1.1 Background of Sanlu Group
Sanlu Group is one of the largest milk powder manufacturers in China. It was founded in 1956 and also named as Shijiazhuang Three Deers Limited. In December 2005, Sanlu Group had a joint venture agreement with Fonterra, which is a New Zealand famous dairy company. Fonterra had taken 43% equity stake in Sanlu Group and the majority 56% stake owned by the Shinjiazhuang Three Deers Limited. In 2009, Sanlu Group declared bankrupt by the court due to some unethical practices. Thus, the practices of an organization whether is ethically or unethically able to impact the future of the company and in the following part, we will indicate more on the ethical and unethical issues with the example of Sanlu Group. 1.2 Ethical and unethical issues
Business ethics is defined as the study of moral and social responsibility in relation to business practices and decision-making in business. In other word, ethics is conforming to the standards of behavior that widely accepted by the social. Ethical behavior can base on three areas in making managerial decision. First, choose about what the laws should be and whether to follow them. Second, choose about economic and social issues outside the domain of law. Third, choose about the priority of self-interest over the company’s interest. The example of ethical action practiced by Sanlu Group is they had donated dairy product that worth RMB 1milion to the Sichuan disaster area after the earthquake in 2008.
However, an unethical issue is the behavior that is not compatible to the social or professional behavior standards that is recognized. It is actions that take advantage in others people without their consent but not necessarily illegal. For instant, Sanlu Group used the unsafety ingredients in producing the milk powder; conceal the incident from the public and showing respect to those who act unethically. In the next part, we will discuss about the unethical issues of Sanlu Group