Tasty is a chain of coffee shops that operates 75 outlets in the home country. A number
Question:
Tasty is a chain of coffee shops that operates 75 outlets in the home country. A number of
ethical problems have recently arisen at Tasty, and an emergency meeting of its board has
been convened to manage and solve the problem.
Three employees in one shop have been dismissed for thefts of both products and cash.
These thefts were only identified because one of the employees was foolish enough to
steal, and then sell, the bags of coffee beans on the premises of the Tasty coffee shop in
which they worked. A customer reported the incident to the chief executive of Tasty and an
investigation of the shop revealed that two other employees had also been involved in
theft.
One of the coffee shop managers was reported by a customer, and subsequently arrested,
for selling illegal Class A substances in their Tasty coffee shop and allowing drugs to be
taken on the site. Police investigations showed that this had been taking place for at least
ten months.
A routine advertising campaign promoting Tasty stated, ‘Tasty is aiming to have all its
coffee supplied by Fair Trade suppliers’. However, a former Tasty Head Office employee
recently stated in the national press that only around 60% of Tasty coffee was procured
from Fair Trade suppliers. An investigation revealed that the figure was in fact around 80%
but the percentage bought from Fair Trade suppliers had fallen by 5% over the past year.
Tasty’s Chief Executive is very concerned about all these issues. They feel that they
demonstrate that Tasty has a poor ethical culture and these could seriously damage the
company’s reputation. They wish to introduce measures to improve Tasty’s ethical culture
and to use the company’s recently appointed internal auditors to ensure that the measures
are effective.
Using a case study technique, advise the board of directors of the company on the best
course of action to address the issues affecting the company, to ensure the ethical
problems will not recur again.
Strategic Management Competitiveness And Globalization Concepts
ISBN: 9780324581126
8th Edition
Authors: Michael A. Hitt, R. Duane Ireland, Robert E. Hoskisson