“Child Workers, Globalization, and International Business Ethics
Summary of “Child Workers, Globalization, and International Business Ethics: A Case Study in Brazil's Export-Oriented Shoe Industry”
Disputes regarding appropriate international labor standards have intensified with the globalization of markets and heightened contacts between peoples of different cultures and levels of economic development. Many in industrialized nations argue that lax standards in developing nations permit unethical treatment of workers and create unfair trade advantages (J. Lawrence French and Richard E. Wokutch, 2005). Abuse of child labor leads to many reactions of people who are neither social activists social activists to protest such corporate practices nor social community rather they can lead to complexity and can be called either naive or hypocrisy, protectionism, and a sinister form of ethical imperialism. A study by J. Lawrence French and Richard E. Wokutch examined after reviewing the contentious debates on the ethics of work by children, we focus on their employment in global industries and ground our discussion in Brazil's export oriented shoe industry, where this practice has received much attention and a variety of global actors work with local entities to abolish it.
First, we examine what appear to be the causes of work and conclude that child employment in this industry has more to do with the integration of children and their families into global production and consumption systems than with their poverty or immersion in tradition.
Second, we investigate the nature of work activities, the context within which these occur, and their consequences for the child workers. What is most evident is the marked disagreement regarding the implications of shoe industry employment for children among interested stakeholders that include the local community, the U.S. government, and the children themselves.
Third, we examine the campaign by the U.S. government to end child employment in the shoe industry and the shoe industry’s
Disputes regarding appropriate international labor standards have intensified with the globalization of markets and heightened contacts between peoples of different cultures and levels of economic development. Many in industrialized nations argue that lax standards in developing nations permit unethical treatment of workers and create unfair trade advantages (J. Lawrence French and Richard E. Wokutch, 2005). Abuse of child labor leads to many reactions of people who are neither social activists social activists to protest such corporate practices nor social community rather they can lead to complexity and can be called either naive or hypocrisy, protectionism, and a sinister form of ethical imperialism. A study by J. Lawrence French and Richard E. Wokutch examined after reviewing the contentious debates on the ethics of work by children, we focus on their employment in global industries and ground our discussion in Brazil's export oriented shoe industry, where this practice has received much attention and a variety of global actors work with local entities to abolish it.
First, we examine what appear to be the causes of work and conclude that child employment in this industry has more to do with the integration of children and their families into global production and consumption systems than with their poverty or immersion in tradition.
Second, we investigate the nature of work activities, the context within which these occur, and their consequences for the child workers. What is most evident is the marked disagreement regarding the implications of shoe industry employment for children among interested stakeholders that include the local community, the U.S. government, and the children themselves.
Third, we examine the campaign by the U.S. government to end child employment in the shoe industry and the shoe industry’s