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Importance of business ethics
Unethical behavior nike
Unethical behavior nike
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Recommended: Importance of business ethics
Ethics is a major part in business, and every company that sells a product looking for profit is a business. In the American economy companies with the best ethics has the best profits. However companies occasionally fail to remain ethical in their activities, because they are too concerned with profits. Nike Inc. is a worldwide company that is very famous for their designs and apparel wear, also it is a multination corporation that is engaged in the design and marketing. However Nike has pros and cons in some of their actions have been questionable.
History of Nike
Before there was a Nike Inc., before there was the swoosh Nike was founded by Bill Bowerman a nationally respected track and field coach at the university of Oregon who was constantly looking for ways to improve his athletes to perform better in competition. However the established footwear manufacturers of the 1950s ignored the ideas he tried to offer them, so Bill stated cobbling shoes for his athletes. Phil Knight a graduate from Oregon track program Phil earned his MBA in finance from Stanford University, where he came up with an idea to create quality running shoes and to be branded with japan manufactures, but Japan manufactures went unanswered. Knight finally got a call back from the manufactures of tiger shoes, and made knight the distributor of tiger shoes, which gave Bowerman and idea that he and knight should be partners to provide his footwear design to tiger shoes (Nike, Inc.). Also Nike was, and still is privately owned company which means it has no shareholders therefore it could not treat them unethically.
Nike’s Unethical Treatment in Advertising and of Consumers
Nike does have flaws, which often originate from its unethical actions. For example, des...
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...espect as I get older. Also now I understand that companies face very tough decisions, and sometimes there is never a right answer.
References
Birch, S. (2012, july 6 ). How activism forced Nike to change its ethical game. Retrieved from theguardian.com: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2012/jul/06/activism-nike Boggan, S. (2001, 10 20). Nike admits to mistakes over child labor. Retrieved from https://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1020-01.htm
Nike Unethical Practices. (2011, 07). StudyMode.com. Retrieved 07, 2011, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Nike-Unethical-Practices-745126.html
DAILY MAIL REPORTER. (2011, 13). Nike workers 'kicked, slapped and verbally abused' at factories making Converse
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2014325/Nike-workers-kicked-slapped-verbally-abused-factories-making-Converse-line-Indonesia.html
"Nike." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition 1. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 6, 2009).
"Nike Bends To University Demands, Promises To Help Displaced Honduran Workers." huffingtonpost.com. N.p., 27 July 2010. Web. 4 Dec. 2013..
Nike publicizes itself as one of the leading industries in corporate responsibility. However, they do not comply with several human rights obligations overseas in countries like Thailand, Pakistan, China, Vietnam and Indonesia. In these countries, production facilities called sweatshops have been running for almost 35 years employing workers as young as 13 years of age. The conditions of these factories are adverse to say the least and deprive workers of the moral human rights they should be entitled to. Sweatshops are unethical, immoral and demonstrate Nike’s ignorance towards their social responsibilities abroad. Within these facilities, workers endure stressfully long days under undesirable conditions, often with no breaks and very little pay. While this is going on overseas, sponsored athletes are being paid million dollar salaries here in North America. Although Nike’s reputation has been foiled through the tabloids regarding this issue, they have been making a substantial effort to “clean up” production messes in the East.
Pittman, B. (2012, September 14). Nike sweatshop history: Should action be taken?. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/americanlaborcrises/labor-crises/nike-sweatshop-action
...rible situations for people who do not have the laws like U.S. workers have. Even though NIKE has implemented different methods to improve the companies’ image, there have still been many reports that show there has not been much change at all. At a net worth of 67 billion dollars and expected to grow, loyal customers is what allows this multi billion dollar company to grow in profit, the only way there will be an impact on those working in NIKE sweatshops is if today’s society takes action.
Nike has always been a company that's been questioned ethically. People have heard about the stories of the sweatshops in Southeast Asia exploiting adolescent employees for unreasonably small amounts of money. This had blemished Nike’s reputation several years ago, but since then, it has strived to become a truly respectable company. Located on Nike's website you can find Phil Knight's credo about ethics. It is as follows:
Nike does not merely sell products these days. They spend billions of dollars for advertising contracts with famous athletes like Tiger Woods to increase the value of the brand by associating the factor of lifestyle to their products. The company's image has been damaged many times by press releases as well as a variety of NGOs who have long pointed out the inhumane working conditions in the production facilities of sporting goods manufacturers. This leads to the question whether should Nike orientate the regulations of the suppliers to the labor standards in their respective countries or those in the United States? The labor conditions are so inhumane that Nike at least should try to converse to the US standard to improve the situation. The following analysis of an abstract of Nikes’ Responsibility Concept, including SHAPE and their Code of Conduct, should give an insight into the difficulties of the Sweatshops.
Nike attempts to convey themselves as an ethical and loyal company within their print advertising, by contributing multiple factors to appeal to their customer base by using tactics such as sexual appeal and tugging at people’s hearts with emotion. While Nike does not appear to be unethical, some of the techniques they use are questionable to the media and the public. When it comes down to how Nike evaluates their print advertising, they should think more so about who is endorsing their products and showing a value in character and overall community leader, then how athletic the athlete is to the public. Nike is not an unethically advertiser, but a questionable judge of character with the athletes they plan to endorse their products.
Phil Knight started his shoe company by selling shoes from the back of his car. As he became more successful in 1972 he branded the name Nike. In the 1980’s Nike Corporation quickly grew and established itself as a world leader in manufacturing and distributing athletic footwear and sports' attire. The Nike manufacturing model has followed is to outsource its manufacturing to developing nations in the Asia Pacific, Africa, South and Latin Americas; where labor is inexpensive. It quickly became known for its iconic “swoosh” and “Just do it” advertisements and products. Its highly successful advertising campaigns and brand developed its strong market share and consumer base. But, the road has not always been easy for Nike; in the late 1990’s they went through some challenging times when their brand become synonymous with slave wages and child labor abuses. During this period, Nike learned that it paramount that the company understands its stakeholders’ opinions and ensures their values are congruent with their stakeholders. Nike learned that their stakeholders were concerned with more than buying low cost products; their customers were also concerned with ethical and fair treatment of their workers. Because Nike was unwilling to face the ethical treatment of its employees, the company lost its loyal customers and damaged its reputation. Nike has bounced back since the late 1990’s and revived its reputation by focusing on its internal shortfalls and attacking its issues head on. Nike nearly collapsed from its missteps in the late 1990’s. They have learned from their mistakes and taken steps to quickly identify ethical issues before they become a crisis through ethics audits. This paper is based on the case study of Nike: From Sweatsh...
Also I think the writer is trying to get the consumer to write to the companies and tell them, to remind them, what their subcontractors is not right or fair. " The workers are lucky - One senior Nike employee told researchers: I don't think the workers in our factories are treated badly… Working conditions are
With the increasing awareness and publicity of poor working conditions in subcontracted factories in East Asia, Nike has stimulated an uprising of activist and watchdog groups working toward seeing these conditions changed. With Nike in the negative spotlight, various organizations have revolved around generating a negative outlook on Nike’s practices of social irresponsibility. Certain campaigns such as the “National Days of Consciousness” and “International Day of Protest” were organized to educate people on the deplorable working conditions in Nike’s Asian manufacturing plants, and were designed to get more people involved in global employment issues.
In June of 1996, Life magazine published a article about Nike’s child labor that was occurring in Pakistan. The article showed a little boy who was surrounded by pieces of Nike sports gear. The articles were shoes and soccer balls. Nike then knew then that they had to make some major changes in the way they were producing their items.
Nike Inc. is a very successful publicly traded sportswear and equipment company based in the United States. Nike is a multi-national and Fortune 500 company. It has reached achievements in their innovation in products that Nike has become one of the most recognized companies today and companies dream to have what Nike has created. The main headquarters for the company is in the Portland area near Beaverton, Oregon. Nike leads the world in supplying athletic apparel and shoes. Nike shows how devoted they are in the satisfaction of their customer’s needs that it shines upon their mission statement and encompasses their vision. Nike ensures to go far and
An article recently published in The Wall Street Journal focused on the effects of Nike
Nike’s source is America. It is a multinational company which is engaged for design, development and manufacturing of footwear, equipment, apparel, accessories and services. Nike is also famous for the worldwide marketing and selling of the same products.