Business & Society ( Ethics & Stakeholder management) Essay

Business & Society ( Ethics & Stakeholder management) - Essay Example A.2: A CEO has to lead by example and John Mackey must be aware of this basic ethical tenet. Else, he would neither have taken the trouble to hide his identity nor chosen the Yahoo! Finance Stock Forum, to air his messages. Yet he persisted with this deception in spite of knowing the implications of his activity. The loss of prestige in the event of his being found out probably did not bother him too much. I would qualify his attitude as being ‘indifferent’ in setting high ethical standards for his company. A.3: A firm’s image is the sum total of its products and social responsibilities. Firms go to great lengths to reinforce their positive images in fields such as corporate governance, social responsibility, environmental compliance etc., in order to attract various stakeholders – employees, suppliers, consumers, investors and regulatory authorities. John Mackey’s activities are definitely harmful for the future of Whole Foods. The specific example of the difficulties faced in its attempts to acquire Wild Oats can be seen A.1: The reality of the situation (or, ‘what is’) is that my boss used official resources for his personal purpose, however insignificant it may be. This was not a one time, inadvertent practice, but indulged periodically with the full knowledge of himself and his subordinates. The normative (or, ‘what ought to be’) behavior demands that personal works are not carried out at the expense of the business. A.2: The boss’s practice is not ethical. He is trying to justify his action by rationalizing. Neither his length of service with the company nor the limit put by himself on the maximum postage at 60 cents, offer any justification for his conduct. If this issue is ignored, one has to answer the logical ends up to which such behavior can be accepted as ethical, in an infinite number of situations. A.3: If his argument of low pay being compensated by his unauthorized use of company resources