Ethical Business Theories: Document Is Highlighting Ethics (Research Paper Sample)

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INTRODUCTION
McDonalds is a retail trader who deals in clothing, cyber cafés, salons and supermarkets. The business has enjoyed a long period of success and growth over the years that he has expanded the businesses both in the US and other countries such as Canada and United Kingdom. However, the financial depression across the globe over the last three years have shrunk the revenues earned that he is afraid that soon he will go out of business. As a measure to adjust to this, he was advised by a fellow business person to start underreporting his income on taxes and falsifying rendered to his business as a ways to show the tax authorities the huge expenses that the business has hence low revenues from the business. This is ethically wrong and illegal in all countries and it’s liable to a fine or a jail term in case found guilty.
Ethics defines the acceptable moral values in a given society without rules and regulations being enforced. Ethical thinking is a complex process which determine the impact of peoples decisions on the society within which they exist. This, in most cases create dilemma when there is a sadden occurrence where an urgent response is a must to overcome the situation. In the case of McDonalds, it is cultural for any business person to make necessary adjustments in case there is a change in the market in order to survive the change. He underreports his business earnings in order to survive. His fellow businesspersons have advised him to underreport his income on taxes because it is what they believe it is the right thing to do in order to save the business from collapse. This is unethical and punishable by law in most countries such as the United States (Chmielewski Christine, 2004).
Attribution theory is a learning theory developed by Weiner which deals with how the social observer uses information to develop causal reasons for events. This theory studies how information is collected and put together to form a judgment (McLeod Saul, 2012). This theory can be applied to this situation whereby McDonalds has noticed that the global depression has eaten into his business revenues (information). He uses this information as a basis for underreporting his income taxes and falsify services on billing documents so as to show the tax authorities the reasons for the low revenue earnings from the businesses. He has collected information on the global economic depression together with that of his fellow businesspersons and used them to form a judgment which is that the depression will have a negative impact on his businesses. Therefore, the reason to falsify billing documents and underreport income on taxes.
According to Festinger, (1957), when dissonance exists between attitude and behavior an awareness of unrests and uneasiness all usually created. Every human being has an inherent inclination to solve a dispute by changing their attitude and or behavior towards a phenomenon that has being previously present in his surroundings. In the case of McDonalds, he has changed his behavior and attitude towards paying taxes in order so solve the financial distress that his businesses are currently in. he does this through avoiding to pay the right taxes and lying about the expenses which his businesses incurs. The change in attitude towards paying taxes changes his behavior from an ethical businessman who declares his revenues with integrity to that who underreports so as to keep his earnings from the busi...