Business Ethics in China Essay

Topic 1: How can you as an MBA student apply Prof. Christensen’s ideas to your own life? When your life draws to a close, what traits, goals, achievements, or characteristics do you think you will place most value on? Before I watch the video and article from Prof. Christensen, I place most value on my achievements that are related to money. I have been taught and influenced that money is a valuable resource such that my personality trait will be that of a diligent, hardworking person who spends cautiously. I work hard and achieve success at work; I continue to go to business school because the influences from the past impact my values and beliefs in the ability to perform successfully at work. However, Prof. Christensen is right that this is not the way to measure your success especially when your life draws to a close. Be loving, sympathetic, concerned, respectful are the valuable goals that I will place most value on. It is very difficult in today’s society especially life tends to get so busy to make money that we forget to allocate resources to our most valued relationships such as our parents, wife/husband, children or even our friends. You can gain respects from people base on your achievements or money that you make, but this is only considered as small wins, in order to achieve your big win in your whole life, only morality and virtue count. Ã¥ ° Ã¨ ´ Ã©   Ã¦â„¢ ºÃ¯ ¼Å' Ã¥ ¤ §Ã¨ ´ Ã©   Ã¥ ¾ ·. Topic 2: i) Think about your current or previous employer: what CSR theory did/does that company ascribe to? Please provide examples of why. My current employer ascribe to ethical theories, which focus on ethical requirements between business and society. The business natures are catalogue and home improvement business with 2 brands and offer over 40,000 different types of products to consumers in UK. With over 45,000 containers of products are imported annually, the primarily focus on CSR is the reduction of environmental impacts to the society such as reducing waste, carbon footprints and energy consumption in order to reinforce their corporate reputation. Every year, the business will show how much waste has been reduced in each retail store to increase public awareness. For example last year, over 90% of waste is now recycled, overall waste produced has reduced by a further 10% year on year and overall carbon footprint has decreased by 9%. By showing this, customers can realize how much effort that the business has put in CSR and continue to shop. Topic 2: (ii) Pretend you are starting a new company. What CSR theory would you choose to use for your new company? Why? I would consider ethical theories, which focus on the right thing to achieve a good society. Nowadays, consumers expect companies to consider their impact on society as much as their own business interests. Business could damage their profitability by failing to demonstrate they are genuinely committed to CSR. The four mentioned areas under ethical theories in the article, sustainable development is getting more and more important. By reducing the impact we have on the environment and supporting the society in which we live and work, we can engage with our customers and colleagues and therefore enhance the company’s reputation, which is the most valuable asset. Most importantly, this is not only relating to the company’s grow, but also the company’s culture. It will become a culture that you, your employees and the community genuinely believe in. Therefore, I believe that running a responsible business to society makes good business sense. Topic 3: Which perspective do you think is correct, or are they both wrong? Why? If the law and public opinion were not a factor, would you be willing to employ children at your company, or use a supplier who used child labor? For both of the perspectives, I cannot agree they are reflecting the real situation of the factory workers in China and as well as the Chinese factories. To begin with, people always make judgments on Chinese factories that they should sacrifice some profitability to provide better working environment; however, people focus too much on the upstream of the supply chain but neglect the downstream where the actual demand is coming from. Between 1980s and 1990s, China was criticized by most of the international organizations because of its violations of basic human rights. However, when globalization comes in place, multinational firms from most of the countries that criticizing the China’s violations began to do considerable amount of investments to China in 1990s and 2000s. They started to move their manufacturing activities to China because of valuable opportunities, resources, cheap labor force and most importantly, multinational firms do not have to conduct their business in other countries like China by following the ethical rules when they are conducting the same business in their home country. They continue to practice this action irrespective of Chinese government’s carelessness to its own citizens. In addition, the increasing competition in the global market has led multinational firms to squeeze their suppliers to lower their costs in order to maintain or increase their profit margins and competitiveness. These are very typical cases from Toys â€Å"R† Us, Home Depot and Wal-Mart that they have said they will not tolerate price rises. Chinese factories where most of the products are manufactured from, they have no choice but cut down their costs in the areas of working environment, labor salary and benefits. As a result, not only the Chinese companies should consider lower the profitability to provide better working environment for their workers, multinational companies should consider the same or do additional investment in order to purchase their products with lower costs. Secondly, I counter agree that Chinese workers are willing to work for less money and accept harsher working conditions as a comparative advantage. In the 1980s, migrant workers account for the largest work force in the China’s special economic zones where Western companies set up their businesses. These migrant workers’ main goal is to make enough money and then go back home for a better life. Nowadays, major cultural shifts in China have changed workers’ attitudes. Leslie Chang stated in her speech that the new generation of Chinese workers aged around 17 to 19, they leave their home from thousands miles away and work in the factories not only because of the money but to explore the world. Besides, they continue to work so hard to improve their knowledge and skill set because they believe the job in the factory is the first stepping-stone for them to find a better job and thus, a better life in the future . Furthermore, this generation of Chinese workers starts to build constructive dialogue with managers about their problems, which means they are becoming active participants in the process of change rather than passive recipients. The reason for all the above changes is because they would like to learn, grow and success in their lives. As a result, if multinational companies would like to hire and retain Chinese workers, I believe starting from this generation of Chinese workers, nonmonetary incentives such as training, time off and community building might help multinational companies attract and retain workers in China. As multinational firms start to do investment in China, most of the manufacturing activities have been moved to China for the purpose of cost reduction. China’s economy growth takes off like a rocket and so does China’s child labor issues. Although China government has official regulations banning the employment of teenagers (age under 16) or pre-adolescents from poorer regions of China, there is still an increasing number of juvenile laborers have been drawn to the rapidly developing southern and coastal areas looking for jobs such as in toy production, garments, food production and light mechanical work in the factories. Some people argue that this is extremely unethical because they deserve to go to school for education. But some people counter argue that parents of juvenile workers have little choice but to send their children off to work because they can’t afford school fees. In a sense, it represents a substantial portion of much-needed income to poor families. Without the law and public opinion as a factor, it sounds reasonable that juvenile workers can provide a new workforce to the booming market in China as well as sustaining their poor families; however, apart from the basic human rights violation of the children, this market is risking the children’s lives that they are the future asset of China. From factory owner’s point of view, the true value of juvenile workers is not only about the cost, they are more desirable than adults due to smaller hands and eyesight undamaged. In addition, they learn themselves are often reluctant to complain because they know the critical nature of their financial contributions to their family. Unfortunately, both parents and juvenile workers don’t have a clear idea of the poor working conditions and physical risks inherent in their jobs. I read an article from the Human Rights Watch, the reporter mentioned â€Å"†¦for example, has left children disabled with eye damage, lung disease, stunted growth, and a susceptibility to arthritis as they grow older†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The children are forced to work under these harsh conditions and the deficiency situation can cost them more than their hands and fingers, sometimes their lives as well. Juvenile workers are much less aware of workplace hazards than the adult workers. This low awareness in the public about child safety and protection provides a breeding ground for both exploitation and potential disaster. Sadly, their families are still willing to take this chance because they know they have no other choices to support the family. Other than the hazard-working environments, the reporter from Human Rights Watch discovered the juvenile worker’s living areas. The reporter described â€Å"the cramped 200-square meter workshop was it, and that at night they slept on or under their worktables.† With such living environments, juvenile workers are not able to have a healthy physical and mental development. It’s the cause of destruction for many children’s lives; child labor does not give children a chance to live a normal life. To conclude, child labor is a serious matter that not only affects the children as the future asset of China, it also has a great impact to the long-term economic development in China. Because of its tremendous effect, it’s not something that can be eliminated in one day, or possibly even a decade. However, the first step in helping a problem is to learn about it, to have further studies into the root causes of the problem to be carried out. I believe the fundamental root causes are the growing earning disparity in China and the failure of the Chinese education system to provide adequate and affordable education to all children. Until the root causes have been addressed, the only thing that we can do is to report, ban and penalized all child labor related activities. We shouldn’t allow companies in China or their suppliers to employ juvenile workers.