Unethical Practices and Business Ethics: ALH Group Case Study Analysis

This case study examines the ethical issues faced by the Australian Leisure and Hospitality (ALH) Group, a major player in the hospitality and gambling sector. The case focuses on allegations of unethical practices, including spying on customers to prolong gambling sessions and misuse of customer data. The report highlights the conflict between profit maximization and customer privacy, as well as the impact on stakeholders like employees and customers. It discusses the company's response to the allegations and the importance of ethical decision-making in business, referencing relevant literature on business ethics and corporate social responsibility. The analysis considers the consequences of unethical behavior on reputation, sales, and the need for stricter regulations and ethical awareness in the industry, emphasizing the importance of ethical practices for long-term business success.

ETHICS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
A CASE STUDY ON ETHICAL ISSUES FACED BY ALH GROUP.........................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

A CASE STUDY ON ETHICAL ISSUES FACED BY ALH GROUP
Business Ethics is considered to be a form of many professionals or applied philosophies
which examines every ethical principle as well as related problems that can arise in business
scenario. It generally applies all aspects through which conduction of business is done which
must be relevant to individuals and the entire organisation. These are regarded to be values,
norms, ethical or unethical practices that provides guidance for performing all operations in order
to accomplish objectives of companies (Shapiro and Stefkovich, 2016). They are considered to
be contemporary standards for companies, sets of values, principles and norms which usually
governs behaviour as well as actions of people in the firm. This report includes case of unethical
practices which were conducted by Australian Leisure and Hospitality groups.
ALH group is well known for Casinos and gaming. They provide many entertaining
games related to gambling. They are known to be the market leader of hospitality sector in
Australia. Their portfolio comprises of iconic hotels and also neighbourhood pubs, liquor outlets
and licensed venues. Company generally offers several hospitality experiences that involves
bistros, sports bars, electronic gaming’s, night clubs and also wagering (Wang and Calvano,
2015). Business activities comprises of all kind of pub operations such as food, accommodations
functions, entertainment and sale of liquor at retail level that incorporates with huge liquor barn,
walk in bottle shops, drive through outlets, development of property. Major problem that
surrounded this organisation is accusation of using unethical practices such as spying customers
for prolonging sessions of Gambling. It has been alleged that company focuses on this aspect
through poker machines. These activities majorly included watching customers and compiling
their database that contains information regarding them. Business and Human Right Resource
Centre further invited the firm for responding against all allegations which were raised in media
on those practices related to privacy of buyers (Pollock and Williams, 2017). ALH took this
obligation from Responsible Service of Gaming and Alcohol in a serious manner. They have
proclaimed that their industry as well as operations are regulated by authorities which are
independent in every state and have compliance with regulation and laws that are not negotiable.
The interest of customer is always kept on priority. They have agreed upon ethical fact that there
is a presence of line which is required to be respected that occurs between customer service
which is legitimate and related loyalty initiatives. It is considered to be essential base of
hospitality business. Another Gambling firm Woolworth have claimed that they collected data
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of gamblers in order to persuade them for gambling more. Even they spy on their customers so
that they play more. Apart from that, free drinks were served which allured them a lot and it
made to increase their sale and made them to beat the daily target in order to succeed (Crane and
Matten, 2016). The dilemma they faced were, maintenance of privacy of their customers but for
making huge profit they followed that unethical practice.
Major stakeholders of this group are employees and customers which were majorly
affected due to arise of this issue. As customers were investing their money in exchange of
entertainment in the form of gambling. But their personal information was not at all safe. As it
was misused by company for getting fruitful advantages (Linehan and O’Brien, 2017). Apart
from that, their confidentiality was not secured. It has been observed that employees were
having a great share in ALH group as they were responsible for contributing their efforts for
providing huge amount of revenue to organisation. With such allegations on the company made
their job to be unsecure. As there might be introduction of some policies which would be in their
favour. The decision which was taken by ALH group was completely unethical. In greed of
increasing sales and earning huge revenue, they broke the law of confidentiality. Every customer
has some private information that is not required to be procured for making strategies in order to
attract them for gambling more. It is unethical to use information of other individual for the sake
of own benefit. Apart from this, there has been a limit of serving liquor to those customers who
visits such places. Excessive serving of alcohols can be injurious to health and promoting it can
also be considered as a crime (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016). Unethical practice has made their
reputation very negative and also has to face several allegations which were implied on them by
higher authorities.
According to me, ethics concerns person's judgement regarding wrong and right. There
are several decisions which are needed to be taken in a company by an individual or a group.
These decisions influence culture of a firm that disturbs functioning of a company. The decisions
related to ethical behaviour is regarded to be a moral one. Through following an ethical way
individual might reject huge short term profit (Clarke and Boersma, 2017). These kind of
behaviour and corporate social responsibility can lead to introduce many advantages in a
business. Reputation of a company gets built up that attracts buyers to buy products of the firm.
Therefore, it results in boosting up sales as well as profit. With the adoption of such kind of
measures here is a reduction in labour turnover that increases productivity. After taking many
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lecture of Ethics, it has been acknowledged that ethics corresponds to basic need of human
(Business ethics and corporate social responsibility, 2018). The credibility in public gets to
become stronger. Adopting these measures provides effective decision making ability (Little,
2018). It has been noticed in the case of ALH group that for satisfying their needs as well as
greed’s they compromised their moral values. They focused on earning profit which made them
to follow some unethical practices which can also be harmful for customers. Therefore, it is
urgently required to make business man aware regarding the effect of practising ethical practices
on their respective commercial trades. Rules and regulations related to such practice is needed to
be made stricter in order to make it compliant to every individual.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Clarke, T. and Boersma, M., 2017. The governance of global value chains: Unresolved human
rights, environmental and ethical dilemmas in the apple supply chain. Journal of Business
Ethics. 143(1). pp.111-131.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Linehan, C. and O’Brien, E., 2017. From tell-tale signs to irreconcilable struggles: The value of
emotion in exploring the ethical dilemmas of human resource professionals. Journal of
business ethics. 141(4). pp.763-777.
Little, D., 2018. The paradox of wealth and poverty: Mapping the ethical dilemmas of global
development. Routledge.
Pollock, J. M. and Williams, H. E., 2017. Using ethical dilemmas in training police. Braswell,
McCarthy & McCarthy,(eds), Justice, crime and ethics.
Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Shapiro, J. P. and Stefkovich, J. A., 2016. Ethical leadership and decision making in education:
Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.
Wang, L. C. and Calvano, L., 2015. Is business ethics education effective? An analysis of
gender, personal ethical perspectives, and moral judgment. Journal of Business Ethics.
126(4). pp.591-602.
Online:
Business ethics and corporate social responsibility. 2018. [online]. Available Through:
<https://businesscasestudies.co.uk/anglo-american/business-ethics-and-corporate-social-
responsibility/what-are-business-ethics.html>
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