Business Ethics
Gumdrop Northern was a manufacturing company. It was involved in the manufacturing of different military supplies. It earned the reputation for employing one hundred and five highly paid workers who served as technicians and mechanics. Based on the kind of products that the company involved itself in, and the working conditions that it exposed its workers to, the company inevitably met ethical issues. An attachment in the Gumdrop Northern Company let to the exposure to some ethical issues experienced in the company. This discussion is therefore focused on three of these issues namely the Business Ethics, i.e., Duties owed consumers (information disclosure, product defects); Duties owed Employees; Duties arising in Finance or Accounting practices; Ethical practices in globalized business; building an ethical organization.
Under the business Ethics, the consumers of the company’s products are the military personnel. According to the business ethics, the company had the obligation of providing honest information to its consumers concerning their products. Business ethics had a significant role to play in the company. This is because the products were very sensitive and delicate in the hands of the consumers. Some were explosives, while some were protective clothing during military operations. Any fault therefore in any of these materials was therefore disastrous on the side of the consumer. The company however, despite knowing the defects of each product, did not mind being honest by informing the clients. The company was thus violating the business ethics (Pride et al, 2010).
Because of the initial violation of the business ethics, the company was under the legal watch. This is because some of the injured or killed service workers were filing cases, accusing the company of the misconduct. The company in response took another move that saw the violation of the next ethical issue, the duties owed to employees. Numbering over one hundred, the employees of the company made the company to fall under the WARN ACT (The Worker Adjustment and Training Notification) act.
The company however hatched a plan to end the business with the worries of being charged in the cases that it could not do anything to win. The plan was to transfer the accounts to Argentina and Switzerland. During the effect of this plan, which was successful, the company stepped on the toes of its employees without any mercy. The ethics on the duties owed to employees were grossly violated in this move. Some employees were fired without any reason, some were forced into early retirement, yet others were left without severance pay when the company shut down. The employees who had filed cases were left without any justice (Tittle, 2000).
The violation of ethics by the company had no end. The company did violate the duties arising in finance and accounting. The transfer of funds and assets by the company from one country to the other occurred in strange manner, leaving the workers who were stopped without notice with nothing. All the creditors, including the governments and other parties were left without notice. Lastly, Gumdrop violated yet another ethic required in establishing an ethical organization that operates in a globalized business. This is resulted from the way the company moved its operations from one country to the other, bribing any potential distracter on the way and establishing the company with total disregards to the labor laws, business restrictions and environmental laws (Pride et al, 2010).
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References:
Pride, W.M., Hughes R. J., and Kapoor J.R. (2010). Foundations of Business. Cengage Learning.
Pride, W. M., Hughes R.J. and Kapoor J.R. (2009). Business. Cengage Learning.
Tittle, P. (2000). Ethical issues in business: inquiries, cases, and readings. Broadview Press.
