The decision that the company made may be considered rash and unsound. Given that the company may have other competitors, it was not mention that the reason they were shutting down was because there was another store competing for their business in that area. The issue of not making any profits may not be contributed to location. It could mean that the reason they are not making any money is because they are not catering to the customers in those location. The store may not be providing what is needed or wanted in those areas. Company Q must realize that the business will not succeed by selling just products; they must consider social responsibility and consider the…
Company Q is not acting in a socially responsible way by closing the stores in the high-crime areas. They had created a local brand and employed members of the community. By closing these two stores, Company Q would only be furthering the the decay of the community by creating more empty store fronts. Once the stores close, its employees would be without work. This will also contribute to the decline of the community. The loss of the local stores would be a hardship to residents, because they would have to spend more time and money to travel further to get the essential items they need. This added hardship would most likely have an effect on the community since there would be fewer resources available to help improve the community…
The article, “The NYSEG Corporate Responsibility Program” (Beauchamp, T. L., Bowie, N. E., & Arnold, D. G., 2009) is a writing that addresses the social responsibility program of a major energy provider in the Northeastern United States. The article discusses the implications of a corporation that has addressed the need to be ethical and instill a corporate responsibility policy. The author attempts to present all problems and concerns that are present with a company that has decided to act in an ethical manner. The company has created a large commitment to the community. They have agreed to assist in providing services to the less fortunate. The article is clear and concise. The reader is able to understand the major issues of social responsibility that face the corporation and the costs involved. NYSEG must assess the amount of financial commitment that the company can present to Project Share. They have agreed to assist in funding but must consider the ultimate cost of lower profits to the shareholders. The firm must decide at what point social responsibility begins and social work ends.…
Under the theory that social responsibility helps determine if a company is successful, let’s examine Company Q’s attitude toward social responsibility. Company Q recently closed down a couple stores citing that these two stores have been consistently losing money. It must be noted; however, that both stores were also located in higher-crime-rate areas of the city, which may cause the community to speculate about the real reason the stores were closed. Could it have been the fear of the neighborhood itself that caused Company Q to decide to close those two stores? The closing of these two stores could suggest that Company Q is more interested in profits and revenue rather than providing a much needed service to the community. In addition, Company Q’s customers have been requesting health-conscience and organic products for several years and they have just recently started offering these products. This change of heart may appear to be a positive step for Company Q if it wasn’t for the fact that not only did it take years of requests from their customers but all of the health-conscience and organic items being offered are high margin items, again making it appear that Company Q is more interested in profits and revenues than doing right by their customers and…
Company Q is a small grocery store chain working on being profitable in a large city. Company Q had a couple of stores that were not profitable and were in an area rated for higher crime, so they chose to close these two stores. The social responsibility choice by Company Q was abatement, choosing to remove the stores from the negative environment (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2008). Company Q has by request, been offering high margin items, specifically organic products which are considered a health conscious choice for customers concerned with the environment. These items have to be fresh and being perishable after being displayed for the day result in discarding or wasting by throwing the food away, which is of concern to the community. The community has a food bank which asked for donations of this organic food hoping to help those in need, but Company Q turned them down and showed no real interest in helping the community with the excuse for concern over possible fraud or employees stealing the food that was claimed to be for donation. The social responsibility for helping those in need is being avoided by Company Q simply because they claim concern over fraud by employees. This choice by Company Q may give them a negative reputation for the community (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2008). Job seekers may not want to work for Company Q if they see it as not being socially responsible and the possibility of being stereotyped as a possible thief just because you work for Company Q. The employees may have lower morale because of the negative reputation and disgust towards management for the lack of trust as an excuse for being socially irresponsible towards those in need. This choice may also cause a drop in current shoppers and a choice by possible new shoppers to choose to shop elsewhere.…
Most businesses start with the primary thought of making money. As a small grocery store chain, it is hard to compete with the larger national grocery stores, which often force the smaller local stores out of business. It is this dynamic, with the help of consumers, which is forcing both small and large businesses to reconsider their organizational goals and outcomes to include social responsibility. A successful business understands their customers, learns what their customers presently need, and foresees what their customers will need in the future.…
Closing stores in a higher crime rate areas is only counter-productive for the company and the community it serves. In order for these hard hit areas to once again flourished, businesses and organizations need to hold firm and weather the storm. Effectively responding to consumer requests is very minimal at best. When Company Q does choose to respond supply is never matched with demand. Ineffective management practices have led to a disconnect within the communities they serve. Selling high margin requested items eventually leads to poor customer satisfaction. Company Q has no loyalty or trust with its own employees. This self-defeating behavior will only lead to more underperforming stores.…
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.…
According to the current situation Company Q has a damaged attitude toward social responsibility within their company, all because of low profits being made. Due to high crime rates in certain areas the company has been closing off stores, not realizing the problem they have caused. The people that live in the prospected area where the stores where closed are now forced to travel further for groceries. This causes a problem especially for the poor, who do not have the extra money for extra expenses. I recommend the company take precautionary measures to help catch and promote others not to steal. They could do this by offering a reward, or installing cameras. This would help promote social responsibility within the company. Another very serious problem is the companies unwillingness to donate food for those in need. Especially since the company isn’t losing much or nothing at all by donating. The sudden unwillingness to donate is due to the distrust of the owners with the employees. They believe the employees will start to steal while saying they are donating it to the poor. This is yet another sign of a weak social responsibility within the company. These particular problems and fears are direct situations which concretely damages the social responsibility within the company, as well as the community. My personal recommendation is to draw out concrete guidelines and procedures that the employees have to follow before donating food. This would allow a company to gain trust within the employees as well as being benevolent towards the poor. Especially if cameras are involved employees tend to be more honest. They can also use an employee hiring technique that is based on a persons honesty and dignity. The last problem that the company has is its unwillingness to offer more health conscience food. If the above recommendations are taken into account, the…
While evaluating Company Q’s attitude toward social responsibility it seems they made some decisions based on the severe lack of revenue over a period time, which motivated them to close a couple of stores. Those stores, which were located in a major metropolitan area, were also characterized as high-crime areas. By closing those stores, it no doubt had a negative economic impact both directly and indirectly on the people in those store locations. For the now unemployed people they will have to look for another source of income and benefits. The community members that relied on those stores for groceries, will now have to travel to another store possibly at a longer distance and will have to commit more time and money.…
The recent actions of Company Q aren’t as unethical/immoral as other companies in case studies that we have read about throughout the course (i.e. Wal-Mart). Even though their actions aren’t as severe, their actions are still unethical on a variety of levels. There are three areas that could be improved regarding Company Q’s attitude toward social responsibility.…
In The Wal-Mart effect: Poison or Antidote for Local Communities author Terry J. Fitzgerald attempts to submerge to the bottom of the issues people have with Wal-Mart. He does so by using results from Wal-Mart’s effect by entering non Wal-Mart counties economy’s. He uses the research to show that Wal-Mart doesn’t affect a community as much as most think. However, no matter what side of the issue you fall on, it still affects your community in a good or bad manner.…
In simple terms, give the people what they want and/or expect. For example, if a grocery store was located in a predominately Asian part of town, it would be expected that they would carry a larger assortment of Asian products. With regard to Company Q, the failure to provide products and services that directly impacted their target audience was detrimental to the stores survival. This was realized by the failure to provide health-conscience and organic products requested by their customers. It is also true that the communities’ perception of any given business will greatly affect the overall success of that particular business. It would appear that company Q has taken the position that location and employee fraud are the largest contributing factors for the stores decline, when in fact, it is their own moral judgments that are leading to the stores downfall. This was again evident with the decisions to throw out day old products rather than donate them to the community food banks. It’s extremely important for one to recognize ethical issues and to understand ethics in business. It is not always the case that society will interpret a…
Studies have shown that the number of available retail jobs often decreases when a big box retailer moves into a town due to the closing or downsizing of other local business that cannot compete (Neumark, Zhang, & Ciccarella, 2007). Most would agree that it is wrong to knowingly cause someone to lose their job. The loss of a job is sure to cause harm to a person’s finances. This individual harm often expands as entire families are affected. Even the shrewdest of business professionals would likely feel sympathy for the newly unemployed and their families. Yet, in a capitalist economy business expansion is not only ethically acceptable but also a result of successful, professional business…
3. Focus on ethics: Is it fair that a retail chain can exert so much power over a…