ethical-issues-with-moving-a-business-to-vietnam
We cannot quote straight from our reading. Only summarizing ideas.
Reading for this assignment:https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_the-legal-and-ethical-environment-of-business/s16-business-in-the-global-legal-e.html
*****3-4 pages – you own a company that makes t-shirts. You currently pay the average line employee $12.00 per hour. Average cost per shirt is about $7.00 (that includes raw materials, labor, overhead, etc.) You can make the same t-shirt (within 90% quality equivalency) in Vietnam for an average cost of $3.00 (that includes raw materials, labor, overhead, shipping costs, etc.). Your average line employee would earn $1.00 per hour in Vietnam. Your company is privately owned and has 1 shareholder: you.
What ethical issues should you consider when facing this decision?
What would your decision be and why?
How might your ethical issues differ from those of Wal-Mart…or would they?
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Some key areas I noticed while reading the assignment
“You may be acquainted with challenges faced by U.S. businesses and workers when considering the questions associated with this new business environment. When we shop for food, computers, clothing, pet food, automobiles, or just about anything produced for the global market, we might very well purchase a final product from a different country, or a product composed of components or labor from many different parts of the world. Economists tell us that this represents the most efficient method of production and labor. After all, if a business can pay $1 per hour to a worker overseas, why would it choose instead to pay $12 per hour to a U.S. worker?
Of course, it’s not necessarily a sunny picture for people whose jobs have been outsourced. Additionally, businesses operating in the international environment face unique questions. For instance, if the new labor force that is being paid $1 per hour is composed of workers who are forced into sweatshop conditions, then there may be serious consumer backlash against the company that has chosen to do business with that particular manufacturer.
Even if the consumers do not respond negatively to business decisions that result in the use of child labor or sweatshop conditions for the production of goods, the question of ethics still remains. For instance, does a company wish to place profit over concerns that it might have about human rights? And, does a company have any long-lasting duties to its U.S. workforce, or is it all right to simply outsource jobs if it makes economic sense to do so?
Besides human rights issues, other concerns about doing business in the international environment exist. For example, it is not uncommon for polluting industries to locate to countries that have laxer environmental regulations than they would face at home. Environmental degradation, such as the overuse of natural resources, generation of pollution, and improper disposal of waste products, is a common by-product of global businesses.”
