Ethics

Normative essay Utilitarianism and Deontology
Starting as a neighborhood drive-in Bar-B-Que restaurant 1940 by two brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald, in San Bernrdino, California, McDonalds is now a multi-billion dollar company one of the worlds most recognized brands.  Today it serves more than 60 million people in 117 countries every day (McDonalds 2010).

In order to maintain superior customer service and consistently serve customers with fresh food, McDonalds has a policy of disposing fully prepared sandwiches if it is not sold within ten minutes of preparation.

This confronts McDonalds with a major ethical dilemma. The company disposes tons of edible food everyday to protect its brand equity whilst 1.02 billion people in the world do not have enough to eat (FAO 2009). This policy contradicts utilitarian ethics, according to which a moral action should result in the greatest good (Mill 1863). This policy does provide utility to McDonalds customers who receive fresh good and of consistent quality every time, which leads to strong brand loyalty and repeat purchases, thereby increasing shareholder returns. However, by giving the food away to the poor the total utility of the society would be much more than by simply throwing the food away. Hence the policy is unethical from a utilitarian perspective.

Deontological ethics judge actions based on the motive behind them (Waller 2005). Since the motive behind the policy to add value to the companys shareholders and customers, and not to deliberately deprive the underprivileged from food, the policy is perfectly ethical from a Deontological perspective. However, Deontologists believe that actions should be moral irrespective of their outcomes, and throwing away edible food is a wrong deed, regardless of the customer satisfaction that results. McDonalds thus, faces a serious moral and ethical dilemma regarding its policy.