On April 24 2013, 1134 people were killed and 2,500 were injured when the Rana Plaza building in Savar, Bangladesh collapsed on top of garment workers inside its factories. It would be known as the worst accident in the garment industry anywhere.
This happened only five months after a horrific fire at a similar facility prompted leading multinational brands to pledge to work to improve safety in the country’s booming but poorly regulated garment industry.
Labour groups, Western clothing companies, the Bangladeshi government and others have made some progress toward preventing similar tragedies, but more still
needs to be done.
There was never any doubt that improving working conditions in Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest countries, would be incredibly difficult. The collapse of Rana
Plaza was just one, though by far the worst in a series of industrial accidents in Bangladesh’s garment industry, which has become one of the biggest exporters of
clothes to the United States and Europe because of its low wages.
It was later discovered that 28 brands that sourced clothes from the plaza included Primark, Bennetton, Mango, Matalan and Bonmache, prompting public concern
about the working conditions of garment factories around the world which contribute to western high street fashion stores.
Ethical consumerism encourages people to think about how the products they buy are sourced and produced which are not harmful to the environment and society.
This can be evidenced through simply purchasing eggs that are free-range or boycotting goods/companies which promote child labour or unsavoury working conditions.
Ethical consumerism is a growing market. A recent report from the Co-operative Bank showed a third of UK consumers claiming to be concerned about ethical consumption, with a large number of the public willing to challenge and boycott companies which do not comply with ethical standards. You are required to write an analytical business report that covers the following tasks:
Task 1
Discuss the ways in which companies, like the ones mentioned in the extract above, that sourced clothes from the Rana Plaza can help improve business practices to prevent recurrence of events of this nature.
Task 2
Choose any company, research and evidence how they operate ethically, taking into account their approach to consumerism, values and environmental friendliness.
The essay analyses firm named Rana Plaza within the textile industry in Bangladesh. First part of the study has actually tried to analyze all the companies who have sourced or are sourcing from the Rana plaza and the way in which they can help themselves for improvement of business practices and prevention of recurrence of any such incident which took place in Rana Plaza (Allhoff and Vaidya, 2005). Research also has also attempted to evaluate all ethical issues that were involved in the firm as well as all actions which related firms need and requirement to undertake further smooth endurance. Analysis and evaluation of such ethical as well as social plus companywide issues will definitely ensure that companies properly understand each and every thing which went wrong in the Rana Plaza plus effectively keep themselves away from any similar incident or actions which could harm others in similar way (Boylan, 2001). In the second part an organization named Starbucks has been considered as well as all activities of the firm regarding fundamental ethical concern such as CSR and consumerism, environmental friendliness as well as beliefs and values has been recognized as such actions will definitely propel Starbucks goals plus aims into the future (Cory, 2005).
The vital disaster took place at the organization Rana Plaza which is situated within Bangladesh, where an eight storied building including six factories literally fell like the house of cards, killing approximately 1,134 labors. This case also has put a notice on health as well as safety issues in the textile industry (Gavai, 2010). This incident has forced the firms to think twice upon the ethics and morale they carry and also that whether the real ethics towards safety and security of employees in being maintained or not. Also as a result, media, government as well as consumers plus also few other stakeholders even are more and more holding clothing companies accountable for every health plus safety contravention within their supply chains (Harish Jyawali, 2015).
As shareholders who belong to textile industry plus apparel firms are open to elements of financial as well as reputational risks plus even danger that comes out of incidents attached to dangerous working conditions at the firms’ sites for production. Therefore, investors now require carrying a significant wager in heartening firms to execute proper health as well as safety actions and practices throughout their self plus also their suppliers’ operations (Hartman, 2005). Several factors in reality share the liability of disaster that took place in the Rana Plaza. Bangladesh that is considered as a state having very weak governance even faces several structural issues as well as problems like lack of some genuine rule and even regulation of the law, inadequate and very scarce assessment procedures, plus generally very unproductive admission towards justice for the victims of the work-connected incidents. The firm can now follow some simple steps and attain full safety and security as well as can become capable of avoiding any such incident that took place at Rana Plaza (Mitchell, 2009). These steps are:
Nevertheless, in immediate consequences of the factory tragedy, few firms amazingly spoke incomprehension related to whether the factories are really shaped along with their goods or else it is merely a saying. Undoubtedly, as an outcome of multinational organizations which outsourced production to the nations like Bangladesh, self-existing contractors often gave verdicts within complex plus vital chains of supply (Paliwal, 2006). Firms here should try to understand that the cost plus their differentials, in fact were real causes of outsourcing in the initial place, in the midst of fully developed and also few developing countries which showed conditions within the factories that were perhaps substandard, with being merely empirical proof which could disprove such things.
Conclusion:
The major responsibility was upon Bangladeshi authorities because they failed in correctly fulfilling their duties and compulsions towards protecting labors and making them aware of the incidents and risks and also activities towards saving lives from those risks. State of the Bangladesh, according to the national and international law should actually also try its best to save and protect all the human rights within authority because they even were unsuccessful in their responsibility which was about granting the rights as well as safety to the textile industry employees.
Starbucks actually is a global coffee chain and coffeehouse in based in Seattle within United States in Washington. Along with almost 17133 outlets in 49 nations Starbucks is globe’s largest coffeehouse firm. Health plus safety of consumers and the workers is very important factor of all the ethical elements that must be followed within any organization (Cole, 2008). Every firm’s reputation vitally depends upon health plus safety of the consumers. Health plus safety is also legal requirement of government. Global firms have employees who belong to several nations thus all of them need to be valued a lot for attainment of better results (Snyder, 2006).
The method used here for collection of data is secondary data collection method. Information has been gathered from many secondary resources like from the magazines, firm’s website, journals, and even some books.
Consumerism- Starbuck’s cultural meaning successfully motivates its consumers to consume its products and also this has served like a good place to work as well as socialize. Starbucks has an extremely communal ecology and is an ideal place intended for developing as well as maintaining good relations. Culture plus consumption which are several forms towards consumerism has also shaped star buck’s outlets through development of the social relationship. Furthermore, it also is acceptable for public to enjoy as well as utilize sophisticated ecology for all of their personal sources as while consuming delicious coffee (Quelch and Rodriguez, 2015). Starbucks in reality positions itself like a premium coffee seller, that sells variety of coffees as well as some beverages, both hot plus cold, along with some snacks and also sandwiches.
Being a premium brand for coffee, it often relies on the target market carrying a major count of some middle plus high earners along with throwaway income to recurrent all the coffee houses. The firm ia also capable of instilling a feeling of actual upper-class reorganization into its consumers through the product as well as upbeat ecology and staff interactions. While customer’s decisions also are frequently influenced by some other factors, the coffee at Starbucks still is a major way towards expressing themselves optimistically. Not merely did the firm shape its consumers, it also encouraged socialization and communication. People here can fully utilized space intended for their personal means and can of course make it a community setting intended both for work as well as pleasure.
Values – Starbucks believes that ethically performing business as well as doing things right is actually very significant for all kinds of organizational success. Business ethics also compliances within the firm and there are program organized within Starbucks which supports the firm’s mission as well as vision plus also helps the firm to safeguard the culture as well as reputation, via resource allocation intended for ethical decisions when they are on work. Ethical context is also used within this firm to develop plus expand actual awareness of benchmarks regarding the business demeanor, legal compliance, amenities, training and also political interest plus many more (Roth, 2005).
Environmental Friendliness- The firm is actually not only acting for the betterment of ecology but is also inspiring all of its customers, staffs, and also supplier to take proper care of environment. Starbucks also suggest that their consumers should reuse all of their mugs to the maximum extent possible. The staffs here also are recommended to use a smaller amount electrical energy within stores of Starbucks. The staffs thus try to utilize freezer and lights as well as thermostat to the minimum level. The resources used by the firm to produce all of their goods are from the base of natural resource. Coffee and other products that the firm serves to its customers are actually without colorants and preservatives as well as additives, particularly for the coffee bean that is used by the firm. To ensure that Starbucks have excellent and best benchmark of the coffee goods in world firm’s vice president personally has spearheaded the firm’s efforts to protect top-notch beans of coffee to provide the firm’s mounting needs. The firm also tends to build good relations with all the growers as well as exporters and also checks on the agricultural situations and the crop yields, as well as hunts out for varieties plus sources which would also meet firm’s exacting benchmarks of quality as well as flavor (Shaw, 2005).
Conclusion:
Overall, it can be concluded that firm Starbucks has developed itself and has been successful in maintaining itself as extremely triumphant coffeehouse. As the firm it very popular for all its good tasting coffee, the firm is well known for its entire green symbol that it has embedded with vast much meaning at the back it. People are ready to spend premium amount more on the firm as it displayed type of feeling for upper-class, practical person. Through proper brand loyalty by the customers, Starbucks has turned to be a place of actual socialization. Though the firm still needs to amend itself on some issues it is well known for being ethically correct. In a nutshell here are all the details regarding ethical acts by Starbucks.
References
Allhoff, F. and Vaidya, A. (2005). Business ethics. London: SAGE Publications.
Boylan, M. (2001). Business ethics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Cole, G. (2008). Grande Expectations: a Year in the Life of Starbucks’ Stock20081Karen Blumenthal. Grande Expectations: a Year in the Life of Starbucks’ Stock . Loughton: Piatkus 2007. Management Decision, 46(4), pp.673-675.
Cory, J. (2005). Activist business ethics. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Gavai, A. (2010). Business ethics. Mumbai [India]: Himalaya Pub. House.
Harish Jyawali, (2015). My Screencast. [image] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrhPck8NOAM [Accessed 20 Mar. 2015].
Hartman, L. (2005). Perspectives in business ethics. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Mitchell, C. (2009). A short course in international business ethics. Petaluma, CA: World Trade Press.
Moon, C. (2001). Business ethics. London: Economist.
Morais, U., Pena, J., Shacket, K., Sintilus, L., Ruiz, R., Rivera, Y. and Mujtaba, B. (2014). Managing Diverse Employees at Starbucks: Focusing on Ethics and Inclusion. IJLD, 4(3), p.35.
Paliwal, M. (2006). Business ethics. New Delhi: New Age International.
Quelch, J. and Rodriguez, M. (2015). Rana Plaza: Workplace Safety in Bangladesh (A) – Harvard Business Review. [online] Hbr.org. Available at: https://hbr.org/product/rana-plaza-bangladesh-garment-tragedy-a/an/514034-PDF-ENG [Accessed 20 Mar. 2015].
Roth, J. (2005). Ethics. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press.
Shaw, W. (2005). Business ethics. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Snoeyenbos, M., Almeder, R. and Humber, J. (2001). Business ethics. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
Snyder, M. (2006). State of the Profession: The Starbucks Effect. Academe, 92(1), p.70.
Wurgaft, B. (2003). Starbucks and Rootless Cosmopolitanism. Gastronomica, 3(4), pp.71-75.
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