Analyzing Business Ethics: Case Studies and Ethical Dilemmas

This document presents a series of case studies exploring various ethical dilemmas in the business world. The first case examines the ethical implications of child labor in toy manufacturing, where a product manager grapples with the decision to support a manufacturer using child labor to reduce costs. The second case study focuses on a marketing director facing ethical conflicts related to insider trading and the potential harm caused by a company's product. The third case delves into the ethical considerations of hiring practices, specifically the use of social media to assess job candidates and the potential for discrimination. The fourth case study addresses the deceptive practices of marketing 'organic' food and the ethical responsibilities of food producers. Finally, the fifth case study discusses the ethical dilemma of boycotting Uzbek cotton due to forced child labor, highlighting the complexities of supply chain ethics and the challenges of combating human rights violations in global business.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS
Business Ethics
Name of the Student
Name of the Organization
Author note

1BUSINESS ETHICS
Summary 1
Producing toys-child’s play
The above mentioned case study is about the ethical dilemma of supporting child labor in
order to enhance the yearly revenue of an Organization. A product manager of a company, which
sells chocolate sweets that include with small plastic toys, visited a Thailand toy manufacturer to
finalize a two years old contract. There he came to know that in Thailand the toys are supplied at
a much cheaper rate compared to any other global supplier, without compromising with the
quality of the Toys. In order to check the reliability of the fact, the product manager urged to see
the process of production of the toys. Surprisingly he found that instead of getting manufactured
in a workshop, the toys are assembled by poor families including children.
The manager evidenced a large family along with children of age between 5 to 14 years is
assembling the toys for a prolonged time. The manufacturer of the toys stated the manager that
this method of manufacturing that includes child labor is well established in Thailand since it
reduce the production cost while maintaining the quality of the product. Considering the fact that
finalizing this deal will ensure cost saving of his company, the manager completed the paper
work. However, while purchasing souvenirs for his seven years old nieces, the act of supporting
the unethical practice of child labor for financial enhancement of his business seemed unethical
to the manager.
The toy manufacturing company of Thailand engages child labor for toy production to
lower the production cost while enhancing their market. While due to low supply cost of the
toys, the confectionary company will evidence a crucial enhancement in the annual revenue, the

2BUSINESS ETHICS
future of the children working there for the production of the toys will get ruined1. Thus, in order
to eradicate this evil practice, confectionary companies like the one mentioned in the case study
needs to stop purchasing product from the toy producers in spite of getting the toys at a lower
price.
Summary 2
Who cares whose shares?
This case study is about two ethical dilemmas faced by a regional marketing director of
one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies of the world named PharmChemCo (PCC). The
high demand of PCC in global stock market has not only enhanced the bank balance of the
marketing director but also made him a successful stock market investor. The fact that a huge
amount of the director’s bonuses has been paid by PCC in the stock market is a major reason
behind his success in the professional field. However, in a recent meeting, the manager has came
to know that Scientist from a leading university in US has found that the best selling herbicides
of PCC contains fatal side effect. Considering the fact that this news will soon get publish a
renowned magazine, the stock market value of PCC will certainly go down. All the managers are
instructed to keep the news confidential so that PCC can find out strategies to deal with the
situation2.
Since the marketing director has invested a huge amount of money on PCC in the stock
exchange, in order to save himself from the huge loss, he has decided to sell his share before the
news break out3. However, the buyer of the stock will suffer a huge loss in near future. The
1 Roy Huijsmans and Simon Baker, Child Trafficking: ‘Worst Form’ Of Child Labour, Or Worst Approach To
Young Migrants? (2018).
2 Mark S. Schwartz, Developing And Sustaining An Ethical Corporate Culture: The Core Elements (2018).
3 Robert Woodrow D. Richardson Ford and Woodrow Richardson, Ethical Decision Making: A Review Of The
Empirical Literature (9th ed, 2012).

3BUSINESS ETHICS
decision of selling a stock, backed by a huge loss of money to an individual, intentionally, can be
seen as an ethical dilemma. Along with that, it will be unethical to use the confidential about
knowledge for personal benefit especially when it will cause huge loss to the company.
Moreover, his best friend Freddie had also invested his own money heavily on PCC along with
advising his clients with major funds to invest on the same.
This situation has given rise to another major ethical dilemma. If the Marketing director
informs his best friend Freddie about the research about PCC, Freddie will not only sell his own
shares of PCC, but will also advice all his clients and to do the same before the article about the
research is published. This unexpected drop of share price even before the publication of the
research article will impose a highly negative impact on PCC. Being the marketing director of
PCC, the act of leaking the company’s confidential information will be an unethical and illegal
act for the marketing director. However, if he doesn’t inform his best friend Freddie, that
individual, along with the clients to whom he had suggested to invest will suffer a huge loss.
This in turn, may impose adverse effect on the friendship between Freddie and the director.
Summary 3:
Off your face on Facebook
This case study contains ethical dilemma associated with appointing new employees in a
Pharmaceutical organization. The Human Resource Manager of AllCure Pharmaceuticals
requires appointing an employee for a very crucial post. The post demands high reliability, skills
and working attitude. Along with this, the employee needs to have social skills to maintain good
relation between the approving authorities, clinics and departments in the organization. Among
the three selected well-qualified candidates, two freshly graduated really good applicants were

4BUSINESS ETHICS
chosen on the basis of their skills and knowledge. Both of the candidates were female. However,
in order to determine their social communication skill the manager checked both of the
candidate’s social media accounts. From the Facebook profile of the 1st candidate, it was found
that she is very sociable and a well travelled person. However, the Face book account of the
second candidate was very difficult to trace and finally when the Facebook account was found,
several shirtless pictures of the candidate while partying along with her habit to use alcohol and
illegal drugs in high amount was discovered. However, during the interview, the performance of
the second candidate was slightly better than that of the 1st candidate4.
The decision of whether to appoint the second candidate based on her interview or not
has given rise to an ethical dilemma5. If the manager chose to appoint her based on her
professional skills and overlooking her social acts, there will be a risk of bad impression of the
company in case if her pictures get leaked. The decision becomes more complex since the
company needs a highly sensitive and contentious individual for the post. It will also impose
negative impact on the patients and other employees of the organization. On the other hand, it
may fall under unethical act to reject a candidate by stalking her Facebook account and on the
basis of her personal activities especially when she the most deserving one on the basis of the
interview conducted.
4 Joan Poliner Shapiro and Jacqueline Anne Stefkovich, Ethical Leadership And Decision Making In
Education (Routledge, 2016).
5 Chase E. Thiel et al, Leader Ethical Decision-Making In Organizations: Strategies For Sensemaking (1st ed,
2012).

5BUSINESS ETHICS
Summary 4
Organic food-what is an ‘organic’ label really worth?
This case study deals with the ethical issues associated with unethical marketing fake
organic products. While consumers of Europe and America spend a premium amount on organic
products, they are often misguided by the food producing organization. The department of
Agriculture in US allows organic products that are 95 percent organic to use the organic tag.
However, a majority of those products contain flavor enhancing natural ingredients,
monosodium glutamate and carrageen which according to some individuals cause health hazards.
Moreover, in several cases conventionally modified seeds often get combined with organic
products and initiatives are taken in order to stop this are still rare.
In spite of the fact that the net worth of organic marketing industry of America and
Europe is 40 billion dollar per year, in 2007, the organic certificate of several dairy suppliers of
US was taken back due to marketing inorganic milk as organic milk6. In 2009, America’s food
industry was detected of marketing Soymilk as organic milk. Cases of marketing inorganic eggs
as organic eggs have also being reported by German industries. While several countries have
strict regulations about selling organic products, the major ethical issues faced by those countries
are miserable treatment with animals in the firms. While Italy has become a crucial center of
producing and issuing fake organic certificates, the certifying system of China associated with
Organic products is not reliable at all.
According to the survey conducted by USDA, the production of Organic product requires
much larger area compared to the space required to produce conventional product. Therefore, in
6 Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm, Product Labelling In The Market For Organic Food: Consumer Preferences
And Willingness-To-Pay For Different Organic Certification Logos (2018).

6BUSINESS ETHICS
order to meet up the continuously increasing need of organic products in developing countries,
farmers across the world are burning forests in order to turn the land into farmland7. This
process, in turn, is causing harm to environment by emitting a huge amount of carbon dioxide.
Along with that, this method is also hazardous for the species of the forests and water cycle.
Therefore, in order to avoid this highly hazardous act of deforestation, organic firms should be
allowed to use a little amount of pesticides.
Summary 5
Uzbek cotton: a new spin on responsible sourcing?
In this case study the ethical dilemma of boycotting Uzbekistan’s cotton due to
prevalence of child labor has been discussed. The Government of Uzbekistan, a country with
human rights violation, corruption and low level democracy, rigidly controls the overall cotton
production using the Soviet-Style Quota system that ensure compulsory state purchase. The
farmers are highly pressurized to meet the yearly target of cotton production. They suffer from
exploitation, low pay. In order to fulfill the target production of the year, forced child labors is
highly prevalent in Uzbekistan.
The major reasons behind involving children in cotton productions are lack of advanced
technologies which ensure manual labor, high pressure from government to meet the target and
urge to earn money since the amount of money paid to the farmer is very low. During the
harvesting season, schools remain closed and the children are forced to work in the field for a
daily pay as less as 40 cents. They even have to pay for their own food and transport and in most
7 P. Bazoche et al, Willingness To Pay For Pesticide Reduction In The EU: Nothing But Organic? (2018).

7BUSINESS ETHICS
of the cases they are often left with no money even after investing tremendous labor for the
whole day. In addition to the child labor issue, human right violation and environmental
destruction have been raised against Uzbekistan’s cotton production strategy in the 2005 report
named White Gold: The True Cost of Cotton. In order to eradicate the issues, the Environmental
Justice Foundation repeatedly requested the International Business Community to ban
Uzbekistan’s cotton. However, according to the community, it will be difficult to detect the
source of cotton due to the complexity of the supply chain.
Due to continuous pressure on clothing industries, in 2007, two well-known companies
banned Uzbekistan cotton. Slowly the trend spread among several clothing companies and
finally in 2008 the Government o Uzbekistan announced ban to child labor up to the age of 16.
However, in the fields of Uzbekistan, the problem of forced child labor was still there. In 2011,
Responsible Sourcing Network, a NGO, launched a cotton pledge to intensify the boycott8. As a
result of this, 150 companies, including popular apparel companies like Zara, Gucci and Adidas
participated in this movement which in turn compelled the government of Uzbekistan to
announce that school children should not be allowed to pick cotton. However, soon it was found
that Uzbekistan’s Government had started employing older children of age between 15 to 18
years along with Organizational employees like teachers, nurses and doctors for Cotton
Harvesting. Therefore, the pledge was extended to stop forced adult labor and in 2013 the
Uzbekistan’s Government finally allowed International Labor Organization to monitor the cotton
harvest.
In spite of the ban of Uzbek’s cotton in western countries due to forced child and adult
labor, Uzbekistan’s Government is now targeting eastern clothing industries like China,
8 Duygu Turker and Ceren Altuntas, Sustainable Supply Chain Management In The Fast Fashion Industry: An
Analysis Of Corporate Reports (2018).

8BUSINESS ETHICS
Bangladesh and South Korea. The growing demand for cotton in the eastern clothing industries
has provided the Uzbek government the opportunity to reinforce forced child and adult labor.
Besides that, considering the fact that spinning mills combines a number of cottons, it is nearly
impossible to guarantee that Uzbek’s cotton has not been used. In spite of the fact that methods
of tracing cotton supply in western apparel companies are still improving, till now, there is no
guarantee that the pledge is effectively maintained.

9BUSINESS ETHICS
Reference List:
Bazoche, P. et al, Willingness To Pay For Pesticide Reduction In The EU: Nothing But Organic?
(2018)
Ford, Robert C. and Woodrow D. Richardson Richardson, Ethical Decision Making: A Review
Of The Empirical Literature (9th ed, 2012)
Huijsmans, Roy and Simon Baker, Child Trafficking: ‘Worst Form’ Of Child Labour, Or Worst
Approach To Young Migrants? (2018)
Janssen, Meike and Ulrich Hamm, Product Labelling In The Market For Organic Food:
Consumer Preferences And Willingness-To-Pay For Different Organic Certification
Logos (2018)
Schwartz, Mark S., Developing And Sustaining An Ethical Corporate Culture: The Core
Elements (2018)
Shapiro, Joan Poliner and Jacqueline Anne Stefkovich, Ethical Leadership And Decision Making
In Education (Routledge, 2016)
Thiel, Chase E. et al, Leader Ethical Decision-Making In Organizations: Strategies For
Sensemaking (1st ed, 2012)
Turker, Duygu and Ceren Altuntas, Sustainable Supply Chain Management In The Fast Fashion
Industry: An Analysis Of Corporate Reports (2018)