Cracker Barrel Case Study
What was Cracker Barrel's rationale for firing their LGBT employees? Does it make sense from a business perspective?
Cracker Barrel used the rationale that they wanted to maintain an image of being a "family" restaurant that represented traditional American family values. And founder, Dan Evins felt that homosexuality did not fit into these American family values. I personally feel that it does not make business sense to discriminate against a certain group of people. But, when this incident happened in the early 1990s, it did not hurt the chain's bottom line. Customers still came to their restaurants. When this incident happened laws and views were a lot different from today. Homosexuality was still frowned upon and many individuals …show more content…
Being openly gay was still not accepted like it is today. Many individuals kept that part of their lives a secret and many of the groups that supported them were still not getting that much recognition either. The disadvantage would be to alienate a segment or group of people from eating at their restaurant. They would not only lose business from the gay community but from people that feel any type of discrimination is wrong.
How should the perceived values of a customer base affect companies' personnel policies? In a large national corporation, should personnel policies be uniform across all operating units or should they be tailored by region according to local mores? Companies should always make policies with the best interest of their customers in mind but never discriminate against anyone to adjust to their value system. Things have changed a lot in our society over past several years, if not decades. Things that were considered the "norm" are looked at little differently today. Racial discrimination, interracial marriages and relationships, and sexual orientation are a few examples of things that are viewed differently today. Some individuals might still have a problem with these issues but they longer dictate to society what is considered acceptable or not in our culture. I believe that large national corporations should set policies for all their locations
Cracker Barrel used the rationale that they wanted to maintain an image of being a "family" restaurant that represented traditional American family values. And founder, Dan Evins felt that homosexuality did not fit into these American family values. I personally feel that it does not make business sense to discriminate against a certain group of people. But, when this incident happened in the early 1990s, it did not hurt the chain's bottom line. Customers still came to their restaurants. When this incident happened laws and views were a lot different from today. Homosexuality was still frowned upon and many individuals …show more content…
Being openly gay was still not accepted like it is today. Many individuals kept that part of their lives a secret and many of the groups that supported them were still not getting that much recognition either. The disadvantage would be to alienate a segment or group of people from eating at their restaurant. They would not only lose business from the gay community but from people that feel any type of discrimination is wrong.
How should the perceived values of a customer base affect companies' personnel policies? In a large national corporation, should personnel policies be uniform across all operating units or should they be tailored by region according to local mores? Companies should always make policies with the best interest of their customers in mind but never discriminate against anyone to adjust to their value system. Things have changed a lot in our society over past several years, if not decades. Things that were considered the "norm" are looked at little differently today. Racial discrimination, interracial marriages and relationships, and sexual orientation are a few examples of things that are viewed differently today. Some individuals might still have a problem with these issues but they longer dictate to society what is considered acceptable or not in our culture. I believe that large national corporations should set policies for all their locations