Nike Ethics Essay

NIKE Inc. main headquarters are located in Beaverton, Oregon. Mark Parker leads the executive team of NIKE Inc. NIKE website says that, “Parker joined NIKE as one of our first footwear designers back in 1979, and he’s been at the center of NIKE innovation ever

As such, it applied cultural relativism to justify the use of child labor, unsafe labor practices, and near slave labor in its factories. Since then, Nike has been a driving force to ensure fair labor practices across the apparel industry. In 1999, Nike was a key contributor to the establishment of the Fair Labor Association, an organization that is “…dedicated to protecting workers’ rights around the world” (Fair Labor Association, 2016). Today, Nike continues efforts to ensure that contract factories comply with its Code of Conduct to improve labor standards in overseas factories (Nike, 2016). Because of Nike’s efforts to expand and enforce social responsibility at its factories and given the lessons learned from its sordid past, it is unlikely that Nike would resort to any of the straw men fallacies. However, given the pressure by investors to expect solid returns, one hopes the company continues its altruistic social responsibility efforts while veering away from the Friedman Doctrine and its assertion that “… the only social responsibility of business is to increase profits” (Hill, 2011).

The ethics of businesses are under more scrutiny than ever before (Bones, 2014). Ethics can be considered as following a code of behaviour agreeable with the context of society and can also be defined as the application of moral and ethical considerations in a business environment (Hurn, 2008). Sport businesses have been targeted a lot more in recent years due to the conditions they place their workers in has become more apparent to the outside world. Nike are one of the world’s leading sports brands but have been faced with many allegations in recent years (Daily Mail, 2011) in regards to the conditions they put their workers in and their ethics and morals have been questioned. This report will critically evaluate the impact ethics has on the business operations of Nike and then analyse the reasons for why ethics impact the sport organisation. Finally, recommendations will be made to improve Nike’s business ethics.

By joining a task force that helps promote fair labor practices, Nike is taking responsibility for its actions and showing the global market that is does take an interest in those working in the factory. This helps to alleviate any hesitation consumers may have with purchasing products made by Nike.

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.

Nike has a mission statement that lets everyone know what the main objective is. “To bring inspiration and innovation to ever *athlete in the world.” Founder Bill Bowerman defined athlete the following way: “*If you have a body, you are an athlete.”(Mission statement, Nike.com) That definition is the heart of Nike’s business model and has been the center point to their vision. They are saying that everyone in the world is athlete and they want to inspire and innovate every type of demographic. Nike’s view has been a critical to their spectacular growth to be a major global

As a leading company in footwear industry, Nike believes they have the responsibility to conduct their business in an ethical way and also expects the same of its business partners. Moreover, Nike focuses on working with long-term, strategic suppliers that demonstrate a commitment a safe working conditions to their employees (Nike, Inc., 2014).

Nike has suffered attacks from a number of agencies and organizations throughout the world that claim that the workers who manufacture Nike shoes are denied the basic essentials of living—a fair wage and decent benefits. All

Nike is a United States based sports company in Beaverton, Oregon. Nike’s original name was Blue Ribbon Sports and its mission is to be the world’s leading sports and fitness company (Nikebiz, 2010). Nike had two options for

This bad public image has led to loss of existing customers and potential customers switching to more ethical brands. Nike’s marketing team has had to make it a big priority to counter any negative publicity and re-focus consumer’s attention on what they are doing about the allegations.

Nike should not be allowed to claim they are an ethical company especially when they are still outsourcing to impoverished countries in Asian. The company takes advantage of low living standards and lack of democracy in those countries. There was nonexistence of labor movements in countries like Indonesia. The government never allowed

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.

NIKE, Inc. is a multinational corporation, found in 1965 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. It is headquartered at Beaverton, Oregon, US. Nike works to design, develop, manufacture, market and sell apparel, footwear, equipment, accessories and services. BRS was renamed Nike in 1971.

Based on virtue ethics, an action is ethical if it aligns with good character (Lawrence & Weber, 2014). Despite being limited to a set of defined good virtues, Nike can still be analysed based on virtues it has contradicted. Nike has contradicted ‘Honesty’, ‘Courage’, and ‘Justice’ by not disclosing and resolving the poor working conditions in the underdeveloped countries.

Nike took advantage of that and disregarded that the people making their products at an extremely low price were actually humans. It was ethically wrong for Nike to not see those employees as actual people but saw them as a machine that produced products. They did not care to see how being underpaid affected a person’s family. They also did not see that children were working to support families and continued to work in terrible health conditions because they needed the money no matter the environment. The biggest issue was that the company had a total disregard for human life.