Developing a Code of Conduct for Retail Food Group (MBA402) - Report

This report presents a code of conduct designed for Retail Food Group (RFG), addressing critical aspects of corporate governance, ethics, and sustainability. The code meticulously covers several key areas, including the prevention of discrimination, exploitation, and corruption within the workplace. It ...Read More

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizational Behavior
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Code of Conduct for the Retail Group
A. Discrimination
Any types of discrimination should not be made between the employees as it destroys the
reputation of the organization. The customers are affected by discriminations sometimes. This
sends a wrong message to the entire employee base. No kind of bullying should be tolerated
within the workplace as this is utterly disrespectful for everyone. Employees should not be
allowed to spread any kind of rumors. No abusive or insulting language can be spoken against
any person within the premises of the workplace (Chung, 2019). Any type of aggressive or
intimidating conduct is prohibited within the organization so this must be followed to bring back
the lost reputation of the company Retail Food Group (RFG). The new CEO of the company
must ensure that no employee is being harassed. This will include sexual harassment on the
female employees as well (Chkanikova 2016). Any questions on the private life or sexual
activities of a person should not be put into question by ant of the employees. Some other things
that should be regarded as important to be controlled are questioning on the sexual orientation,
intersex status, gender identity of the people (Nygaard et al. 2017).
B. Exploitation
The second thing that should be put under consideration is the issue of the exploitation of
the people. This code of conduct should have the power to stop any kind of exploitation among
the employees of the company (van Ruth, Huisman and Luning 2017). The organization should
always take very strict steps so the guilty people can be punished very hard indeed. Any kind of
racial exploitation, exploitations on the basis of skin color, nationality, national origin and other
factors are strictly prohibited indeed (Chung, 2019). Apart from that, exploitative comments on

2ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
the basis of age and disability should be strictly forbidden within the workplace. Exploitation is
committed to such levels that sometimes it can be compared with the criminal activities. Any
kind of physical violence is also a kind of physical exploitation (Silvis et al. 2017). Physical
moves like punching, fighting or pushing should not at all be practiced within an organization.
Employees of Retal Food Group (RFG) must always keep these factors in their minds (Chung,
2019).
C. Corruption
The third aspect for the concept of exploitation is the corruption. Employees within the
organization must always act with integrity and honesty. This will definitely keep up the overall
good reputation of the company. Previously, the CEO of the company had to fire around 200
people from the management so the system of the organization could be carried out very
smoothly. The CEO had to take care of numerous customers and around 7000 employees of the
organization (Chung, 2019). All the confidential information should always be kept as secret as
well. All the conflicts of interest should be managed properly and this should be done with
absolute honesty (van Ruth, Huisman and Luning 2017). No type of corruption or money
laundering should be tolerated by the organization in terms of carrying out the business
relationships. All the business records must be preserved with utmost honesty and the rivals
should not be able to get any trace of this. Otherwise, they will utilize this opportunity and it will
be harmful for Retail Food Group (León-Bravo et al. 2017).
D. Dishonest and fraudulent behavior
Any kind of fraudulent behavior within the organization regarding the business
relationship will be taken as the extreme form of corruption. It is also very significant for the

3ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
organization Retail Food Group (RFG) to care for their customers and maintain a very good
reputation in front of the other persons in the society. In order to do this, they must always
maintain a positive framework for their organization (Du Plessis, Hargovan and Harris 2018).
They must also establish a safe and sound social and economic method. Through this, the
company will also be able to provide a proper environmental contribution for the society. This
will ensure the fact they are not at all indulged in any sort of fraudulent behavior (Chung, 2019).
No customer should feel in a way that they are being cheated. The company can opt to set up a
safe digital payment system through which customers will be guaranteed of best returns
(Leipziger 2017). The employees in charge of the cash handling should provide all the records to
the higher management. All the transactions should account for the safety of the customers
(Chkanikova and Mont 2015).
E. Whistleblower protections
The whistleblower protection policies must be strengthened by the company Retail Food
Group (RFG). The policies must be enacted by the company to guarantee a safe working
environment. The company should take up some principles if they want to implement their
whistle blowing policies in a better manner (Chung, 2019). Strict actions must be taken in case of
situations like unsafe practices in the work, being involved in the bullying, discrimination or
harassment against the employees, breaching of the laws, acts and regulations in case of the
business practices (Chkanikova and Mont 2015). If any employee intentionally damages the
reputation of the company by any means, strong actions must be taken against him or her as a
part of the whistle blowing protection policy as well. The whistle blowing policy should be
practiced within the organization so it can yie;ld positive outcomes to stop the means of
corruption. (Chkanikova 2016). Thus, all mismanagements within the organization must be taken

4ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
very seriously and arrangements should be ready to implement the whistle blowing protection
policy for the safety of the working environment.
F. Enforcements
The enforcements of these policies should be made very strictly so the organization
Retail Food Group (RFG) can be safe from any penalization by the Government (Mamic 2017).
The employees should always be cautioned about the fact that people who will not be able to
comply with all these policies shall have to pay the fines. Otherwise more strict punishments will
be given on the defaulters (Cicatiello et al. 2017). The company could be highly liable for filing
lawsuits against the culprits on the basis of financial or reputational damages on the company
(Aung and Chang 2014). Strict disciplinary actions must be hanging over their heads if the
employees if they do not pay proper attention to these things.

5ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
References and Bibliography
Aung, M.M. and Chang, Y.S., 2014. Traceability in a food supply chain: Safety and quality
perspectives. Food control, 39, pp.172-184.
Chkanikova, O. and Mont, O., 2015. Corporate supply chain responsibility: drivers and barriers
for sustainable food retailing. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental
Management, 22(2), pp.65-82.
Chkanikova, O., 2016. Sustainable purchasing in food retailing: interorganizational relationship
management to green product supply. Business Strategy and the Environment, 25(7), pp.478-
494.
Chung, F. (2019). ‘All I can do is deal with what I’ve got’. [online] NewsComAu. Available at:
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/cant-change-the-past-retail-food-group-boss-
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281.
Du Plessis, J.J., Hargovan, A. and Harris, J., 2018. Principles of contemporary corporate
governance. Cambridge University Press.
Leipziger, D., 2017. The corporate responsibility code book. Routledge.
León-Bravo, V., Caniato, F., Caridi, M. and Johnsen, T., 2017. Collaboration for sustainability in
the food supply chain: A multi-stage study in Italy. Sustainability, 9(7), p.1253.

6ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Mamic, I., 2017. Implementing codes of conduct: How businesses manage social performance in
global supply chains. Routledge.
Nygaard, A., Biong, H., Silkoset, R. and Kidwell, R.E., 2017. Leading by example: Values-based
strategy to instill ethical conduct. Journal of Business Ethics, 145(1), pp.133-139.
Silvis, I.C.J., Van Ruth, S.M., Van Der Fels-klerx, H.J. and Luning, P.A., 2017. Assessment of
food fraud vulnerability in the spices chain: An explorative study. Food Control, 81, pp.80-87.
Stockland.com.au (2019). Corporate Governance. [online] Stockland.com.au. Available at:
https://www.stockland.com.au/about-stockland/corporate-governance [Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
van Ruth, S.M., Huisman, W. and Luning, P.A., 2017. Food fraud vulnerability and its key
factors. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 67, pp.70-75.
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Woolworthsgroup.com.au (2019). [online] Woolworthsgroup.com.au. Available at:
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