Topic 1

Topic 1

Introduction

Ethics are deemed the inner-guiding moral principles, values and beliefs that people use to analyze or interpret a situation then decide what the appropriate course of action should be (Waddell, Jones, George, 2012, 145). Due to recent events in which mass casualties have arisen in a Bangladeshi textiles factory, the ethics of several multinational corporations such as Kmart and Target and their organizational stakeholders have been questioned. To uphold their ethical standpoint, certain models such as the Utilitarian, Moral Rights and Justice models should be employed; increasing ethical accountability to consumers therefore signing the Safety Accord is seen as essential.

Corporations today co-operate with numerous local, national and international environments. These environments are gradually integrating into a global structure of dynamically unified collaborations among businesses and economics. “We must think globally before acting locally” (Weiss, 2009, 5). The extensive growth of the economic environment into today's world has seen businesses expanding production overseas.

Discussion

Utilitarian model

The Utilitarian model stems from 'the central concept of a belief that ethics is best applied by considering the greatest good for the greatest number” (Stead, Warrell and Stead, 1990, 234). It is deemed to be a consequentialist principle in which 'the moral authority that drives the utilitarian model is the calculate consequences of an action regardless of other principles that determine the means or motivation for taking the action”. Increasing the average wage would reap great benefits to all of the 3 million employees working in clothing factories out of Bangladesh. 'We want to make sure that they get rightful salaries from the world” (Hundreds of Bangladeshi factories to shut down indefinitely, 2013).

The Utilitarian model reviews action in terms of its outcomes or consequences; i.e. to all the stakeholders, the cost and net benefits on an individual level. It attempts to attain the greatest good for the greatest number while making the least amount of damage or averting the greatest amount of suffering. This approach holds that interests of every entity should be considered evenly in decision making, and this incorporates those of other groups since they are also capable of suffering.

The Utilitarian model offers a comparatively straightforward process for a manager to decide the ethically right course of action for any specific situation he might find himself in. Using the utilitarian approach in this case requires identification of different courses of action that can be performed. Secondly, the anticipated benefits and harms have to be determined that would result from every course of action for every person affected by the action. Third, the course of action needs to be chosen that will provide the greatest benefits after the expenses have been taken into account.

Therefore, for any set of alternatives this model would view the most ethical option as the one which creates the best balance of benefits over harm for a number of stakeholders. The demand of workers to execute the owner of Rana Plaza, who is amongst the numerous people arrested over the deadly collapse (Hundreds of Bangladeshi factories to shut ...