Case 4: Steven and Central National University

1) Describe the nature of the organizational culture in the restaurant. What kind of
opportunities are there for unethical behaviour to occur? Are there any oppurtunities for
ethical behavior?

The nature of the organizational culture in the restaurant is unprofessional as their

employees disrepect the management and have casual work behavior whereby they make fun
of their bosses and treated the work area like a playground. Besides that, the employees also
does not implement and follow sanitary and healthy practices as they felt that in a fast food
restaurant, the primary concern is the mean time of services while other parameters like
hygiene and the quality of food are secondary. Due to the lack of supervision and poor
management, it create an opportunities for those unethical behaviour to occur and resulted an
unsanitry practice within the restaurant. In which, they focus on managing time quickly rather
than serving better quality of the food. Hence, a stricter management should be implemented
from the top to bottom management to handle every aspect of unethical behaviors that
happened in the outlet.

2) What are some of the incentives employees might have to engage in this type of behaviour?

The incentives that employees might have to engage in this type of behaviour are due
to the fast food restaurants were rewarded based on how fast their services are to the
customers. This shows that the money is the main contributing factor that motivates the
employees of the restaurant to act in such a manner. Since the restaurant received bonuses
from the corporate headquarters in the previous year, they are determined to do whatever it
takes in order to maintain that opportunity of receiving bonus. Working at the fast food
restaurant does not guarantee a high salary, thus, they rely on the incentives by the higher
management. Besides that , the supervisor’s behaviour sets an example to the other employees
that it is acceptable to engage in an unethical behaviour. Although the higher management
was unaware of this issue, the supervisor of the restaurant itself was engaged in unsanitary
practices; thus, promoting unethical work culture. They insisted that speed is very important
to the customers and rationalized their actions by responding that if it were to happen to them,
it is acceptable as long as they are unaware of it.

3) If the organizational culture of the restaurant does not change, what are some likely
outcomes and consequences?
 If the organizational culture of the restaurant does not change, they might face a
possibility of failing the government food safety and sanitation test that could lead to closing
down their premise or suspension of their business license. Besides that, the customers might
also file a lawsuit against the restaurant if there are many people getting food poisoning after
eating at the restaurant due to unsanitary practice and serve rotten meat to customers. In
which, they might ended up paying several penalty charged by the related government health
authority. Moreover, the restaurant also may lose several customers due to how the employee
treated the work area like a playground. This is because some of the customers might feel like
the restaurant are not professional in providing services to their customer and handling their
workers.