Constructive aspects of ethics at KFC

Kentucky Fried Chicken is very keen about ethical standards both within and without the company as asserted by their company representatives. For instance the company is strict about is vendor engagements. Before a supplier can secure a contract with Kentucky Fried Chicken, they have to comply with similar ethical standards as KFC. This means that the supplier must not utilise under age labour to producer their commodities, they must pay fair wages and must also avoid placing harmful chemicals in their commodities.

These concepts have governed the way KFC chooses other business partners too; they include contractors and manufacturers. By doing, this, the company is protecting human rights. (Montgomery, 2003) The company also looks out for the health and safety of their workers. Since KFC is a fast food chain, then its workers are very busy, the company’s representatives affirm that they are always trying to protect their respective employees from detrimental hazards in the workplace. In line with this, KFC always ensures that their employees work for them voluntarily.

This means that the company detests forced labour. They also believe in according their employees justice in case of any eventuality. Their disciplinary measures have always been fair and few employees complain about how their administration handles such unusual occurrences. It is a known fact that some employees in the corporate world utilise mental punishment as a way of repressing their employees and keep them subservient. However, this is not the case with KFC as no cases have been reported in the media.

Kentucky Fried Chicken employment practices are also ethical. This is due to the fact that the company does not discriminate against individuals on the basis of race, gender, disability or any other factor. The company’s recruitment practices largely focus on the capabilities of the potential candidate rather than on their respective race, cultural backgrounds etc. In line with these practices, the company usually offers overtime for employees who decide to work beyond the normal working hours.

Besides that, the company has created shift arrangements so that it can avoid overworking employees at any given time. (Bowie & Beauchamp, 1983) The issue of wages is also top on KFC’s list. The company believes that workers should be paid according to their efforts. Consequently, there is an element of fairness when it comes to the way the company treats its employees. The company depicts this attitude in some of its restaurant outlets such as the ones here in the UK and also in Canada. The company has exceeded minimum wage by close to eight pounds per hour.

Also, in the Canadian outlets, the company pays most of workers a favourable amount and has even allowed for unionisation of employees. All the latter deeds go to show that KFC is committed to providing its employees with good working conditions. Despite the positive moves made by KFC Canada, with regard to chicken products, the company has still been grappling with controversial issues owing to their vegan burger. The company faced a lot of opposition from animal rights activists who were trying to protect the rights of chickens.

Consequently, those activists suggested that KFC should provide non-chicken alternatives in their diets. KFC responded to these law suits by creating a vegan burger made of eggs. However, many consumers still complain about the ingredients in the burger and they also assert that there are problems with the way the company prepares the burger. According to some consumers, the vegan burger still has eggs and some dairy products which are still made from animals.

Also read about KFC human resources

Additionally, other people complain about the way the company places the ingredients of the vegan burger in a grill that was used to cook meat. (Montgomery, 2003) However, it can be argued that the latter consumers have lost the point; the purpose of introducing the vegan burger was not to provide an alternative with no animal products, but it was to save the lives of the chickens that were being killed to create their meals. Consequently when the vegan burger contains some eggs, then it is still okay because there is no chicken there.

Besides this, the issue of cooking its ingredients in the same grill as chicken has also generated a lot of controversy for nothing. This is because using the same grill does not in any way affect the taste or the contents of the vegan burger. As a matter of fact, the arguments made by these consumers would have been valid if the products were cooked in animal grease. Since the cooking oil is not made from animal grease, then it does not contaminate the chicken. The arguments made by such consumers could simply be a case of too much emphasis on detail.