Impact of Human Rights on Organisations: A Case Study of Amazon

This report analyses the impact of human rights on organisations and how companies deal with these issues with the special reference to Amazon. It defines the issue of human rights, explains the code of conduct that assists in resolving/addressing the issue, discusses the support and guidance available from relevant professional bodies/organisations, and concludes with an assessment of the likely impact both the support and codes of conduct could have on the issue.

Preparing for
Professional Career
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Table of Contents
Part A...............................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Define the issue/challenge chosen..........................................................................................3
Explains the code of conduct that assist in resolving/addressing the issue............................4
Discuss the support and guidance available from the relevant Professional
Bodies/Organisations..............................................................................................................4
Concludes with an assessment of the likely impact both the support and codes of conduct
could have on the issue...........................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
Part B...............................................................................................................................................6
CPD Plan................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................7
Appendices.......................................................................................................................................8
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Part A
INTRODUCTION
In today's global business environment, the dynamic nature for organisation is increasing.
It is important for organisations that they should do business with the consideration of all ethics.
Ethics are the set of rules or code of conducts which is used for the purpose of doing business in
an ethical way (Freeman, 2017). There are many ethical issues increasing every day in the
business environment as organisations are not doing their business in an ethical manner. In the
context of ethical issues, human rights are one of the important ethical issues in the business
environment. This report aims to analyse the impact of human rights on organisations and how
companies are deal with these issues with the special reference to Amazon. It is the multinational
organisation which originated their work from America in 1994. They are running their e-
commerce business very well in the global market.
MAIN BODY
Define the issue/challenge chosen
Human rights are defined as the basic rights which are able to protect people from unfair
practices (Human rights and business, 2019). All human rights are based on equality, freedom,
dignity and respect. It is found in the case of organisations that there is a significant impact due
to the human rights. Organisations are run by people and for people. That's why human rights are
affected on other organisational success and growth. It is identified that human rights issues are
generally found in unsafe working conditions and child labour. There are many human right
issues found in the case of business environment such as child labour, leak confidential
information of customers and employees, privacy, health and safety, etc. In order to combat
with all these issue, Amazon is trying to formulate protection laws and rules that helps to protect
the human rights of employees and customers. It is the e-commerce business for which it
becomes very important to protect the data of their customers in an appropriate way. This can be
better understand with the help of example. For example, in Amazon, it is found that they are
ensuring that they always respecting all human rights in an effective way. They are
understanding all the issues that faced by their employees as well as customer’s labour rights
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violations in global supply chain such as forced and child labour, etc. They are always ready to
uphold human rights and that's why they have been taking action since 1998 as they are members
of Ethical Trading Initiative (Our approach to human rights, 2021). One more example is
Amazon’s customers are using their plastic money with the use of internet, so it becomes very
important for Amazon to save the confidential or personal information from leaking. But after
this, it is also found that still companies are playing an important role in the contribution of
adding issues in human rights. For example, the main objective of any organisation is to earn
profits and that's why they are doing unfair trade practices such as using child labour, use
customers' information without permission, etc.
Explains the code of conduct that assist in resolving/addressing the issue
Code of conducts of an organisations are referring to the ethical, legal, and compliance
risk areas which assists employees in order to take a right choice. In the case of Tesco, it is
identified that they are doing their business activities with following of code of conducts.
According to Amazon’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, they are always focusing on
maintaining their valuable reputation in the market with the consideration of all ethical and legal
practice (Code of Business Conduct and Ethics). In order to perform the ethical practices, they
are committed and that's why they define all the roles and responsibilities of directors,
employees, officers, company's representatives, and agents. They are never compromised with
their value system. In order to do this, it is found that Amazon’s Executive Management Team
are ready for receiving and investigating complaints. Human rights issues are increasing and
that's why it becomes necessary for organisations them to resolve it. So for that purpose, they are
using code of conducts which assists an organisation to improve their business practices as it
provides guidance and information to organisation.
Discuss the support and guidance available from the relevant Professional Bodies/Organisations
It is identified that there are many professional bodies and organisations available in the
market that assists an organisation to overcome with the challenges in global business
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environment such as human rights (Bunch, 2018). Some important professional bodies are
mentioned below:
Social Work England: It is the specialist body which is designed in 2017 for the purpose
of protecting, promoting, and maintaining healthy, safety and wellbeing, self-confidence, and
proper professional standards to the people (World Health Organization, 2020). This body is
very important for overcoming the human rights issues as they are focused on people and they
are always try to protect human rights. If organisations are take support from this body, they are
able to combat with all human rights challenges effectively.
Equality Act 2010: It is identified the most common and important act which is designed
for the purpose of protecting human rights from unequal pay. There are many organisations
which are not provided equal pay to the employees. So people have a rights to use this Act in
order to protect their rights. Organisations also use this Act which assists them to overcome with
the challenge of unequal distribution of pay. Generally, most of the UK organisations are work
with the compliance of this Act so that they can deal with the issues related to the human rights.
Concludes with an assessment of the likely impact both the support and codes of conduct could
have on the issue
It is identified that of organisations are effectively follow codes of conduct and work with
professional bodies then they are able to deal with the issues (Risse, 2019). The decision making
power of an organisation is improving as they get assistance of professional body and also
directing and guiding by code of conducts. It also empowers employees to deal with the ethical
dilemmas in an organisation.
On the other hand, if organisations are not following code of conducts then they have to
ready for facing complications and legal activities. It is also found that of company are not taking
help from professional bodies then they are not able to deal with the human rights issues.
Companies are unable to take benefits of legal compliance activities and they are not able to sue
cases on any unfair trade practices.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above discussion that it is necessary for every organisation
that they need to comply all ethical activities and related code of conducts. Human rights are
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very important and companies need to make sure that they should respect and perform activities
in order to save and protect rights of individuals.
Part B
CPD Plan
In appendices
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REFERENCES:
Books and Journals
Bunch, C., 2018. Transforming human rights from a feminist perspective. In Women's Rights
Human Rights (pp. 11-17). Routledge.
Freeman, M., 2017. Human rights. John Wiley & Sons.
Risse, M., 2019. Human rights and artificial intelligence: An urgently needed agenda. Human
Rights Quarterly, 41(1), pp.1-16.
World Health Organization, 2020. Addressing human rights as key to the COVID-19: response,
21 April 2020 (No. WHO/2019-nCoV/SRH/Rights/2020.1). World Health Organization.
Online
Human rights and business, 2019. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/human-rights-and-business>
Our approach to human rights, 2021. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.tescoplc.com/sustainability/documents/policies/our-approach-to-human-rights/>
Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. [Online] Available through:
<https://ir.aboutamazon.com/corporate-governance/documents-and-charters/code-of-business-
conduct-and-ethics/default.aspx>
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Appendices
CPD PLAN
What do I want to
learn?
What will I do to
achieve this?
What resources or
support will I need?
What is my
success criteria?
Ethical issues in
global business
environment
I learned that
increasing in
globalisation also
increases ethical
issues in the
businesses as
companies are facing
a tough competition.
Due to this, they are
performing unethical
practices.
I found that the learning
of ethical issues will
very helpful in my future
studies and career. I
identified that it will be
helpful in order to
comply ethical practices
in my activities as ethics
are not only useful in
organisations but it
should be present in
every individual's life so
that they cannot perform
any unfair practices.
In order to
identifying all the
ethical issues, I
need to formulate
an action plan. In
my action plan, I
will make sure
that my own
practices should
be comply with
the code of
conducts. I also
make a document
in which I need to
write my own
roles and
responsibilities so
that I will make
sure to implement
my responsibilities
in an ethical way.
Human rights I identified that
human rights are very
important for every
I found that human
rights are considering
one of the important
In order to
implement my
learning, I make
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individuals as it is the
basic rights which
every person wants to
enjoy. There are
many human rights
which I founded such
as right of privacy,
right to get
information, etc.
ethical challenges for
organisations in now-a-
days as it increases every
day due to unfair trade
practices of an
organisation. This
learning is very helpful
in future studies as I will
be able to know that
what areas in which I
will find human rights
challenges.
an action plan in
which I decided
that it is very
important for me
to get all
knowledge of
human rights so
that I will never
face problems in
order to enjoy my
human rights.
Code of conducts I found that code of
conducts is very
important in order to
guide an individual,
organisations and
communities that
how they can able to
comply all ethical
practices. I learned
that code of conducts
are the set of rules
and regulations which
assists to perform all
activities in an ethical
manner.
I identified that code of
conducts are helpful in
my career development
as evert organisations
are found those
individuals who are
ready for complying all
the code of conducts in
their performances.
I make a plan in
order to
implement code of
conducts ion
organisations in
which I will make
sure that all code
of conducts is
effectively
communicated to
each and every
individual. So that
they will have no
confusions.
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