Business Ethics Reflective Essay: Video Analysis and Insights

This essay is a reflective analysis of five videos focusing on various aspects of business ethics and global issues. The first three videos address poverty, highlighting the Cotton On Foundation's initiatives in Uganda, including sustainable agriculture in Mannya village and efforts to improve health and education. The evaluation emphasizes the impact of inequality on poverty and the importance of equitable access to resources. The fourth video examines corporate social responsibility through the lens of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, emphasizing the balance between profit and social impact. The fifth video explores ethical issues in the fashion industry, particularly the working conditions and pay of textile workers in Bangladesh. The essay highlights the need for ethical practices in business, sustainable development, and social responsibility to address poverty and improve global well-being.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS
Business ethics
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Abstract
The paper provides five reflective essays paper based on five video links. The three of the
videos are about the actions done by Cotton On Foundation to address problem of poverty in
Uganda, implement sustainable agriculture in Mannya village and resolves poverty and health
issues in Mannya village. The evaluation of three videos shows that inequality is the main cause
of poverty and eliminating equalities in different aspects of life may help to improve the lives of
people affected by poverty. The other two videos gives an insight into ethical behavior needed in
fashion industry and business organization and strength of ethical behavior for building brand
image and reputation of the company.

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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Body.................................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................9
Reference.......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The essay gives an insight into five reflective in response to five learning videos. Each
video is centered on specific theme related to global issues such as poverty, unemployment,
health issues and ethics in business fashion. For each video link, the essay explores critical theme
presented in the video and the impact of the video in making awareness about ethical concepts
and strategies to tackle different issues.
Body
Essay 1 (Based on no. 1 video link)
The video by Cotton On Foundation (2013) highlights the important areas of focus that
could address the issue of poverty in the world. The manager of Cotton on Foundation expressed
in the video about how they have changed the lives of people in Southern Uganda and educated
more and more number of people as part of the Global Poverty Project. The video centers around
the theme of global poverty and this essay critical evaluate the action of the foundation in
addressing poverty in different parts of the world.
The action of the Cotton on Foundation in the video has revealed that stigmatization of
people and poor awareness about health information has also increasesd problems of people
living in poverty. For this reason, their Spike the fifth army campaign was highly successful as it
gave the message to large number of youngster to reduce stigma and raise awareness regarding
mental health. To support people living in poverty and redevelop health facilities, funds were
also raised by Run Australia campaign. Investments were also done in Indiana for better health
facilities (Cotton On Foundation 2013). The strength of the video is that it makes the point

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regarding how health component is effective as part of poverty reduction strategy. The focus on
educating more number of people is also considered an effective step because equitable and
inclusive quality education has the potential to eradicate poverty (Kamepalli and Pattanayak
2015).
The video gives the lesson that providing equitable education and health services can
improve sufferings of people living in poverty. From the ethical perspective too, equal access to
health and education is necessary for all irrespective of their background. Evidence has showed
that high out-of-school rate in adolescent is seen mainly due to poverty (Heyneman, and Lee
2016). Hence, improving opportunities for education could be one area that can give good
employment opportunities to youths and facilitate global advocacy for poverty.
Essay 2 (Based on no. 2 video link)
The video by Cotton on Foundation (2013) gives an insight into their contribution in
sustainable projects and engaging the community particularly farmers in Mannya village,
Southern Uganda in sustainable farming. To fulfill the mission of sustainable project, the Cotton
on Foundation bought hundreds of acres of land and planted coffee and cocoa plants thus
building the infrastructure for sustainable farms. The strength of this initiative is that it has
empowered local farmers in generating income and employment as well promoting their health
and well-being. This essay gives a critical discussion on the impact of videos and its role in
developing ethical concepts.
The video by Cotton on Foundation (2013) is considered useful because it is raising
awareness about the importance of sustainable farming in promoting stability of farmers and
giving them better quality of life. The video showed that after the education of farmers in Manny

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village regarding sustainable farming, coffees and chocolates are now produced ethically. The
video can have good impact on audiences because it makes solid point that sustainable farming
not only protects the environment but also enables farmers to gain stability in their earnings
(Wezel et al. 2014). It can promote engagement in agro-ecological practice. Hence, the values
and norms associated with agriculture and food system can reduces food related hazards for
health stakeholders.
The ethics in agriculture is related to following all norms and values in the process of
farming, food processing, trade and distribution (Thompson 2017). The video gives an insight
into the ethics of farming and how alternative farming practices can increase income as well as
health of humans. The key implication of this video is that policy makers can promote the
concept of sustainable agriculture so that more and more farmers engage in sustainable farming.
There is a need to implement more number of sustainable projects in the future so that more
number of farmers get the resource and learning needed to improve the quality of their life.
Essay 3 (Based on 3rd video link)
The video by Cotton On Foundation (2013) is a useful documentary as it has shown how
mission impossible village like Mannya can also transform into a high activity centre if correct
move is taken to empower people and eradicate all those factors that lead to poverty. The
foundation tries to reflect their useful contribution to eradicating poverty in Mannya village,
Uganda by stating that about the plight of people living in Mannya. The community was ravaged
by HIV/AIDS and other health issues, very small percentage passed their final schools exams.
Children had to walks miles for unsafe water and the future of the community was very

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uncertain. This essay examines the actions taken by Cotton On Foundation to improve lives of
people in Mannya and gives discussion on key learning from the video.
Cotton on Foundation could focus on transforming Mannya into high buzzing activity by
getting help from thousands of their customers. 100% of all the proceeds from the sale of water
bottles, bracelets and bags went in improving lives of people in community. Inspired by the
Millenium Development Goals, the Foundation paid special emphasis on providing better
health, education, infrastructure and sustainability to people in Mannya (Cotton On Foundation
2013). By examining the foundation’s action, it can be said that they took the most ethical steps
to make health services available to those most in need. Secondly, schools were built,
infrastructure was developed and new job opportunities were provided. Hence, it is moving
towards the right direction to realize the goal of living life free from poverty by 2020.
Poverty mainly results due to inequality in resources, opportunities and services. The key
learning from the video is that it gave insight that the right approach to eradicating poverty is
eliminating inequality in all areas of life such as education, employment, health and
infrastructure (Fiszbein, Kanbur and Yemtsov 2014). Poverty eradication initiatives requires
large number of investments and NGOs and private and public organization should come
together to solve poverty on local level. For low income countries, the video can have
implications in successfully implementing social protection programs.
Essay 4 (based on 5th video link)
The video by GenConnect U (2013) brings forward the important point that business
organization can build shareholder value not only by addressing the needs of the shareholders,
but also by looking at the community served by the company. Through the words of Starbucks

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CEO, Howard Schultz, the video summarizes the ethos adapted by Howard Schultz that helped
him to fulfill corporate social responsibility in his business. The essay analyzes the actions of
Howard and the importance of corporate social responsibility to conduct business in an ethical
manner.
Howard Schultz had described in the video that his business model centered not only
around achieving balance between making profit and shareholder value, but also by focusing on
benevolent activities for employees and the community (GenConnect U 2013). Hence, creating
value for people can help in creating shareholder value too. The ethical dimension that is clearly
seen from the video is that it emphasizes on the fact that taking sustainable and innovative
approach to benefit the society is part of business ethics (Tai and Chuang 2014). If entrepreneurs
want to apply ethics in their business, they must focus on implementing strategies that help fulfill
social responsibility in business. This will help them to behave as good corporate citizen and
create good public image of the company.
As per the documentary on the action taken by Starbuck’s CEO, the video tries to make
the point that success of business organization is dependent not only on fulfilling shareholder
value, but also by bringing improvement in lives of people and community. Ethical behavior can
be shown by companies by focusing on protecting environment while making strategic choices
for business. The key business benefits that companies can get from corporate social
responsibility includes better chances of retaining staff, building positive business reputation,
effective brand recognition, increased sales and customer loyalty. Hence, regardless of the size
and sector of business, entrepreneurs can make individual plans to promote social responsibility
in their business.

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Essay 5 (based on 10th video link)
In the era of globalization and production of high street fashion product, the video by
Pumpkin Interactive (2011) highlights the working conditions of people in textile industries.
Bangladeshis are working in large numbers in textile industries and they get only one-fifth of the
pay compared to US or Europe workers. Such huge difference is the reason for more number of
clothing retailers to come to Bangladeshi workers for manufacturing their products.
Multinational companies are increasing their profit margins by manufacturing their products
from Bangladesh (Pumpkin Interactive 2011). Therefore, the video tries to bring the point that
ethical issues in fashion also exist because of inequality in payment given to workers
manufacturing high end fashion products. This essay further examines the ethics related to
business in the textile industries and the implication of such move in the future.
To promote sustainability and social responsibility in the textile and fashion industries,
there is a need to focus on domestic issues of textile industry. Based on the evidence of the poor
working condition and payment given to Bangladeshi workers working in textile industries,
stakeholders in this industry should take notice of this issue and take the responsibility to
improve the conditions of workers. This can be done by implementing innovative personnel
policies and having common goal for production activities. All staffs should be paid equally
based on the effort they put in manufacturing their products, and not on the basis of their local
background. Regulating the internal operations of textile industry may help to negotiate price and
promote satisfaction of workers in textile industries (Pedersen, Gwozdz and Hvass 2016).
The video by Pumpkin Interactive (2011) has summarized the globalization issues in the
fashion industry because of unequal payment for workers. By showcasing the plight of

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Bangladeshi workers, the video proved how far some else is suffering on the cost of profit and
revenue for others. Hence, there is a need for social responsibility related to working conditions
of staffs in textile industry too.
Conclusion
The report has summarized about ethical concepts and key strategies presented in five
learning videos. The reflective essays makes the point that with examples from strategic steps
taken to address poverty, unemployment and ethical issues in specific context, other people also
get the awareness to bring changes in lives of vulnerable people.
Recommendation
The key implications from the video is that any global issue like poverty or employment
occurs due to ethical issues like inequality of distribution of resource and opportunities to
vulnerable group. It is recommended that NGOs and social work organization should work to
identify injustice done to vulnerable group and take actions to provide equal resource to improve
quality of living of vulnerable people.

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Reference
Cotton On Foundation 2013. COTTON ON FOUNDATION: WE EMPOWER, WE END
POVERTY. YouTube. Retrieved 16 January 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=aY_9Y527LVM
Cotton On Foundation 2013. 2013 Cotton On Foundation wrap up - Thank You. YouTube.
Retrieved 16 January 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6KKXXuXuS8
Cotton On Foundation 2013. You Sip, We Sow: Cotton On Foundation Coffee Project.
YouTube. Retrieved 16 January 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bupv47wNN3A
Fiszbein, A., Kanbur, R. and Yemtsov, R., 2014. Social protection and poverty reduction: global
patterns and some targets. World Development, 61, pp.167-177.
GenConnect U 2013. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz on Social Responsibility. YouTube.
Retrieved 16 January 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHIoK4LviCc
Heyneman, S.P. and Lee, B., 2016. International organizations and the future of education
assistance. International Journal of Educational Development, 48, pp.9-22.
Kamepalli, L.B. and Pattanayak, S.K., 2015. From Millennium to Sustainable Development
Goals and need for institutional restructuring. Current Science, 108(6), p.1043.
Pedersen, E.R.G., Gwozdz, W. and Hvass, K.K., 2016. Exploring the relationship between
business model innovation, corporate sustainability, and organisational values within the fashion
industry. Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-18.

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Pumpkin Interactive 2011. Issues in Globalisation: How Fair is Fashion? (Preview). YouTube.
Retrieved 16 January 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YAUvDmMGMI
Tai, F.M. and Chuang, S.H., 2014. Corporate social responsibility. Ibusiness, 6(03), p.117.
Thompson, P.B., 2017. The spirit of the soil: Agriculture and environmental ethics. Taylor &
Francis.
Wezel, A., Casagrande, M., Celette, F., Vian, J.F., Ferrer, A. and Peigné, J., 2014.
Agroecological practices for sustainable agriculture. A review. Agronomy for sustainable
development, 34(1), pp.1-20.