Business Ethics: How The Globalization Changed Living Standards - Research Paper Example

Globalization The rapid changes of events in the world, today, have been brought about by globalization. The competition of the national governments in the world market has led to the reduction of prices of commodities and, therefore, better services for the consumers. Privatization of companies has led to improved standards of living of the consumers since there is little or no government intervention in the companies. Globalization has enabled many countries to access a wider range of cheap goods from the overseas such as the Chinese goods which are cheap and the flat and wide screen television sets. Although globalization has improved the interrelationship between countries, it has also brought about negative ethical issues in people’s lives, businesses and people’s cultures. Globalization has also raised ethical issues in privatization of water resources. However, globalization has negative impacts on humanity, the environment and the economy. The quality of life has been depleted by the abolition of democracy and national control of individual states in the world (Peoples and Bailey 2009, p. 23). Democracy has been campaigned for in the name of freedom whereas, on the other hand, globalization contributes to the destruction of democracy. Unapproved multinational corporations have been installed to control the democratic governments. These corporations operate in secrecy, in faraway countries, which contribute to the destruction of democracy in the state governments. These corporations make decisions in order to get profits whereas the national governments make decisions for the interests of their countries. For example, a multinational organization raising the fuel prices globally in order to gain profits will lower the standards of living of people in poor countries. The pollution of air and water has led to global warming that has led to suffering of people worldwide. The destruction of people’s lives and degradation of the environment are inevitable. Life is worth more than cheap goods and all the multinational organizations should be elected democratically by the whole world. The impact of globalization in people’s lives has been more negative than positive to some countries over the last two decades. Globalization has alleviated the living standards of people globally due to the introduction of cheap goods like the Chinese ones. It has also improved science and technology all over the world where people have accessed information through the internet and enjoyment of digital facilities and devices like the iPads and iPhones. However, the global politics has been dominated by few countries like the US such that policies are made to apply to all countries. For example, the legalization of gay marriages in US was also intended to apply to other countries especially in Africa. The emergence of social networks that have been supported by the internet has promoted the sharing of views and ideas across all the people in the world. On the contrary, it has contributed to the spread of Western cultures to other countries, which have in turn led to erosion of people’s cultures. Currently, Westernization has been observed to spread to other countries especially in Africa through the film produced in US and tourist visits to other countries. Erosion of cultures has led to the disintegration of the countries at large (Fleiner-Gelster and Basta Fleiner 2008, p.29). The increased pollution of the atmosphere from greenhouse gases emitted in industries has led to global warming. This has contributed to the degradation of the environment inhabited by people leading to hunger and poverty especially in poor countries. People view globalization as a process of improving their lives and at the same time degrading their lives but because they are out of control of the process they allow it to prevail (Brainad, Jones & Purvis 2009, p. 45). Globalization has contributed to the violation of some basic moral principles in all the fields like in the global economy, security, trade and culture. The transnational organizations have not been honesty in their dealings. These companies are established without any democratic election and operate in secrecy whereby they delegate laws to be followed by the national governments. The developed countries such as US and Britain are involved when transnational companies are making decisions in order to protect their interests. For example, United States is ranked as the greatest contributor to global warming through its industries but when laws are formulated to control global warming US is not considered anywhere. This shows that some countries in the world do not respect other countries and are not honest in their dealings defying the principle of respect for autonomy which states that humans have an obligation to respect other entities (Velasquez 2000, p. 346). The principle of non maleficence has been violated by globalization. This principle states that people should not harm others or increase their risk of getting harmed. Security issues and terrorism have been enhanced more during the globalization era. The terrorist groups formed are interconnected around the world. Improved telecommunication networks have made the terrorists more efficient in their attacks resulting to massive killings. Warring nations today use nuclear weapons that leave so many people dead. Some countries in the world have been given economic powers with the help of international organizational such as the WTO and IMF. These countries exploit the underdeveloped countries found especially in Africa by delegating their politics and controlling their economic growth through restrictions. In this case, the moral principle of justice to all nations is violated. Some countries are comfortable with the domination by superpowers. However, it is worth noting that the developed countries are not supposed to exploit the underdeveloped ones. The egoism ethical theory states that a right or wrong action is determined by whether that action done satisfies one’s interest or not. Therefore, the exploitation of poor countries by the rich ones should not be there because this is wrongdoing according to an egoist’s point of view (Carroll, 2004). Global ethic refers to that expectation of the world’s transformation in ethical awareness whether at national level or worldwide. Global ethics involves sharing of attitudes and basic ethical values among people so as to have peaceful coexistence. Global ethics partly exists in the world since there is minimal dialogue about the different religions and cultures. In this case, the international policies should be formulated in consideration of the ethics and law in order to promote understanding among states, integration and cooperation rather than military confrontation (Carroll 2004, p.115). In order to promote cooperation and good international relations, all the countries and religious representatives must come together and agree to share a common ethic which promotes the principal of humanity. Global ethics should also be targeted at maximizing the happiness to people as the actions taken will be right according to the Utilitarianism theory which classifies an action as good when it produces maximum pleasure for the greatest number of people (Banerjee 2008, p. 78). Capitalism is a morally based social system because it respects the freedom of producers in their practices. This contributes to privatization of businesses which is a global achievement in all capitalized economies (Shaw, Barry & Sansbury 2009, p. 130). One of the achievements of globalization is privatization of businesses meaning that there is little or no government control over them which has improved the living standards of people. However, capitalism in Western states has not been approved as the best economic system because it has raised moral issues. In these free markets, monopolies have emerged both at the national and global level who exploits the consumers (Parker and Pearson 2005, p. 92). For example, in the international trade, the OPEC is a cartel formed in order to control its oil supply to other countries. In this case, OPEC can raise the oil prices which increase the cost of living of consumers. One of the moral safeguards to consumers from exploitation in the capitalized economies is through government regulation of the free market. Water is one of the necessities for human survival. In the globalized economies, today water prices has risen due to the privatization of companies supplying water. These private companies want to make high profits and thus the increase of prices, which denies the poor the right to enjoy a basic necessity of life. Globalization has promoted the management of water resources in all the countries of the world. Campaigns against water pollution in rivers, oceans and seas had been held globally for the past century when industrial revolution emerged. Manufacturing industries were introduced in the US in the 19th century which after around two decades, effluents from the industries had polluted air and the water resources in a large scale. Today, the world is struggling with the issue of global warming where initiatives has been launched for plant trees as a form of conservation of water catchment areas (Blanco & Razzaque 2011, p. 17). In the world, today there are rushes to privatize the water services. International organizations such as The World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) are campaigning for the privatization of the water services by US and European-based companies. Trade agreements have emerged so as to privatize water services by the developed countries. Through the new globalization and privatization of water, there have been efforts to control the water resources by state governments and replace the collective ownership of the same water resources (Howell 2010, p. 20). The companies claim that if water resources are under control of private hands there will be increased efficiency, quality and affordability of services to the population. The negative consequence of privatization of water is the water stress among poor people because private companies fix high water prices for them. In conclusion, globalization has been observed to have positive and negative impacts on the global economy and other fields such as security, water management practices, global ethics, cultural practices and people’s lives. On one hand, the living standards of people in developing countries has improved due to privatization of businesses that creates free markets but, on the other contrary, there is degradation of the quality of their lives as a result of global warming, global economic crises and terrorist attacks. Globalization has promoted the destruction of democracy, violation of ethical principles such as the principle of respect for autonomy and that of justice where there is exploitation of the developing countries by the developed ones with the assistance of transnational organizations. Globalization is better off in the current world since there is interdependency of states, which has promoted international cooperation and economic integration. In actual sense, despite the benefits that globalization has brought to the people, there are negative impacts on the lives of the people. References List Banerjee, S. B. (2008). Corporate Social Responsibility: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Critical Sociology, 34(1), pp.51-79. Blanco, E., & Razzaque, J. (2011). Globalisation and Natural Resources Law Challenges, Key Issues and Perspectives. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar Pub. Pp. 17-21 Brainad, L., Jones, A., & Purvis, N. (2009). Climate change and global poverty a billion lives in the balance? Brookings Institution Press, Washington, D.C. pp.44-49. Carroll, A. B. (2004). Managing ethically with global stakeholders: A present and future challenge. Academy of Management Executive, 19(2), pp. 114-120. Fleiner-Gelster, T., & Basta-Fleiner, L. R. (2008). Constitutional democracy in a multicultural and globalised world. Berlin, Springer. Pp.27-31. Howell, R. (2010). Choosing Ethical Theories and Principles and Applying Them to the Question: 'Should The Seas be Owned?' International Journal of Transdisciplinary Research, 5(1), pp.1-28. Parker, M., & Pearson, G. (2005. Capitalism and its Regulation: A Dialogue on Business and Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 60, pp.90-101. Peoples, J. G., & Bailey, G. A. (2009). Humanity: an introduction to cultural anthropology. Belmont, CA, Wadsworth Cengage Learning. p.23 Shaw, W. H., Barry, V., & Sansbury, G. (2009). The nature of capitalism.In W. H. Shaw, V. Barry & G. Sansbury (Eds.), Moral Issues in Business (pp. 127-176). South Melbourne, Cengage Learning. Velasquez, M. (2000). Globalization and the Failure of Ethics: Business Ethics Quarterly, 10(1), 343-352. Read More