Introduction
Organizational decision-making is always a difficult task since the decisions made will affect to some extent the stakeholders, including the members of staff and the customers. There are some instances where the requirements of the customer may disagree with the organizational goals and mission. This implies that decisions need to be made to establish a course of action. Consequently, when decision-making is difficult, pressure always is directed to the executives who are responsible for making decisions. Thus, a comprehensible and dependable framework can enhance the decision-making process and establish company initiatives that will help guarantee that the results are appropriate and maximize the available efforts in line with decision making and the anticipated outcome. The objective of this paper is to review a system of inquiry that is used in problem-solving, decision making, and in outlining the overall organizational behavior toward its implementation in the restaurant setting. The basic structure of the model and its implications is included in the analysis of the code of ethics. The code of ethics will focus on the problem of confidentiality of the company brought about by employees disclosing secret unauthorized individuals.
One tool that is essential in the decision-making process is that which focuses on an ethical perspective. To aid in ethical decision-making and problem handling within a firm, a system of inquiry is used. A system of inquiry serves as a clear and reliable document that details the general rules that determine the way an employee performs his/her task. If the policies are followed, an organization is deemed to experience aggregate success; the code of conduct is used to assess decision-making, problem-solving, and behavior in a corporate setting. It is the responsibility of every staff member to acknowledge the receipt and effectiveness of the organization’s code of conduct through electronic signature. The document can therefore be made available throughout the year on the firm’s website. Furthermore, employees have various entities to assist with making a decision; these include the human resource manager, contact numbers, and email addresses. In essence, the establishment of a code of ethics enables individuals and organizations to work towards attaining goals.
McDonald’s Corporation
In coming up with a system of inquiry, the author opted to use the code of ethics for McDonald’s Corporation. McDonald’s Corporation is one of the leading companies in foodservice retailing, having more than 31,000 local restaurants supplying food products to more than 58 million people in 118 nations every day. About 75% of the company’s restaurants around the world are owned and managed by independent individuals who hold high corporate responsibility to the organization. The corporation’s revenues stem from fees paid by grants, rent, royalties, and sales in the various company restaurants. In its product category, Macdonald’s sells fries, chicken, hamburgers, breakfast items, milkshakes, French fries, desserts, and chicken products. More so, about health concerns, the corporation includes other products in its business; such as salads, fruits, and wraps.
Consequently, Macdonald’s Corporation provides administrative services, including responsibilities and conduct as Corporate Governance Principles to enhance the strong culture of corporate obligation and citizenship (MacDonalds, 2008).
Corporate responsibility is the main concern at MacDonald’s. It is an organizational culture that has stood in the company for a long period and is a key component in the corporation’s business strategy in the present day. Having a good and respected code of ethics ensures that the company performs its duties much better. According to the President of McDonald’s, Don Thompson, the enduring success of the company relies on customers’ trust and loyalty – in the value and safety of food, in the business processes, and the firm’s commitment to solving issues presented by the customers. For the company, the code of ethics is a mutual effort known as a “three-legged stool” – employees, owners, and suppliers working together towards achieving the objective of doing right, being a good neighbor, and incorporating social and environmental concerns in the business processes.
McDonald’s Corporation’s strategic management team is assigned with, and accountable for, the management of assets and business operations of MacDonald’s Corporation in a truthful, careful, fair, and ethical approach. The management believes that good ethical principles are the cornerstone to fulfilling the company’s obligation to its shareholders. The document is annually changed to cater to new business operations and the ever-changing methods of operating business. According to McDonald’s (2008), the following are some of the codes of conduct adopted by the MacDonald’s board of directors; these form the basis for the system of inquiry:
- Act in the best attention of, and meet their responsibility to, corporation’s stakeholders;
- Adhere to all rules, laws, and obligations;
- Act honestly, ethically, and with integrity;
- Act in a way to uplift and sustain the reputation of McDonald;
- Respect the confidentiality of data relating to the operations of the corporation acquired during the period of service;
- Disclose possible conflicts that they incur regarding the matters that are tabled in the board of directors.
Basing on the corporate principles of McDonald’s, the overall objective of this inquiry is to investigate the properties and meaning of disclosing secret information about a company.
Method of Inquiry
In consideration of the general requirements of professional services, a system of inquiry must provide guidelines to help organizations to ensure that proper decision-making occurs. All the business management levels need to implement the system of inquiry without any discrimination to help resolve complex problems that may arise in the organization. The aim of this inquiry is therefore to test the legitimacy of the anticipated characteristics of proficient services by analyzing their effect on the problem solving that occurs in the food services setting.
This shall be achieved by examining the issues that affect problem-solving in one aspect of the profession and by contrasting these influences with the generally acknowledged properties of professional duties. Throughout this assessment, this inquiry will be able to give logical support for the legitimacy of the supposed properties and again identify other issues that may affect problem-solving but incur less consideration in the field of ethical research. Thus, the major factors that influence professional services are trust, self-regulation, and the autonomous structure of professionals.
It has been recommended that food service workers, like in the case of McDonald’s Corporation, experience different levels of stress about work, and therefore they require a proper code of ethics that considers their rights (Ehler, 2009). Employees may also find it difficult to express their emotions and can therefore compromise the confidentiality of the company to the outside environment.
Inquiry Implementation
The implementation of the system of inquiry to enhance the process of the decision-making process will result in improved standards of organizational management and the capability to meet the goals and objectives of the organization. Ring Surf (2009) outlines that the realization of an ethical system of inquiry and the corporate code of ethics may influence the performance of individual workers within the company, specifically in line with the complicated social structures that are experienced within the corporation. Furthermore, a system of inquiry can help acquire some characteristics from employees about tacit knowledge about their ethical perspective in situations like confidentiality. This can therefore improve the overall organizational objective of procuring productive services.
Because of the nature of disclosing secret information about the company by employees, a maximum variation sampling strategy shall be used to prove the variations in this ethical issue. The basis is also to enable a wider range of ideas to be put in written to represent different perspectives. Participants will be the fraternity of the food services corporation (McDonald’s Corporation) including managers, middle-level workers, suppliers, and stakeholders.
Disclosing secret company information is a sensitive aspect of the inquiry, on the whole about the confidentiality of the organization’s confidential or private information. People or companies are thus not referred by name, and in the presentation of the findings, some information shall be slightly altered to adhere to the confidentiality need of third parties.
Thus, the analysis shall deal with the following areas of inquiry:
- Emotion;
- Employees differences in line with gender and work position;
- Organizational factors such as size, change, communication process;
- The socialization process and employee loyalty to the organization.
Information related to participants’ experience about the company’s confidentiality shall be collected and analyzed using the following analysis techniques: 1. Quasi-statistical – analyze data statistically. 2. Template analysis – it produces a list of codes that correspond to ideas recognized in the data. 3. Immersion – create relationships between the data collected.
Interviews will be carried out in the organization in question. A semi-structured interview approach shall be used to explore the various views of employees about the ethical issue: confidentiality of company secret information.
Performing the overall inquiry may be subject to some challenges. During the implementation of the system of inquiry, there is possible reluctance from employees because of the fear of change. This may result in hesitation from workers about the issues being addressed in the code of ethics. On the other hand, once employees understand that the system of inquiry is a tool for improving the decision-making process in a more acceptable ethical and moral manner, and enhancing communication within the company, resistance is much likely to be overcome, thus connecting the system of inquiry and code of ethics to productive business processes.
Conclusion
Organizations may create a more effective communication technique that can be able to guide them in ensuring that employees adhere to the code of ethics. A system of inquiry is developed to help corporations like MacDonald’s to have an efficient decision-making process. However, a good communication strategy does not entirely solve the issue of confidentiality; it considers individuals’ perspectives on how information is conveyed. To preserve the integrity and confidentiality of company information, organizations come up with policies that are deemed to eliminate the ethical issue.
It may be difficult to implement such policies because of different employee perspectives regarding confidentiality and the overall code of conduct. It is therefore important to reflect on the various views and emotions presented by participants through elicitation of information on the unauthorized disclosure of company information to create awareness.
References
McDonald’s Corporation. (2008). Corporate Governance Principles. Web.
Ring Surf. (2009). The Ethical Grounds that Connects Business and the Society. Web.
Ehler, J.T. (2009). Ethics In Business. Web.