Business Ethics and Responsible Management: Tuna Company Report

This report delves into the realm of business ethics and responsible management, using a case study of a tuna company's supply chain and human rights abuses. The introduction defines key concepts such as business ethics and responsible management, setting the stage for an examination of ethical dilemmas in the industry. The main body is divided into two parts. Part 1 analyzes the ethical issues surrounding the tuna company's failure to address modern slavery in its supply chain, highlighting issues like worker exploitation, physical abuse, and non-payment of wages. The report emphasizes the violation of human rights and the vulnerability of migrant workers. Part 2 applies ethical theories, specifically utilitarian and deontological ethics, to evaluate the company's practices. Utilitarian ethics are used to analyze the company's decisions based on profitability, while deontological ethics examine the treatment of workers and their inherent rights. The report concludes by summarizing the findings and offering recommendations for the tuna companies to improve their ethical practices and address human rights abuses within their supply chains. The report emphasizes the need for collaboration and ethical practices to combat modern slavery and promote worker well-being.

BUSINESS ETHICS AND
RESPONSIBLE
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Part 1 ...............................................................................................................................................3
Part 2................................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Business ethics is the learning of suitable business policies and activities with regard to
prospective arguable subjects which includes inside trading, bribery discrimination, corporate
social responsibility, corporate governance and fiduciary responsibilities. It examines the ethical
principles and moral or ethical difficulties that can originate in a business environment.
Responsible management describes the concept of seeking a balance among the interests of the
entire world i.e. environment, people and company to flourish for the goodness of both the
current and future generation (Martin, 2020).
Out of the five given case studies, this report will include the case study on the “Supply
chain and human rights abuses: this does not smell right — warnings to the Tuna company”.
This report will also highlight the ethical dimensions related to issues has been evaluated along
with the help of methodical theories and the personal persona about the conditions that bring
unethical organizations practices will be described.
MAIN BODY
Part 1
A) Ethics is a kind of philosophy which involves systematize, defensive and recommending
conception of wrong and right behaviour within the organization. In the contemporary market
space, business ethics is an inseparable element for any corporation. Business ethics is a broad
term when it comes to the corporate world includes several issues around the company and
institutions. From the given case study, it has been illustrated that tuna companies have failed in
the practical actualization of setting slavery policies. The business and human rights resource
centre (BHRRC) has addressed this issue explicitly and in detail (Hindle, 2020). According to
the case study it has been shown that many biggest companies who deal in the canned tuna
product are unable or failing to tackle modern slavery in order to their Pacific supply chains.
Companies leave a thousand of their employees or workers at sea under human rights abuses
threat. Nearly, 60% of the world tuna fisheries comes from the Pacific alone and consistently
claims the human rights that are abused in terms of their workers at sea which includes issues
related to physical abuse, non-payment of wages at proper time intervals and throwing the
fisherman overboard have highly impacted the workers (Crane, 2019). This kind of issues are

handling by the workers from past various years. According to the BHRRC, the tuna supply
chain is complex, muddy and remote in nature.
As when the shocking abuses being exposed , tuna companies take little actions in order
to protect the workers and even themselves as well. This case study finds that most of the tuna
companies need to importantly step up their efforts to prevent, identify and prevent modern
slavery in their supply chain and provide compensation for workers in order to step out from this
issue. This particular case is explored as an ethical issue or question by the BHRRC as it violates
the human rights and migrant workers were especially vulnerable to spend extended period at
seas, where the workers are physically isolated by the company owners. The major and only
purpose of the owners of the tuna companies is to increase their profit irrespective of the needs
and wants of the workers that are doing work for them. The workers have only few options to
escape and reported abused by the company owners (Teulon, 2019). The topic of appropriation
and trapping the workers in forced labour has also been highlighted. Owners supply forged
documents of the workers rendering men stateless and captains leaves crew stranded on remote
island as punishment are unethical practices done by the companies. These all had happened just
because the companies are no longer required the candidates to work with them.
Business ethics takes into consideration the responsibilities of the business person not just
within the company but also within the cultural, social and environmental ways or communities.
The companies have to deal with accountability issues involved in consumer protection,
employee safety along with the total structure of any corporation or business. According to the
case study it has been analysed that the key stakeholders of the company are their employees and
their representatives, but the tuna companies are engaged with external stakeholders only. The
organizations consistently work for their profit margin apart from doing for the betterment of
their workers which leads or generate the issue as an ethical issue. Ethical behaviour and
corporate social responsibility of tuna companies are able to bring significant benefits to the
companies. The major drawback of tuna companies that they face ethical issues which reduces
their companies abilities and maximize profit but this has been only for the short span of time.
With the effective ethical practices, business is able to improve an environment which will
enhance happiness among employees. This is the reason due to which the employees working in
the company are able to feel more comfortable. The employees or workers never wants to
become partially responsible for any unethical consequences. The advantages of ethical

practices always boosts productivity of employees. If the tuna companies apply ethical practices
in their working then they are able to attract more investors as well. Another benefit includes that
ethical behaviour provides a competitive advantage in terms of customers. When a company
behaves ethically, they are able to attract more and more customers towards their company
products and services offered and sway them towards loyalty. On the other hand various
disadvantages includes that the process is time-consuming in order to implement it within the
company as maintaining business ethics is really a time-consuming process. The ethical practices
always need to be continuously updated according to the regulations and laws especially with the
growth of the organization (Kirkpatrick, 2017). Another disadvantage of this practice is that the
company have limited ability in order to maximize profit. In terms of case study in which Tuna
companies have to face a lot of problems due to their unethical activities followed by them in
terms of their workers.
The case is a high level of concern in terms of well-being for the workers working for
tuna companies. This is a high level of concern yet not a single company is ready to accept the
concern of modern slavery in their supply chain. According to the case study it has been
recommended for the tuna companies to become far more collaborative between brands as
well as their external stakeholders. Along with that the companies have to give emphasize on the
workers and their unions to ensure the development of companies that comes with the
implementation of effective ethical activities and embedded meaningful and effective responses
in order to finish modern slavery at sea (Neumann, 2021).
B) Ethical theories
Ethics are moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or conducting an activity
within the company. In general there are various ethical or philosophical approaches, but for
representing the case study with the help of ethical theories, Utilitarian ethics and Deontological
ethics has been taken (Verseman, 2017):
 Utilitarian ethics: This theory is based on the concept of “the greatest good for the
greatest number". The idea of this theory expresses that ethical decisions are taken with
considering the consequences of the action, this is the reason that it is also called
consequential. In context of the case study it has been analysed that the leaders of the
tuna companies take decisions on the basis of profitability of their company which results

in unethical practice or environment within the company and also unable to set an
example for others within the society. Moreover, the companies have to take decisions
and set ethical activities in a way which describes the benefits for the workers working in
their company in order enhance an ethical environment which determine the concept of
the greatest good for the greatest number (Yaokumah, 2020). The benefits of application
of this strategy within the company is that it helps in making decision based on what will
benefit the majority of stakeholders. With respect to these tuna companies it has been
seen that the companies gives emphasize on the external stakeholders only irrespective of
the internal ones i.e. employees as well as representatives. If the companies adopt this
style in their ethical practices then the leaders are able to make their workers feel
important element for the company. The benefit of this step if taken by the company, it
helps to motivate the workers in order to work efficiently and enhance the productivity of
the overall company but the leaders put emphasize only on increasing the profit margins
of the company and does not think at all about the benefit of the society.
However, this theory also have certain limitations in order to enforce within the company as in
this strategy decision-makers are forced to guess the outcome of the problem in advance. It has
been understood that it is not always possible for the leaders to predict the outcome in advance.
So, it has been analysed that this approach have also certain limitations in order to adopt this in
working. According to this approach it has been recommended for the tuna companies that
harming majority of people for the benefit of minority does not build an ethical environment
within the industry (Gyngell, 2019). This kind of practice only gives profit for quite sometime
but not for longer duration of time.
 Deontological ethics: The second prominent concept is deontological ethics which is
associated with the modern method of using it in organization. This expresses the concept
that human beings are treated with proper respect and dignity because every person have
their own and individual right to be treated ethically (Newton, 2017). It is a basic duty of
each and every person to treat other person in ethical way or to respect other people's
right in order to treat them accordingly. The process identifies individuals duty and
making appropriate decisions with respect to them. In context of the case study, the
leaders have to think about their workers which are the ultimate source for them to

achieve success in their business activities. The companies have to think about their
workers as they did unethical practices such as the issue were raised about modern
slavery in one of the most abusive sector. This is the reason due to which tuna companies
had comes under the concept of abusive sector. The unethical practices done by the
companies is that they bought the migrants and sold them at sea, transferred the workers
from one ship to another and never allow them to come back to their native place and
even tossed over board if they complained to somebody about their conditions or even
injured. These activities cross the limits of humanity which forces them to take certain
steps and comes in front of the issue as this issue is a severe societal issue for all the
people. In order to address the complaints and abuses majority of employees goes for
human rights training centre. There are some benefits which will helpful for the
organizations as well as tuna companies in order to perform better and maintain an ethical
environment within the enterprise. It is considered as the strongest model for applied
public relations ethics. If applied properly, it addresses the solutions for both the
company and the workers as well (Jain, 2020). With the help of these companies were
taking to address abuses in effective way. The issue was that the companies continue to
recruit workers from the third party agencies to staff fishing boats and other jobs in their
supply chain. Agencies charge high recruitment fees which results in force migrant
workers into debt slavery a kind of modern bondage.
However, this concept also has certain disadvantages such as they must encourage quite
sometimes situations of conflicts in duties. This type of situation quite sometimes create an
environment of disagreement about the principles involved in the situation. Apart from these
consequences many of the businesses has adopted this model in order to provide the strongest
application of public relation ethics within the company. This approach is based on the moral
autonomy of the individual similar to the freedom from advancement. From the study according
to this particular theory it has been recommended to the leaders of tuna companies that the
publication of vessel licence lists along with the requirement of unique identification number for
vessels are well within the reach of every country and would help to end the violence or issue
that arises due to unethical practices. Human rights abuses and illegal and unsustainable fishing
that cursed the whole tuna trade will be effectively handled with the help of these effective

recommendations. Apart from this the collaboration between external stakeholders as well as
brands will help the organizations to overcome from this crucial situation (Lee, 2019).
Part 2
Ethical leadership is a kind of leadership style that is demonstrated by ethical values and
beliefs along with the dignity and rights of other people. It is quite similar to the concept of
honesty, trust, consideration, fairness, etc. Ethical leaders are always famous and well-known for
its fair and honest decisions. These kinds of persons are committed to develop a sense of
community among the community and team spirit within the teams in the organization and make
decisions on the basis of value. Ethical leadership is able to provide value to the businesses with
the help of inspiring employees to be motivated and live up to the organizations values
(Mahembe, 2017). It has been experienced from past various years that ethical leadership leads
towards the greater employee satisfaction and lower the turnover rates of the business. Ethical
leaders ensures that appropriate behaviour in every facet has been maintained within the
company.
Compliance is an act of meeting multiple requirements and processes that be defined in
both ways i.e. internally and externally. The compliance behaviour is an attitude towards the
intention to follow or willingness to comply with predefined set of regulations and rules that
influence each and every individual or the collective behaviour of employees within the
company (Bartnik, 2018). Apart from this the integrity of a business affects all consumer groups
and every area of business operations. This is the reason to inculcate ethics and integrity into the
core concept of the organization. There are certain ways which demonstrates ethics and integrity
are: Strategy related to customer value: Ethical standards in any businesses are prepared
while considering providing commitment in order to provide values to its customers.
When a company tries their maximum in order to meet the ethical requirements of the
company, then the organization is automatically able to commit to improve the lives of its
consumers (Macaulay, 2018). It does sometimes cause strategic perspective to look
forward when the violation of trust takes place. Integrity in management practices: Management practices are underlying foundation for
the organizational integrity. When the company is committed towards the fair

employment practices, the reputation pf the company automatically enhances. In order to
influence integrity within the organization, the leaders have to manage by creating code
of conduct and ethics policies. The leader have to ensure that the whole organization
committed towards the betterment of the employees as well as company. Personal integrity: It is important for leaders of the company to become or live a lifestyle
of integrity, honesty and set high ethical standards because the unethical leaders may
cause harm to the image of the company within the market space (Kaplan, 2019).
 Truth in terms of selling: When an organization markets a product or service within the
environment, the marketers are obliged to deliver the honest and fair services to their
customers. The leaders have to become fair towards their employees as well in order to
sustain the productivity level within the company.
As per my experience I have analysed with the complete study of ethical behaviour practices
within the organization, the ethical activities helps to set the priorities of work within various
alternatives of work. It helps to analyse what matters most to me which will assist me regarding
enhancement of my future career. It enables me to make decisions faster and easier. It is a well-
known concept that there are various situations in which we need to decide on the right course of
action, so with the help of studying in depth or take complete knowledge about the ethical
practices I am able to make my decisions in fast manner. With the help of this, I am able to
enhance my goal setting skill which helps me to identify which matters most to me and to
identify future opportunities and future steps that will help me in my future (Moors, 2019).
This strategy helps to increase my cognition about the leadership styles which gives me
detailed knowledge about applying my leadership position which requires a strong set of
personal ethics. I am able to know what values me the most and enables me to lead teams
towards success and progress.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that the world biggest canned tuna brand are
failing to handle the modern slavery in their Pacific supply chain, leaves thousands of their
workers at sea under a situation of threat of human rights abuses. This situation has been avoided
by the leaders of the tuna companies with adoption of ethical practices within the organization

which ultimately maximises profits for both the company and the workers as well. This report
describes the concept of business ethics with the help of case study. It describes the concept of
business ethics in a way that the concept is highly important for any business organization as it
ensures the ethical practices that needs to be done by the leaders in a way which promotes
satisfaction among the workers. According to the case study, it has been evaluated that the
company have to adopt such kind of activities which lead towards the long term losses of the
company. The report does explain the conception of ethical leadership along with the integrity
and their compliance which will meet the ethical requirements internally and externally as well.
This report also includes the reflection which describes the personal experience and
improvement that will be done with the proper study of the case as well as the whole topic about
the business ethics and responsible management.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Baron, J., 2017. Utilitarian vs. deontological reasoning. Moral inferences, pp.137-152.
Crane, A., Matten, D., and Spence, L., 2019. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship
and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press, USA.
Engelbrecht, A.S., Heine, G. and Mahembe, B., 2017. Integrity, ethical leadership, trust and
work engagement. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Feldman, Y. and Kaplan, Y., 2019. Behavioral Ethics as Compliance. Forthcoming, Cambridge
Handbook of Compliance (Van Rooij & Sokol Eds.), Bar Ilan University Faculty of Law
Research Paper, (19-18).
Freeman, R.E., Parmar, B.L. and Martin, K., 2020. BUSINESS AND ETHICS (pp. 129-140).
Columbia University Press.
Jain, H., 2020. Mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility: A Utilitarian and Deontological
Perspective. Open Journal of Business and Management, 8(5), pp.2278-2284.
Kim, I. and Lee, H., 2019. Constitutional Principles of Regulatory Takings: A Utilitarian
Perspective. Supreme Court Economic Review, 26(1), pp.81-112.
Ko, C., Ma, J., and Kang, M., 2018. Ethical leadership: An integrative review and future research
agenda. Ethics & Behavior, 28(2), pp.104-132.
Lindsay, R., Kirkpatrick, A. and Low, J.E., 2017. Hardly soft law: The modern slavery act 2015
and the trend towards mandatory reporting on human rights. Bus. L. Int'l, 18, p.29.
Macaulay, M., 2018. Ethics and integrity. In The Palgrave Handbook of Public Administration
and Management in Europe (pp. 279-289). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Maher, R., Neumann, M. and Lykke, M.S., 2021. Extracting Legitimacy: An Analysis of
Corporate Responses to Accusations of Human Rights Abuses. Journal of Business
Ethics, pp.1-20.
Mili, M., Gharbi, S. and Teulon, F., 2019. Business ethics, company value and ownership
structure. Journal of Management and Governance, 23(4), pp.973-987.
Moors, A., 2019. The trouble with transparency: Reconnecting ethics, integrity, epistemology,
and power. Ethnography, 20(2), pp.149-169.
Newton, M.T., 2017. A comparison of ethical theories.
Savulescu, J., Kahane, G. and Gyngell, C., 2019. From public preferences to ethical
policy. Nature human behaviour, 3(12), pp.1241-1243.
Verseman, L., 2017. Corporate Social Responsibility: Are Franchises off the Hook, or Can a
Treaty Catch Them. Wash. U. Global Stud. L. Rev., 16, p.221.
Vidgen, R., Hindle, G. and Randolph, I., 2020. Exploring the ethical implications of business
analytics with a business ethics canvas. European Journal of Operational
Research, 281(3), pp.491-501.
Yaokumah, W., 2020. Predicting and Explaining Cyber Ethics with Ethical
Theories. International Journal of Cyber Warfare and Terrorism (IJCWT), 10(2), pp.46-
63.
1