive way only.

Employee: This scenerio will help the employee in saving their job in the organization as also
can help them in building the new skills in them as it may happens that the new venture may
require the employee with the new skill set, so organization will be providing training to improve
the same.
Goverment: Goverment of the nation are the another stakeholder which will be happy with the
decision of the organization as it will help the goverment in maintaing the employment in the
society. As, otherwise it may happen that unemployment rate of the nation would had increase
which eventually has affected the economy of the nation. As it is the responsibilty of the
goverment to manage the Human resource of nation (McPhail, 2015).
Where are there examples of business that act responsibly and ones that do not?
Google is one of the biggest example of the organization who used to act responsbily for
compiling with the different social responsbility of the business. As google is linked with the
different NGO in the world and used to donate some art of their earning to the different Ngo in
the world. Not only that the google also used to manage their employee in beter way by
understanding their need and satisfing them. Google is the organization which used to provide
good amount of the wages and salary to the employee.
Ryanair is the organization which is always find to not satisfy the CSR of the organization.
Ryanair in the past have overlooked the warning of the employee which has resulted in lose of
hundreads of the life in Airplane crash. This is against the social responsbility of the
organization. At the same time employee of the organization was also not treated well in the
organization as proper training to all the employee are not provided by the management of the
organization.
Recommendation
The best way through which organization can overcome the issue which is faced by the
organization is by conducting a meeting in the organization and inviting all the employee in the
meeting and passing on the message about the necessasity of the decision. This will help the
business in building a good trust or the impression on the employee. After that the organization
should provide all the employee whom them are looking to redudant with the time period of 3 - 6
month to search for the job (Rhodes, 2016). This will help the company in reducing the
workforce in the organization at the same time also not affecting the environment of the
organization.

Two Ethical Theories Implication
Ethical theory are the supporting theories which used to provide the foundation for the
decision making in the organization. Two ethical theory whicih can be appliend in the Ladbrokes
case study are utilitarianism and Right. Utilitarianism theory, It is the ethical theory which
defines the ability of the person to predict the consequencies of the action. In real there are two
type of Utilitaianism that is Act Utilitaianism and rule Utilitaianism. Act Utilitaianism explain
that the person has to ake sure that they perform the act in the organization which can help the
maximum number of the stakeholder in the organization whether professionally or personally
(Lin, H. J. and Johnson, 2016). Rule act defines that the person in the organization has to make
sure that the decison which is taken in the organziation to provide the help to the most number of
the parties, should be take into account the different law which used to look at the fairest and
most just means available. When applied on the case study of Ladbrokes, it has been seen that
the Ladbrokes has taken the decision whihc is just looking in mind the growth of the company as
due to that decision many parties will be affected as employee of the organization will loose their
job. Consumer in the market will have to search for the different store to place the bet as 1000
shops are being closed in the organization. So from the theory it can be said that the organization
has not used the ethical consideration in taking the decision as in ethical decision organization
used to take the decision which can help the most number of the parties in the organization but it
was not the case in Ladbrokes case study. As they have already looked to safe the cost of the
company and not looked about the different party before making decission. There are many sort
of the assumption which need to be taken care by the organization in the Utilitaianism theory to
make the different decision. The assumption are the decision maker must make the different
concern about the ability to compare the various types of consequences against each other on a
similar scale (Fehr, Yam, and Dang, 2015).
Right is the another ethical theory which can be applied in Ladbrokes organization to
undersatnd that is decision taken are taken on the ethical value or not. This ethical theory
highlights that the decision which are taken in the organization should be taken by looking at the
right of the society. When applieed this theory on the function of Ladbrokes it has been findout
that all the decision which has been taken in the organization are not taken on the basis of the
right. As the organization is having no right to develop the competition in betwen the two
employee this is against the right of the society. As all the operation which used to be done in the

organization should be done with the motive that all the organization in the organziation will
come together and perform the different activity in the organization. It is not the same in the case
of Ladbrokes organization as Ladbrokes has created the situation in which all the employee in
the organization used to compeite against each other so that they can save the job in the
organization (Mo and Shi, 2017). Another right which has been not followed is the right to
opinion as ethical decision always make sure that all the employee in the organization used to get
the right to keep their opininon in the decision making of the organization but this right has not
been followed by the organization as the decision which was taken in the organization was taken
without seeing the point of view of the employee. So after seeing that it can be said that the
decision which was taken by the Ladbrokes was not the ethical decison.
PART 2
Ethical leader and management of your business to compile with higher ethical standard
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending
concepts of right and wrong conduct. Ethics is the word generally used to describe the desirable
and the morale value according to the society and the individual.
Ethical leader used to perform the same activity which is performed by the other leader, that is to
influene the work of the individual employee in the organization in such a way that it helps the
organization in achieving the organizational objective. Difference between the leader and the
ethical leader is that ethical leader in the organization used to show the respect ro the member of
the team by listening to them attentively, valuing their contributions, being compassionate, and
being generous while considering opposing view points (Souter, and et.al., 2015). Characterstics
of the ethical leader is as follows:
Justice: Ethical leader are the one who are always fair to and justice to all the employee in the
organization. There is no sort of the personal biasness between the leader and the employee of
the organization. Ethical leader always used to treat all the employee equally in the organization
by providing them the equall sort of the resources to perform the activity in the organization.
This leader sometime used to treat the employee in the different way also but at that time the
difference need to be classified in very fair, clear and morality way.
Respect other: Ethical leader always used to respect the other in the organization. As they
always used to here the opinion of all the employee in the organization before coming on any
sort of the conclusion. At the same time the ethical leader used to respect the feeling, decision

and values of the employee in the organization. This eventually help the leader in earning the
respect. Generally this leader are good listner than the seaker (Shin and et.al., 2015).
Teambuilding: It is the another important characterstic of the ethical leader as ethical leader in
the organization always look to build the different team in the organization and throw a good
flow of the communication in the team so that the team member in the organization used to build
a good sort of the bonding in between them. This type of the leader always influence the
importance on the work which has been done in the team as compare to the work done by the
individual.
Honesty: It is the another characterstic which used to be seen in the ethical leader as all the
leader are honest. Honesty is essential to be an ethical and effective leader. Honest leaders can be
always relied upon and depended upon. They always earn respect of their followers.
Serving other: Ethical leader used to always believe in serving the other in the organization by
placing the interest of the subordinate above the interest of himself. Ethical leader at the same
time also force the employee to improve their performance in the organization.
Me as an ethical manager will bring the variety of the changes in the functioning of the
organization. The thing on which I will lay emphasis on will be the team building as In my
thought it is the best way through which organization can improve the efficiency as well also can
build the good environment in the organization. As team work used to invest more than one mind
on the issue which is faced by the organization so that the solution of the issue will be better as
compare to the solution which is derived by the single individual. Team building also will build
the good working environment in the organization as all the employee in the organization used to
work together to achieve the organizational goal.
Another change which will be brought by me is that I would try to improve the involvement of
the employee in the organization decision-making. It will eventually help me in building the trust
among the different employee in the organization and will also help me in lowering down the
rate of the employment turnover in the organization. As all the employee in the organization will
feel that their opinion is consider by the management of the organization so there will be less
amount of the uncertainty in the organization which will eventually help the company in getting
the trust of the employee and will also help the organization in retaining the employee for the
longer period of the time. To involve the employee in the decision making I will be organizing
the meeting on the monthly basis in which all the employee of the organization will be invited

and all the employee will be asked about their opinion and on the basis of the same the different
decision will be taken in the organization.
Another thing I will be doing is that I will make sure that all the operation of the business is done
in the organization by keeping in mind the different rules and regulation of the nation. This will
help the company in following the different rules and regulation which can help the company in
building good goodwill in the market which will eventually promote the workplace ethics in the
market of the organization.
CONCLUSION
After going through the above report it has been summarized that the company has not taken the
ethical consideration into consideration before making the decision in the organization. After that
the report summarized by applying the theory also it can be identified that the decision which are
taken are not taken by considering the ethical theory in the organization. The theories which are
used are utilitarianism and Right theory. After that the report summarized the different
charecterstics of the ethical manager and how the ethical manager can operate the functioning of
the business so that the organization is able to copeup with the different ethical standard.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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