Ethics and Corporate Responsibility in the Workplace and the World - Assignment Example

ETHICS AND CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY PharmaCARE Company is one of the leading world pharmaceutical companies, that enjoys an honest name of a caring and well-run company and that act ethically toward its stakeholders. It provides with the high-quality products and saves people’s lives increasing its quality. However, the case with the African nation of Colberia, where the PharmaCARE holds its big manufacturing object, raise community fears as for the unethical attitude toward the indigenous population of this land. The following paper will illustrate the main unethical considerations of the Company, will describe the key characteristics of its stakeholders, and will illustrate the human rights issues presented by PharmaCAREs treatment. The paper will also suggest the changes that PharmaCARE can perform to be more ethical. The key characteristics of the stakeholders within the PharmaCARE PharmaCARE follows the open-door policy and culture among its employees. It stands for the employment equity and promotes the development and progress of its people. The company conducts workshops and training sessions to create its employees’ awareness of and ensures with the training of new processes and new technology that it establishes. It often presents health care staff with the challenging issues to ensure the staff to be aware of new medication nutritional care, some potential side effects or interactions. The Company provides educational programs for all staff members to enhance their professionalizm. The pharmacists obtain certifications of the Medication Aide Training Program. Consultants are well trained to support and assist the staff in promotion procedures and policies, which are required by the state and federal regulatory laws. PharmaCARE provides its patients and customers with the Medication Therapy Management, a service given by a clinical pharmacist that allow medical staff to help patients to understand how the treatment help. The Company helps to organize its patient’s medications and answers questions about health. It also prepares a treatment action plan specifically for every patient or customer. The human rights issues presented by PharmaCAREs treatment Recently PharmaCARE Company brought into play a new initiative, We CARE about YOUR world, assuring all the community in its commitment to the environment friendly attitude by using recycling, changes of packaging and other green reforms. This initiative was launched despite the fact that the company backstairs influence have defeated important environmental rules and laws. Another approach in which PharmaCARE was involved into, was handling with the Colberians, the African indigenous people that shows that the Company did not lead the ethical considerations that are expected from business of such power. Historically indigenous people have always been disseised of their lands they were usually in the center of conflicts for valuable resources and the places they had. For years, they lived outside the civilization with no proper information level that put them into more complicated situation when “educated” entrepreneurs cam to their land with the job offers. Concerning the case, the PharmaCARE Company was mistreated the Colberians by deliberately using their low information and misused them for the Company benefit. The people of Colberians were simply uninformed; they were not educated about the copyrights or assets rights. However, people of Colberians had healing talents passed from their ancestors and which the Company deliberately collected, without the slightest consideration to indigenous people intellectual property rights. The Code of ethics runs against breach of rights because of the absence of knowledge about such rights. Moreover, it is considered the violation when business takes advantage of the lack of knowledge of another company or people. In this case, PharmaCARE was deliberately acted against the Colberians intellectual property rights. More than that, the Company was obdurate in provision of helping measures to the people of Colberians. Their living conditions were the worst, as most of them did not have means for proper housing and lived in huts. Such fact only gave the Company another possibility to pay the people of Colberians the least amount of wages thus making the work under the severe working conditions. The management of the Company was well informed about the tribulations of everyday life that Colberians were undergoing. PharmaCARE did not help people but instead enhanced the challenges by paying them miserably small amounts of money. Business ethics is about providing al necessary conditions for proper performance of any job by the employees. It is also about ensuring and improving better standard of living for the employees of certain company. Such provision of proper working conditions may be ensured through awarding people cash in exchange of the information they can give. In case with the Colberians, their knowledge of healing quality of some herbs and the use of their lands for business purposes had to be properly evaluated. With such payments, the Colberians could obtain most of their important and essential needs. The Company when considering cooperation with the indigenous people could also arrange other significant features for them, such as schools for the communities that would provide the local population with certain level of literacy and thus improved their way of living. However, the Company did nothing to meet such expectations. This was mainly explained by the fact that bigger part of the indigenous population took shelter in poor conditions. PharmaCARE executives’ living conditions were strongly varied from those where the people of Colberians lived in. What changes PharmaCARE can make to be more ethical? The Company may change its policy regarding ethical behavior toward people it cooperates with and toward its existing employees by improving its staffs’ wages and salaries. It should take part that is more active in infrastructural developments improving its level of management and thus increasing its level of ethical behavior. The indigenous people should be the key shareholders for the company as their territory is used for the business development and it brings much profit to the Company. The best for the Company to reach its goals is to set strong connections within the organizational unit that is between the management and rank- and-file employees. This change will allow the Company to realize its missioning and targets because all the employees will feel the support of the management, their openness and fairness and the leaders will obtain the understanding from their employees of the main Company goals. Engagement in various corporate social activities will compensate the people of Colberians well and will improve their living standards. Another way that can make the Company be more ethical in the following the laid U.S. laws such as environmental and the intellectual property laws. PharmaCAREs actions toward people of Colberian and ethical theories The people of Colberians are the most influenced by the actions of PharmaCARE party. That is why it is important from the utilitarianism theory point that the Company performing should be built the way to produce the best consequences possible for the living and working of these indigenous people (Utilitarianism). The theory would admit any act from the Company that gives profits to the Colberians as that one that is ethically right, even if it goes against the PharmaCARE needs. Under this theory, PharmaCARE should pay compensation for the Colberians since they were using their intellectual property for profits. The knowledge, which Colberians shared with open hands to the PharmaCARE Company, should be not taken for granted but to be appreciated. In addition, the people of Colberians do not ask for any for reimbursement, because they are simply not aware of the value of their intellectual property rights. The supporters of deontology would probably take for granted that the people of Colberians do not make serious conclusion of their need in compensation for their sharing of the important for the Company data. Since the deontological ethics is based on a duty but not on its consequences, they are concerned with what Colberians do and consider that Colberian’s property right ethical. Virtue ethics, however, take a very different perspective. Its followers pay not much attention to the rules people, in this case the Company, should follow. They are focusing on helping people have good character traits, such as generosity (the people of Colberians). Virtue theorists think that people should learn how to change their bad traits of character, like greed or anger and this is a partial excuse for the people of Colberians. However, PharmaCARE knew that indigenous people had the rights for their intellectual property and still violated them. PharmaCARE actions were unethical. The other theory, the ethics of care, tells that both parties should be on the velvet. That is why they would find the PharmaCARE Company actions as violations of moral rights of Colberian people because only the Company benefited from such cooperation. It is not new for the community that huge companies always use their power for reaching their goals. They are ready to act unethical toward not only the companies they work with, people on which lands they settle their businesses, but also toward their own employees. Such corporations pay less, breaking not only ethical but also state and federal laws and regulations. Speaking about PharmaCARE Company, they just proved another story, that the profit for them is more important than living and working conditions of their stakeholders, the people of Colberians. Approaches of ethics of care are the closest to what the Company committed toward indigenous people of Africa. Comparison of PharmaCAREs actions and other world company PharmaCARE Company misuses the U.S. law to protect its own intellectual property at the same time assimilating Colberian people intellectual property. It has broken a number of laws and at the same time launching We CARE about YOUR world initiative, the main role of which is to protect and save the environment using change of packaging and recycling. Such initiative will protect the Company from the possible lawsuit that will be filed against its actions. In addition, the Company will position itself as the one that used Colberians data for freely. Similar unethical business practice is traced through the case with GlaxoSmithKline, which is one of the top global vaccine manufacturers. The company was fined up to eighty-eight thousand dollars for conducting the illegal lab vaccine trials between 2007 and 2008, which caused the death of fourteen babies. Such unethical behavior and absence of procedural standards discovered the vaccine scandal in the developed world. Such fine was realized as the largest ever and in health care, it became the largest fraud in the history of U.S. Such unethical behavior of the health care establishments bring discredit to the system in general, where people cannot be safe purchasing medications or addressing their concerns to the medical institutions. More severe legislation would allow companies to think over their actions toward all the parties that are involved into the process. Moreover, good and bad cases would allow people and companies to come to right conclusions and learn by previous experience to avoid same mistakes in the future. References BBC - Ethics - Introduction to ethics: Duty-based ethics. [ONLINE] Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/duty_1.shtml. [Accessed 15 August 2014]. Ethical business: companies need to earn our trust | Guardian Sustainable Business | Guardian Professional. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/ethical-business-trust-values. [Accessed 15 August 2014]. Indigenous Peoples in Africa: the forgotten peoples. The African Commission’s work on indigenous peoples in Africa, 2006. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.achpr.org/files/special-mechanisms/indigenous-populations/achpr_wgip_report_summary_version_eng.pdf. [Accessed 15 August 2014]. 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