Ethical and Socially Responsive Business Ruby Tuesdays free essay sample

Ruby Tuesday’s vision is to provide great value to their guests and a great working environment for their team members by reflecting their core values of Quality, Passion, and Pride in everything the company does. The company adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics to confirm its commitment to conduct business with the highest integrity. Compliance with Laws, Rules, and Regulations is, to me, the most important area in a company’s code of conduct. Complying with laws, rules, and regulations includes preventing harassment and discrimination, improper payments, and environmental compliance. When companies are in compliance they are not putting themselves at risk of huge fines, lawsuits, and negativity towards their company. In 2007, the Rosen family filed a lawsuit against Ruby Tuesdays, Inc. for discrimination against their religious beliefs. They believed that an employee that worked in the restaurant in Athens, Ohio had intentionally burnt a swastika into the bottom of the bowl that their food was served in. We will write a custom essay sample on Ethical and Socially Responsive Business: Ruby Tuesdays or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They believed that the intent stemmed from one of the cooks seeing the Rosen daughter, whom wore a necklace displaying a Star of David, on the way to the bathroom. They believed that in knowing that they were Jewish, the cook intentionally discriminated against their religious beliefs. This family suffered emotional distress due to this instance. That is just an example of what can happen if a company does not train their employees to be ethically responsible. This also means complying with the rules for any form of harassment or discrimination against your co-workers. Improper payments refers to taking bribes or kickbacks as a payment for a service within a company. To me, this is just morally and ethically wrong. Environmental compliance refers to being committed to eliminating hazards within the workplace and providing a safe and healthy work environment. These are significant to their company because they don’t want the negativity that can come from lawsuits and fines. The negativity could ruin the company and force them to close. Financial and Accounting Integrity is also an important aspect in a company’s code of conduct. Ruby Tuesday Inc. ’s code of conduct prohibits all fraudulent activity that involves; dishonest acts, embezzlement of the company’s funds, forgery or alterations on checks or drafts, conversion of funds for personal use, unauthorized handling or reporting transactions, and falsification of the company’s financial statements or records. This is significant because again it could result in unwanted fines, lawsuits, and negativity towards the company. If companies are not properly funding their organizations or if employees are embezzling money for personal uses, it is not going to look positive for the company. This could ruin their business in a whole because customers will not want to do business with people that are unethical. Confidentiality is also an important aspect in a company’s code of conduct. Ruby Tuesday Inc. ’s code of conduct states that the protection and proper use of confidential information or trade secrets in its possession are fundamental to its ability to conduct the company’s business. This is significant to business because if workers go around telling people about their secrets and confidential information, they are then telling people how the company runs business, giving the competitors when they need to compete. Some key steps that Ruby Tuesday’s should use to ensure that employees are following the code of conduct are training and continued training, consequences for not following them, and management presenting themselves as morally and ethically responsible. Training of their codes of conduct should start in the training process and should continue throughout their employment with the company. They could hold monthly meetings that stress one of the factors of the code, eventually all of them would be covered. They could also discuss unethical issues that they are facing or that others are facing to stress that unethical behavior will not be allowed in their company. The employees also have to know that there are consequences if they act or perform unethical tasks. If there are not consequences, I feel that employees are more apt to act unethically, feeling that they can get away with it or not get into trouble. Managers presenting themselves morally and ethically responsible proves to the employee that they are serious, and that they are not just being told to act that way, but that their bosses also act that way. If a company has a manger that is acting unethical or morally wrong, I feel that the employee will see this as the right thing to do and follow in the boss’s footsteps. Three ways that I feel that Ruby Tuesday’s could engage in socially responsive activities in their communities is by contributing to a local charity and becoming thoroughly active and interested in the charity, creating a loyalty program, and by starting up applications for smartphones. By contributing to a local charity and being active in it, they are showing the community that they are concerned about the people in the community. They are showing that they are empathetic and that they are willing to help the community in need, when they are able. They are also showing that they are willing to support the community that is supporting their business. Creating loyalty programs they are showing their customers that they want them to return and that they are willing to offer something for continuing to do business with the company. These could be as simple as buy so many of one product and receive one for free or it could be something more like having dinner with the chef. Starting up applications for smartphones is the latest way to stay in contact with customers. This enables the company to get information out to their customers who want to hear from them due to them downloading the application. Applications also get information out there to customers who are trying to make the decision as to where to eat. Applications can also be used in conjunction with the loyalty programs as a way of tracking their loyalty points. It is expected from customers that companies perform in ethical and moral ways. 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