Cross Cultural Perspective Essay

A respected and well known corporation no doubt would be Nike. In order to save money and cut expenses Nike has outsourced its labor outside of the United States. Production and labor cost are indeed a lot cheaper outside of the United States. Nike had factories located in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Mexico due to the cheap cost of labor in those countries. In the 1990s Nike was criticized for child labor in Cambodia and Pakistan. The accusations claimed that children were being used to do the stitching on football balls. Other accusations regarding Nike was about the terrible working conditions in Malaysia regarding their employees. All of the accusations of course raised criticism regarding Nike’s ethics. The perspective of childhood and responsibilities varies across countries, ethnic groups, and cultures. An example would be for instance, in poor areas like Mexico or Pakistan, there is nothing wrong with children working in order to help their families with the household expenses. On the other hand, here in the United States there are child labor laws safeguarding children from taking such responsibilities that are laid on them at such an early age. Unlike the children in the United States, children in Mexico or Pakistan have to work at such as early age to help support their families, it is more of a necessity or a means of survivor more than anything else. The issue of child labor affects Nike’s corporation and its interactions outside of the United States. Once Nike was criticized regarding child labor, Nike made significant changes in the manner of operations of the organization in order to avoid more accusations and scandals of the same nature. Nike took immediate steps to correct the problem, by implementing a code of social responsibility throughout its supply chain that improved working conditions for over 800,000 employees at 700 factories in 52 countries. The most important step that was implemented was to develop a supplier’s

References: Nikebiz. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nikebiz.com/crreport/ Ethical consumer. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcompanyratings/nikeethicalcompanyratings.aspx Stewart, N. (2011). Business ethics case analyses. Retrieved from http://businessethicscases.blogspot.com/2013/04/nike-abuse-in-indonesia-2011.html