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