EVALUATION The structure of company Q is not currently formed to accommodate social responsibility or practice social ethics. Since the business is already in a heavily populated area and had to close down some of the stores due to high crime rates in those areas, maintaining a healthy relationship with the community in the area they are located is essential for the success of the business. The company has started to form a relationship with the community by listening to what the customers want and supplying the demand for those products. However, the chain is carrying all high margin products in all stores which may not suit the needs of those in lower income areas. By closing the stores in the "higher" crime rate areas the business has affected the employees who worked in that area. They have also sent the message to the community that the area they were in was not "good enough" for their stores. This gives the community a sense of abandonment and also gives the community a negative opinion of the complete chain of stores. The remaining stores that are open are going to need to make up for this by giving some positive acts for the community to take notice of. The negative attitude towards the employees is a major problem within the company. The company needs to be able to trust their employees as much as the employees need to be able to trust the business they work for. If the store is using the employees as an excuse for not donating day old products to the food bank the act speaks loudly to the employees who are also members of the community. Not only would this cause the store to lose employees, stop functioning properly, but it would also cause the community huge upset. If the business is not willing to help the community then the members of that community will discontinue doing business with the store overall.
RECOMMENDATIONS The company needs to first get all employees and managers on the same
References: Ferrell, O.C., Fraedrich, J. and Ferrell, L. (2008).Business Ethics: Ethical decisionmaking and cases(7th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin