BUS 101: Ethical Challenges of Globalization on Working Conditions

This essay critically evaluates the ethical challenges of globalization and its impacts on decent working conditions, with a focus on ethical issues in Pakistan. The essay discusses how globalization affects working conditions, including issues like child labor, workplace safety, and the exploitation of labor in developing countries. It highlights the role of multinational corporations in these ethical dilemmas and examines how developed countries often outsource jobs to emerging countries to reduce labor costs, which can lead to lower labor standards and increased risks for workers. The essay then applies ethical theories, such as Utilitarianism and Kantian ethics, to address these challenges, suggesting how these frameworks can be used to improve working conditions and promote ethical practices in a globalized world. The essay also discusses the importance of considering environmental standards and the potential for ethical theories to guide companies towards more responsible behavior.

Business Ethics and
Sustainability

Table of Contents
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Ethical challenges of globalization and impacts in decent working conditions..........................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

MAIN BODY
Ethical challenges of globalization and impacts in decent working conditions
Globalization refers interdependencies among nations or world's economy, population.
Nations are sharing information, technology, human resources and others resources to the great
extent and it is increasing interdependencies to the great extent and this process is known as
globalization (Burlacu, Gutu and Matei, 2018). It has both positive and negative impacts on
people, working conditions of companies. In regard to ethical issues related to globalization that
are affecting employees' performance and overall condition of companies of Pakistan is: child
labour, workplace safety, terrorism and others.
Impacts on working conditions: It is found that developed countries bring labours from
developing countries and on lower wages they get work done and take undue advantages of it. It
increases more gap between the rich and the poor. Increasing rate of refugees in the developed
countries is one of the main examples of it. People have to live away from their homes and when
they travel to such extent and to such distance, then it increases risks of disease and terrorism as
well. It lowers labour standards as developed countries contract to emerging countries for
cutting labour cost. Child labour also increases only because of globalization (Ibrahim,
Boerhannoeddin and Kayode, 2017). Other ethical issue that affect working condition is
workers' safety standards. One example of it is US as it wanted to refurbish cruise ships and
for performing functions under strict safety then it had a cost of $100 so, it decided to outsource
job in Turkey because there was cost of $2 million (The Moral Dilemmas of Global Business,
2018). So, due to cutting cost they put lives of people in danger. Environmental standard also get
decreased by this.
Implementation of ethical theories
Utilitarianism: It is an effective ethical theory that can be implemented for solving all
ethical issues created by globalization. By encouraging companies of Pakistan and all developed
countries for implementing this theory, working conditions can be improved. One of the main
reasons behind this theory is it makes people able to understand the difference between the right
conduct and the wrong conduct. It encourages people to perform functions in a manner that leads
or foster happiness and pleasure (Liu, Schuckert and Law, 2018). It also aims to promote
diversity and make sure that all people in the society and workplaces are being treated or counted

equally. Main principle is to foster happiness and it can be done when all people treat each other
equally and also perform functions in an ethical manner.
Kantian: It is other effective ethical theory that has some similarities as like
utilitarianism. This theory states and believe that everyone should follow rules of behaviours and
it should be implemented universally to everyone. It also states that people should focus on tehir
intention of working or performing functions because they can understand themselves better tan
others. Before performing any act, when people look at their intention and maxims then it makes
them aware about the difference between the right and wrong and it encourages them to perform
function in ethical manner.

REFERENCES
Books and journals.
Burlacu, S., Gutu, C. and Matei, F.O., 2018. Globalization–pros and cons. Calitatea. 19(S1).
pp.122-125.
Ibrahim, R., Boerhannoeddin, A. and Kayode, B.K., 2017. Organizational culture and
development: Testing the structural path of factors affecting employees’ work
performance in an organization. Asia Pacific Management Review. 22(2), pp.104-111.
Liu, X., Schuckert, M. and Law, R., 2018. Utilitarianism and knowledge growth during status
seeking: Evidence from text mining of online reviews. Tourism Management. 66.
pp.38-46.
Online
The Moral Dilemmas of Global Business. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.intechopen.com/books/globalization/the-moral-dilemmas-of-global-
business>
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