Corporate Social Responsibility in a Global Business Environment

This report analyzes corporate social responsibility (CSR) within a global business environment, focusing on the utilitarian perspective and its implications for international sweatshops. It examines the impact of sweatshops on foreign workers, the consequences of cheaper prices, and the loss of jobs in countries like Australia and New Zealand. The report delves into the concept of CSR, exploring its economic, ethical, and legal dimensions. It discusses the application of utilitarianism, considering the balance of happiness and pain in the context of sweatshops. The report also addresses the effect of international trade and globalization on child labor and the overall welfare of workers, and the concept of CSR in global business environment.

RUNNING HEAD: CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN A GLOBAL BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT 1
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN A GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
International sweatshops from an act utilitarian point of view........................................................2
Effect on foreign workers................................................................................................................4
Consequences of cheaper price and lost jobs for people in Australia and New Zealand................5
Concept of corporate social responsibility in global business environment....................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Reference.........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The report will discuss in detail about the international sweatshop from a utilitarian point of
view. There has been a lot of discussion related with the sweatshops which can be defined by
different forums like International Labor Rights Forum where a company is able to violet two
and sometimes more laws like labor law. These kinds of laws can be associated with concerning
remuneration, with working hours and bad working condition with so many disciplinary actions
and safety. Employees working in Sweatshop are usually perceived as tortured, beaten and
harassed in all sense at every possible occasion (Schlegelmilch, 2016). At the same time, there
are arguments which says that sweatshop do violate laws which bring more advantages than any
other kind of harm in long run. On the other hand, it is also being argued that the sweatshops
must be immediately abolished because of the usage of bad working conditions.
International sweatshops from an act utilitarian point of view
The theory of Utilitarianism was founded by John Stuart Mill and the theory is developed on the
basis of a principle of Greatest Happiness Principle, which is based on the rightness of any kind
of action taken with right amount of happiness which can further be promoted among people. It
is important to understand here that the more happiness any kind of action produces better is the
situation and vice-a-versa. The principle of utilitarianism also says that the usage of sweatshops
will be looked as bad or negative thing (Schlegelmilch, 2016). As discussed before, the concept
of utilitarianism is primarily based on the amount of happiness that any action is able to promote.
In taking right decisions, an individual want to pick several alternatives that can help in
promoting the maximum happiness with less pain and solutions. This principle thus depends
mainly on quantities because the basis is on the amount of pain as well as pleasure. At the same

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time, quality plays an important role and is also taken as some type of pleasure which makes it
desirable further as well as valuable than any other. It is also true that people who have more
requirements have to promote the concept of happiness more and vice-a-versa (Ballet et al,
2014).
The greatest happiness principle also based on how right an action can be and how great can be
solution of any kind of action and the amount of pleasure taken from the results. In case of
sweatshops, the pain usually overpowers the happiness and pleasure. If perspective of a
businessman is taken, while using the concept of sweatshops, there are lots of pleasures because
of this. Greater profits can be gained in order to have a cheaper cost for which highly paid labor
was utilized. Here money is taken as a main source of happiness (Schumacher et al, 2015).
In the present case, the workforce must also face so many challenges along with sufferings. The
labor also suffers because people can earn little amount of money to work for long time period in
bad situations for working. The overall payment earned is never sufficient and not sufficient for
supporting the families on salaries which also keep them surviving in long term. It is vital to gain
more clarity about the lot of amount based on suffering to sweatshop workforce and it is also
greater them profit earned for the business gain for using them because sweatshops never really
follows the principles especially principle of Happiness (Allhoff et al, 2016). This is why,
utilitarian concept normally agrees with the fact that use of sweatshop is not ideal thing and
therefore, the amount of pain cause is much more than the profits.
Effect on foreign workers
When there is a rise in the level of international trade then there is lift in millions of people out
from bad situations like poverty and bad working conditions. As per World Bank, the overall

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population which is living under the poverty line is actually defined as an income group people
that are equal to one US dollar every day or even lesser. The level of poverty has fallen in the
quicker manner in different areas of the world especially for those countries that have globalized
in the rapid manner like China. On the other hand poverty level has increased in those areas that
are far from globalization specifically some region in Africa. Factors like openness for trade and
development brings as well as also exerts a positive kind of influence on the overall welfare of
children in some developing countries by decreasing the rate of child labor . The global or
international labor communities can be reported that there are number of people like children in
the workforce rather than in school all across the world that has been dropped by eleven percent
approximately. Going global or concept of globalization is an important factor for making
positive kind of trend in child labor. Since the overall incomes rises in number of developing
nation, specifically where wages are paid to females members with few families faces the
economic significance of sending the children out to work. The studies also confirm that
participation from labor forces by children age of 10 to 14 is declining with rise in GNP per
capita. There is majority of child labor which is toiling in number of developing and under
developed countries work in sectors which is far removed from international economy (Everett et
al, 2017). There is usually more than eighty percent of work which goes without pay and
normally for those parents or families living in bad conditions or under the poverty line. Most of
the other labor work for so many small scale local businesses which are typically for the non-
traded services like shining of the shoes, delivery of newspaper and other kind of local or
domestic services. In places like Australia and New Zealand, trade based liberalization and other
kind of reforms in past twenty years have spurred not just on development in level of income and
it can also be measurable the progress on social level. The World Bank also says that the rate of

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literacy for people working especially under the age of 15 have risen since 1980 (DesJardins &
McCall, 2014).
Consequences of cheaper price and lost jobs for people in Australia and New Zealand
There is constant debate on the long term benefits and its impact of it on the society. It has
constantly being argued that concept of sweatshop should completely be diminished or removed
since it is an outcome of impoverishment of number of country employees. It has been justified a
lot of times that countries are part of bidding war by decreasing the minimum standard for wages
to attract more and more international investment since high remuneration will restrict the
overall growth. The employees or workers are also quite unaware of the real wage standard in
global market and are also constantly experiencing false level of consciousness. As per number
of researches at the time of privatization in growth nations, the country’s total inflow for FDI
rose from twenty six percent to thirty seven percent during 90s (Carson, 2013). The outcomes in
the present decline in living standards for workers since the interest is not properly protected as
the minimum amount of wage is further reduced to rise with FDI. Also people who oppose
sweatshops are also some of the reason that sweatshops are actually contributing in increasing
the gap that exist between the rice and the poor as well as among the countries. In the global
context, many developed countries like Australia and New Zealand get a better amount of trade
off because of rise in profit as compared to many host nations. As an outcome, this kind of gap
exists between the poor as well as the rich countries are also increasing with time. Moreover, any
kind of connection or alliances that exist between the elites of many developing nations and
multinationals will finally lead to so many countries’ wealth which is collected in the hand of
some people and companies. Rise in FDI in developing countries usually results in rise in the

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nations GDP. At the same time, there are some people that will earn more or higher power for
purchasing and it exist in the hand of few people. Rise in overall consumption will finally lead to
rise in the price and it further caused good and services way less affordable for the poor over a
period of time (Langlois, 2014).
Concept of corporate social responsibility in global business environment
The concept of corporate social responsibility can be defined with the help of number of interest
groups, companies and many academic scholars in so many manners. However, there is no kind
of universally accepted concept of corporate social responsibility in the current literature. The
concept that helps in understanding the concept is actually provided by World Business Council
of Sustainable Development. The concept is defined the concept as the counting of the number of
commitment by organization in order to be a part of economic growth and at the same time also
improving the overall quality of the workforce and their life and society at large (Thomas, 2017).
Anybody can easily break down the elements of CSR into two segments that have been
considered time and again. These factors aim on the internal culture of the company which
consists of concepts like treatment of minorities and women, relationship with employees and
advancement based potential. These factors also aim on the external environment where concepts
like environment friendly practices, external opinions associated with quality and perception of
workforce compensation because of marketplace and various associated comparisons. In
addition, there are three angles or dimensions to the concept of CSR as well that are economic,
ethical and legal accountability (Singer, 2013).

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Conclusion
There are some scandals like Nike and many other that tend to pay the workers more than local
companies in the Third World culture. There are critics of the concept of Sweatshops that
constantly maintain that since the subcontractors can make products for MNCs, calculating the
wages of such firms does not address the complaints of the critics which is completely against
the sweatshop. It is also important to address the overall deficiency in the present literature by
constantly comparing the apparel or other similar sectors and the wages given by them in nations
that are most probably have sweatshops and the wages provided by single company is constantly
accused of being a sweatshop to calculate the averages standard of living in such nations (Singer,
2013). The surveys and other kind of data further shows that the workers in such industries are
far from being better than most people in the economies. At the same time, the best option
present is with data utilized which is actually far from the perfect. Biasness is also causing to
undermine the earnings which work as a percentage of the current living standard. There are so
many data restrictions and single companies are also accused of paying this sweatshop
remuneration which can be compared in favorable manner with different kind of standards of
living (Singer, 2013).

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Reference
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Ballet, J., Bhukuth, A., & Carimentrand, A. (2014). Child labor and responsible consumers: from
boycotts to social labels, illustrated by the Indian hand-knotted carpet industry. Business
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Carson, T. L. (2013). Free Exchange for Mutual Benefit: Sweatshops and Maitland’s “Classical
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Everett, J., Neu, D., & Rahaman, A. S. (2017). Ethics in the Eye of the Beholder: A Pluralist
View of Fair Trade. Business and Professional Ethics Journal, 36(1), 1-40.
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