In the blog Profiting from Prison Labour, the author juxtapositions what is seen to be an unethical practice and how it is seen not to be so. Prisoners are being paid half of the wage of a non-prisoner; moreover, this is just another form of cheap labour where potential jobs for non-prisoners are nonexistence. I do agree that this issue can be seen is not unethical under the conditions if there is no force implemented on the prisoners to work and also if they do not have a problem with the pay. However, what is brought to my concern is how would a company is perceived through the lens of a consumer; which, in fact varies depending on their values and beliefs. Therefore there is large variance in how an organization is perceived under the sectors concerning human resource management. From how I see it, ethical or not, this is mostly determined by the consumers and how they would respond to such action of an organization. This would impact the company significantly if they are seen as “unattractive” by their consumers in such ways that would hurt them financially and their image.

Above is Ph.D, an educator, speaker and consultant in the sector of Business Ethics, Chris MacDonald.