Organizational Issues

Organizational Issues

Nathanael Sinclair

ETH 316

June 10, 2014

George Stragalas

Organizational Issues

It is always exciting to discover small, entrepreneurial businesses that overcome the odds and find success.  Such is the case for Franklin BBQ, a wildly popular restaurant in Austin, Texas.  The founders of Franklin BBQ have found success not only for their outstanding cuisine, but also for the great care they take in going above and beyond in the organizational ethics of running a business.  It is clear that the owners take pride in their commitment to certain ethical principles, and the way those principles affect business decisions.

In the short film, The Entrepreneurial Spirit, Franklin BBQ, Aaron Franklin says, “As far as somebody that’s interested in ethical consumerism, we don’t want to waste a whole lot of stuff… Everything’s recyclable, everything’s biodegradable.  Our grease goes to biodiesel…” (Liberty Mutual, 2012).  Aaron makes it clear that running a business simply for profit is not something he would consider satisfactory; he finds value in certain ethical considerations that affect how his business operates.  Aaron’s organizational ethics mandate conservation, lean business practices, and contributing to clean fuel efforts.  In the film, Aaron explains, “I think good BBQ is… about how passionate you are about it; kinda how heartfelt it is” (2012), which indicates that his ethical considerations flow out of his passion for the craft, making them vitally important to him.

It is clear that Aaron Franklin holds to a certain set of ethics and values about his business, but how much of that is influenced by external social pressures is difficult to determine.  His organizational decisions about conservationism and green efforts are certainly reflective of the currently popular push for businesses in general to do more for the environment.  However, his conservationism was built in to his business from day one, so it is not a response to social pressures to change how he does business.  Despite that, it does seem that Aaron’s organizational ethics have been influenced, at least in part, by what has been called a shared community worldview imperative (Boylan, 2009, p37).  One aspect of this shared community worldview imperative is that the members of a certain community or group all contribute certain ideas, “…through which social institutions and their resulting policies might flourish within the restraints of the essential core commonly held values…” (Boylan, 2009, p37).  From an outsider’s perspective, Franklin BBQ has been influenced by external social pressures in their conservation efforts, precisely because they do business in this current era of conservationism.  Ultimately, though, it is still difficult to determine the extent to which external social pressures affect and influence Franklin BBQ’s organizational ethics.  Without a personal relationship with the owners, and a deep understanding and familiarity with the community in which he does business, it is best to simply conclude that external social pressures might influence some organizational ethics at Franklin BBQ.  Given the lack of information, it is just as likely that Aaron Franklin, and Franklin BBQ, are the primary influencers in the community, and the decisions he makes about organizational ethics are trend-setting for those around him.