Ethical and moral obligations of the International Organization

OPERATIONS

Introduction
With the increased globalisation, the business practices have become even more complex. In
the race of the competiveness, the companies are increasingly engaged in the creation of
goods and services at the low costs for the provision of the same to the consumers. One such
popular practice involved therein is the practice of outsourcing of the section of the
production to the countries that have a cheap labour cost. However, such a practice is
surrounded with numerous ethical concerns. The objective of the following work is to
elaborate the ethical concerns in the said areas. The discussions would be conducted on the
lines of the global justice and globalisation, and would be followed by an overall conclusion
on the relevancy of the same.
Analysis
Most of the major corporations are engaged in taking the benefits out of the differential
wages in different parts of the world and thus, moving the part of the production processes to
the developing countries like that of India, China, Mexico and others. It has been observed
that the labour laws present in the said countries are not stringent enough like in the other
developed countries. There are numerous companies that have shifted their production
processes to the cheap labour cost countries like that of the AT&T shifting its production of
the residential telephones from United States to Singapore, Apple shifting its production
processes to Finland and others. The aim is not only to benefit from the cost economies but
also to save the tax on the total production. Following are presented a brief set of the
advantages for which the companies indulge in the relocation of the production activities to
the foreign countries. Firstly, the areas like China has vast population in search of the
employment and thus, the organisations are exposed to the benefits of the competitive job
markets, and the lower payroll taxes. Secondly, in spite of the lower wages, the
competitiveness of the labours is still great as seen in the case or the products of the global
companies like that of Apple, whose major products are manufactured at China (O’Brien,
2014).
Ethical and moral obligations of the international organisation in the manufacturing
locations
There are present numerous ethical obligations in the said outsourcing of the manufacturing
activities as described below. The prime ethical obligation in the said moving of the
production activities is to ensure the fair working conditions of the labours in the said

countries. It is vital to note that there are various global laws and standards to be complied
with in the conduct of the business in an ethical manner. For instance, the Sustainable
Development Goal number 8 states that the organisations must ensure the decent work
conditions and the economic growth of the employees and the labours involved in the
organisation (United Nations, 2020). Accordingly, it is the moral duty of the organisations to
ensure the adequate protection and safety measures and the avoidance of the uncomfortable
and hazardous environments. This is because though the production processes have been
relocated to the other regions, the responsibility of the welfare of the stakeholders involves
and the efficiency in the production processes is still that of the entity itself. In a popular
incident that took place in Bangladesh, one of the garment factory had collapsed, and the
incident is regarded as one of the worst incidents in the history of the world garment industry
(The Associated Press, 2013). The reason for the said collapse as was later discovered came
out to be hazardous working conditions in the low cost manufacturing areas like Bangladesh.
It was stated that the reasons for the grim working conditions in said regions are desperation
for jobs, illegal structures of the building to accommodate more workers, installation of the
heavy equipment and an overall industry indifference. Various local and national trade unions
had campaigned for the said hazardous work conditions. Thus, it is the duty of the
organisations to ensure the working environment matches the basic standards of safety for the
employees.
The second key issue in the protection of the basic human rights issues in the production
processes of the entity. It is vital to note that the companies engage in the relocation of the
manufacturing activities in an attempt to access the cheap labour. The ethical issues in such
scenarios are the result of the economic exploitation, forced labour and the absence of the
protection of the basic human rights. In a recent incident, the workers of the company
Foxconn that is the trade partner of the global mobile phone giant Apple was accused of
various legal violations in China such as withholding bonus payments of the employees,
employment of more temporary workers than as allowed by the Chinese labour laws, and
rolling back safety training (Albergotti, 2019). The fact that the company had employed more
number of temporary workers breaching the law was later accepted by the entity. It was
alleged by the regulators that the said means are employed by the global entities with an aim
to absorb the costs associated with the tariff charges on the services and products of the
companies. It is efficient to note that while the developed countries have stringent labour
laws, the developing countries do not often have the sound legal framework for the regulation