1) The main reason for Ohio Art Company’s decision to move its production to china was simply to stay in business. When asked if it was an ethical decision, you must look at the company as a whole and not just the sake of their employees. Even though OAC does have moral obligations to its employees, they also have moral obligations to there stakeholders as well. OAC’s main goal was to keep overall costs for its most popular product the “Etch-A-Sketch” under $10 or else lost money. On an economic perspective, with the move to China Americans would achieve lower prices plus lower overall cost while the move would give Chinese villagers a higher paying job and possibly a better life. A win/win situation if you ask me. Under the Friedman Doctrine, it states: “that only social responsibility of business is to increase profits, so long as the company stays within rules of law,” and here OAC didn’t break any laws while moving its company to China. Still, social costs were in this case high. Even though only 100 workers lost there job, the small city of Bryan, Ohio only had a population of 8,000 people. To many this was there main source of income and due to this loss most were unable to keep up with there mortgages which forced them into foreclosure. Not only did former OAC workers lose their jobs, they have also lost a family. It would be possible for OAC to continue its production in the small town of Bryan, Ohio but the company was already losing money for the past two consecutive years and for this trend to continue it would eventually lead them into bankruptcy. So in this case, OAC made the ethical decision to stay in business and maximize profits by slowly moving its company to China. 2) When asked, if its ethical fo... ... middle of paper ... ... it is an enterprise that benefits from sweatshop labor and help improve its image as a family company. They immediately must go straight to China and see for themselves the condition Chinese factory workers at Kin Ki face everyday. They should also work with China to improve working conditions in the factory, increase employee wages, provide pension plans, health coverage and employee contracts for all workers, improve the dormitories and meals for workers while enforcing a 40 hour work week. Executives should also hire and train a regional manager to oversee improvements in the factory. He/she will be in charge to enforce all new rules and regulations and should establish a zero tolerance policy to insure that the company doesn’t risk the fear of being labeled as an enterprise that gains profit from the exploitation of others.
Large corporations such as Nike, Gap, and Reebok and many others from the United States have moved their factories to undeveloped nations; barely pay their employees enough to live on. Countries such as China, Indonesia, and Haiti have readily abundant cheap labor. There should be labor laws or an obligation of respecting workers to provide decent working conditions, fair wages, and safety standards.
The Walton Activity Center had been established in 1992. The center was large enough to hold 1200 seats for individuals that wanted to visit the center. In the year 1998 the press had made public announcement to the public that they Anita Scism was being appointed as the president for Walton Art Center. The company had opened in Fayetteville, AR. Scism was the 2nd president whom had been over the Walton Arts Center. Anita Scism had been recommended but the former president at the company Bill Mitchell. Bill felt as if Anita Scism was the perfect candidate for the position as president. Anita had worked as Director of Financial Affairs before she actually became president at the company.
Over the last few years, Apple has come under fire as details emerged surrounding the environment in which workers are in at Apple’s China suppliers. There are worker conditions that are unsatisfactory which include gruelling 24-hour shift, dorms that are overcrowded, exposure to chemicals that are toxic and horrific explosions (El Ebrashi 2013, 188-209). It is with this regard that Apple carried out an audit of many of its suppliers all over the world and found that there are violations of its supplier’s code of conduct. The company, therefore, requested its suppliers to improve the working conditions since changing its suppliers to those that have humane conditions is
When people think of a sweatshop, images of people assembling items in a hot and crowded factory somewhere in a “Third World” country tend to come to mind. However, the first few sweatshops were located in both New York and England, becoming established in the late 1800’s. The term “sweatshop” originated from the term “sweating”, which described the contractual agreements between workers and designers to produce clothing. In these workshops, there was a “sweater”, an individual who monitored garment making (“Origins Of Sweatshops”, 2017). The term sweatshop is more so currently used to describe the working conditions rather than the type of workplace itself. Even back then, these workplaces were unsanitary, were sources of safety hazards and extremely crowded. Throughout the years, poor people and immigrants filled up the sweatshops in desperate search for work. This eventually spread beyond the United States and U.K., and became a commonplace practice in developing countries ruled by dictators. With this spread quickly came the employment of child workers, especially in places such as Indonesia, and India. Like the adults, they are subject to treatment that violates their human rights. They are left without protection from any other adults, making them more susceptible to abuse. Despite this, major corporations and brands such as Wal-Mart, Adidas, Aldo, Victoria’s Secret, Urban Outfitters and so on use sweatshops for affordable labor. One of the more prominent cases is the incident involving Kathy Lee Gifford and Wal-Mart, in which both Gifford and Wal-Mart “suffered as a result of the negative press surrounding the manufacturing of Gifford’s clothing line distributed by Wal-Mart” (Radin & Calkins). Gifford’s clothing was produced in a factory in Honduras, where female workers constantly suffered “cruel and inhumane treatment” (Radin &
One of the things MLK is going to have to look very closely at is the economic environment in China. Although they have been successful in the US, they could fold when entering into a different market if they don’t know the market. MLK is going to have to look at the wages of workers in the area and compare it to what they will be paying. If the pay to low, nobody is going to want to work there. If the pay is too high, they could not make a
Some of the factors that the Walton Art Center focus on is putting education first, as well as the educational programs that the center offers so that kids of all ages are able to benefit from the programs. A strategy only works if it meets a set of conditions. Changes that could be made that would alter the Center's strategy to one of low-cost would be to find people or companies that are willing to promote their shows so that the Center would be more advertised as well as it would make a difference financially. There could also be more of a variety of shows that could be offered to the community, so that it would catch more peoples attention and draw them towards your business even more. In my opinion it is always advisable to make positive
Some of the key factors in the Walton Art Center case focus on bringing a unique, exciting, and diverse art experience not only to the community but also to the region (Lester, & Parnell, 2006). One of their top priority is educating everyone on different aspects of performers and artist. Art consists of more than an artist, this can include music, theater, painting, and performers of all kinds. The WAC center most devoted patrons and ideas came from the university and this focus provides the children in the community with an opportunity to learn many art forms at the center. Each year the programs offered brings in tons of children. One of the challenges of the center is constantly revising the programs to attract more consumers and reflect
According with the textbook and other internet sources, Milton Friedman described in his thesis that the main goal of a business is to generate gains or profits. As a result, several business have been using such thesis as a justification for some of the decisions they made. In the case of “A Civil Action” we had the two companies contaminating the little town water with chemicals used during the elaboration of their products. The use of trichloroethylene was apparently causing some of the children of the place to developed respiratory and other cancerous diseases such as leukemia. After the death of several children, people on town began to worry about the situation and everything pointed out ...
This new hip clothing store has labeled itself a sweatshop free. It employs over five thousand people at the Los Angeles location (Li par 27). This is incredible. It has given the people of Los Angeles many opportunities to improve their lives and to keep a steady job. The employees here are able to pump out around 200,000 garments of clothing per day (Li par 27). This is a great amount of production. This is in part due to how well the employees are treated. Shan Li describes their benefits as, “American Apparel's factory workers earn an average of $12 an hour. They have access to $3 subsidized lunches, an on-site medical clinic and free massages” (par 29). Being treated with respect often makes employees work harder because of the good relationships they have with their bosses. This is clearly shown by how much clothing is produced daily. American Apparel is a business that other American clothing companies can look to for guidance. With their annual sales of 634 million dollars, this store has shown what is possible for production in the United states (Li par
In almost every case, foreign employees have no other option than to agree to unacceptable working conditions in order to try and provide for themselves and their family. Once employed, these foreign workers understand they cannot sufficiently provide for their family but are trapped in these inadequate conditions due to lack of opportunity elsewhere. These background conditions are what attracts the egoist shareholder who is involved in the “race to the bottom” to increase profit margins. Providing a living wage and ensuring health and D’Oria 8 safety is maintained in the workplace, will not jeopardize the company’s bottom line because of how large their profit margins are.
...kers. Moreover the Chinese being ethnocentric people may not like a Singaporean of Chinese origin to come into their town and factory, and run it in their own respective ways. Also the MD and Jimmy may not see eye to eye as they both may be rallying for power. We feel that the joint venture is still too premature to have a change in leadership and management. Controls Asia-Pacific at this stage should avoid experimenting with the management especially when the current operations at the factory are beginning to show signs of progress and improvement.
After the Bhopal Disaster, Union Carbide made an ethical decision through their legal strategy to secure the best outcome for themselves and to keep their company from going bankrupt multiple times over. Union Carbide used the corruption of the Indian court system to their advantage to minimize the amount they would pay in damages to the victims. Their strategy wouldn’t be considered moral to the victims of this chemical explosion if the trial were kept in the American court system. What is ethical isn’t always considered moral to all the parties involved. With a company facing bankruptcy and losing everything they had, the only ethical decision was to use the court systems to their advantage. By doing so, they made the ethical decision strictly
...d they became debtors if they wanted to remain on their land. Ah Yes, this wonderful company managed to turn quite the profit: by keeping costs low and selling at a high price, the economics were entirely in the hands of the company. Now, I know why they the phrase “business can be cutthroat” is used; probably because the Europeans would have done just that if their products did not move. The focus of profit superseded the focus on humanitarian value, and worker’s rights, leaving the company with a tattered image and large coffers, but at what price?
Al-Emadi & Al-Asmakh (2006) argue that in some nations, ethical issues may be associated with employment practices. Amaeshi, Osuji & Nnodim (2008) exemplifies by indicating one of the notable companies that set base in Asia and which was faced with ethical dilemma in respect to employment practices was Levi Straus.
Sweatshops all over the world can be improved through simple and big changes on both the foreign as well as American fronts. Sweatshops have always been viewed as a unfavorable thing, but no one has really tried to change or improve upon them, it is more of an out of sight out of mind mentality. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was a huge turning point in which this mindset of the people changed a little. In the book Where am I Wearing, the author Kelsey Timmerman said “ … is that we should try to be engaged consumers…” (Timmerman 9). Society knows it is happening so why not find ways to improve these sweatshops instead of just ignoring the issues at hand. “We live in a turbulent, imbalanced world. It can be depressing to think about” (Timmerman 41). By having Labor Unions that are there for the people are beginning to be a simple way to start a change in sweatshops. Improving their working conditions in the factory is something to change the negative aspects of sweatshops. As well as improving upon their wages to ensure they can live with just the