Ethics and International Business Essays

Time and time again, there have been opposing views on just about every single possible topic one could fathom. From the most politically controversial topics of gun control and stem cell research to the more mundane transparent ones of brown or white rice and hat or no hat—it continues. Sweatshops and the controversy surrounding them is one that is unable to be put into simplistic terms, for sweatshops themselves are complex. The grand debate of opposing views in regards to sweatshops continues between two writers who both make convincing arguments as to why and how sweatshops should or should not be dealt with. In Sweat, Fire and Ethics, by Bob Jeffcott, he argues that more people ought to worry less about the outer layers of sweatshops and delve deeper into the real reason they exist and the unnecessariness of them. In contrast, Jeffrey D. Sachs writes of the urgent requirement of sweatshops needed during the industrialization time in a developing country, in his article of Bangladesh: On the Ladder of Development. The question is then asked: How do sweatshops positively and negatively affect people here in the United States of America and in other countries around the world?

This being despite the recession of 2008, we are witnessing an increasingly cooperative and sophisticated international business working environment. While it faces scrutiny in congress currently, the agreement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty was reached in October, 2015; the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership treaty is also seemingly achievable with the revival of American economy in the near future. These new agreements will set up a worldwide business rule structure that will be fulfilled by many major economies. Within this new structure, businessmen and women will face ethical issues globally despite continuing cultural and regional factors still playing a big role within these issues and decisions being made. Learning and analyzing business ethical issues within the case competition will not only assist us to become global business leaders with a deep understanding of corporate social responsibilities but also prepare us to make better decisions for our

Bob Jeffcott supports the effort of workers of the global supply chains in order to win improved wages and good working conditions and a better quality of life of those who work on sweatshops. He mentions and describes in detail how the conditions of the sweatshops are and how the people working in them are forced to long working hours for little money. He makes the question, “we think we can end sweatshops abuses by just changing our

“My concern isn’t that there are too many sweatshops, but that there are too few” (Stossel, 586). This theory holds that developing countries improve their condition by charging less but do the same work. Also developed countries will be better off, because their workers can shift to jobs that they can do better at (561). These are the jobs that some economists say usually show a certain level of education and training that can be difficult to obtain in the developing world (579). Consequently, developing countries get factories that provide multiple jobs that they would not otherwise; therefore improving the technology and capital. With this situation occurring, developing countries try to keep low constant wages, because sweatshops tend to just get moved on to another location that is more willing, for fear of losing investments and boosting gross domestic product (GDP). This only means average wages will increase at a steady rate around the world; a nation gets left behind if it demands wages are higher than the current market price asked for (Ross, 566).

I. Claim 1: Sweatshops increase the standards of living for the workers and their communities

I. Claim 1: Sweatshops increase the standards of living for the workers and their communities

Ethics must be global, not local. In order to build a truly great global business the leaders need to bring forward a global standard of ethical practices.

There are many views with the problem of utilizing sweatshops in developing economies. Many insist that utilizing sweatshops in developing economies composes exploitation. In certain circumstances, this may be true, but not all. It is an ongoing controversy of demolishing sweatshops and changing the laws of labor. Many anti-sweatshop activist supports the idea of demolishing sweatshops. Activist commonly focus on work conditions and low wages causing them to be ill – formed of the economy as a whole. Taking a deeper look into these developing countries, it is with out of doubt that these countries benefit from sweatshops. Sweatshops should not be demolished because the employees are benefited with income, their economy receives growth and

Ben Powell’s “In Defense of ‘Sweatshops’” article offers an uncommon point of view regarding the necessity of sweatshops. Powell knows that people know about sweatshops, but he offers another angle to the topic. The point he tries to get across is how sweatshops can actually be beneficial to the people in the third world countries, rather than them being a terrible thing. Throughout the article, he brought up some relatively good points, but not all he had to say was backed up with evidence. Therefore, Powell’s article was semi-effective.

International trade is important and beneficial to business. However, international trade guides a safeguard of interests, specific business contract, defined law, forum of dispute settlement, and understanding of contract clauses. “A working knowledge of international law helps business owners and managers with global interests reduce risk and increase profits” (Melvin, 2011, P. 631). This enlightenment will address the international legal and ethical issues involved in international business transactions and compare such to domestic business operations.

In the article Defense of Sweatshops written by Benjamin Powell, Powell right away points out that most sweatshop workers are being paid above the normal pay. In the forth paragraph he states that “quarter of Hondurans earn less than $1 per day and nearly half earn less than $2 per day.” Powell shows that sweatshop jobs are one of the best jobs to have in most of the counties he talks about. Powell tries to persuade us to think that sweatshops are wonderful because it is paying them well. Anti-sweatshop proposals is another thing Powell discusses.

This text became immediately implemented to a target market that has slender view of that sweatshops equal unfair pay and unfair remedy, but Kristof's article helps explains to his audience that sweatshops are an exceedingly safe and efficient process to households in growing international locations. The author attempts to persuade the audience to inspire greater sweatshops to be constructed in third world countries. Kristof

In this paper, I will argue that ethical dilemmas, like outsourcing labour, are best approached using the algorithm suggested by Thomas Donaldson; showing that businesses can engage aboard within an ethical manner. To begin I will examine how Donaldson’s “guiding principles” and “core human values” (Donaldson 173) can exist despite different values across cultures. Next, I will consider his premise of ethical leadership and its use in the multinational firm. Having defended these positions, I will then compare his work to that of Ian Maitland. I will specifically address how Maitland’s arguments do not successfully defend the human rights of international employees. This will demonstrate that Donaldson’s argument is more suitable for ethically-driven corporations and sets a positive precedent for future ethical conduct.

When economic growth, it creates more jobs opportunities which will cause the labour market to tighten, which in turn will force MNCs to improve working conditions in order to attract workers. Bear in mind, individuals who have no jobs at all are working on alternative jobs which are more hazardous and exploitative than sweatshops. For example, when Child Labor Deterrence Act (US) introduced, there were about 50,000 Bangladeshi children dismissed from garment industry jobs and many of them took up stone-crushing, street hustling or even prostitution. In this sense, the working conditions are far worse than the sweatshops. Jeffrey Sachs also claimed that international trade will, in the long run, make all parties better off. As a result of improving the working conditions, MNCs could have been successfully pursuing ethical branding and shifted out the demand curve for their products which in turn it will bolster the economic expansion and reduce unemployment rate.

International business ethics challenges the corporate world to deal with questions of what to do in situations where ethical standards come into conflict as a result of the different cultural practices in the nation. Since, there is this dilemma that has progressively troubled the large multinational corporations, international business ethics has arisen to help address these adhesive subject matters. There are several international business ethics discussions on the question of how to act in the home country as opposed to the host country is at the central point of most international corporations. The argument in question is how companies should practice their business according