Question

In an essay format discuss the ethical issues companies face in how goods are manufactured or sold abroad, what unethical behavior do companies face?

Answer 1

Maintaining high ethical standards are important for all businesses, manufacturing companies face additional challenges because of the potential for harming employees and consumers. When we are in a manufacturing business , the potential for injury to workers and the possibility that our products are unsafe for consumers is always present .

Employers have an ethical responsibility to ensure workers are not subject to sexual harassment or other forms of workplace hostility and to treat all employees fairly. If the manufacturing environment has mostly male workers, we have to be especially vigilant that female employees feel welcome and comfortable. To meet the ethical challenges, we must make sure all employees comply with them.

Manufacturing processes use energy and produce waste. Ethical concerns influence the overall approach of a company toward environmental degradation caused by its manufacturing operations. Taking into account ethical factors, we have to reduce the use of energy by increasing energy efficiency and exploring the use of alternative technologies. At the same time, we can reduce waste by looking at where it is generated and changing our manufacturing process to produce as little as possible.

Ethical businesses prioritize safety in the workplace. In a manufacturing environment, the presence of machines and raw materials make adequate safety procedures ethically necessary. Applying too many rules creates compliance problems, while not addressing safety issues can lead to injury.

In addition to internal ethical problems , manufacturing companies face ethical problems even after selling the goods . We should only sell those goods which have been tested and are safe for use .

Some of the ethical issues while selling goods abroad are that we should not sell goods that are banned in our nation , or bribing an official or dealer to be able to sell goods .

An example can be seen in this case is McDonald’s was not able to sell beef products in India , as I’m Indian culture , eating beef is prohibited , so an ethical issue was faced by McDonald’s and they had to change their menu to be able to sell their products in India .

So we can see that , multiple issues are faced by companies which are in production line or are selling their goods in abroad .