Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders)
This multinational corporation is involved with offering of humanitarian services across the globe in disaster areas. The organization whose origin is in France has worldwide operations that span different borders of different countries. Given that the firm is a non-governmental humanitarian corporation, its main areas of operations are disaster stricken areas. Some of the services offered by the corporation include medical services such as treatment of patients, nursing patients, provision of shelter to affected people, provision of food and other social services. Currently, the organization provides humanitarian services to Syrians affected by the civil war in the country (Danchin 17).
Social responsibility is a self-regulation measure that businesses implement in their commercial principles and citizenship. Social responsibility inspires businesses to monitor the social public perception as an important factor in their existence. Businesses take into account social responsibility in their future planning of operations because of the increasing demand and awareness for businesses with social responsibility practices.
A restaurant engages in various community development projects on health care, education, rehabilitation facilities, and medical research to attain the requirements of social responsibility in the fast food industry. The social responsibility of restaurants draws from farm produce, paper products, employee contributions in the human resources, and animal products (Chen 102).
Cultural empathy also referred to cultural competence, is largely articulated as an objective of global education. More than 30 tools are in place to assess cultural empathy/competence. Cultural understanding helps an individual to see things from a wide continuum and act skillfully among cultures, sometimes sidestepping his or her own cultural values and moving out to try new cultures.
Global citizenship as the guide for moral decision-making
Global citizenship leads to cognizance of the interdependence of people and systems and a sense of obligation that result from it. Circumnavigating the treacherous waters of our epic interdependence, calls for a set of guiding philosophies that will result to ethical and just responses. Though the main goal of higher education should not entail commanding a sure set of solutions, cultural empathy and ethical systems as well as critical thinking and choices form significant basis to principled decision-making.
Global citizenship as a way of participation in socio-political life of the community
Global citizens enjoy closeness to their communities. Participation may be in form of making responsible individual choices (such as limiting use of inorganic fertilizers), voting, advocacy, volunteering, and political activism. The matters may either be poverty, environmental, economic, health and human rights. Involvement is the success measurement of global citizenship.
Global citizenship has also been encouraged through curriculum development in the various countries. This has enabled people in the world to learn about the cultures of other people elsewhere in the world. The role of the media and technology has also been very critical in advancing global citizenship. Today, the internet has allowed people to connect in real time despite geographical distance.
Environmental Considerations and Recommendations in Fast Food Restaurants
Global citizenship in the sense that, it empowers each person to participate in decisions regarding their lives, such as political, economic, social, environmental and cultural conditions in which they live (Schattle 26). Fast food restaurants began receiving criticisms on environmental policies on the claim for disposable packaging. The business did not want to lose chances on its high profits thereby requiring the fast food restaurants to acquire public acceptance on environmental protection and preservation.
However, fast food restaurants have influence on the public opinion and have to make strategies that satisfy the public. The business enters into serious discussion with the management of environmental protection programs to come up with solutions to issues that could result in environmental protests received through customer mailing, demonstrations, and letters. Fast food restaurants enter into joint ventures with environmental programs to work on the packaging and materials they use in product development (Alyssa 11).
The companies also hold meeting with their suppliers of food and packaging to discuss on the issue of environmental preservation. The companies develop strong environmental policies to declare that the corporations are committed to protecting the environment in response to the needs of the future generations. The corporations state that every business leader must also be an environmental leader.
The programs are to reduce and manage solid waste. The corporations educate their customers on the positions and activities necessary for environment protection and preservation. The awareness programs cover issues on packaging, rainforest, and ozone depletion. The corporations provide the managers with the mandate of enforcing standards and preparing reports for the board of directors on a regular basis.
Fast food restaurants involve environmental experts to advise them on the opportunities that improve the environmental performance of the corporations on a constant basis. The business should take time to understand the requirements of the environment to successful achieve social responsibility (Levin-Goldberg 67). The corporations commit to reviewing products used in food services and packaging items annually to achieve goals of waste reduction.
The organizations in the industry hold environmental conferences with suppliers each year on environmental issues to identify opportunities for source reduction. Most of fast food restaurants have decided to reduce the weight of their packaging materials as low as possible and recycling after considering the disposal practices, costs, and infrastructures of maintaining the environment. The corporations are yet to come up with better solutions on the packaging materials to protect the environment.
A restaurant engages in various community development projects on health care, education, rehabilitation facilities, and medical research to attain the requirements of social responsibility in the fast food industry. The social responsibility of restaurants draws from farm produce, paper products, employee contributions in the human resources, and animal products (Chen 102).
Restaurants invest in source reduction by identifying, engineering operating practices, and researching on possible solutions to the problem of environmental hazards. Fast food restaurants decision on the social responsibility on the environment considered the effectiveness of reuse, recycle, and composting. They recognize the need and value of evaluating impacts of its operations on the environment to create strategies for enhancing better environmental performance in the future. The corporations incorporate the strategies in their target markets as well as data from beverages, food, operating, and packaging supply chains to achieve goals of environmental preservation (Desforges 4).
Fast food restaurants seek to achieve fewer emissions, less energy, and waste in their operations to reduce environmental impacts not suitable on the planet and that are good for maintaining the financial success of the corporations in the long term. This will involve strategies on innovating sustainable waste management and packaging, green restaurant designs, and energy conservation. The corporations design their restaurants to feature environmental attributes.
In response to the environmental social responsibility, the restaurants aim to increase adoption of technology and equipment that consumes energy efficiently to improve the tracking of data on energy consumed in the restaurant, and increase awareness and education on the need to save energy in businesses for the benefits to the environment (Israel 9). The corporations participate in programs that help monitor the use of water, implement measures that help save water, and identify opportunities for improving the practices of water management (Henderson 59).
The corporations should therefore collect reports quarterly or annually making it easy to track the improvements and performance of suppliers on the environment. Fast food business should measure the environmental impacts a company creates on the community and use resources to minimize them to create value and benefit of the business to the community than the costs. The business should change its operations from the traditional modes to environmentally oriented ones to acquire the attention and interest in the community it operates.
The companies in this business should increase cleaner production, productivity of resources, and active dialogue with stakeholders to support and commit to the programs of environmental management (Dower 24).
Moreover, improving the performance of the environment benefits the company by reducing the costs of operations of the business in the long term. This action also creates a good public image and reputation that attract and maintains potential customers to the business. Environmental protections and preservation is a social responsibility that has the potential of maximizing the profits of the fast food business. Social responsibility is therefore good for the profitability of a business and for the environment (Steffen 12).
Ethical Leadership Considerations and Recommendations
Fast food restaurants have processes and policies in place to operate their businesses ethically. The media recognizes fast food restaurants as one in top companies with the acknowledgements of comprehensive leadership (Habermas 20). The corporations commit to acquiring the trust of the public through application of regulations and laws in their leadership. The restaurants create and maintain good relationships with the management, shareholders, and the board of directors to create value in various aspects of the business. The corporations ensure that they address issues that interest their shareholders.
The corporations have various board oversights through committees and the corporate body in charge of social responsibility is one of them. The Committees responsible for social responsibilities act in the advisory capacity regarding the management of the strategies and policies that affect the role of restaurant as a socially responsible organization. The committees address issues on workplace safety, product safety, training, employees’ opportunities, sustainable supply chain, and the environment initiatives (Olson 52).
The management systems take these issues seriously, as they affect the satisfaction of shareholders and customers who make the key success factors in the organization. The management ensures that everybody in the organization maintains high integrity and ethics in his or her job. The management encourages employees to address issues openly and with honesty. Most of the restaurants have a telephone line reserved for employees to address issues that comply with ethics. Employees are a major asset to the business. The employees have the power to strengthen and shape the success and protection of the business (Nussbaum 42).
The boards of directors are responsible for the business affairs and assets that they must operate in fair, honest, ethical, and diligent manner. The board should believe that good management is critical to achieving the obligations it has to the shareholders. The company should review its principles annually to ensure high performance. The company’s focus on leadership should achieve satisfaction of customers and shareholders.
Fast food restaurants should seek to be global and collaborative in compliance with the ethical leadership (Preston 16). The corporations should communicate policies to the contractors, suppliers, partners, and agents, and ensure that they abide by the procedures and processes of communication and authority in the organization. Fast food restaurants should make ethical decisions in favor of their customers and not the net profit margins or costs on their operations to meet social responsibility standards (The United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1).
The behavior of leaders in this business should influence employees to respond actively to their work. In order to improve the performance of employees who learn from their leaders, the firm should establish factors that affect that behavior of leaders both from within the firm and outside. The business should maintain a healthy organizational structure and a strong corporate culture to enable the employees to work efficiently and maximize the use of their potential and capabilities. Leadership plays a key role in the direction of an organization and should be taken seriously by the stakeholders and other decision-makers of the organization (Urry 6).
Sustainability Considerations and Recommendations
The public associates the fast food business with obesity and other health conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart diseases. This affects the image and reputation of the business. Nevertheless, the business engages specialist in health matters to engage in medical research and form national health programs to build strong image and recognition for promotion of health in the society (Altinay 81). The business responds to the call of the government and the public on change toward healthier habits.
Works Cited
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