Business Ethics and Responsible Management

Business Ethics and
Responsible
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
PART 1- A REPORT.......................................................................................................................3
Ethical Issues...............................................................................................................................3
Role of Business in Society.........................................................................................................4
Five Stakeholders.........................................................................................................................5
Examples of Good and Bad Ethics..............................................................................................5
Recommendations........................................................................................................................6
PART 1-B Ethical Theories.............................................................................................................6
Descriptions of the Ethical Theories............................................................................................6
Applying Ethical Theories...........................................................................................................7
Critique........................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations........................................................................................................................8
PART 2 Reflective Essay................................................................................................................9
Ethical Leadership Management.................................................................................................9
Maintaining Integrity and Compliance........................................................................................9
Personal Experience and Knowledge........................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Ethics are a set of moral principles that come to govern an individual or business
organisation’s operational behaviour or conducting of an operational activity. Business ethics
refers to the study of business policies and practices regarding controversial operational areas
such as insider trading, bribery, corporate social responsibility, discrimination etc. (Dierksmeier
and Seele, 2018). This report analyses the ethical supply chain and human rights abuse concerns
at tuna companies such as Bumble Bee Foods, which is a privately owned business organisation
that manufactures canned salmon, tuna and other seafood and chickens under their variously
owned brand names. Bumble Bee Foods was founded in 1899 and currently operates from its
operational headquarters in San Diego, California, USA. Bumble Bee Foods is owned by FCF
CO, Ltd from Taiwan and also markets its brand operations in Canada under the name Clover
Leaf. In the past the business organisation has faced some criticisms over its use of unethical
practices that abuse basic human rights of their employees.
MAIN BODY
PART 1- A REPORT
Ethical Issues
The main ethical issues relating to the operations and functions conducted by Bumble
Bee Foods within the seafood industry are the same ethical issues that are quite frequently
present in most of the businesses operating within the seafood industry. These major ethical
issues for Bumble Bee Food’s operations within the seafood industry are as follows:
Human Rights Abuse: There has been great evidence of rampant abuse of human rights being
committed by the local supply chains of the seafood industry and by the business organisations
operating within the seafood industry. In recent years various major authorised institutions and
NGOs have there has been rampant abuse of human rights being committed within the seafood
industry. As per recent estimates around 40.3 million individuals are still forced into labour by
businesses across all industries and the fishermen, by nature of their isolated operations at the

sea, are highly vulnerable to abuses of their basic human rights, with the supply chain of Bumble
Bee Foods using highly unethical practices such as forced labour in order to cut costs and
increase profit margins (Ferrell and et.al., 2019). As most of such fishermen are local
individuals, not having much education, their basic human rights are being consistently abused
on a regular manner. It is frequently common for fishermen to be forced into additional labour by
businesses such as Bumble Bee Foods without providing them with any extra payment.
Slavery: Another major unethical issue for Bumble Bee Foods and the entire seafood industry
relates to the slavery that has also been present within the supply chains of the industry. In
almost all offshore fisheries, migrant workers are paid poorly than the minimum wages, abused
and discriminated against, with increasingly number of migrant workers being treated just as
slaves within the seafood industry. It is also not uncommon for such workers to face payment
deductions with detailed reports in the Guardian and New York Times bringing to account cases
of migrant workers being sold into slavery to work under abysmal conditions under unscrupulous
labour brokers, with some workers being as young as 15.
Role of Business in Society
The role of Bumble Bee Foods within the society at large is to provide the customers
within the society with seafood such as tuna, salmon etc., that is procured from the various sea
bodies of the world. Bumble Bee Foods is required to fulfil this role while abiding by the various
legally mandated legislations and regulations and also incorporating highly moral and ethical
practices within the business organisation. As the operations of the Bumble Bee Foods business
organisation showcase their values and ethics to the customers, Bumble Bee Foods is required to
adopt legal, moral and ethical practices as part of their daily operations in order for their goods
and services to become increasingly valuable to the customers of the seafood industries and for
Bumble Bee Foods to conduct their daily operations in a successful manner over a sustained
period of time (Sroka and Szántó, 2018). The leadership and senior management of Bumble Bee
Foods is required to understand this critical role of the business organisation within the overall
society and implement into the organisation operational practices that are moral, ethical and legal
in nature and address the ethical issues that it currently faces in relation to slavery and human
rights abuses, in order to effectively fulfil the role of business organisation in the society.