Producing Toys: Child’s Play

Combining the confectioneries with toys that children mostly love is a great idea to increase the sales of the confectioneries. Now, since the toys are just the added benefits, it is better for the company to obtain them in as cheap a price as possible (Ballet, Bhukuth and Carimentrand, 2014). In search of some more reasonable toy manufacturer, the product manager of the company visits the European trade fair where he meets a Thai toy manufacturer. Now, this Thai manufacturer offers the product manager to supply toys in about one-third of the present Portuguese supplier. Tempted at that, the product manager visits the office of the supplier to inspect the quality of the toys that are made in the workshops of Thailand. However, the product manager of the confectionery company becomes surprised when he sees no proper workshop in the supplier’s office, rather he sees the labors to load the carts or motor-scooters with the parts of the toys and then leave. Thereafter, the supplier takes him to the home of one such workman to show him the work process of that Thai region. The product manager finds out the workman sitting with his wife and six children who were involved in the toy making process assembling the parts. Shockingly all the children were below the age of 14, which makes them child labor. However, the supplier merely referred this to the tradition of this area and does not seem to be bothered. On the other hand, though the manager becomes happy initially thinking that he has been able to sign a deal likely to cause huge profit to his company and him with a healthy bonus, he falls victim to ethical dilemma later thinking of the children who are being deprived of childhood joy and are working as labors (Cho, et al., 2016). He suffers the dilemma at the point that whether his company should allow this immoral and unethical practice for the mere sake of financial profit.

The conflict between professional confidentiality and friendship liabilities has been exhibited in this case of ethical dilemma. Being a regional marketing director of a pharmaceutical company PharChemCo (PCC), the person in the case, owns huge share of the company’s stocks as PCC is in a very strong position even in the declining market. However, as partying on Friday nights has been almost a tradition in the company; the regional marketing director has come to a pub to enjoy with his friends. Unfortunately, he is not being able to enjoy at all because he has to digest some shocking facts revealed to him about his company in the meeting held last week. A research done by SFW University has found out the presence of fatal side-effects associated with one of the most popular herbicides of PCC. This news is very soon going to be published in the article after which the share price of PCC is likely to observe a steady downfall. Now, the regional marketing director has made his mind on selling his shares as soon as possible before the article is published. However, the ethical dilemma he suffers is due to his friend Freddie, who not only owns a large share in PCC but has also suggested many of his friends to buy the shares of considering its present reputation in the market. As a friend, it is his duty to warn Freddie about this upcoming peril but he is bound to remain silent due to the professional obligation of remaining absolute silent violating which the reputation of the company and his position both may be at stake (McNamara, 2015). Now, in this situation, when the director is expecting his friend Freddie to join him in the pub for drinking soon, he contemplates whether to save the reputation of the company or Freddie, his friend from suffering a huge loss (Baron and Corbin, 2014).

Who cares whose shares?

This case of ethical dilemma is of a human resource manager in a pharmaceutical company All Cure Girl, where the manager has to finalize an applicant between the two primarily chosen, not based on their resume but on their personal life (Nikolaou, 2014). In search of a team member for the clinical trial department, the human resource manager primarily finalizes two applicants, between whom it is difficult to choose one, as both of them are equally qualified on resume and even in the interviews both were closely promising. Now, the job role of the team member in the clinical trial department requires a person who is meticulous about her work, reliable and has good social skills communicating between the clinics, approving authorities and different other departments. Both candidates, who are coincidentally women apparently, appear to be equal in terms of these qualities. With advice from a colleague, the human resource manager decides to investigate more about these applicants in social media to get a sneak peek in their personal life as well. While the first applicant appeared to be well-travelled, sociable kind of person, the other one was not easily traceable. Getting help from a friend of the other candidate, the manager discovers some interesting as well as shocking facts about the lady. Her social media account revealed that she is an extremely party-loving and highly alcoholic person; moreover, she is found to be taking illegal drugs and obscene pictures of her have also been traced in the profile. Now, considering the information of the candidates’ personal life, the first applicant seems to be more suitable although the second candidate has been slightly better on paper with work experience (Ollington, Gibb and Harcourt, 2013). Moreover, the manager suffers a dilemma because recruiting an applicant by judging their personal life is not the rightful thing to do (Manant, Pajak and Soulié, 2014).   

Organic products, be it food or any other usable materials are on high demand now a day. However, researches have shockingly revealed that ethical considerations behind these organic products are really weak (Kahl, et al., 2016). This is to say that things labeled as organic may in reality violate the standards of ‘100% organic’ labels and the instances of such occurrences are not rare. The real information behind the organic products is in most cases hidden from the customers and at times, they are not aware of the truth of ingredients that are mixed in the products claiming to be organic. One such instance is mentioned of the organic seal of USDA that is found to be allowing products containing a natural organic ingredient for enhancing flavor, monosodium glutamate and a seaweed stuff to thick food, carrageenan. These substances are an anathema for the foodies, who love organic flavored foods. However, in some countries the organic label standards are quite strict, especially the new organic label of EU. 90 percent the organic consumption across the globe is in Europe and North America, as stated by the European commission (Marian, et al., 2014). However, this huge consumption of organic products have made the industry to fall into temptation and thereby, engage in unethical practices. U.S retailer Target has been pinched by the government for falsely promoting one of its products, soymilk as organic in which the largest American dairy Aurora Dairy was also involved. Such unethical practices have also been found in Germany where over 200 farms are falsely practicing the business of organic eggs and in Italy, instances of issuing fake organic certificates have been found in 2013. China, which is aggressively moving in the organic market, is also not beyond questions about reliability (Nasir and Karakaya, 2014). On the other hand, concerns have been raised about organic farming on a large scale as it precariously requires more land to grow food in comparison to conventional methods. Due to this, lands are to be arranged by cutting forests and damaging environment and hence, an ethical dilemma occurs to allow organic farming on large scale for more financial profit.

Off your face on Facebook

Uzbekistan is one of the five topmost countries that supply cotton to most the premium garment brands all over the world. However, unfortunately, Uzbek cotton is stained with child labor as well as forced labor of the adults. Uzbekistan allegedly closes down the schools and colleges during the harvesting period of three months and forcefully employs the school children in the toilsome fieldwork (Keller, 2015). This news has angered many of the western companies but banning cotton from Uzbekistan was possible initially. Moreover, it is difficult to identify the source of cotton among the complex supply chains.  However, the high degree of human rights violation compelled the textile companies to boycott the Uzbek cotton since 2007. In the very next year the western countries including many of the premium brands started boycotting Uzbek cotton officially by signing up. This boycott on such extensive level showed some major improvement in the condition of Uzbekistan as the government there now banned children below the age of 16 to be involved in cotton harvesting (Bandara, Dehejia and Lavie-Rouse, 2015). The Uzbek government agreed to the ILO commitments and a National Plan of Action was formed. However, even after this the practice of forced labor was not stopped in the country, instead of the young children, the adult children above 16 years of age as well as the employees of different state organizations were being forcefully employed in the harvesting work. Hence, the boycotting continued for several more years and as a sign of another partial victory, the International Labor Organization was finally allowed in the country monitor the situation inside (Gomes, 2016). Nonetheless, the consisted boycotting compelled Uzbekistan to seek for other target markets such as Russia and Asia, where there is little value of these unethical practices in Uzbekistan. In spite of all the efforts and boycotting, it is undeniable that spotting the exact source of cotton for the garment companies is impossible and hence, this disreputable practice in Uzbekistan goes on.  

The case studies provide varied situations in which a company or a business person is likely to suffer from ethical dilemma. Both the first case study of a confectionery company and the last case study of Uzbekistan deal with the grim issue of child labor. Undoubtedly, this is a highly unethical practice but, on the other hand, it is immensely profitable for any business, the labor charge is pathetically low for the children (Grugel, 2016). Nonetheless, in this situation, the confectionery manager should have shown some ethical side of him and cancel the deal at the very moment when he witnessed the dark truth of Thai toy manufacturing company (Bandara, Dehejia and Lavie-Rouse, 2015). It is hard to overcome the temptation of a healthy bonus and being praised in the company but, he should have concentrated more on an ethical way do business. The case of Uzbekistan is rather complicated as child labor is being practiced by an entire country and officially by its government (Keller, 2015). The International Labor Organization has tried hard by boycotting and banning Uzbek cotton in the garment companies associated with it. However, since it was a matter of a country, the issue should have been handled diplomatically not by a trade organization but by the global associations formed by governments of all nations (Turker and Altuntas, 2014). A universal boycott or diplomatic intervention could have been more useful in this concern.

Organic Food- What’s an ‘organic’ label worth?

The second case, i.e. the case of a regional marketing director of PCC, is clearly the most complex one to overcome from the dilemma. The manager is stuck between professional confidentiality and friendship responsibilities, according to me; it is more ethical to maintain the professional code of ethics (Hiriscau, et al., 2014). The manager was hired in such a significant position with the trust that he would maintain the desired discretion of company facts on breaking which, the company might suffer damage beyond repair. However, as for the friend’s financial loss, it is a part of investing in the stock market that he has to accept.  

The third case of the HR manager of All Cure Girl is a very common ethical dilemma that the present day recruiters suffer. Certainly, in the highly competitive job market the HR manager should factor the social media search and therefore should hire the first applicant, who appears to be a stable personality, able to lead her personal life in a safe and legal way and potentially not causing the company to suffer from any undesirable situation in future (Manant, Pajak and Soulié, 2014).

In the case of organic food, the countries should strictly monitor the ingredients involved in the process of making the organic provisions and any discrepancy in this regard should strictly be handled (Nasir and Karakaya, 2014). On the other hand, preserving environment is more ethical from every angle and hence, the farming of organic food should be limited and short-scaled.   

Therefore, considering all the cases from several countries all over the world, it can be seen that the ethical grounds and dimensions remain moderately static irrespective of the geographic location. Hence, it is better to form a universal code of ethics so that businesses do not need to bother falling in dilemma and continue with a global code of ethics.

References:

Ballet, J., Bhukuth, A. and Carimentrand, A., 2014. Child labor and responsible consumers: from boycotts to social labels, illustrated by the Indian hand-knotted carpet industry. Business & Society, 53(1), pp.71-104.

Bandara, A., Dehejia, R. and Lavie-Rouse, S., 2015. The impact of income and non-income shocks on child labor: evidence from a panel survey of Tanzania. World development, 67, pp.218-237.

Baron, P. and Corbin, L., 2014. Ethics and Legal Professionalism in Australia. Oxford University Press.

Cho, S.H., Fang, X., Tayur, S.R. and Xu, Y., 2016. Combating child labor: Incentives and information transparency in global supply chains.

Gomes, A.V.M., 2016. International Labor Rights Case Law.

Grugel, J., 2016. ‘Speaking Out’About Child Labor: Normative Entrenchment in an Uncertain Regime. In EU Policy Responses to a Shifting Multilateral System (pp. 179-199). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Hiriscau, I.E., Stingelin-Giles, N., Stadler, C., Schmeck, K. and Reiter-Theil, S., 2014. A right to confidentiality or a duty to disclose? Ethical guidance for conducting prevention research with children and adolescents. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 23(6), pp.409-416.

Kahl, J., Strassner, C., Hertwig, J., Gould, D., Bügel, S., Paoletti, F. and Lairon, D., 2016. Learning from the organic food system as a model for sustainable food systems–the Organic Food System Program. Sustainable value chains for sustainable food systems, p.295.

Keller, S., 2015. The puzzle of manual harvest in Uzbekistan: economics, status and labour in the Khrushchev era. Central Asian Survey, 34(3), pp.296-309.

Manant, M., Pajak, S. and Soulié, N., 2014. Do recruiters’ like’it? Online social networks and privacy in hiring: a pseudo-randomized experiment.

Marian, L., Chrysochou, P., Krystallis, A. and Thøgersen, J., 2014. The role of price as a product attribute in the organic food context: An exploration based on actual purchase data. Food Quality and Preference, 37, pp.52-60.

McNamara, J.G., 2015. Confidentiality Conflicts: A Practical Solution to a Persistent Problem. J. Legal Prof., 40, p.105.

Nasir, V.A. and Karakaya, F., 2014. Underlying motivations of organic food purchase intentions. Agribusiness, 30(3), pp.290-308.

Nikolaou, I., 2014. Social networking web sites in job search and employee recruitment. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 22(2), pp.179-189.

Ollington, N., Gibb, J. and Harcourt, M., 2013. Online social networks: an emergent recruiter tool for attracting and screening. Personnel Review, 42(3), pp.248-265.

Turker, D. and Altuntas, C., 2014. Sustainable supply chain management in the fast fashion industry: An analysis of corporate reports. European Management Journal, 32(5), pp.837-849.