Businesses around the world operate in ways that benefit themselves i.e., the business conducts its operation such that they earn profit. Operating with a primary objective on profit alone may drive businesses to ignore established laws and find a workaround the legal framework. Such is the case in the article “A Deadly Grind”, wherein women and children are employed to work in mines under harmful conditions. The business is well aware that this practice is illegal as well as unethical. Yet they choose to continue with their operations for higher profits.
“This is the ‘artisanal mining’ sector – a bureaucratic euphemism for the job of scavenging, digging and clawing a living from the harsh earth with bare hands and crude tools.” No such euphemism makes the conditions these children work-in less deplorable. Only a total revamp in the business’ practices with an ethical approach can improve the situation. In the words of Milton Freidman “There is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use it resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game.” Businesses can therefore work towards their goal of profit but must ensure that they conform to ethical norms while doing so.
Citations
(1) York G. A deadly grind. The Globe and Mail 2012 Aug 18.
(2) Zimmerli, W, Holzinger, M, & Richter, K (eds) 2007, Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, DEU. Available from: ProQuest ebrary. [10 September 2014].
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