Ethical Issues and Business Ethics: Gucci Shenzen Case Study Analysis

This essay analyzes the ethical issues presented in the Gucci Shenzen case study, focusing on the violation of employee rights and unethical management practices. It begins by defining the principle of rights and how it was violated through excessive restrictions, maternity benefit denial, and unpaid overtime. The essay then examines the store manager's unethical behavior, including a breach of policies, lack of ethical conduct, and labor abuse. It explores the impact of these actions, particularly the lack of awareness among workers about their rights. The essay offers recommendations for managerial implications, such as implementing ethical codes, enforcing labor rights, and promoting corporate social responsibility. Finally, the essay highlights the lessons learned, emphasizing the importance of ethics for organizational success, employee satisfaction, and the company's image. The conclusion reiterates the significance of ethical principles in a global context and the consequences of unethical behavior.

RUNNING HEAD: ETHICAL ISSUES
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Business Ethics
Essay
System 0032
[Pick the date]

Ethical Issues 1
Task A. Principle of Rights
Principle of rights states that every individual has right to access the maximum amount of
freedom. Principles of right mainly focus on providing or protecting individual rights related to
moral and legal rights. The right theory in business ethics clarify that all individual have the
freedom and rights towards their life and thus they should be treated with the highest respect and
dignity required in the workplace. This theory basically highlights that any business purpose
should not harm other person sentiments (Sulivan & Robison, 2017).
For example: In an organization, employer imposes many restrictions on the employees and
makes strict policies by banning the informal communication in between the colleagues during
working hours that is violation of rights of an individual as each one have right to communicate
with whomsoever the person feel comfortable. So that strict policies are not in the favor of the
organization and harm the working environment and brings negativity in employee’s behavior.
In respect of case of Gucci in Shenzen, Principle of rights is violated in many situation, Firstly
when top management imposed excessive restrictions on the employees including asking
permission for getting a drink in between work, and imposing limitation on toilet time as every
individual in personal or professional life have right to do what he/she wanted to do. These
limitations were considered if violating any ethical issue or policies otherwise these limitations
were the violation of principle of rights. Secondly in case of pregnant women it was her right to
get basic facilities or to get all the maternity benefits from the company during pregnancy.
Another situation that was violating the principle was when employed didn’t get the payment of
the overtime work or hours they dedicated to the Gucci. Each worker has right to get payment of
the extra or overtime work he/she delivered for the benefit of the company. So in the above case
mentioned following were the situations where principle of right was violated by the top level
management in Gucci.

Ethical Issues 2
Task B. Unethical Behavior of Top Management
Business ethics are important aspect in running an organization, it includes following of ethical
behavior and rules by the employees and manager in the workplace (Trevino & Nelson, 2016). In
Gucci store manager was not behaving in a professional way and the rules and policies of the
company was not according to the business ethics as it was violating the principle of right of an
individual. So it is analyzed from the case that store manager was not doing his duty in a
professional manner and its way of managing the staff was inappropriate as according to the
principles of management each employee have right to get the fair remuneration and the extra
pay for the overtime as under the law.
The store manager was not professional in managing the staff and store because of the following
reasons:
i. Not fulfilling his duties and responsibilities: The store manager of Gucci is not fulfilling
his responsibilities and duties as he was imposing lots of restriction and not able to
handle the staff in an ethical manner and that leads to resignation of the efficient
employees of organization that resultant in ruining of image of the company in front of
society as issue was viral on internet (Kopnina & Blewitt, 2018).
ii. Breach of policies: The organization goods exchange policy was dependent on the mood
of manager was totally an unprofessional thing. Organizations have set rules and policies
for each procedure to maintain the equality and ethical culture in the workplace and in
between employees but in case of Gucci it is not there as mood of manager decides the
goods exchange policies of the company.
iii. Lack of ethical behavior: Falsification and lack of trust between management and
employees due to falsification record of working hours and overtime of work in the
records. This manipulation by store manager was done in order to increase the
profitability of store and to achieve the target. This is not an ethical way to manage the
staff and work as per their benefits and requirement (Davies, 2016).
iv. Labor abuse: Another unprofessional behavior of the store manager was labor abuse as a
pregnant woman was forced to do overtime and restricted for toilet time. That is not at all
acceptable in the workplace.

Ethical Issues 3
Task C Labor abuses and awareness about their rights among workers
Tolerance is not at all acceptable or this abuse should be reported by the employees to top
management. Tolerance is engraved in the culture of Chinese. In this case, employees were
tolerating the abuse and restricted practices of the management that caused miscarriage of a
female employee. The reason behind this is weak awareness of Chinese employees about their
rights and laws at workplace. The employees should get together against this abuse of store
manager and make their right to be heard or can took step for this unethical behavior by posting a
letter on social sites of the company. They should form the trade union in order to protect their
interest against this abuse and should learn their rights or get aware themselves about the rights
they prevail (Crane & Matten, 2016). If these actions were taken earlier by the other employees
the resignation of 5 employees never happened and they were not tolerating that misbehavior
from the management.
Task D Recommendations or Managerial Implications
In managerial aspect, the company is lacking the ethical behavior and policies. That should be
implemented. The right theory and theory of deontology should be applicable that states there
should be a proper treatment of juniors by the seniors in the workplace and senior should be
responsive and be concerned about the need of juniors in the workplace (Strobel & Welpe,
2015).
Second recommendation is that there should be proper implications of strong and legal
mechanisms for enforcing and protecting labor rights in the organization. Others steps that can
be taken by the company are to implement proper code of ethics in the workforce so that each
manager or employees should be properly follow the practices and rules of the company. This
code should apply to all the branches and stores in both developed and less developed countries.
Proper standards help the company to improve their working environment in each of their stores
so that this kind of behavior and abuses are not to be seen in future.
Promoting corporate social responsibility is another implication that can be done by the
management in order to safeguard the labors and their families from that abuse and violation
(Schlegelmich, 2016). Furthermore, top management should observe and measure the roles and
performance of the mangers in the store in order to ensure that all the policies and practices of

Ethical Issues 4
the company are followed in a proper manner that helps in getting feedback from the workers
about the top managers and any misuse or issues can be identified and action can be taken
earlier.
Task E Lesson Learnt
The above case was totally based on the unprofessional and unethical behavior of store manager
on the workers. The lessons learnt from the above case includes
i. Ethics are the important part of an organization, the unethical behavior of managers can
prove to be harmful for the employees as well as for the image of the company (Gare &
Neelsham, 2018). It is learnt that ethical principles are the foundation of any
organization; violation of these ethical principles may be harmful and lead to serious
consequences for the business in long run.
ii. Standardization and code of ethics are important element for the success of organization.
Employee Ethics are important for the efficient working conditions and ethics helps in
bringing the peace and harmony in between employees and a manger that will be helpful
for building up the corporate image of the company.
Conclusion
Ethical Principles and behavior is important for the organization in order to be successful in
global context. Ethical issues in an organization may result in low satisfaction and poor
productivity of the employees. Ethical behavior and norms helps the organization to get more
advanced working culture for the employees. Ethics helps in achieving employee satisfaction. In
the above case it is analyzed that unethical and unprofessional behavior of an individual affected
the overall organization image and most importantly affects the employee productivity and
satisfaction level. This restriction and violation of law has many more strategically outcome that
would be political or government action on the company. So from the case it is learnt that how
important the ethics are in context of organization and employees.

Ethical Issues 5
References
Crane, A. & Matten, D., 2016. Business Ethics: Managing Corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. s.l.:Oxford University Press.
Davies, P. W., 2016. Current Issues in Business Ethics. New York: Routledge.
Gare, A. & Neelsham, C., 2018. Creating an effective business ethics. Handbook of Philosophy
of Management, 45(6), pp. 1-16.
Kopnina, H. & Blewitt, J., 2018. Business Ethics. New York: Routledge.
Schlegelmich, B. B., 2016. Global Ethics and CSR in global business. US: Springer.
Strobel, M. & Welpe, I., 2015. Do Business Ethics pay off?. Journal of Ethics and Human rights,
15(3), pp. 26-35.
Sulivan, R. & Robison, M., 2017. Business and Human Rights. New York: Routledge.
Trevino, L. K. & Nelson, K. A., 2016. Managing Business Ethics. London: John Wiley & Sons.