Introduction
Ethical policies and compliance is an important aspect that should be met by all companies. Ethics is used to refer to the measure of how right or wrong an act is, basing on the available standards and guidelines. An organization seeks to protect the company, customers, staff and the key stakeholders from any kind of lie that they may be lured into. This serves to keep the company’s reputation, enhance reliability from the customers and avoid risks that may be associated with the crime committed(Murphy, 1988). Ethical issues are, therefore, regarded highly and given lots of attention. Business ethics is a field which is becoming important with many organizations. It is important to understand the requirements for undertaking and implementing ethical decisions that will be in tandem with the society. Business ethics is an important field that should be considered when undertaking important business decisions(Reichert, Webb, & Thomas, 2000).
Starbuck background
Starbucks is a company that deals with selling fine coffee. It is a food processing company that deals with snacks that are related to coffee. Coffee is the main products that the company creates. Starbucks is tasked with roasting coffee in nearly all countries of the world. They have around 11000 coffee stores in the world and out of these, 500 are located in the United Kingdom. This is a company that deals with offering coffee products to the clients. The first store was opened in Seattle in the year 1971(Murphy, 1988). Starbucks was opened in United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in the year 2000. This brought the total number of stores in the world to 3501. Starbucks has been concerned with ensuring that their partners get the best quality of coffee. They have been striving to have ethical standards being followed by all stakeholders so that good relationships can be maintained by all staff and clients. There are many coffee products that are developed and refined by Starbucks. They buy coffee and convert them to quality coffee products(Reichert et al., 2000).
Starbuck’s ethical policies
The company has laid down strategies to enhance ethical living and oneness. There are ethical policies which have been put in place for the company.
Social responsibility
Starbuck Company has won many accolades and recognition for promoting ethical standards in their company together with their communities(Murphy, 1988). They have got involved with ethical considerations and commitments. One aspect that the company can be said to be committed with ethical policies is that they have integrated fair trade tea so that availability of fair trade coffee would be possible. This would enable farmers to benefit from the purchases as they would have their produce sold at fair prices. With these strategies, they have been in a position to expand their sourcing to the farmers and this process has enabled the sourcing of the coffee in fair and ethical manner(Hancock, 1998). With this process, farmers have got better treatment and better pay from their produce. Starbuck has also been involved in community programmes that have helped conserve the environment. One way that this has been undertaken by the company is through ensuring that the environment has been conserved. Environmental conservation is an issue that the company has helped the community to undertake. There are many strides that the company has undertaken in Europe. They have involved the community in these countries in ethical sourcing of the products that they use in the company. These ethical sourcing strategies have enabled farmers to undertake their farming with the assurity that there is a fair market where their produce will be taken(Meara, Schmidt, & Day, 1996).
Environmental considerations
Starbuck has been able to achieve the sustenance of the environment with which they undertake their business by partnering with African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Conservation International (CI), and the Fairtrade labeling organization (FLO) in their strife to enhance sourcing in an ethical manner. The partners undertakem these by basing on the objective of increasing the intake and purchase of fair-trade coffee. They also work with the farmers to ensure that the farmers produce high quality so that they have higher profitability. This is an ethical standard that has enhanced the communities(Murphy, 1988).
Safe and fair workplace
One ethical policy which has been put in place in this company is that of avoiding workplace discrimination. This is an ethical standard and policy which has been undertaken. Workplace discrimination is a vice that eats into a productive workforce. There is a need to avoid this vice. There is a need to ensure that employees work in harmony. Starbuck Company has measures that help them to avoid workplace discrimination. One way in which the company has ensured that there is no discrimination in the workplace is by use of discrimination policies and procedures. Starbuck Company has put in place discrimination policies and procedures. They have a manual that is given to every employee who joins this company(Meara et al., 1996).
Point of view
There are some ethical considerations that I agree about and there are those that I feel should have been enhanced and improved for better performance and better practice of the ethical policies of the company. One aspect that I feel should be properly improved in the company is that of social responsibility. I believe that people who make the company a success are the coffee producers who are the farmers. These are the people who work on their farms to ensure that there is available coffee. I agree that farmers should be helped in order to produce even better coffee and to feel that they are appreciated. This is service to the community and to the people who work hard to ensure that there is good coffee. The policy that the company works to produce better coffee is a good policy to me(Murphy, 1988).
I also agree with the company in regard with the environmental considerations. One thing that is lacking in this case is that of workable solutions to the environmental conservations. There is nothing much that the company has done to improve the working conditions of the farmers in order to have a good environment. This should be considered and should be well funded. Farmers should be trained in order to have better working environments and conserve the environments. One way in which this could have been done by the company is to teach the farmers farming methods that are safe to eth environments. This could include minimum tillage(Melé, Debeljuh, & Arruda, 2006).
I do not agree with the extent in which the workplace discrimination has been carried out. I feel this has not been done well in regard to the company. This should be improved so that it includes aspects of better workforce reshuffling. Since the company is an international one, there should be strategies to have employees from other countries to work on the firms in Dubai, UAE and Abu Dhabi. This will show that the workplace discrimination policy is really well integrated in the company(Reichert et al., 2000).
Reflection
There is a need to have ethical consideration in an organization. Starbucks based in Dubai, UAE and Abu Dhabi is a company that has enhanced ethical standards and policies in their stores. I believe that the surge towards the use of products from this company is a result of ethical policies that they have put in place in their quest to have better working and safe communities(Hancock, 1998).
Starbuck can be benchmarked with Costa coffee shop in Dubai. The two companies have enacted policies in their quest for their environmental stewardship. This is a way that the two companies ensure that they conserve the environment. This is an indication that Starbucks is working hard to enhance eco-environments(Hancock, 1998). One way that this is undertaken is through recycling paper. Starbucks and Costa Coffee Shops in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and UAE divert and reduce the waste that comes from their stores. This is easily achieved by making use of recycling the paper that their stores produce as waste. They have put a target of implementing front-of-store recycling facility by the year 2015. This is similar to that of Costa coffee shop who have also implemented the same strategy for their stores(Meara et al., 1996).
The two companies also compare in the environmental conservation they engage. They ensure that the process of producing coffee from the farmers follow eco-friendly systems. They have ensured that there are ceramic mugs that ensure that the environment is safe and eco-friendly. These are the strategies that are also seen in Starbucks(Murphy, 1988).
Conclusion
Ethical considerations and policies is an important aspect in any organization. There should be policies and procedures that have been put in place in order to have good working and community environments in organizations. This is something that Starbuck has put effort. With the shift and strife to conserve the environment, there is a need to have policies to take care of the issues.
References
Hancock, S. (1998). Caveat emptor: The rise of the ethical trading concept, the companies that have already adopted ethical policies and why the rest need to take note. Supply Management. Retrieved from http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=ethical+policies&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5#8
Meara, N., Schmidt, L., & Day, J. (1996). Principles and Virtues A Foundation for Ethical Decisions, Policies, and Character. The Counseling Psychologist. Retrieved from http://tcp.sagepub.com/content/24/1/4.short
Melé, D., Debeljuh, P., & Arruda, M. (2006). Corporate ethical policies in large corporations in Argentina, Brazil and Spain. Journal of Business Ethics. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-005-7100-y
Murphy, P. (1988). Implementing business ethics. Journal of business ethics. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/25071852
Reichert, A., Webb, M., & Thomas, E. (2000). Corporate support for ethical and environmental policies: a financial management perspective. Journal of Business Ethics. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A%3A1006078827535
