Corporate Regulations and Solutions for Sweatshop Conditions - Assignment Example

RUNNING HEAD: Past Exam Questions Past Exam Questions Student Name: Institution: Course: Date of Submission: Q1. Corporate Regulations According to Holley’s model of, an exchange must occur when someone plays poker. The voluntary exchange comes with three important conditions that include non-compulsion, knowledge, and rationality. Holley’s model a typical context of sales activities in a market of production and distribution that is acceptable on the grounds of teleology. However, unethical sales practices typical of poker machines usually attempt to the three conditions of knowledge, non-compulsion, and rationality. In the event where both parties in poker machine do not have information, there is a great possibility that an exchange can arise and accidentally benefit the parties. Nonetheless, the lack of information prevents the parties from making rational decisions in relation to their benefits and in such circumstances, it is impossible that beneficial results can be expected. Additionally, in the event where the parties make an exchange under compulsion, it is possible to argue that personal benefit is not based on the exchange. Thus, it is possible that an individual can find himself forced into a beneficial arrangement. Holley makes it clear that the three conditions must meet some certain level of fulfillment. For instance, the parties participating in a poker machine must know certain things concerning the exchange and must know other things. A theoretical situation could be useful in explaining this concept. In a situation where all participants have knowledge, fully rational, and enter into an exchange entire individual volution result in an ideal exchange. In practice, there is an inevitable divergence from the ideal and thus knowledge could inadequate and parties can be subjects of certain irrational circumstances. However, it is important to judge when an exchange of the parties is informed, rational, and very free from compulsion. This situation results in acceptable exchange. In the case of poker machine therefore, these concepts build a model that requires the salesperson and the customer to avoid the principal conditions of acceptable exchange. It is practically possible that an omission aimed at creating a situation where the customer in the poker machine is not adequately informed of the circumstances of the exchange and influences the customer to underestimate a rational decision-making process. Although violation of one condition may not largely affect the outcome of the process, it will affect the moral acceptability of the process will be questionable as abusing the conditions for acceptable exchange. Any individuals violating the three conditions of knowledge, non-compulsion, and rationality will have the intention of personal gains may in the end produce a system that differs from the norm that provides moral legitimacy to the individual’s activities. It is for these reasons that government regulations allow players in poker machine to nominate the amount they are willing to lose in advance are called for and highly welcome. With such regulations in place, gamblers will be able to make rational decisions with prior knowledge of their amount to lose by will before playing poker machines. It will also save players from influence that could likely affect their judgment and decision-making processes and thus maintaining business ethics and moral values in the system. Q2. Solutions for Sweatshop Conditions Sweatshop conditions refer to multinational companies seeking employees from developing countries and provide a harsh working environment that is often hazardous and pays a rather minimal and survival wages. Such multinational companies usually face criticism from labor activists and law enforcers due to exploitation issues. With companies such as Nike and Gap admitting their adoption of sweatshop conditions in most of their stores, there comes a confirmation of what most critics have been arguing about for the past few years and what many consumers have been constantly fearing about the footwear and clothes they buy from the companies. Although everyone knows that sweatshop labor is wrong, owing to the various protests and campaigns against the act, there is no human measure proposed to curb the vice in a relatively near future. With the fact that the working conditions being extremely bad, coupled with very low pay, there is the need to address sweatshop condition and bring about certain measures and solutions to reduce the level of ordeal underwent by employees in such conditions. The first effective solution to sweatshop labor could be to implement reforms and regulations that guide the involved companies to force their suppliers to create improved working conditions and provide better wages. A good example of this solution is exemplified when Foxxcon improved better working environment after its client, Apple and other companies, forced the company to do so. When the companies threatened Foxxcon that they could find another supplier is it did not improve working conditions compelled Foxxcon to consider the possibility of its business could cease to exist and thus had no options. Another important solution to sweatshop labor is that of imposing government sanctions. Government sanctions that aim at barring companies engaging in sweatshop labor could deter such companies from exporting their brands and thus the need to improve wages and working conditions before conducting business as usual. Example is a nation such as the United States should, whom imports products almost from all over the work, should put sanctions on such companies that fail to provide better working environments and fair wages to its employees. Additionally, another crucial step to take in resolving sweatshop labor is to bring up the involved companies to a greater public scrutiny and accountability. This implies that it is only possible to pull back the veil of secrecy that lie behind these companies through encouragement of employee and community interaction so that employees can speak out their working conditions while members of the community can have the opportunity to speak their experiences resulting from the products of such companies. It is therefore important to create social forums and independent organizations judged with the responsibility of defending employee and community rights. Finally, creating public and labor awareness about sweatshop and its devastating effects is another major step of preventing it. Sensitizing the public and the labor force to deny exploitation by reacting against sweatshop conditions will definitely force companies to adjust their behavior and improve their wages and working conditions in general. To sum up, there are various solutions to the sweatshop menace across the globe and need immediate attention. Q3. Business Self-Regulation Over the past few years, self-regulation for businesses has been central key in playing a role in policing both corporate behavior and the behavior of the professionals taking part in corporate transactions. Businesses had the autonomy of self-regulation to assume the role of rulemaking and enforcement of securities violations. In light of recent scandals and unbecoming corporate behavior, scholars and law enforcers question on whether the current corporate structure of self-regulation should be considered adequate. In this context, the major lies on the question of whether businesses should remain as self-regulated or should be left under government to oversee business operations. Although business self-reflection has some advantages that include improved flexibility, generating a higher level of compliance, harnessing a collective interest of industry, and security of the needed resources, it also contains some drawbacks that result to fundamental objection to expecting business to regulate themselves. Self-regulation comes with divergence between the business’ interests as a congruent member of a society and as a player competing with other players in the business environment. While playing as part of community, business entities strive to welcome healthy environment whereas while playing as a competitor in the business environment, business entities strive to minimize emissions to the environment. However, as a self-governing body, business corporations have a better understanding of its industry and this does not mean that it has the required incentives to regulate business operations more effectively. There is also the possibility that highly established corporations could use unethical tactics to scare away new entrants. Additionally, with the availability of public goods without regard of which a business corporation contributes to the availability, each corporation usually has an incentive to free ride. The idea behind this concept leads to the Prisoner’s Dilemma whereby the strategy revolves around corporations not contributing to the cost of public goods in the view that a particular corporation will be better if it avoids the contribution without regard of what other players in the environment. Additionally, there is also the possibility that firms will contribute to the general good of the society as long as they have a complete assurance that other corporations are engaging in the same practices. In the case where corporations seek to maximize profits, mistrust among corporations and unethical business practices can lead to environmental emission and negligence of corporate social responsibility requirements. It is therefore important that governments exercise some degree of corporate governance to ensure compliance to corporate social responsibility that advocate for minimizing carbon emission, economical use of resources, and proper measures to ensure the general good of the community. Such government governance will ensure provisions of certain measures to ensure that all corporation balance their internal interests with those of the general environment. Q4. Image Advertising and Ethical Concerns Image advertising is an attempt aimed at creating a positive picture in the minds of the prospective audience about a certain product or firm by use of the idealized personification - type portrayed to be the user of certain product while at the same time inviting the audience to use it as well. The idealized image is aimed at associating a certain product with a predetermined lifestyle or values. Image advertising is unique from other forms of advertisement owing to its three basic targets of increase consumer awareness, changing the created awareness into familiarity, and finally, ensuring that the familiarity creates a certain influence on the consumer buying behavior. Another difference of image advertising that distinguishes it from other forms of advertisement is that the image created for an entity such as product, brand, or firm does not aim at meeting specific attributes of the entity but aims at creating reliability, elegance, luxury, and sophistication. However, there are quite a number of ethical aspects associated with image advertising. Such ethical aspects include false and misleading promises, the possibility of causing harm, promotion of false values, and the threat posed to individual autonomy. In the case of making false and misleading promises, there are a variety of factors that question the integrity and sincerity of image advertisement. For instance, the image indirectly manipulates the audience unconsciously. This implies that, the image deceives the viewers that by using the advertised entity, they will be typical examples of the image used, that is to say, they will believe that the entity will change their lifestyles to suit those of the images used. In fact, it is a generally acceptable fact that this is not what the advertising agency intends with the product but rather to wing customer purchasing power. In this regard, image advertisement fails the test of ethics. Another ethical aspect of image advertising is that of promotion of false values. Some presuppositions carried by image advertisement promote false values such as slim is beauty and that wrinkles are flaws. Although the advertisement itself does not mention the presuppositions, the possibility that the viewer can fail to be conscious of them is very high. The issue of promoting false values is to attract the customer attention and influence their likelihood of considering the purchase of the advertised entity. In the end, the cumulative effect that comes with the promotion of false values could be devastating. For instance, continued emphasis on false values such as slim is beauty, the influence on teenage girls to adopt the value could increase immensely. In the end, adopting false values could erode community values and thus people will live in a society of false values. Finally, image advertising poses a threat to and individual autonomy. The individual’s autonomy of choice that include excessive exposure to advertisements, the choice to accept symbols, and take images as role models, and the autonomy to choose to whether to buy a product or not. The autonomy of desire or the ability to resist irrational desires is also put at risk. To sum up image advertising as several ethical aspects and thus is unethical. Read More