discussion

Ethical behavior can be viewed at a personal level, as well as a corporate level. In business, personal ethics is often tied to the agency theory, and at the corporate level, it is tied to corporate social responsibility. Please provide robust dialogue information or concepts that I may not have considered.

There have been so many requirements that companies has been put in a position to adhere to over the years social needs being one of them. There has been a lot of companies that have had to implement code of conduct to stay within the requirements and expectations of the current times relating to the social needs of their employees. Starbucks is one of the companies who have been in the media over the past decade regarding social matters particularly around race. Within there being one location that was within the media about racial discrimination within the coffee shop to even recent stance on the BLM movement for their employees prohibited to support the movement. The situation regarding the recent BLM movement that the CEO decided to take a stance on prohibiting their employees to support backlashed quickly as employees stirred up their opinions being there are other movements that the Starbucks CEO has supported over the time. Not only was this viewed as racial discrimination but when Starbucks customers particularly of African American decent, began to boycott the organization via social media platforms forcing the Starbucks CEO to overturn his decision.

With the sales of the company already declining due to the current state of the pandemic over the past months, this decision resulted in a decline of sales on that day. As a CEO, making a decision as such is something that could have been permitted if he had consulted with a diverse group of senior leaders or even have the store front management staff gain a consensus on the views that the employees had on a sensitive matter as such. With him overturning the decision within 24-hour timeframe, it provided an imagery to the consumers particularly African Americans that this was done due to the fact the race had begun to boycott continuing to purchase their coffee from the stores. The responsibility of the company’s shareholders also can potentially “pose problems for markets since neither buyer nor seller have an y incentive to deal with the costs. But sometimes, for large firms, things work differently.” (Henderson. 2018)

The Sarbanes-Oxley is a regulation that was implemented back in 2002. Within this act, it was implemented to cover employees who was working for an employer who was in violation of their rights as an employee. This act not only covers frontline staff but also ensures that the CEO continues to make ethical decisions that will benefit all employees. This act promotes ethical behavior as if the company does not align within the regulation that is in place, it puts the organization in a position to be sued for failing to abide by. Financially a company should “primarily be held responsible for maximizing financial returns to their shareholders.” (Rhodes, 2018) Diversifying the company from all levels is a way that can assist with ethical decisions being made within the company. In a quick review of Starbucks senior leadership, it is diversified as far as gender but there is still room to have an all-inclusive staff that could help make the company stronger to avoid having to relive this situations every few years.