Business Ethics Are Some of the Important Factors - Case Study Example

? Topic: Business Ethics Introduction Business ethics are some of the important factors to consider when establishinga business. Business ethics can also be referred to as corporate ethics. Corporate ethics are types of applied ethics that observe ethical principles as well as moral setbacks that are found in a business environment. Union Carbide: Assault on the Ohio Valley The valley is located between West Virginia and Ohio. It is found in an industrialized location and is surrounded by the chemical and metal plants. The valley experiences a lot of pollution problems that is as a result of its location and the surrounding environment. Pollution problems in Ohio valley are rooted in the year 1950 with the emerging of the Union Carbide which led to the building of several industries in the mountainous regions around the Ohio valley. Pollution problems started in 1951 (Hartley 1993. p. 31). Soot bad odour and ash were being emitted to the atmosphere causing massive of pollution. The neighboring population around the industrial area experienced the most suffering since most settlement were built on the valley. People were infected with respiratory disease among other dangerous illnesses. The Union carbine frustrated the people plead for the pollution content to be reduced. The National Air Pollution Control Administration tried to intervene in the situation by requesting the area to be inspected but the result of this was an ignorant response from the government. This portrays the level of corruption and unethical business environment in Ohio. Companies only focused on the profits and their business outcomes while neglected the human environment in which the business directly affects. Business ethics advocate for healthy business environments which involves the relationship between the human and business environment. A healthy business environment is supposed to consider the economic, social and political environment. These are the entities that determine the prosperity of a business be it in the private or public sector. A good business is determined by the level of positive co-relation between these entity factors. Union carbine displays negative business ethics since it does not consider the help of the people living in the surrounding environment. In 1971, environmental reforms were structured which included the implementation of a number of pollution management measures. Union Carbide shut down one boiler and some workers lost their jobs as a result. This was considered as a form of retaliation to due to the new environmental reforms. This is unethical as it shows lack of consideration by the company. Lockheed Corporation: Overseas Bribery Gone Rampant Corruption is one of the major attributes of unethical business. Corruption takes course in form of bribery of illegal tender allocation. Robert F. Hartley gives an overview of corruption cases and how they affect business ethics. Lockheed Corporation had tried to venture into several businesses but none of them turned out to be successful (Hartley 1993. p. 83). The company invested heavily in a number of businesses which all failed in the process before making any slight positive outcomes. Due to this, the company decided to switch to unethical form of business operation. Lockheed Corporation decided to extend their sales overseas in order to obtain more profits. This forced the company to make payoff in order to obtain contracts. Therefore it engaged in commodity trading with countries like Netherlands, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Iran and Spain. These resulted in the resignation of the company’s chairman. The reason to this was that the company went bankrupt under his leadership. Unethical business practices show a sense of unprofessionalism. The company board forced the manager to resign because he displayed unprofessional leadership skills at the time the company needed to progress and settle of its previous deficits. This also led to the creation of foreign corruption act in 1977. Robert F. Hartley relays a message of the importance of practicing business ethics. Bribery demonstrates lack of ethical leadership. Countries should uphold their stands in the fight against corruption and bribery. In order for a company to suppress cases of corruption and bribery, it must strive to increase its distribution as well as production facilities. Raiders: Raping American Corporations Corruption had extended into most American corporations as they indulged in leveraged buyouts. This created a lot of debt by the government and the major corporations which acted as some of the main contributors to the government’s revenue. Therefore the corporations were forced to sell most of their assets in order to pay debts (Hartley 1993. p. 202). The economy of the United States faced a big blow as major investors felt insecure to invest in corporations with a lot of debts. Many people lost their jobs as a result of corporations’ bankruptcy. Unethical business practices lead to poor performance of major institutions in the world. Robert F. Hartley gives an example of an outcome resulting from unethical business practices. The damages that are brought about by unethical business practices include lost reputations, acquisition of big debts and subsidiaries. Leveraged buyouts pose a fifty percent chance of gaining as well as a fifty percent chance of losing. This is because some leveraged buyouts tend to produce positive outcomes while others cannot be relayed upon due to their high chances of disappointments. Leveraged situations carry extreme vulnerable aspects thus can worsen economic conditions. Power Master Beer: Targeting the Ghetto Alcohol consumption also raised a lot of concern to the government thus leading to the banning of some alcoholic drinks. Beverages such as ‘Power Master’ became victim of this ban forcing their producing company to employ new marketing techniques. The product was also banned due to unethical advertisement. The new marketing techniques involved the use of black people in the ghettos as primary target groups. This is because the prices were reduced and the people living in the ghettos could now afford buying the drink. Black people living in the ghetto became prone to accrue cirrhosis of the liver. The government noted this strategy employed by the company and decided to ban the product brand from being manufactured. This forced the company to change the name of the brand from Power Master to Colt 45. Apparently, the product was brought back to the market with a different name but the same content. It is unethical to change the name of a product that is banned from the market and bring it back to retail stores without rectifying all the factors that led to it being banned. All commercial laws around the world should be amended to counter such instances thus protect the welfare of the target group which is prone to being affected by this act. Business ethics should be highly endorsed since they protect the welfare of the consumers of goods and services as well as the interest of those who are behind their production. Independent bodies that can be used to enforce this notion should be formed and given the mandate to function. Recent Cigarette Controversies Cigarette consumption was rampant in the United States of America in the 19th century. This led to the banning of cigarette smoking for children under the age of 16 years. This is because of the body malfunctions that accompanied regular smoking. It is scientifically proven that cigarette is harmful to human health. Therefore, it is not advisable for people to start smoking at a young age because they will be prone to adverse cigarette effects at a very early stage in life. Women are also advised not to indulge in smoking as this act might pose great danger to their reproductive system. All these factors led to the ban of smoking in women and children who were below 16years. The cigarette companies changed their marketing strategies and started targeting the black people. This increased the chances of black people in developing lung cancer. The tobacco companies went ahead to target foreign communities as the U.S recorded a very high percentage of tobacco export from the year 1617 to 1793. The public acuity of unethical behavior seems to be expanding. It is highly unethical to transfer the risk of using banned products from a highly rated society to a vulnerable society on the basis of profit making. Cigarette companies should provide mitigation measures to cigarette smokers instead of using the vulnerable communities as target groups in their marketing strategies. References Hartley R (1993). Business Ethics Violations of the Public Trust: Michigan. J. Wiley Pub Read More