Is Sweatshop Labor Ethical? Essay Example

rights.

Company’s decision making is dependent on consumers wants. For instance, consumer demands of certain product greatly affects the company’s pricing of good and services. In addition, consumers determine the type of products a company produces. According to Zopounidis (2014), companies strive to meet consumer wants and therefore its production must be in line with consumer demands. In addition, consumer demands will also influence the company’s quantity of goods produced.

For example when demand for a given product is high the company adjust s its production to meet the consumer needs. Moreover consumers always affects the company’s location in a bid to ensure consumers have access to good and services. Since the company’s business goal is to maximize profits, making goods accessible will ultimately increase the company sales.

Most importantly, consumer demands influences business decisions with regard to quantity and quality of goods and service produced (Zopounidis, 2014). Therefore when for instance demand quality goods in large quantities, the company will strive to offer quality goods at favorable cost (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2010), in doing this, company will cut the cost of production and eventually lower prices. This has been actually the major reason for the existence of sweatshops.

In business ethical decision making, there are different perspective that should be followed in order to make ethically sound decisions.

Firstly, moral philosophy which majorly deals with how to decide between what is right and what is wrong. Business should therefore make decision with regard to what is wrong and right (Ronald, 2003).

Also business should apply the principle of universalism to make business decisions that are inversely accepted. For example, violation of human rights is universally unaccepted and decisions to

utilize sweatshop labor is unethical.

Business should also put into consideration the Caux principle which means working together as a groups for common good. As argued by Ronald (2003), according to this principle, human dignity should not be lowered for the sake of self fulfilment. In this sense, business decisions reflect human dignity and must seek to uphold the fundamental human rights.

According to Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell (2010), a company may influence its ethical environment by ensuring that it has additional independent board of directors to oversee the transparency and accountability in financial statements in order to prevent misrepresentation. Applying Sarbanes-Oxley Act is another way of upholding ethical behavior especially among top managers by establishing strict accounting and reporting rules (Ronald, 2003). Most importantly the business should make it a requirement to evaluate and make decisions on basis of right or wrong. This will help in creating ethical climate that in turn becomes the tradition of the company and is passed to new employees that join a certain organization.

In conclusion, sweatshops labor practices are unethical since they violate human rights for self-gratification. Even though they improve people standards of living by creating employment and lowering prices, it should be noted no decision or undertaking that should surpass human right. This controversial business practice should therefore be congruent to fundamental human rights.

References

1. Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2010). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases: 2009 update. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
2. Hapke L. (2004). Sweatshops: the history of an American idea. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University press
3. Ronald R Sims (2003). Ethics and corporate social responsibility: why giants fall. Westport, Conn.
4. Zopounidis, C.,
   

Academia de Ciencias Econo?micas y Financiers., & International Conference on Modeling and Simulation. (2014). Decision making and knowledge decision support systems: VIII International Conference of RACEF, Barcelona, Spain, November 2013 and International Conference MS 2013, Chania Crete, Greece, November 2013.