Improving Labor Standards

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Recommended: Globalisation make business ethics necessary

Early in his presentation Richard Locke identifies that globalisation brings on a number of challenges that managers have to face in their daily decision process. Globalisation has sparked a debate over labour standards practised by employers around the world, particularly in developing countries. Excessive work hours, low wages, poor health and safety regulations are among a few of the issues. In my opinion usage of child labour in factories has to be addressed the most. I believe that no child should be denied the opportunity of basic education. However, it should also be noted that in some countries education is considered as a privilege. So in some cases providing a child with a way to earn a living is not so unethical. Surely by providing this opportunity is better than letting them starving to death on the streets. But I firmly believe that in the countries where education is available, children should not be employed for purposes of cheap labour.

During the last couple of years businesses all over the world have tried to improve labour standards in order to clean up their image in the western world and to improve living conditions in the places where the bad practices are employed. The majority of these companies have been using the so called compliance model to combat this - a company would create a voluntary code of conduct for the suppliers used to outsource production. Then their progress would be monitored to see whether the supplier follows this code of conduct. The next step in this model is to create a correction a plan – a series of actions that the buyer would demand from the supplier. Richard Locke describes this as “police mechanism”.

I believe that the effectiveness of this model would largely depend on the c...

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...r in his presentation I can conclude that the initiatives used by HP can be applied in wide range of industries. I think that today we are seeing the beginning of a whole new era where companies have to act responsible in order to do any business at all. And it is not just the government procurement agencies that are demanding this. Sustainability is starting to play a very big role in consumer buying behaviour and this trend is only going to get bigger. The consumer is becoming a lot more educated through the coverage in media. I think this will play a huge role in my future career, when choosing between two options it would be better to go for something that may cost more in the short term but will bring greater benefits in terms of sustainability in the long run. After all, we only have one planet to live on and businesses above all should treat it with respect.

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