A case study which I found to relate business and ethics quite well is the poor labour conditions in many shoe factories across Asia. A large company under heavy fire for this issue is Nike. In many of Nike’s factories, employees have reported to be verbally and physically abused as “punishment” for poor yield, quality, etc. An internal report released by the Associated Press showed that nearly two thirds of all Nike factories in Indonesia do not reach Nike’s standards; twelve of the 168 factories in Indonesia were reported as to be in the “most serious” category, where employees are expected to work illegally long hours at a wages well below the national average. At what point, for the employee, do the “cons” of working for Nike outweigh the “pros”? Employing approximately 115,000 individuals in Indonesia, Nike provides a great contribution to the national economy. With that said, is it ethically right to employ an individual in a third-world country, and force that employee into far from ideal working conditions in attempt to lower the cost of a shoe? Even if the employment opportunity will not only aid the employee himself, but also his or her countries economic strength? The obvious difference in labour standards fades the line between what is ethically right and wrong.
Factory illustration: http://zero-drop.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/217540431VTBjsL_fs.jpg
web reference pages: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/sep2011/nike-s08.shtml
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/121790850350380.xml&coll=7