Companies should inflict western values and their own corporate values in countries where they outsourced their production, because they are a part of complex interconnected production network. It would be unfair to divide people by their nationality and citizenship and apply different standards according to the geographic location and place in the value chain. At the same time, it is clear that Nike and other global companies cannot apply similar business practices in developed and developing countries due to differences in business culture, level of economic and social development, etc. Therefore, companies should strive for corporate social responsibility, which is “the responsibility of enterprises for their impact on society” (Cited in Torres et al., 2012, p.51), taking into account all related risks and inability to fully resolve some issues, for example improve work safety that is usually controlled by local authorities. Fortunately, corporate social responsibility is a very broad term with many definitions and peculiarities that allows companies to focus on various types of positive impact. To sum up, business ethics practices could make companies more responsible overseas and more respectful in key markets where people and media pay much attention to fair trade, sustainability and other contemporary problems.
In terms of Nike, their assessment of ethical standards before 2011 was superficial. They were right to state that they provided many jobs in developing countries and a lot of people could take care of their families. Moreover, Nike does not own factories overseas and therefore the company is not directly responsible for what is happening at the factories. Nevertheless, one of Nike’s goals is “spurring positive social change around the world” (Nike’s Website, 2016). Thus this company should pay much more attention to achieving this goal at different levels of their global production network. Low wages are just one of the problems that people are experiencing in developing countries. In the video Nike Sweatshops: Behind the Swoosh (2011), one can see many other problems such as poor living conditions, absence of healthcare system, organized crime, absence of labor unions, etc. So Nike’s approach to assessment had to be changed in the past five years.
Similar to other companies, including, Apple and Coca-Cola, Nike had to adjust social corporate responsibility practices. In particular, in 2012-2013 Nike started to pay much more attention to other businesses in their value chain. There were many industrial incidents in Bangladesh, China and other developing countries that made western companies rethink their policies. For example, Nike introduced policies that support workers and demand contractors meet Nike’s high standards. Third-party annual audits help to track improvements in SCR (Newell, 2015). What is more, lean practices are used instead of labor exploitation. Finally, the issue of climate change has become very important for Nike and majority of other popular apparel companies. Nike also had to learn how to respond to criticism concerning unfair practices overseas (Newel, 2015).
This video will not change my buying behavior. First of all, Nike and other companies cannot resolve societal problems in developing countries, because they represent private sector and have business-oriented goals. Secondly, due to outsourcing Nike’s influence on local factories is limited. At the same time, after watching this video one may come to conclusion that Nike was using double standards and lacked integrity in term of adherence to a code of conduct. Inability to address criticism means that the company did not consider ethical issues and social corporate responsibility seriously. Even though this video was shot 5 years ago, there is a feeling that thousands of people continue to work in harsh conditions. Therefore, companies should continue raising their standards and monitor activity in overseas factories. For example, Nike cooperates with more than 785 factories that employ over a million workers (Newell, 2015). In total, 60-75 million people are employed in the textile, clothing and footwear sector worldwide (Stotz & Kane, 2015). So, I agree with the authors of the video about Nike that they should think much more about their impact on people in different parts of the world.
References
Newell, A. (19 June 2015). How Nike Embraced CSR and Went From Villain to Hero. Triple
Pundit. Retrieved from http://www.triplepundit.com/special/roi-of-sustainability/how-
nike-embraced-csr-and-went-from-villain-to-hero/#
Nike Company Profile. Retrieved from http://about.nike.com/
Stotz, L., Kane, G. (2015). Global Garment Industry Factsheet. Facts on The Global Garment
Industry. Retrieved from https://cleanclothes.org/resources/publications/factsheets/
general-factsheet-garment-industry-february-2015.pdf
Torres, C., Carcia-French M., Hordijk, R., Nguyen, L. (3 November 2012). Four Case Studies
on Corporate Social Responsibility: Do Conflicts Affect a Company’s Corporate Social
Responsibility Policy? Utrecht Law Review, Volume 8, Issue 3. Retrieved from
http://ssbea.mercer.edu/blanke/Four%20Case%20Studies%20on%20CSR.pdf
Team Sweat. (28 July 2011). Nike Sweatshops: Behind the Swoosh. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5uYCWVfuPQ
