Business Ethics

Introduction

This is a case about relocation of a plant or to continue its operations within the United States. There are a number of options available for the firm to relocate its operations to places where there are lesser issues of environmental safety; moreover, these sites have employment rates cheaper than the United States and can be beneficial for the company. However, the job security of the employees working in the plants operating in the United States will be ultimately affected by the decision of relocation, as shut down of plants in the home country will lead to unemployment. Eventually, with increased rate of unemployment the economy of the communities in which these plants are located will suffer dislocation as result of the relocation decision. Thus, the choice of relocating the plants needs a critical analysis.

Analysis

The major issue because of which the company has to think about relocating its plants is that the some of the hydrocarbons used in the production are carcinogens; thus, require to be handled with extra care which creates an issue of environmental safety at the workplace. Secondly, the production costs have increased for myriad reasons including; increase in wage per hour as a result of strike from the labor union, the safety procedures which are applied within the plant have high costs , both in terms of time and money. Combined with all these issues, the environmental regulations also costs the company a great deal of money, as the waste produced is to be put through an expensive process before depositing at a special waste disposal facility. As a result of all these problems, the company's riches have been declining speedily about which the shareholders of the company are constantly complaining.

If morals of business ethics are applied, then, in my assessment, relocating to other sites because of their lower rates of labor and less strictness in environmental policy is not morally ethical because the firm is going to transfer the hazards posed to its local employees to the labor in developing countries. Since business and morality are related to each other in myriad important ways which are easily ignored by the myth of amoral business; however, it is the duty of the people involved in business to illuminate these relationships. In addition to this, the mandates and limits of business enterprises are set by the society, so this is in no way ethical, to choose places that permits toxic exposure at higher levels. By doing so the management will be taking the environmental laws of the company for granted and may violate them in future.

The future consequences of not doing the right act may include;

Poor publicity of the organization in the global market: Here, the example of Nike Sweatshops in China fits very well, as in this case also Nike took the rules of the country for granted and got involved in making people and children work for long hours with very low amount of wages. Similarly, if Electrocorp is going to take ...