Business Ethics Sustainability For Confectionery Company

Issue in Case 1

Discuss about the Business Ethics Sustainability for Confectionery Company.

Business should not only be focused on short term profitability for its shareholders but should also focus on long term sustainability for its stakeholders(Nica 2013).Business organizations should abide by ethics as the purpose of business is to contribute constructively to society and the ethical issues involved in 5 cases are discussed below.

As a product manager of a confectionary Company which manufactures plastic toys, I met a manufacturer during my visit to a Trade Fair in Europe. I visited the manufacturer in Thailand and finalized a supply agreement for my Company at a much lower cost than our present Portuguese Supplier with quality at par with our present supplier. However, while visiting the manufacturing facility of the Thai supplier to check the credibility of the manufacturing process, I found at around 6 am at morning, 30 men accumulate components of toys in large boxes and carry the materials to their home. I was stunned to find that children in between age of 5 to 14 years are also involved by their family members to assemble the toys. This ethics case is about child labor. It is estimated that around 150 million children across the globe are involved in child labor to support their poor family financially. Child labor deprives children of their right to education and is detrimental to their physical and emotional well-being. There are many organizations like United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the International Labor Organization that actively work towards eliminating child labor across the globe. In this case, it can be seen to prevent legal action, children work within premises of their home instead of working in factories (Kolk 2016).

Though child labor is harmful, as a product manager I would sign the deal with the supplier, not only to save cost but also because children may get involved in hazardous work and prostitution due to poverty, so child labor as long as it is safe, can help a child finance his education. In this case children are not involved in hazardous work which poses threat to their body and mind. Education and schools can help in reducing child labor more than laws (Lund-Thomsen and Lindgreen 2014).

The second case is about the ethical issue of PharmChemCo (PCC) Company. The harmful side effects of the best-selling herbicides of PCC were discovered by scientists of SFW University in the United States while conducting the research work in the laboratory. This report of an article containing these findings will be published in the Science Magazine on Thursday of the following week. However, I was asked to maintain confidentiality about the findings of the report. The issue was discussed only among vice-presidents and senior managers. The board of PharmChemCo Company restricted flow of this information to outsiders. The price of share of PCC Company will drop drastically and there will be potential negative consequences once this report has been published. So I have decided to sell my own shares before the publication of my news. But the ethical issue involved in this case is whether I should share this information with my friend from College Freddie who has not only invested huge money on share prices of PCC but has also advised the clients of his  investment bank to make investments(Khan, Muttakin and Siddiqui 2013).

My personal response to the situation

The stakeholders involved in this case are the members of boards of PCC Company, employees like me who have invested in the share, outsiders who have made investment like my college friend Freddie and his clients. However, I would never disclose the private information that was asked to be kept confidential by the Boards of my Company to my college friend. Though disclosing this information can save him from financial loss, I would give priority to confidentiality of my Company PCC. However, I will insist my friend Freddie to sell shares of my Company without disclosing any private information (Crane and Matten 2016). 

In this case, I as a human resource manager of AllCure Pharmaceuticals Company was vested with the responsibility of hiring an employee who will assist the product department with clinical trials of a drug which has the potential to be a blockbuster drug for the Company. This job is requires diligent work .As well as social skills to collaborate with clients and various departments. I was stuck in an ethical dilemma involved in this case while choosing one from two women applicants. While going through their Facebook page, I found one of the candidates to be well-travelled and sociable while the other one was difficult to locate and all her posts were visible to her friends. While taking help from an intern of my Company who has been a college friend of this applicant, I discovered that she is involved in partying, heavy alcohol consumption and illegal drug usage. Her pictures were offensive too (Asif et al 2013).

Though the candidate who is involved in partying and drug and alcohol abuse has better work experience is a better choice than the other candidate, I will definitely not hire her because as a human resource manager I am responsible to my stakeholders like co-workers, officials of regulating bodies and patients. The leakage of the offensive pictures of this candidate might hurt sentiments of my stakeholders. Moreover, her obsession with alcohol and drug usage might hamper her productivity at work. So I will choose the other candidate (Trevino and Nelson 2016). 

The ethical issue presented in this case is related to the long term consequences of organic farming. Consumers across the globe are ready to pay premium price for organic food which is assumed to be free from pesticides, however harmful chemicals like monosodium glutamate and carrageenan were discovered in the organic labeled brands in the United States .In the year 2009, retail Company in America Target unethically advertised soymilk as organic, and Horizon also sold non-organic milk as organic in America. There were reports that around 200 farmers in Germany have sold eggs laid by hens kept in pens as organic at a premium price .In the European Union, Italy, Ukraine and Moldova, fake organic certificates were found. In China, harmful chemicals and pesticides have been found in food and the process of certifying system is not trustworthy in the country (Jin, Drozdenko and DeLoughy 2013). Though organic food can contain less pesticide, but huge amount of farmland is required for organic farming, converting forests into farmland can lead to the emission of huge amount of Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and can be harmful to the natural habitat of species that live in forests. Though organic products can help in revenue generation, it has harmful effects on environment.

Issue in Case 2

I would not like to buy organic products personally because of the harmful effects that organic farming have on the environment. Also, consumers already consume food from restaurants and packaged food which contains preservatives and harmful substances for the body, unless humans have a holistic approach towards restoring good health, organic food consumption alone does not make much difference (Vitell 2015). 

The ethical issue is about the cotton industry in Uzbekistan. The state and central government control the profits of the export of cotton and they pay meager amount of money to farmers. Machines are not used for harvesting cotton in the country and during September to November which is harvesting season of cotton, schools remain closed and thousands of children and young adults are forced to work in the cotton field .They have to bear the transportation cost, cost for food and sometimes older children live in barrack-style accommodation with scarcity of electricity and water. These child workers are forced to inhuman labor and are paid low. Many western countries and reputed brands like Tesco, H & M, Marks and Spencer, GAP pledged to boycott usage of cotton from Uzbekistan while manufacturing their clothes, but the supply chain of these brands are really complex and cotton can enter the brands of these Western Companies from manufacturing facilities in Asia. Boycott from Western brands and intervention from International Labor brands led to signage of cotton pledge and the consequence was Uzbekistan banned child labor but continued forcing adults and university students to work in cotton field (Hoffman, Frederick and Schwartz 2014).Also, despite ban from Western brands, export of cotton from Uzbekistan remained constant as the country started exporting in Asia and Russia and labor conditions did not improve much in the country.

I personally think that the ethical issue of this case, that is forced child labor and harsh labor from adults should be stopped in Uzbekistan. There should be efforts from international institutions so that brands in Asian countries also get involved in boycotting cotton from Uzbekistan. Also government in Uzbekistan should make usage of modern machinery for harvesting cotton to reduce demand from human labor. Lastly, supply chain of brands should be improved (Homburg, Stierl and Bornemann 2013). 

Conclusion

The ethical issues presented in each case are of prime importance and should be taken into consideration so that business can contribute substantially to the society.

Reference Lists

Asif, M., Searcy, C., Zutshi, A. and Fisscher, O.A., 2013. An integrated management systems approach to corporate social responsibility. Journal of cleaner production, 56, pp.7-17.

Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.

Hoffman, W.M., Frederick, R.E. and Schwartz, M.S. eds., 2014. Business ethics: Readings and cases in corporate morality. John Wiley & Sons.

Homburg, C., Stierl, M. and Bornemann, T., 2013. Corporate social responsibility in business-to-business markets: how organizational customers account for supplier corporate social responsibility engagement. Journal of Marketing, 77(6), pp.54-72.

Jin, K.G., Drozdenko, R. and DeLoughy, S., 2013. The role of corporate value clusters in ethics, social responsibility, and performance: A study of financial professionals and implications for the financial meltdown. Journal of business ethics, 112(1), pp.15-24.

Khan, A., Muttakin, M.B. and Siddiqui, J., 2013. Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility disclosures: Evidence from an emerging economy. Journal of business ethics, 114(2), pp.207-223.

Kolk, A., 2016. The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the environment to CSR and sustainable development. Journal of World Business, 51(1), pp.23-34.

Lund-Thomsen, P. and Lindgreen, A., 2014. Corporate social responsibility in global value chains: Where are we now and where are we going?. Journal of Business Ethics, 123(1), pp.11-22.

Nica, E., 2013. Social Responsibility, Corporate Welfare, and Business Ethics. Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource Management, 1(1), pp.9-14.

Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., 2016. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley & Sons.

Vitell, S.J., 2015. A case for consumer social responsibility (CnSR): Including a selected review of consumer ethics/social responsibility research. Journal of Business Ethics, 130(4), pp.767-774.