Ethics of Care in Business: A Case Study of Woolworths Australia

This presentation discusses the violation of ethics of care by Woolworths Australia through a case study of plagiarism of baby carrier design from Ubuntu Baba. It also justifies the violation using JEERS and highlights the potential suffering of stakeholders.

Ethics of care in
Business

This presentation will
enumerate
 Brief overview of ethics of care.
 Unethical practice at Woolworths Australia
 Violation of ethics of care
 Justification using Jeers

Ethics of care- A brief
overview
 The term was coined by American psychologist Carol Gillian in the 1960s.
 It is a normative ethical theory.
 Theories such as the theory of deontological ethics and the utilitarian
theory focus on factors such as rights, duties and responsibility.
 The ethics of care places emphasis on individual understanding and on
inter personal relationships such as emotional qualities (companionship,
mercy, sensitivity, etc.) (Barnes & Brannelly, 2015)
 According to Carol Gillian, an individual’s family is where the virtues and
ethics of care are cultivated.

Unethical conduct-
Woolworths
 Woolworths supermarket have been accused of copying a baby carrier
design fro the actual creator (citizen.co.za. , 2019).
 The super markets chain have been allegedly making plagiarized product
similar to the ones made by a company called Ubuntu baba, based in the
South African City of Cape town.
 According to the creator of the original product, Woolworths copied two of
her creations and allegedly replicated the product by using exact colour,
similar design and product names.
 Woolworths stocked the baby carriers and were offering it at lower prices
than the actual product as the products that they were offering were made
in china which also put a question mark on the quality of the product.

Woolworths’ response
 The creator of the Ubuntu baba baby
criers tried to communicate the issue
with the supermarkets chain, resulted
in failed attempts.
 Taking it up to social media through a
blog got the owner well needed
attention of the media which was
followed by the accuse.
 Woolworths acknowledged the issue
and admitted that the product were
similar (Geach ,2019).
 They later announce that they will be
unstocking the product and that they
will be refund the buyers.

Violation of ethics-Morality
 The Australian super market
chain have been attracting
various scandals over the past
few years with false advertising.
 The company’s management
were alleged of being aware of
the case of plagiarism of the
Ubuntu baba baby carriers.
 The company were found to be
violating the already registered
copyrights of the Ubuntu baba
company.

Violation of ethics-Morality
(Continued)  Copying the product from the
original creator is nothing but a
serious issue that arises out of
lack of morality (Aufderheide &
Jaszi).
 Selling a product with the same
colour, name and design without
giving credit to the creator is a
punishable offence

Violation of ethics-Morality
(Continued)
 The phenomenon that took place is a serious issue of Copyright
infringement (Jamali, 2017).
 The company stated after the allegation that they would be reimbursing
customers who would purchased the product.
 However no statement regarding paying the creator compensation in form
of royalty were made.
 Even though the company agreed to take the products off their shelves,
they did opposed the claim that they copied the product.

Violation-CSR
 It is the responsibility of every company to look after the consumer
community.
 Woolworths have been facing issues such a falsifying, unethical practices
such as maintaining a pub and casino and further malpractices.
 This has affected their goodwill, brand image and consumers’ perception
towards the company (Wu & Chen ,2015).
 They have created the pirated product and have admitted that the
products were created in China.
 The compromise in price was possible by degradation of the quality of the
final product.

Violation-CSR
(continued)
 The products that were alleged of
the copyright as mentioned
before were products aimed at
infants and their parents.
 Since infants are involved a
company must always ensure,
that the best raw materials go
into creation of whichever product
is meant for babies.

Violation-CSR
(continued)  The products made from cheap
and non par raw materials can
lead to discomfort issues in the
babies.
 Ubuntu baba’s products were
made of supreme quality products
and were responsible for the high
prices.
 The company fails in CSR as they
are choosing their profitability
over consumer well being (Adler,
2014).

Serious ethical Violation-
Justification
The issue of violation of code of ethics of care can be justified
using JEERS.
J- Justice was violated when
Woolworths violated the ethical code
by plagiarizing Ubuntu baba’s baby
carriers. Furthermore no royalty was
provided to the actual creator.

E-Equality was not being achieved, however as
a result of such an incident the management
directly transferred the blame on the production
line.
 The managers mentioned that further state that the issue was
solely due to faulty performance of the personnel engaged in
bring the plagiarized idea to the shelves of the supermarkets.

 The blame fell on the production line who according to the top
level managers were not properly informed about the negative
implications of the product duplication.

E- The stakeholder’s
reaction
Much similar to the earlier
response of the
stakeholders, this event
could lead to further loss
of stakeholders for the
company.
One would not appreciate
to be associated with a
company that has serious
ethics violation cases.

R- Rightfulness of the action
 Firstly, Violation of ethics can never be considered as something that is
appropriate.
 Secondly, copying one’ creation without giving them any courtesy raises
questions.
 Thirdly, the use of low quality materials in production of baby care items is
an act of serious violation of ethics.

S- Potential for suffering
The event has resulted in various instances of possible suffering. Following
are the people who would suffer as a result of the event.
 The actual creator would suffer since this could result in lack of sales of the
actual product that is priced higher than the pirated product.
 The company would suffer as a result of loss of stakeholders
 The employees are suffering already as the management have directed the
blame on the staff.
Thus it justifies the violation of ethics of care.

Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that Woolworths violated the ethics of care. This
inference has been derived a result of the following:
 The company violated CSR
 The company’s activity was unjust as they ceased on the opportunity that
was presented by Ubuntu Baba and did not give the latter any form of
compensation.
 Their actions will result in loss of stakeholder trust and potential suffering
of the members of the organization.

References
Balganesh, S. (2013). Copyright infringement markets. Colum. L. Rev., 113, 2277.
Barnes, M., & Brannelly, T. (Eds.). (2015). Ethics of care: Critical advances in international
perspective. Policy Press.
citizen.co.za. (2019). Orchids and Onions: Two Onions for Woolworths. Retrieved from
https://citizen.co.za/news/opinion/opinion-columns/2061985/orchids-and-onions-two-onions-for-woolw
orths
/
Geach, C. (2019). Woolworths admits it bought Ubuntu Baba baby carrier 'for inspiration' | Weekend
Argus. Retrieved from https://
www.iol.co.za/weekend-argus/news/woolworths-admits-it-bought-ubuntu-baba-baby-carrier-for-inspira
tion-18791325
Aufderheide, P., & Jaszi, P. (2018). Reclaiming fair use: How to put balance back in copyright.
University of Chicago Press.
Wu, S. I., & Chen, J. H. (2015). The Influence of CSR on Brand Relevant Aspects. J. Mgmt. &
Sustainability, 5, 17.
Adler, P. S. (2014). Capitalism in question. Journal of Management Inquiry, 23(2), 206-209.