Ethical Dilemma
Jesslyn Lay
OPER360
04/03/2013
Ethical Dilemma 1
In the case of this first dilemma, my suggestion would be to stay with the original supplier instead of switching to China-made shoes. Although cost effective, as a widely-regarded socially responsible company, we should keep in mind that the switching is risky and may cause a potential damage to the company’s reputation. I believe the company will save so much if we decide to do the switching especially with the projected sales for the following year of 10 million pairs. However, the savings we earn can’t be compared to our commitment to social responsibility. As a socially responsible company, it is our obligation to deliver the best to our customers with value added.
We should put into consideration that we have least or no control to the labor working conditions, harassment and pollution that may occur during the production of the shoes. All we know is that the Chinese government is harsh. For instance, the Chinese government required their workers to complete a number of projects (including ours) within a certain amount of time, causing their workers to work overtime every day. The workers then boycotted their duties which delayed the production time. Unfortunately, we know nothing about it - since the Chinese government engages in censorship allowing them to do whatever they want to as long as they meet their objectives – and so we couldn’t do anything.
The increasing labor cost is surely a concern to the company but in my opinion, if we do the switching, our company’s projected sales may also change since we can’t be sure about almost anything. In the case I discussed previously, the delayed production sure will make our company’s performance decreases, causing our company’s image and reputation to shrink and hence, decreases the projected sales as well. So my suggestion is to avoid risk and stick with the original supplier in order to survive in the long run, compared to saving $1 per pair which may
OPER360
04/03/2013
Ethical Dilemma 1
In the case of this first dilemma, my suggestion would be to stay with the original supplier instead of switching to China-made shoes. Although cost effective, as a widely-regarded socially responsible company, we should keep in mind that the switching is risky and may cause a potential damage to the company’s reputation. I believe the company will save so much if we decide to do the switching especially with the projected sales for the following year of 10 million pairs. However, the savings we earn can’t be compared to our commitment to social responsibility. As a socially responsible company, it is our obligation to deliver the best to our customers with value added.
We should put into consideration that we have least or no control to the labor working conditions, harassment and pollution that may occur during the production of the shoes. All we know is that the Chinese government is harsh. For instance, the Chinese government required their workers to complete a number of projects (including ours) within a certain amount of time, causing their workers to work overtime every day. The workers then boycotted their duties which delayed the production time. Unfortunately, we know nothing about it - since the Chinese government engages in censorship allowing them to do whatever they want to as long as they meet their objectives – and so we couldn’t do anything.
The increasing labor cost is surely a concern to the company but in my opinion, if we do the switching, our company’s projected sales may also change since we can’t be sure about almost anything. In the case I discussed previously, the delayed production sure will make our company’s performance decreases, causing our company’s image and reputation to shrink and hence, decreases the projected sales as well. So my suggestion is to avoid risk and stick with the original supplier in order to survive in the long run, compared to saving $1 per pair which may