Social Responsibility in Thomas Cook Group
Social Responsibility
1A. Environmental Considerations
Thomas Cook Group is a fast growing tour and travel company in German Airlines, Unite kingdom, continental Europe, Northern Europe, North America as well as Northern Europe. It is a company with great impact in these regions as far as the tour and travel industry is concerned. Like any other company, Thomas Cook Group Company has social obligation and responsibility in the society within which it operates. This means that the company must take into account the general welfare and interest of the public within which it operates in the process of making company decisions. Thomas Cook Group Company must therefore regulate its operations in order to act in the interest of the community around especially in decision making while holding itself accountable (Reilly, 2006).
It is however worth noting that social responsibility is not legally binding on any business organization or company. The businesses however do this out of their own good will and ethical standards. Moreover, such responsibility improves the coexistence of the between the company in question and the community in which it operates. On such social responsibility that Thomas Cook Group company should put into consideration when making decisions for the company is the environmental factor. The company must endeavor at all times to preserve the environment in which it operates. The company must take into account the various environmental considerations that regard tours and travel. To begin with, it is important to note that such tour and travel company is normally associated with recreation. Such company’s environmental impact can, therefore come as a result of either of the tour and travel process or the accompanying recreational facilities.
1. The fist environmental consideration that Thomas Cook Group should take into account is littering the environment. This may result from various personal material that the travelers carry as well as their food stuffs and packaging material.
Recommendation: In order to deal with this environmental concern, the company should put in place several mechanisms to ensure that the environment in which they operate is preserved and free from litter. Such mechanisms may include, and not be limited to, placing of dust bins in their travel vehicles in order to collect the litter that would have otherwise been disposed to the environment. Moreover, the company should urge their food suppliers to package the food in biodegradable packaging material. The company management should also educate their customers of the importance of environmental preservation, giving reasons why they should not litter the environment. Environmental conservation is of key interest to any company or organization.
2. Another important environmental consideration that Thomas Cook Group Company needs to take into account is the water pollution risks that the tour and travel company posses to the surrounding water bodies. It is true that water bodies provide sceneries for tourism. Such related tours that Thomas Cook Group carries out posses’ danger of water pollution. Water activities such as swimming and boat ridding may lead to discharge of foreign material s into the water. People may discharge toxic human wastes as well as other wastes to the water. This may adversely affect the aquatic life by poisoning aquatic life.
Recommendation: Thomas Cook Group Company, therefore, needs to curb such environmental impacts. The company must ensure that they do not take too many people beyond the capacity of any water recreational facility. Furthermore, the company must educate their clients on the impact of water pollution and how they can avoid such pollution.
3. Finally, the type of vehicles that the company uses may pose great danger of air pollution. Heavy diesel vehicles pose the danger of emitting carbon monoxide to the surrounding environment. This is a poisonous gas that may affect the ecosystem by killing some biotic factors of such ecosystem.
Recommendation: Thomas Cook Group Company should, therefore, consider buying vehicles that do not emit large quantities of such poisonous gases as well as smoke (Watts, 2008).
2A. Ethical Consideration
1. Another social responsibility is the Ethical Leadership Considerations. Leadership has the sole responsibility of ensuring the followers behave in a certain manner. The leadership influences the behavior and the action of the followers. Good leadership is not only confined into competence but extends to people transformation as well as ethics. A good leader must influence his or her followers to take particular action and behave in a given way while empowering them in all ways.
Recommendation: In this regard Thomas Cook Group Company must ensure that they provide a leadership that is ethical. Ethical decision making is one such issue. The Thomas Cook Group leadership should make decisions that do not only serve their interest but also the interest of everybody around them. That way the company will be able to influence their junior staff to act in a similar manner.
2. Another ethical consideration that Thomas Cook Group Company should consider is reliability in communication.
Recommendation: The leaders should endeavor to give complete, reliable and accurate information to their junior staff. That inculcates will inculcate the culture of honesty into the business organization.
3. Another ethical consideration that Thomas Cook Group leadership should build is honesty. The success of Thomas Cook Group company will depend to a large extend on how honest the leaders in the organization are. Corruption and mismanagement of the company funds will arise if the top leadership of the company does are not honest.
Recommendation: To deal with this, the company must train its employees to be honest. Moreover, only the people who have exhibited high levels of integrity should be allowed into leadership positions. This will solve the problem of dishonesty and build an honest and ethical leadership within and outside the system, and this will be of great importance (Karp et al., 2009).
Organizational Viability
Organizational viability refers to the ability of any given organization to last for a long period of time. Thomas Cook Group Company therefore has the responsibility of ensuring its survival in the long run. For this to be possible Thomas Cook Group Company should take into account various social responsibility. While it is true that social responsibilities are not the only ones needed to guarantee the company long life, such responsibilities contribute to a large extend towards the company’s long life. The social responsibility should include the following.
1. Ethical leadership, for instance, ensures that the company is managed in an honest and reliable manner. Corruption and mismanagement of the company funds will arise if the top leadership of the company is not honest. As such, the growth of such a company will be limited. To deal with this, the company must train its employees to be honest and only allow the people who have exhibited high levels of integrity to leadership positions. This way, the company’s funds will be put to good use. Furthermore, only competent people will be employed (Duggar, 2009).
2. Taking care of environmental issues will ensure a cordial relationship between the business organization and the surrounding communities. The success and hence organizational viability of a business will depend on how the organization relates to the surrounding community. A big percentage of the customer base comes from the surrounding communities. Enhancing a cordial relationship with them through social responsibilities such as environmental conservation will help greatly to ensure the survival of the business in the long run.
3. Finally, the company must seek to carry out their activities in a manner that is transparent and effective. There should be no mysteries surrounding the operation of the business to the general public. This way, the company wins the confidence of the general public.
3A. Legal Considerations
The company should also seek to comply with the entire legal requirement in the areas where they operate. Such legal requirement may include proper registration, tax compliance, and traveler’s rights among others. This will ensure that the company operates in a cordial manner with the relevant authorities.
1. To begin with the company must adhere to the FDA regulation (Food and Drug Administration Regulation). In this regard the, the FDA regulations requires the company to ensure that all the foodstuffs they serve in their company are safe for use and meet the set minimum threshold of sanitation in both the process of preparation and packaging. To ensure this the company should provide and prepare their own foods. This way, they will be able to monitor FDA regulation (Watts, 2008). .
2. In addition the company must comply with the EPA (Environmental protection Agency) regulation. This regulation requires Thomas Cook Group Company not to engage in activities that may negatively on the environment in which they operate. We have already highlighted the various environmental precautions and practical steps that Thomas Cook Group Company should take in order to comply with EPA regulations (Watts, 2008). .
3. Finally, Thomas Cook Group Company should seek to comply with IRS (Internal Revenue Service) requirements. In this regard the company must endeavor to pay their taxes and comply with all the other statutory tax requirements (Duggar, 2009).
In conclusion, Thomas Cook Group Company has social obligation and responsibility in the society within which it operates. The company must endeavor to adhere to such responsibilities. This means that the company must take into account the general welfare and interest of the public within which it operates in the process of making company decisions. Thomas Cook Group Company must therefore regulate its operations in order to act in the interest of the community around especially in decision making while holding itself accountable. It is however worth noting that social responsibility is not legally binding on any business organization or company. The businesses however do this out of their own good will and ethical standards. Moreover, such responsibility improves the coexistence of the between the company in question and the community in which it operate.
References
Duggar, J. (2009). The role of integrity in individual and effective corporate leadership. Journal of Academic & Business Ethics, 3, pp. 1-7.
Karp, T., and Thomas, I. H. (2009). Leadership as Identity Construction: The Act of Leading People in Organizations. The Journal of Management Development, 28 (10), 880-96.
Reilly, E. C. (2006). The future entering: Reflections on and challenges to Social Responsibility. Educational Leadership and Administration, 18, 163-173.
Watts, T. (2008). Business Leaders’ Values and Beliefs Regarding Environmental conservation. Los Angeles, CA: LULU.
