Legal, Social and Ethical Responsibilities in Business

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Legal, Social and Ethical Responsibilities in Business

Over a duration of thirty years, legal, social, and ethical issues have arise concerning organizations practices that has cause people to believe negative about corporates. Through the use of the media, business practices have become more transparent. Being ready to remain believable to the world, companies must maintain good ethical reasoning, based on fairness. This will decease people eagerness to believe negative things about corporations.

In this paper I have been asked to identify and evaluate the planning function of management for McDonald’s Corp., the world’s #1 fast-food restaurant. The main issue that McDonald’s faces these days is the specter of obesity and diseases related to obesity. A few years back, a man sued McDonald’s for making him fat. Though the case was dismissed, it did show where the tide was turning – namely that Quarter Pounders with Cheese, Big Macs and French fries could no longer be considered the typical all-American meal.

The McDonald's cause was not helped when, Morgan Spurlock released the film Super Size Me in 2004. In that documentary, Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald’s for a month, morning, noon and night. The result was that Spurlock gained weight and his health takes a turn for the worse, such as heart palpitations and overall weakness and sluggishness as can be expected.

There is little doubt that eating nothing but McDonald’s for a month will create some health problems. It was clear to see that McDonald’s is not known for selling 100% healthy food. People do not go to McDonald’s seeking out healthy ways of eating. It is plain to see that they go because they want to splurge. The problem comes when that splurging ta...

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...right, internally and externally, to create a good working atmosphere, while also society and the environment benefiting. The problem is that many ethical issues are subjective and based on people's values and beliefs. As a result, they are often difficult to enforce and easy to neglect. The result of this is having to take responsibility for mistakes and making reparation to those affected, whether, the issues are legal, ethical, social and moral implications of decisions taken by a company.

Works Cited

Barnat, Ryszard (n.d.). Strategic management plan. Retrieved October 9, 2010 from http://www.introduction-to-management.24xls.com/en307.

Fitterman, Lisa (2007, January). Fries with that? Today’s Parent, 62-65. The fast-food industry wants us to believe it's cleaned up its act. Should parents bite?

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