Analyzing Business Ethics of Nestle, Primark and Other Businesses
Summer Activity
Several businesses, such as Primark and Nestle, have been accused of being unethical in recent years. Do you think it is essential for managers to take ethics into account consideration when making business decisions nowadays? Justify your answer with reference to Primark, Nestle and other businesses that you know. (40 marks)
Business ethics refer to what is regarded as right or wrong in relation to business behaviour.
I think that managers should worry about ethics as it may be important because it would give the managers a greater awareness of the effects of a business’s actions and therefore I think that managers would take greater care when making critical decisions. Another reason in caring about ethics would be because it could lead to greater benefits for the business as a whole in behaving ethically, for example they could get more customers, suppliers, and more investors. However Primark despite the poverty workers that they use have seen a huge increase in profit with a rise by 26% in the last six months taking the profit to a huge £298,000,000 and revenue in the period for Primark was up by 14%, to £2.2 billion pounds. Meaning that customers still shop with them despite their unacceptable ethical behaviour.
These days in the UK there is a greater analysis into business behaviour meaning that unethical actions are more likely to be revealed or exposed to the public giving the business a huge stigma. For example in Nestle there are huge websites about why they are unethical e.g. they have been noticed in using suppliers that violate human rights. (By buying cocoa powder from suppliers that use child slaves) and destroying the environment by using palm oil from rainforests. But again people still buy their produce. So overall because of these problems that nestle were caught in it would make managers more wary about bad ethical behaviour.
One problem with this situation would be that some managers actually behave well
Several businesses, such as Primark and Nestle, have been accused of being unethical in recent years. Do you think it is essential for managers to take ethics into account consideration when making business decisions nowadays? Justify your answer with reference to Primark, Nestle and other businesses that you know. (40 marks)
Business ethics refer to what is regarded as right or wrong in relation to business behaviour.
I think that managers should worry about ethics as it may be important because it would give the managers a greater awareness of the effects of a business’s actions and therefore I think that managers would take greater care when making critical decisions. Another reason in caring about ethics would be because it could lead to greater benefits for the business as a whole in behaving ethically, for example they could get more customers, suppliers, and more investors. However Primark despite the poverty workers that they use have seen a huge increase in profit with a rise by 26% in the last six months taking the profit to a huge £298,000,000 and revenue in the period for Primark was up by 14%, to £2.2 billion pounds. Meaning that customers still shop with them despite their unacceptable ethical behaviour.
These days in the UK there is a greater analysis into business behaviour meaning that unethical actions are more likely to be revealed or exposed to the public giving the business a huge stigma. For example in Nestle there are huge websites about why they are unethical e.g. they have been noticed in using suppliers that violate human rights. (By buying cocoa powder from suppliers that use child slaves) and destroying the environment by using palm oil from rainforests. But again people still buy their produce. So overall because of these problems that nestle were caught in it would make managers more wary about bad ethical behaviour.
One problem with this situation would be that some managers actually behave well