Business ethics-the mcdonald's 'beef fries' controversy Essay

Business ethics-the mcdonald's 'beef fries' controversy - Essay Example How a company deals with past public issues, stakeholder issues and community concerns determines the employees’ perception of the importance of citizenship matters. Even though people in the West are basically non-vegetarian, America does have a good strength of vegetarians. Besides, there are many who avoid beef on ethical, religious or health grounds. These were ignored by McDonald’s when they decided to add beef flavoring agent when they started losing customers. According to Robinson (2002), ethics is a set of moral principles held by an individual or a group, encompassing individual behaviour, environmental policy, staff policy, and corporate social responsibility, which has gained importance recently. Demands of the shareholders, stakeholders and investors are forcing industries to maintain a high morality in how companies conduct business. Any deviation can adversely affect the brand image, customer retention, and overall business. McDonald’s initially declined to comment and then issued a ‘conditional apology’. As the people became more violent, the company kept changing their approach. This adversely affected their brand image. McDonald’s follows the ‘Code of Federal Regulations’ which does not require the restaurants to list the ingredients. The French fry suppliers do use a small amount of beef flavoring agent as an ingredient in the raw material. The ingredients in ‘natural flavorsâ€⠄¢ need not be broken down. This was their initial reaction but when there was an upsurge created, they reacted saying that they never claimed that the fries sold in US were vegetarian but this claim of theirs was also subsequently proved wrong. They went on the defensive instead. They were blamed for deceiving million of people who may not want to have beef extract in their fries for religious, health, ethical or other reasons. The Utilitarian and deontological perception on Kant on ethics is

Ground Response and Seismic Slope Stability Coursework

Ground Response and Seismic Slope Stability - Coursework Example In this report, two parts are considered. In the first part, a ground response analysis for two sites is run while the second part proposes possible design accelerations on basis of the analysis in designing of an embankment structure that will support the proposed roadway. Both of the proposed sites are located in Jamaica. With regard to ground response analysis, edushake analysis program is made use and the results obtained are as displayed in the various tables displayed throughout this report. The input data used are as provided in the coursework materials while the thickness is obtained through calculation of the difference between the depths. A table from the web forms the basis of assumptions made with regard to respective soil’s unit weight. Each soil type has its respective stress (), pore pressure (u) as well as effective stress (’) associated with it (Bhandari and Sharma, 2001). Two equations, one for sand and the second one for clay are used in in calculatio n of maximum shear stress based on the literature from the book of Steven Kramer’s. ... Width of crest: 15m Height of embankment: 11m Traffic loading surcharge: 15kPa Design PHA (horizontal acceleration): 0.3500g from the ground response analysis 0.3500g from the ground response analysis 0 The embankment is designed using a 1.56 safety factor to facilitate long term and short term stability. With the help of STB2010, the embankment’s parameters were generated using the ordinary method of slices also referred to as Fellenius method for static and seismic stability analysis. The necessary soil characteristics are provided in the table below: Drained strength with strength parameters: c’=0kPa and Ã'„=25? Unit weight of water: ?w = 9.81kN/m2 Undrained strength: c’=85kPa Unit weight of placed material: ? = 20kN/m2 It should be noted that the water table is located at the toe of the embankment. All the assumptions and calculations for the design of the embankment are shown from the Figure 3.1 to the next page. The data as provided in the spreadsheet is as shown below: Basing the divisions on four slices, the ordinary method of slices for design of embankments for drained as well as undrained soil is used. The initial embankment was generated based on the six slices. Consequently, an angle (?) was established in the middle of each slice at the horizontal’s base after which sin (?) and cos (?) were obtained. The equation given below was used in evaluation of the length of each individual slice: The height was measured from the middle of each slice. Additionally, the height (hw) was measured from the middle base of each slice to the point of the water table after which the pore pressure at the base of the slice base was calculated based