Business Ethics: What You Need to Know

a. Ideals, Effects, and Consequences at Stake 

Ideals 

The manner through which major United States companies continues to dump unwanted products particularly to developing countries underrates business ideals and only demonstrates the underlying unethical practices such as distrust, deception, concealment as well as disregard for the wellbeing of people ( Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2019) . If the United States companies continue to dump their unwanted products in Africa, Brazil and Iraq, they face the likelihood of business failure mainly because the country chooses to act unethically by undermining business ideals. 

Effects 

Ethical factors would be at stake which are increasingly becoming vital in influencing the performance of businesses and are thus, major considerations in the minds of not only business owners and managers but also consumers’ worldwide ( Ferrell et al., 2019) . 

Consequences 

Nonetheless, it is worth to note even if such a practice has been declared illegal, it does not necessarily mean that it is moral since the aspect of legality is not developed to complicate the aspect of morality ( Ferrell et al., 2019) . Consequently, it is should be a business’s best interest to promote and take into consideration the safety and health of not only people but also both animals and the environment during production. 

b. Violation of Moral Rights 

The production and sale of Tri-impregnated pajamas were found to contain extreme toxic levels of flame-retardant chemical Tris, which caused kidney cancer among children. Such business decisions are morally wrong considering the fact that the company was well aware of the harmful nature of their products because their decisions were singularly concentrated on money-based recuperation. 

c. Utilitarian Recommendation 

Based on the utilitarian theory, there is a significant amount of incompatibility between its perspective regarding human rights. According to Murphy (2015) , in regards to the practice of dumping unwanted products to other countries, utilitarian defend the rights to actions and free speech unless, if such actions or speech results to injuries to other people. Therefore, as Tittle (2014) notes, the most appropriate recommendation is taking legal actions against individual United States companies that engage in business activities whose consequences undermines the value of human rights. 

d. Kantian Recommendations 

Rational environmental calls for environmental impacts caused by the issue of dumping; such rationality predominantly concerns obligations about distant people or the future generations while acknowledging that they cannot get involved in present discourse, and guidelines for gathering and evaluating appropriate evidence needed to not only govern various environmental preservations but also ones that enhance the value of human lives ( Serafini, 2019) . These two concerns demand particular scientific information as is in the case of the United States companies whose products have been found to have high toxin levels. 

Case study Discussion Questions 

Question 1 

Whether or not dumping should be permitted is a…..question 

Moral question. 

Are dangerous products of any use in the third world?’ is a … question. 

Non-moral question. 

Is is proper for the US government to sposnsor the export of dangerous products overseas? Is a … question. 

Moral question. 

Whether or not the notification system works as its supporters claim it works is a …question. 

Non-moral question 

Is it legal to dump this product overseas? Is a ……. Question. 

Non-moral question. 

Question 2 

Dumping is a business practice of exporting products, deemed or declared hazardous or banned to other regions or countries where they are not legally or socially regulated or controlled. Dumping raises moral issues in regards to undermining the value of human life where, companies engage in production and distribution of harmful products such as illustrated through the sale of pajama from the case study. Relativists would suggest that dumping enhances the traditional beliefs, which suggests that ethics is primarily a personal matter and underrated in the context of businesses (Jones & George, 2017). Therefore, it would not only be illegal but also immoral for United States companies to promote the practice dumping. 

Question 3 

Dumpers dispose such products to evade threats and ramifications that would be caused by the same products existing in countries they are manufactured. Dumpers usually are aware of the fact that reckless dumping is not morally permissible and have far consequences to the environment and people. As one of the manufacturers, I would take it as not only morally wrong but also unethical when Tris-impregnated settles on decisions primary focusing on monetary benefits while disregarding the wellbeing of consumers of products offered in the market. 

Question 4 

The legal nature of an action does not always assure its morality. As Nicholson and Robertson (2016) notes , however, it is wrong when such legal actions cause harm to human life as well as to the environment. For instance, production and sale of baby pacifiers known to cause choking including four hundred (400) deaths, which occurred in Iraq alongside five thousand (5000) cases of hospitalization following the consumption of wheat and barley treated with US banned mercury fungicide, only suggests that the manufactures lacked the respect to life. 

Question 5 

The environmental, safety and health repercussions are usually the same irrespective of who is dumping or what product is being dumped or where the same is dumped. Disposing off products has the same far reaching environmental, health and safety dangers. 

Question 6 

The present notification systems is fundamentally flawed and thus, calls for attention towards businesses’ imperfect duty of being in a position of developing unbiased or balanced information and possibly, distributing such information by way of encouraging public and business coalitions or collaborations. 

Question 7 

Deontology and egoism explain the positive and negative side of dumping since dumping benefits those doing it but imposes suffering to people where dumping is channeled. Due to hard economic times in third world countries where dumping is made, citizens form such countries benefit from low product prices thus allowing them to purchase without stretching their budgets. Contrary, dumping is morally wrong owing to hazardous effects posed to the environment such as atmospheric poisoning, health and safety risks for example diseases. Based on utilitarianism concept, I opine that dumping through exporting hazardous products to other countries is morally wrong and should be restricted since such actions leads to slow deaths of countries where dumping is made thus endangering and putting lives at risk. As such, stringent dumping laws should be made to coerce countries such as the US to adhere to corporate social and moral responsibilities. 

References 

Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell. (2019). Business Ethics 2019 Update: Ethical Decision Making and Cases . Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. 

Jones, G. R., & George, J. M. (2017). Contemporary Management . Irwin Professional Pub. 

Murphy, P. E. (2015). Marketing Ethics: Guidelines for Managers . New York, NY: Free Press. 

Nicholson, N., & Robertson, D. C. (2016). The Ethical Issue Emphasis of Companies: Content, Patterning, and Influences. Human Relations , 49 (11), 1367-1393. doi:10.1177/001872679604901101 

Serafini, A. (2019). Ethics and Social Concern . Paragon House Publishers. 

Tacey, L. (2016). US companies accused of 'dumping' waste cargoes. Nature , 382 (6591), 484-484. doi:10.1038/382484b0 

Tittle, P. (2014). Ethical Issues in Business: Inquiries, Cases, and Readings . Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press.