OMM640-BUSINESS ETHICS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

My-( Ethical Issues in the 21st Century -DISCUSSION)minimum 200 words

Gonzalez-Padron (2015) addressed several ethical issues that have  arisen in the 21st century. Choose a scholarly or credible article  relating to a 21st century ethical issue. The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources  table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you  have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this  assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the  final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a  particular assignment.

• Describe how the ethical dilemma can affect both the organization and society.
• Evaluate changes could have been made to prevent this ethical dilemma.

Your response must be a minimum of 300 words.

Guided Response: Review several of your classmates’  posts and respond to at least two of your peers by 11:59 p.m. on Day 7  of the week. You are encouraged to post your required replies early  during the week to promote more meaningful interactive discourse in the  discussion. For your response, take on the role of an organizational  leader, based on the evaluations from your classmate, give advice on  additional suggested for changes to prevent the ethical dilemma.

Reply to Edwards Discussion:

There have been many ethical dilemmas over the past years about  customers wanting healthier choice options from fast food places for  better health and dietary needs. “In August 2002, a group of overweight  children in New York City filed a class-countable for the economic and  public health action lawsuit against McDonalds corporation seeking  compensation for obesity related health problems and improved  nutritional labeling of McDonald’s products” (Mello, Rimm &  Studdert, 2003, p. 207). Many people feel that the company is making  tons of money from customers while putting their health at risk due to  the high sodium and fat that a lot of their menu items carry. Not to  mention that when McDonalds run an advertisement on television for a new  sandwich they only have people in the commercials that are in shape.  This can be misleading to individuals who are not obese by making them  assume that they can eat McDonalds products without gaining weight.

This unethical dilemma effects the organization by way of dealing  with customer conflicts that boycott and file lawsuits against the  company which creates a bad work climate. “Unethical marketing that  exploits or harms another party reduces the customer’s evaluation of  perceived fairness and risks alienating the most committed customers”  (Ingram, Skinner & Taylor, 2005, p. 1.2). This causes a company to  lose profit, which will force them to reduce their expenses by letting  go of workers which will create more poverty. McDonald’s unethical  dilemma can cause customers to get more diseases associated with  unhealthy and weight gain such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart  disease, high cholesterol. This in turn can make McDonalds’ customers  spend more money in medical costs in regards to seeing the doctor more  frequently, buying more medication and even putting their body at risk  of a stroke which can lead to death.

While the company has putting salads and oatmeal on their menu, they  need to include hamburgers that come from grass fed cows which will has  less calories, fat and more antioxidant vitamins and omega fatty acids.  The company also allow customers to substitute their white buns for  wheat buns which are more healthy and put organic items on their menu  board.

References

Ingram, R., Skinner, S. J., & Taylor, V. A. (2005). Consumers’ evaluation of unethical marketing behaviors: The role of customer commitment. Journal of Business Ethics, 62(3), 237–252.

Mello, M. M., Rimm, E. B., & Studdert, D. M. (2003). The McLawsuit: The fast-food industry and legal accountability for obesity. Health Affairs, 22(6), 207-216. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.22.6.207

Reply to Jefferey’s discussion:

A 21st  century ethical issue that has been in the news recently involves data  mining and privacy issues. If proper security measures are not put in  place, data mining can be used for malicious purposes and expose privacy  issues. A recent example of this is Facebook which has been in the ‘hot  seat’ regarding data privacy, or lack thereof, with its customer  information.

Describe how the ethical dilemma can affect both the organization and society.

While most tend to agree that consumer data privacy is extremely  important for any organization, Facebook is in an odd ethical  predicament because their business is driven off the concept of sharing  data and information. This is how they stay in business. Another  interesting twist is that Al-Saggaf and Zahidul (2015) actually wrote an  article about this very same issue before the recent Facebook scandal.  Their paper explored the potential that data mining could be used for  malicious reasons and could threaten the privacy of social network  sites. Fast forward to recent events and we absolutely know that this  can, and did, happen with Cambridge Analytica.

Al-Saggaf and Zhidul (2015) wrote that Mark Zuckerberg previously  commented how people are more willing to share more and more information  online. One commentator interpreted this statement as the ‘age of  privacy is over’. One could argue that this is probably true. Europeans  take consumer privacy much more seriously than in the United States.  There have been two recent attempts at passing more data privacy  controls for consumers but neither have passed legislation.

Evaluate changes could have been made to prevent this ethical dilemma.

Some changes that could have been made include having better security  measures in place. I understand that Facebook’s platform is meant to  share data and information. However, proper security measures should  have been put in place to limit the amount of access Cambridge Analytica  had to customer information. As our weekly lecture suggests, Facebook  needs to work on balancing what’s right and what’s profitable. Facebook  obviously wants to remain profitable and stay in business. However, they  should not do so at the expense of its customers and their privacy.

Reference:

Al-Saggaf, Y., & Zahidul, I. (2015). Data Mining and Privacy of  Social Network Sites’ Users: Implications of the Data Mining Problem. Science and Engineering Ethics. 21(4). 941-966.