McDonald's Automation (2017-Present)
The Controversy
In 2017 McDonald’s
announced that they will add 1000 self-service kiosk each quarter until 2020 to
their restaurants in the United States, which means most of the McDonalds in
the United States will have self-service kiosks by 2020. This is controversial
because it brings the fear of automation, automation is when companies replace
their employees with technology like computers. If companies replace their
employees with technology, a lot of people will be out of work, which means
people will not be able to make money and it will have a negative impact on the
economy (Kowitt).Before announcing their
p
lan to automate their stores at the end of 2016, McDonalds was going through a
tough time, they weren’t making as much revenue or sales in the united states
as they were before. McDonalds often had long lines especially around lunch
time, this would cause chaos in the store which can have a negative effect on
the customers’ experiences. Also, the
long lines can discourage potential customers in the store because they don’t
want to wait in the long line. Their
plan to make better profit and customer experiences is to modernize their store
by kiosks and creating ways for customers to order food through the McDonald’s
app. McDonald’s employs 1.9 million people in the world and 375,000 work at
the restaurant.Stakeholders
The stakeholders on this case are the cashiers since the kiosk might replace their job, the company, changes can affect the profits of McDonald's so the Investors are involve, if McDonald's decide to automate their store and replace their employees the economy is involve.
Individualism
Individualism is a
theory, where its main point is a company should be focusing on maximizing as
much profit within the law. The interest is of individualism is not finding the
best ways to operate through society. The values of Individualism are the
business, the profits and the business choices (Salazar). Under Individualism
it would ethical for McDonald’s to not only replace their cashier’s but also
try to find a way to automate their whole store. Profits will increase over
because they would not have to pay as much labor expenses, such labor hours
especially since minimum wages is increasing, training and mistakes employees
might make. Machine can be more reliable than humans they won’t quit
unexpectedly, damage the company name by doing something inappropriate to the
food or talking bad about the company on social media., make mistakes, call out
sick, nor give rude service to customers. If they automate, they would not have
to worry about finding and putting money to ways to attract new employees and
to keep old ones. Also, automation is not against the law, so if McDonald’s
automate their stores it would be ethical for individualism despite the
negative impact it will have on society. Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is about
maximizing the overall happiness, to do what is best for everyone’s happiness.
A utilitarian makes decisions based on the overall consequences of an action.
The reasoning behind utilitarianism is that there is no difference between
anyone’s happiness, and that everybody’s happiness holds the same amount of
value. Utilitarianism does not just focus on the happiness of human beings, it
focusses on the happiness of anything, living which mean it also focus on the
happiness of animals and the planet. The theory of utilitarianism explains that
it is nearly impossible that an action will bring everyone happiness. For an
example an action that cause someone to be happy, can be the same action that
caused someone to be sad. Therefore, the decisions that bring the most overall
happiness (Salazar). Based on this theory the ethical thing for McDonald’s to
do is to apply kiosk fulfill consumers demands, not to replace the employees.
If the kiosk replaces employees’ jobs, McDonald’s should make sure cashiers can
have a job at another department than the cashier department and make sure
everyone hours and job will not be affected negatively because of the
department change. This the ethical decision under utilitarianism because there
will still be kiosks which means that lines would be faster, and it will
modernize McDonald’s fulfilling consumers’ demands. A. The plan that allow employees to keep their job is the
ethical plan because the benefits brings happiness to a more amount of people.
People will benefit from McDonald’s employing people than having robot because
hundreds of thousands of people will not be jobless, families will have money,
more money will be spent at different places which will better the economy.Kantianism
Kantianism is theory
created by a philosopher name Immanuel Kant, it emphasizes rationality,
focusing on free will allowing for people to make decisions on their own,
Kantianism provides information and does not act inconsistently. There main
values are respect and truth. It is about treating people as being and not mere
means. Which means giving people respect and not seeing them as a profit or a
way to accomplish goals by lying and deceiving like manipulating or cheating.
In Kantianism it is unethical for someone to benefit by harming others
(Salazar). Based on Kantianism it will ok for McDonald’s to have kiosks but not
fully automating their store. Even though automating the store is not lying or
manipulating people it is harming people since the employees will be out of
jobs, they would not have any income, also it will harm the economy. It is
unethical under Kantianism because Kantianism does not approve of harming
people to be successful. Kantianism is all about good will, having morals when
it comes to decision making. Also replacing the employees with robots shows
that McDonald’s has no respect for their employees because to replacing and
getting rid of them like that shows that McDonald’s does not care about making
a decision that will negatively affect their employees, also they would be
treating their employees as a mere means and not beings. McDonald’s said that
the reasoning for the kiosks is to fulfill consumers’ demand and not to replace
their employees, so if they automate their stores further than that mainly to
gain profit because they see how the kiosk are doing, it would mean that
McDonald’s lie to their employees and customers and Kantianism is about telling
the truth.
Virtue theory
Virtues are
characteristics that allow everything to function properly. Virtue theory is a
theory that focuses on characteristics that’s allows the wellness of others and
the prosperity of others within a society. The four main characteristics of
virtue theory are courage, honesty, temperance and justice. Virtue theory
avoids any characteristics that leads to bad and viscous behavior (Salazar).
Under Virtue theory McDonald’s will be ethical if they let the kiosk and the
cashiers coexist together because it allows workers prosper and it focuses on
their wellness since they will still have a job. keeping them there is justice
because it has a positive affect on society, it will allow the economy to stay
the same or maybe increase. If McDonald’s full automate their stores and get
rid of their employees, this will ethically wrong under virtue theory because
subtracting the amount of jobs and job opportunities that society will have by
significant amount is viscous behavior. The characteristics of this behavior
are negative, one characteristics is greed because only people who is focus on
gaining more money or their accomplishments will make a decision that will
benefit them but negatively affect everyone around them.References
Baertlein, L (03/1/17) “McDonald's U.S. turnaround shifts to
technology, speedier service” from
Cain, A (Aug. 6,
2018) “McDonald's drive-thrus are 'not suitable for horses' — and 11 other
insider facts about McDonald's that employees know and most customers don't”
Forbes (08/09/18) “Why Is McDonald's Moving Toward Kiosks?”
from
Kowitt, B (November
18, 2016) “Why Eating at McDonald's Is about to Undergo
A Massive Makeover” from
Patton, L
(03/13/18) “McDonald's workers quitting in droves over 'complicated' technology,
new menu items” from
Peterson, H (Aug.
6, 2015) “McDonald's shoots down fears it
is planning to replace cashiers with kiosks” from
Salazar, H “The case manual”
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