Ethics and Governance - Case Study Example

Also, in monitoring the suppliers' compliance with the codes it has been stated, 'it is the supplier's responsibility to ensure and provide evidence that any subcontractors and outworkers used conform to the criteria outlined in this code'. The obvious weakness is its monitoring procedures, which amount to little more than self-certification by suppliers, with no independent system of checking. Conflicts of cultural tradition occur when business-making processes within western corporations are confronted with well-established norms and behaviors strictly linked to local settings and most of the time unfamiliar to western staff in foreign settings.

As a result norms and behaviors result acceptable in one setting, and unacceptable in another. For example, in Pakistan there is no legislation against child labour. Although Next doesn't have a connection with Pakistan, the fact has been mentioned only to show how different right and wrong could be in different countries.The point is that, in developing countries like India, where Next has its sourcing industries, even though there are strict legislations against child labour, the corruption and bribery in those countries may allow children work with those industries.

Since the monitoring procedure of Next relies on the suppliers' evidence of conformance to criteria, this becomes a case of an ethical dilemma, since the chances of child labour remain. EVALUATION BASED ON ETHICAL THEORIESIn Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill argues that moral philosophers have left a train of unconvincing and incompatible theories that can be coherently unified by a single standard of beneficence that allows us to decide objectively what is right and wrong. The principle of utility, or the "greatest happiness" principle, he declares the basic foundation of morals: Actions are right in proportion to their promotion of happiness, and wrong as they produce the reverse.

This is a straightforward, and potentially very demanding, principle of beneficence: That action or practice is right (when compared with any alternative action or practice) if it leads to the greatest possible balance of beneficial consequences or to the least possible balance of bad consequences. Mill also holds that the concepts of duty, obligation, and right are subordinated to, and determined by, that which maximizes benefits and minimizes harmful outcomes. The principle of utility is presented by Mill as an absolute or preeminent principle-thus making beneficence the one and only supreme principle of ethics.

It justifies all subordinate rules and is not simply one among a number of prima facie principles.The utilitarian method of reasoning could actually be in favour of Child labour. Viewed from the different stakeholders involved, the extra income gained from the child would maximize happiness for the most. The family