Ethical Decision Making on Product Market - Essay Example

The case regarding the infant walkers is a great case that involves needing to make either ethical or unethical business decisions. Since infant walkers have hit the market, parents ran out and purchased the product. In 1992 30,000 injuries were related to the product and eventually the product was banned in 1994. Upon being banned makers were aware that the market for the product was out there because of the freedom it allowed infants and the way parents responded according to sales. What this meant for manufacturers was that the product still had the potential to make a nice amount of profit. Just because a product is banned in the United States does not mean that the product could not be sold in other countries.

            Most manufacturers that see a potential market that will allow for large profit will pursue targeting the market. This happens every day and requires that certain individuals make either ethical or unethical business decisions. The infant walker case has many ethical and unethical business decisions behind exporting the product.

            An agent assigned to the case could be making ethical business decisions by exporting the product if the agent was unaware of the ban in the United States. The company however would be making unethical decisions by purposely hiring someone new or someone unaware of the previous injuries resulting from the product. An agent would be acting unethically if they were aware of the previous injuries and how the product has become banned. Once an agent decides to export an item to another country because it was banned from the home country due to injuries can result in other injuries. Enabling a product for profit while knowing that injuries can occur, is unethical business decision making. Many agents will make these unethical business decisions because they may feel pressure, they may feel everyone else does it or they just don’t care. When deciding to push a banned product the company choosing an agent to export is the first to begin in unethical decision making. This then creates a ripple effect of more unethical decision-making.

            To look at the case from the agent’s perspective one might think about whether or not the agent has children and if they would let their child use the product. An agent without children would feel less guilt making business decisions that are based on making money and not the safety of others. This means that exporting the goods is simply just business. Some agents who have children wouldn’t dare sell a product that has caused so many injuries regardless of the money made.

            An ethics model that can be used to solve the dilemma is to “do onto others as you would want them to do onto you”. This means that if you want to buy products that are hiding the fact that injuries occur and may buy a product that could cause injury, then selling a product of the same nature is ok. However, one cannot expect to purchase a product and expect the product to be free of defects when in reality the individual sells products that are the exact opposite. This model is followed by all businesses could create a product market that bases better ethical decision making.