In the article “In praise of the Maligned Sweatshop” by Nicholas Kristof, many factories that open up in Africa for sweatshop manufacturing tend to provide work that many employees consider as being difficult and dangerous. The economic situation in Africa is also affected by factors such as political instability, corruption, red tape and an inexperienced labor force, which lead to the closure of these factories by foreign investors in Africa, resulting in the loss of jobs of employees. When looking at this externality using the utilitarian and profit maximization points of perspective, they can be considered as being ethical. The utilitarian approach requires that a decision be made after weighing the benefits and harm of a certain decision. Based on the unstable economic environment, the closure of these companies ensure that the money from stakeholders is preserved, seeing as the company will not experience further losses. The company will also not have to deal with corrupt practices in the region, red tape, unexperienced employees and the unstable supply of electricity, which majorly contribute to the losses incurred by the company. There is potentially no harm that will result in closing of the business, thereby making the decisions of these foreign companies ethical. Looking from a profit maximization perspective, the decision of the firms to cease operations due to lack of profits in the long run can be considered ethical. Continuous operating of the firm does not contribute positively to the employees since they get no benefits, owing to the fact that local managers obtain huge amounts of money under duress from the investors, leaving little amount to be paid to the employees. This act does not abide with one of the constraints of profit maximization which prohibits the involvement in acts of deception, which in this case is bribery. The closure of the companies is thus an ethical decision.
The article “Ethical problems of a Materialistic Value Orientation for Business” by Tim Kasser explains the various externalities that arise from the pursuit of profit as being unhappiness of the employees, reduced overall performance and indecent treatment of other employees. These problems can be viewed as being unethical, based on how employees and stakeholders are affected. Based on the universalism perspective, indecent treatment of employees is regarded as being unethical. Universalism advocates for proper treatment of employees and realizing how essential they are in a company. Indecent treatment thus exposes them to emotional and physical harm. Individuals may be less tolerant and thus engage in racist attitudes that affect the emotional well-being of the individual being discriminated against. Unhappiness as a result of the pressure to attain certain materialistic goals has been known to have negative effects on the emotional and physical health of employees as it may result in depression, headaches, and drug use. These externalities are what the Universalist approach regard as being unethical. Looking at this from a utilitarian perspective, the search for material benefits can be regarded unethical based on the overall effects of such a business approach. A materialistic approach to business causes a reduction in the overall performance of employees. The benefits may be increased output but there is more harm resulting from this. The employees will not be fully involved in their activities and this will result in poor quality and quantity of output, thereby resulting in poor performance for the whole company resulting in losses. Since the potential outcomes will not result in maximum benefits, this approach is thus unethical.
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When researching whether an ethical problem exists within a company, several action steps can be taken to identify the existence of these problems and where they exist. First is to examine the culture of the company and how ethics has been included and is practiced (Feldman, 2007). Since ethical codes in the company have to be followed by all members of the organization, including the management, another step is to identify whether the management abides by this ethical codes of conduct. This is because employees tend to mirror the actions of their leaders (Meinert, 2014). An inspection of whether there is equity in treatment of all employees regarding salaries and promotions is also helpful in determining if there is an ethical problem. Unfair treatment of certain employees is an indication of an ethical problem within the company. Another step is to establish a record of misconduct among employees and to determine the frequency of their occurrence (Meinert, 2014). This will include establishing any pattern of violation of employees and determining the involved parties (Greenhouse and Yardley, 2012). Reports made to the human resource department will be helpful in determining how widespread these problems are. Studying any inconsistencies among the daily operations of the employees will also provide insight into the existence of any ethical problem.
In the event that problems of ethicality are identified, recommended steps to be taken in addressing them will have to involve the whole organization. Restating the goals of the company will help to outline the assortment of ethical responsibilities (Feldman, 2007). Providing live training will ensure that all employees are made aware of the existing ethical problems and made conscious of the ethical choices that they are presented with when they have to make ethical decisions (Meinert, 2014). Constant training will ensure that employees incorporate ethical conduct in their daily operations to improve the productivity of the firm. It will also ensure that there is increased knowledge of how to incorporate ethicality in business and allow for dialogue among employees to provide more understanding of their ethical choices. Dialogue can also be enhanced by allowing issues of ethics o be raised during meetings. Another step is to measure the understanding of employees regarding ethics in business after providing training and including ethical conduct in employee evaluation so as to measure employee overall performance. This will help to decrease misconduct, and will ensure that employees engage in ethical practices as a way of achieving the goals of the company. This way, the company will be able to curb issues arising as a result of ethical misconduct.
References
Feldman, S. P. (2007). Moral Business Cultures: The Keys to Creating and Maintaining Them. Organizational Dynamics, vol. 36(2), pp 156-170
Greenhouse, S. and Yardley, J. (2012). As Walmart Makes Safety Vows, It’s Seen as Obstacle to Change. The New York Times.
Meinert, D. (2014). Creating an Ethical Culture. HR Magazine.
