Business Ethics and Social Responsibility: Assam Tea Industry Analysis

This essay provides a comparative analysis of business ethics and social responsibility within the Assam tea industry. It highlights the unethical practices of the tea industry, particularly the exploitation of workers through low wages, poor working conditions, and inadequate health and living facilities. The essay explores the ethical decision-making process, outlining the steps involved in addressing such issues, and examines relevant moral philosophies, specifically deontology, in the context of the industry's responsibilities. The paper emphasizes the importance of corporate citizenship, advocating for improved working conditions and adherence to ethical standards, and suggests that multinational brands and the Indian government should take action to address these issues, including economic sanctions and legal interventions to ensure fair treatment and compensation for the workers. The essay utilizes multiple sources to support its arguments and calls for greater transparency and accountability in the tea industry.

Business Ethics 1
COMPARATIVE BUSINESS ETHICS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Student’s Name
Course Name
Professor
City/State
Date

Business Ethics 2
Introduction
Indian tea workers work and live in unconducive environment. The workers in the
Assam’s tea industry are mostly women and are paid far below the minimum wage requirement
in the industry. According to the article done by The Economic times, Assam tea industry,
located in the northeast India is the largest tea producer in the country; boasting of supplying tea
to world’s top brands such as the popular Britain’s Twinning and Tetley as per Davvetas and
Diamantopoulos (2016). The tea industry has been accused on several occasions of not
improving the welfare of the workers and the surrounding environment and society, a fact that
violets the business or corporate ethics (Baruah 2013).
According to Hsieh (2017), business or corporate ethics are the basic principles and
organizational standards, norms and values that govern the behavior and decisions of individuals
in an organization on day to today basis. Ethics reflects the philosophy of the corporation, which
determine the main purpose of the firm, company or corporation. These ethics tend to control
various areas of the operations of the company such as the business or corporate governance,
corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, and leadership
The industry is legally mandated to provide several services to the workers such as
housing, subsidized food, toilets, health facilities, and schools to at least cover for the low wages.
Contrarily, the workers live in pathetic conditions under leaking roofs, no toilets nor health
facilities (Hsieh 2017). They are sometimes forced to go for long calls in the bushes and seek
medical services from other expensive health centers; a move that forces them into excessive
overtime or bonded labor in order to be able to provide family needs. Several attempts by the
workers to make the management improve their living and working conditions have been futile;

Business Ethics 3
the management notes the registered complaints but do not take any action, according to one
worker.
As illustrated in the article, Assam’s tea industry has been on the fore front in exploitative
cases such as workers exploitation. The tea giant has been accused of paying low wages, poor
working conditions and not being keen on the health and welfare of their workers (Baruah 2013).
A research done in one of the local hospital in Assam area indicates that the main source of the
deaths that occur in the area is labeled as Assam tea estate. The patients from the tea estate,
mostly women suffer from acute anemia and high pressure.
Dutta & Bahadur (2016) explained that doctors there allege that the tea garden
community is even more vulnerable to maternal deaths due to the frail economic conditions, the
workers cannot afford nutritious foods and good healthcare due the peanuts they earn. Some
workers who consider themselves lucky to have permanent job work for nine hour picking tea
leaves with bamboo baskets trapped on her back the whole day and get paid Rs1300 for 12 days
work.
Such workers consider themselves better as they are assured of their wages and
continuous work throughout the year. As illustrated by Basole, Basu, and Bhattacharya (2015),
Assam uses a good percentage of temporary workers who are sometimes not sure if their wages
would be paid. The exploitation in the tea estate is dated back to many years ago but there has
never been any improvement.
Assam tea industry being the largest tea producer in India supplying the products to some
of the tea brands in the world should appreciate its workers through better working and living

Business Ethics 4
environment. As indicated in the article, the multinational brands should not just boast of their
names and good quality of tea they sell but should at least be more transparent on the sources of
their products. Companies, corporations and industries like Assam that exploit its workers should
be dealt with through economic sanctions in a bid to force them improve their bad culture of
exploitation. The world’s leading brand can stop sourcing their products from such exploitative
industries and notify the world of their actions.
Additionally, Gawronski, Armstrong, Conway, Friesdorf, and Hütter argued in 2017 that
the government of India should take legal and administrative actions against the tea estate
manages to compel them to improve the working conditions and even compensate victims of
their exploitation. Such tea estates are formed and protected by the government through subsidies
and tax waivers to improve the living standards of the citizens and give back to their immediate
society, it is therefore upon the government to demand such services from the estates.
Ethical Decision Makin Process
As quoted by martin Cohen, ‘Ethics is about choices which matter, and choices which
matter are dilemmas’. Ethical dilemmas are normally complex conditions where ethical
standards go against each other. In such situations, ethical decision making process enables us
take right course of action and analyze the decisions made by other people who may be our
college or competitors as indicated by (Stockall & Dennis 2015). In ethical decision making
process, our ethics are the personal set standards that determine whether an action is wrong or
right. The process takes into account various rules, standards, and virtues that guide the judgment
or actions to be taken.

Business Ethics 5
Steps in ethical decision making process
1. Identification of the Ethical issue
The main purpose is ethical decision making is to help solve an issue deemed as
unethical. The decision maker must therefore be able to notice if there is possibility of violation
of any societal norm, ethical standard or organizational principle. As in this case, the violation of
labor rules regarding minimum wages and the working as well as living conditions of workers.
The decision maker should also determine if there are possible consequences of the
violation that should be avoided such as poor sanitation and lack of proper health services.
2. Gathering of Relevant Information
The decision maker is required to collect as much information as possible concerning the
ethical value being violated, the victims and determine the extent of the vice. Mishra, Sarma, and
Upadhyay directed in 2011 an individual would then seek information on the amount of ham the
violation inflicts on the victims. In the case of Assam, the decision maker would want to know
the level of suffering the workers undergo.
3. Evaluation of the Gathered Information.
Beekun, Stedham, Westerman, and Yamamura (2010) argued that the collected
information should be subjected to some level of standards to avoid being bias at the point of
making the decision. It should be noted that some victims may give skewed pieces of

Business Ethics 6
information due to emotional touch inflicted. The decision maker should be able to identify if
justice was denied or not.
4. Consider Alternatives
The decision maker should take into consideration the specific virtues relevant in the
situation and consider what other people who have decided on in the same situation. He or she
should remember that the decision would have impacts in future as some future judgments would
be based on the decision he or she is making.
One should be creative to make sure the decision being made is not as a result of some
pressure either side. Make sure you have exploited all the possible alternatives.
5. Make a decision
One should make a decision based on the evaluations made at step three, a course of
action supported by the theories governing ethics and be ready to face any opposition or
challenge that may arise due to the decision made.
6. Take Action or Implement the Findings
In a bid to truly resolve the unethical act, the decision maker should implement the
findings as per the information collected.
7. Action review

Business Ethics 7
After taking action or implementation of the decision and the results known, one should
review the process. If the intended results are not achieved, the decision maker should adjust or
repeat the whole decision making process.
Ethical Moral Philosophies
Moral philosophies tend to explore the morality of humanity and how people should live
with one another, therefore contemplate what is right and what is wrong (Marta et al. 2012). The
three main branches of moral philosophies include meta-ethics that questions what morality is
and if justice truly exists (Kriegstein, 2015). Normative ethics illustrates what we real should do
in order to live in harmony with other people but divided into deontology, utilitarianism, and
virtue ethics. The last branch is the applied ethics that tend to take some specific moral
challenges that we face on daily basis. As in the case of Assam, the deontology is a relevant
philosophy. Deontology requires that people follow law and do their duties as the states. Assam
tea industry just needs to do their duties and honor their part of contract with the workers; pay
good wages and provide a good working and living conditions for the employees.
Conclusion
From the article about exploitation of workers at Assam tea industry, it can be observed
that that the industry has violated the ethics on corporate citizenship. Under this ethical issue, a

Business Ethics 8
business, company, corporation or industry has an obligation to service its workers and make
sure it improves the environment where it has been licensed to operate. Contrarily, Assam tea
estates have been accused of letting its workers live in filthy conditions under leaking roofs with
no toilets not proper healthcare. The industry ought to have observed the deontology philosophy
under normative moral ethics that requires that people and organizations should just follow the
law and do their duties as required by the laws.
Appendix
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-tea-workers-live-in-
appalling-conditions-on-2-a-day-report/articleshow/64278688.cms?
intenttarget=no&mailtofriend=yes

Business Ethics 9
Reference List
Baruah, M 2013, 'Space and community between the local and the global: two examples from the
Brahmaputra Valley of Assam', Asian Ethnicity, 14, 3, pp. 276-292.
Basole, A, Basu, D, & Bhattacharya, R 2015, 'Determinants and impacts of subcontracting:
evidence from India’s unorganized manufacturing sector', International Review Of
Applied Economics, 29, 3, pp. 374-402.
Beekun, R, Stedham, Y, Westerman, J, & Yamamura, J 2010, 'Effects of justice and
utilitarianism on ethical decision making: a cross-cultural examination of gender
similarities and differences', Business Ethics: A European Review, 19, 4, pp. 309-325.
Davvetas, V, & Diamantopoulos, A 2016, 'How Product Category Shapes Preferences Toward
Global and Local Brands: A Schema Theory Perspective', Journal Of International
Marketing, 24, 4, pp. 61-81.
Devika, J 2016, 'Aspects of Socioeconomic Exclusion in Kerala, India: Reflections from an
Urban Slum', Critical Asian Studies, 48, 2, pp. 193-214.
Dutta, S, & Bahadur, M 2016, 'Cytogenetic analysis of micronuclei and cell death parameters in
epithelial cells of pesticide exposed tea garden workers', Toxicology Mechanisms &
Methods, 26, 8, pp. 627-634.
Gawronski, B, Armstrong, J, Conway, P, Friesdorf, R, & Hütter, M 2017, 'Consequences,
Norms, and Generalized Inaction in Moral Dilemmas: The CNI Model of Moral
Decision-Making', Journal Of Personality & Social Psychology, 113, 3, pp. 343-376.

Business Ethics 10
Hsieh, N 2017, 'The Responsibilities and Role of Business in Relation to Society: Back to
Basics?', Business Ethics Quarterly, 27, 2, pp. 293-314.
Kriegstein, H 2015, 'Shareholder Primacy and Deontology', Business & Society Review
(00453609), 120, 3, pp. 465-490.
Marta, J, Singhapakdi, A, Lee, D, Burnaz, S, Ilker Topcu, Y, Serap Atakan, M, & Ozkaracalar, T
2012, 'The Effects of Corporate Ethical Values and Personal Moral Philosophies on
Ethical Intentions in Selling Situations: Evidence from Turkish, Thai, and American
Businesspeople', Journal Of Business Ethics, 106, 2, pp. 229-241.
Mishra, D, Sarma, A, & Upadhyay, V 2011, 'Invisible chains? Crisis in the tea industry and the
'unfreedom' of labour in Assam's tea plantations', Contemporary South Asia, 19, 1, pp.
75-90.
Stockall, N, & Dennis, L 2015, 'Seven Basic Steps to Solving Ethical Dilemmas in Special
Education: A Decision-Making Framework', Education & Treatment Of Children, 38, 3,
pp. 329-344.