BA 417 Ethic Analysis

Ethical Analysis: Should McDonald’s support an increase in the U.S. minimum wage?

You are the CEO of McDonald’s. This assignment requires that you use the Ethical Decision-Making Process introduced in Chapter 2, pages 35- 45 of your textbook to come to a decision regarding whether McDonald’s should support an increase in the U.S. minimum wage.

Questions

The first step in the Ethical Decision Making Process is to determine the facts of the case.

*Please review the facts related to both sides of this question by using one or more of these resources:

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/962124776 (Links to an external site.)

https://minimum-wage.procon.org/ (Links to an external site.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHC_UzavmW0 (Links to an external site.)

*You are not required to conduct additional research on this issue in order to complete this assignment.

The second step in the Ethical Decision Making Process involves identifying the ethical issues involved.

Question 1. Is there an ethical issue involved in this case? If so, what is it?

The third step in the Ethical Decision Making Process is to identify the stakeholders and consider the situation from their point of view.

Question 2. Identify at least four of the stakeholders in this case. Use the Stakeholder Map in Figure 2.1 of your textbook, located on page 39, and the facts of this case to help you answer this question.

The fourth step in the Ethical Decision Making Process is to identify/consider the available alternatives.

**IMPORTANT: For the purposes of this assignment, you will decide whether McDonald’s should support an increase in the minimum wage. Thus, for the purposes of this particular assignment, you should assume that the only alternatives are for McDonald’s to support raising the minimum wage or whether the company should support keeping the minimum wage the same.

The fifth step in the process is to compare and weigh the alternatives. During this step you should evaluate the impact of each alternative on each stakeholder you identified.

The questions below are designed to help you to compare and weigh the alternatives in this case. Remember the alternatives in this case are for McDonald’s to support an increase in the minimum wage or for the company to support keeping the minimum wage the same.

Question 3. What are the harms and benefits of associated with increasing the minimum wage to each of the stakeholders you identified in Question 2 above? Please provide the answer to this question in a chart per the example below.

Question 4. Use ONLY the harms and benefits to stakeholders you identified in Question 3 above to answer the following question: “Should McDonald’s support an increase in the minimum wage?” Base your answer only on the harms and benefits to the McDonald’s stakeholders you identified in your answer to Question 3. This question should consist of minimum of 150 words. You should consider both harms and benefits to each stakeholder and whether the harms or benefits to one or more stakeholders should take precedence over the others.

The fifth step in the Ethical Decision Making Process – comparing and weighing the alternatives – requires that you consider various ethical theories, corporate values and individual values when coming to a decision on a question of ethics.

Question 5. Use two of the ethical theories discussed in this course to make an argument for or against the decision to raise the minimum wage. (those ethical theories/frameworks are Utilitarianism, Deontology/Principle or Rights Based Ethics, or Virtue Ethics). Please note that one ethical theory may lead to a different conclusion than the other.

Question 6. An analysis of the various alternatives when making an ethical decision also involves a consideration of the corporation’s values. Go to the McDonald’s website. Find the McDonald’s Code of Ethics or Mission Statement. Identify at least two of the company’s values. Use the two company values to make an argument as to whether McDonald’s should support an increase in the minimum wage.

Question 7. An analysis of the various alternatives when making an ethical decision also involves a consideration of personal values. You are the CEO of McDonald’s. Use at least two of your personal values to make arguments as to whether McDonald’s should support an increase in the minimum wage.

Step six of the Ethical Decision-Making Process involves making a decision.

Question 8. You are the CEO of McDonald’s. You have performed an ethical analysis using the Ethical Decision-Making Process found in Chapter 2 of your textbook (pages 35-45). Does your ethical analysis lead you to a decision to recommend to the Board of Directors that McDonald’s should support increasing the minimum wage, or support keeping the minimum wage the same? Why?

Please note that you should reference each of the following in your answer to this question:

1) The benefits and harms to stakeholders (use the information in your responses to Question 3 and Question 4 above);

2) The application of the ethical theories we have studied in this course (use the information in your response to Question 5 above);

3) The application of the organization’s values (use the information in your response to Question 6 above); and

4) The application of your personal values as the CEO of McDonald’s (use the information in your response to Question 7 above).

As CEO, does your ethical analysis lead you to recommend to the Board of Directors that McDonald’s increase the minimum wage, or keep the minimum wage the same? Why? You must either decide to raise the minimum wage or keep it the same. Those are your only choices. This question should consist of a minimum of 300 words.