In this essay I will be answering the question; Are businesses that act unethically destined for failure? It’s no secret that many, if not the majority, of the world’s most famous companies have been accused of acting in an unethical manner; but the unasked question is why do so many get away with acting unethically. The definition of the ethics is “the study of practices and policies in business, to determine which are ethically defensible and which are not” (Jennifer Jackson 1996 page one) In today’s climate it seems like all it takes for a business to get away with acting unethically is a good reputation. My first example of is one of England’s biggest supermarkets; Tesco. On the 14th of January 2013 the Tesco ‘horse meat’ scandal was revealed …show more content…
The year before the whole horse meat scandal was revealed Tesco made a grand total of seventy one million four thousand and two pounds in sales alone (Tesco plc a. N.D.)For a company the size of Tesco such figures are expected but still regarded as great success but the pattern after 2012 is one of great interest. In the following year Tesco’s total sales took a small dent but nevertheless a dent as there total sales decreased to seventy million seven thousand and twelve pounds (Tesco plc b. N.D). Even though Tesco had made a huge sum of money through sales in 2013 it is without a doubt that they would have lost are large number of customers and the normally impeccable reputation for providing honest good quality products would have taken a big blow. But after all of this the pattern is not finished because to this day Tesco have not been able to regain the customers they had lost due to the scandal. Furthermore Tesco has not been able to regain the total amount of sales that it had been in 2012 with the total amount of sales for 2014 being an inferior seventy …show more content…
It is a wildly know fact that Nike own many factories across the world although, mainly in third world countries such as Indonesia. Ironically the example of Nike acting unethically is located in a factory named Pou Chen in Indonesia; in 2011 workers reported acts of both mental and physical abuse in the factory (Stewart, N 21st April 2013). Examples of physical abuse included acts such as workers being slapped and kicked. It is needless to say that physical nor mental abuse in the workplace should never be permitted no matter the county or the situation. However: after all this has been made aware to world Nike treat their employees in this fashion and it has not been the first time either it still astounds me that Nike are still the world’s biggest sporting retailer they crush their nearest competitor Adidas in terms of brand value by having a total brand value of; seventeen billion which makes Adidas brand value of only seven and a half billion (World Finance N.D.) look like a pathetic attempt at trying to compete with Nike. With Nike expanding their business by investing a large amount of both time and money into fashion, with their most noticeable contribution being ever growing trainer collection. So with Nike being without a shadow of a doubt being the biggest sports retailer in the world and being
Over the last decade, headlines have told stories of unethical behavior from corporations such as Enron, Worldcom, Boeing, Xerox, and Rite Aid. As business continued to grow, so has the laws and regulations that govern corporations to make sure they continue to practices their business legally and ethically. Rules and regulations are made because of the unethical practices that corporations have made due to greed and power.
It is extremely common to walk into a boarding barn, show stable, or lesson facility and see someone exchange labor for board, lessons, or training. Or see employees being paid in cash, leaving no paper trail, employment record, and no wage reporting to the Internal Revenue Service. While this appears to be a “win win” situation for both parties it has the potential to cause more issues and frustration than what is seen by the average person.
The two articles provided for comparison, “How Consumers Perceive The Ethical Conduct of Businesses And Their Managers” by Derrek Choy, and “Reconciling Traditional Morality and the Morality of Competition”, by Adam D. Bailey, both analyze ethical and unethical behavior in business, and conclude that moral and ethical standards in business actions are not only
Every organization also has a profession responsibility to conduct business honestly and ethically. Our readings reported, “Experts estimated that U.S. companies lose about $600 billion a year from unethical and criminal behavior” Kinicki and Kreitner (2009). The organization could avoid having ethical issues by meeting the
The main problem out of the horsemeat scandal around Europe, according to specialists, (SOURCE) is not the threat to human health but more an issue of business ‘insecurity, as even major brands such as Nestlé, Burger King and Findus fail to meet the high standards their consumers expect by selling different products than those specified in the labels and promotion of their brands (SOURCE). Other problem is the lack of efficient traceability along the complex supply chain for meat, where unscrupulous vendors substitute beef for horsemeat taking advantage of the lowest price and the fact that so many intermediates involved in the process does not make it easy to find a single responsible.
Modern Businesses are becoming increasingly powerful. In fact, some businesses have so much influence, that they believe they can act above the law and become over-controlling of certain aspects of people’s lives, such as healthcare (Boylan 289), and computer and military technology, with influences even extending into politics (Brenkert 1). Many Businesses boast to be run by the best moral and ethical standards, yet these businesses are still being faced with legal suits against them. The argument that is made by these companies is that they did whatever it was that they did, in order to bring about some other ‘good’. I believe that these types of businesses should be better policed on upholding their own ethical policies that
On September 8, 2015, at approximately 2:47 PM I, Deputy Ragsdale, was dispatched 4336 East State Highway 11, Winnsboro, Texas in reference to a theft of horses.
After studying related materials and walked through lectures regarding TNCs, I recalled that Nike has been criticised for its deployment of sweatshops and child labour, I was frightening that Nike workers were kicked and verbally abused at Converse factories in Indonesia in 2011.1 It is difficult for me to believe Nike’s claims that they could act not much to stop it and I think that Nike has power to demand their contractors to comply with the code, I feel that Nike infringes Human Rights. I am convinced that consumer boycotts and petitions would be effective to push Nike to alter its mal-practice, also, I agree that we need government regulation to reinforce TNCs to comply worldwide rules including legal liability.2
They should be responsible for the legal, social and philanthropic aspects of its subcontracted factories. They are not paying their employees the legal minimum wage, caring about the working conditions and welfare of these employees and just not taking into consideration the well-being of others. Ten years ago, the company had been subjected to negative press, lawsuits, and demonstrations on college campuses alleging that the firm’s overseas contractors’ subject employees to work in inhumane conditions for low wages. With the introduction of the fair labour association and worker rights consortium, Nike is slowly trying to improve the working conditions on subcontracted factories and hopefully in 10 years, they would be able to re-establish themselves as a morally acceptable company.
The company Nike operates in over 50 different companies. This makes them a very large global company. Nike makes all kinds of products including gym shoes, clothing and apparel, equipment and accessories. “In 2004, Nike products were manufactured by more than 800 suppliers, employing over 600,000 workers in 51 countries” (Locke, Kochan, Romis & Qin, 2007, p. 6). Nike came under fire because of their workers that work outside the United States. In other countries, labor laws are unlike those within the United States. Large corporations often exploit the fact that they can pay laborers significantly less outside of the United States. Companies may also provide less than favorable working conditions to its labor force outside of the United States.
Like often, no changes are usually made unless a tragedy has been struck or when the public decides to advocate for such issues. However, in third world countries they don’t get off the hook that easily. South Asia, in particular, has been a central area for the production of Nike sportswear. Unfortunately, the working conditions were far less than tolerable. Nike’s factories overseas had minimal standards and the repercussions of exploiting employees were not seen as a threat. For several years, little was known about Nike’s factories, simply because no light was being shed on the topic. However, when news came out about the reality overseas, Nike didn’t hesitate to address these concerns. Some recommendations that were given to Nike include giving workers the rightful wage, ensure factories had eliminated any forced overtime, investigate thoroughly any allegations that are brought up, provide employees with the companies Code of Conduct, implement a compensation fund for any workers that are injured or killed etc. Phil Knight’s speech had addressed theses concerns and he had ideas of his own such as implementing an education program at the factories overseas. In conclusion, Nike and its CEO had made a drastic progress into eliminating the sweatshop threats against them, and I hope are making additional necessary changes to grant all their workers the rights they
No one can truly understand how poor the quality of life for factory workers really is unless you live through it. A former Nike factory worker came out and shared her stories of the abuse she went through while working. Noi Supalai spoke before a crowd at an event hosted by Penn State chapter of the United States Against Sweatshops. This is an organization which is running a campaign called “Just Do The Right Thing” for workers’ rights. She said that there were harsh time constraints set for the products to be produced. When they did not meet the deadline, Nike put a fine on the factory restricting workers to receive their pay. Employees did not get paid for two months until they protested. (“Former Nike factory worker shares story of abusive working conditions” Lee) There have been others reports just like this one from The Daily Collegian such as one from DailyMail.com. Nike’s converse shoe factory supervisors have been revealed to be physically and mentally abusing workers. “Supervisors frequently throw shoes at them, slap them in the face, kick them and call them dogs and pigs.” (“Nike workers kicked, slapped and verbally abused at factories making converse” Daily Mail Reporter). Nike claims there is little they can do to stop such problems. Workers get kicked, and feel powerless, “our only choice is to stay and suffer, or speak out and be fired” says a woman from a plant in Sukabumi. The behind the scenes treatment is unimaginably brutal. It is so hard to think of the workers having things thrown at them, being kicked, scratched, slapped, growled at, forced to stand in the sun, disrespecting religions, and many many more abusive actions done to them as we make our purchases. Why would Lebron James sponsor such a company? Why would anyone sit back and get paid more than anyone could ever need for doing nothing when there are others out there getting paid barely anything for working their tails
Nike needs to ensure that all the contractors comply with the wages and local working conditions in respective countries. Nike can do this either by appointing a labor inspector in each of the factories for all the contractors and asking them to report the details of all the workers working in their respective factories and this report need to be reviewed by legal experts at the country level and worldwide level to ensure that all the laws are in compliance by contractors of Nike. Any non-compliance should be considered seriously and serious actions should be taken against all such contractors, which might result in termination of contracts with such factories.
One key aspect about Animal Farm is the leader's corruption. The pigs are way smarter and more clever than the other animals so they can easily trick most of them into anything they want. All the animals had part in the rebellion and all do a lot of work to keep the farm alive. They put a lot of effort to have a good life for an animal but yet the pigs are trying to make everything better for them and not for the others. They get more food, they don't have to work, and they get beds to sleep on instead of hay beds like the other animals. Old Major himself dreamed about a perfect world with free animals that don't have to worry about starving or humans hitting with animals abuse. I say the Animal farm does not resemble a Utopia for the educated
The subjects of inequality and corruption are heard all the time via media and real life. How these two definitions are connected and co-exist in various societies? Humans are born with different abilities, various ambitions, values and goals. In addition, everyone is raised in a their unique environment that starts with family, school, country and society. The actual path in achieving the goal would be different as well. It is given that certain group of people are giving some merit benefits that have to be accepted. For example, our veterans have privilege of subsidized education. At the same time, we have seen multiple examples when people can’t obtain their goals (honest bidding on a contract) by going through the established process and looking for a way around it. If such a way exist it represents a corruption. Therefore any country has a government that creates laws that supposed to be used in the society. At the same time there is no certain definition of inequality ranging from health, ability, sex or race. Any act that goes against established laws in order to obtain certain benefits would lead to corruption,