Business Ethics and Responsible Management in Tuna Production: Report

This report delves into the ethical dimensions of the tuna industry, specifically focusing on the presence of modern slavery within the supply chain of the Aldi South Group. It examines the ethical implications of these practices, considering the impact on stakeholders such as workers, consumers, investors, competitors, and governments. The report explores alternative ways businesses can operate responsibly, highlighting the benefits of ethical decision-making and the negative consequences of unethical choices. It provides recommendations for addressing modern slavery, including the development of complaint channels, supply chain analysis, and collaboration with external stakeholders. Furthermore, the report applies ethical theories, such as utilitarianism, to analyze the issue and propose solutions. Finally, it explores the relationship between ethical managers and leaders, emphasizing the attributes needed to foster an ethical organizational environment and the importance of constructing the best environment for ethical practice.

Business Ethics and
Responsible
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
PART 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
Rationale from looking at this issue from an ethical preselective .........................................1
Impact of this issue on public image of the company ...........................................................2
Alternative ways of business role in society..........................................................................2
Stakeholders which are impacted by this issue......................................................................3
Benefits of ethical decisions and negative impact of bad decisions on the company ..........4
Recommendation....................................................................................................................5
Application of ethical theories in context of the ethical issue of presence of slavery in supply
chain of large tuna producing organisations .........................................................................5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................7
Relation between an ethical manager and and ethical leader ................................................7
Attributes needed fore ethical leadership and creation of an ethical organisation ................7
Construction of best environment for ethical practice ..........................................................8
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFRENCES ................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Business ethics is a form of professional ethics which analyses the ethical and moral
principles and problems that arise in a business environment. The Aldi south group is a
structured group of organisations which operates in 11 international markets and offers between
1470 and 1940 core range products. Aldi south group is one of the leading members of the global
tuna production industry. The issue of presence of modern slavery in supply chain of prominent
tuna manufacturing firms has an ethical dimension as it put the business organisation about the
consequences of their action to take inadequate steps for removal of slavery from their supply
chain management. This report includes information about the issue of slavery in supply chain of
tuna production company, role of corporations in society, impact of this issue on stakeholders of
the respective company and impact examples of ways in which ethical and unethical decisions
affect businesses. In addition to this, application of ethical theories in context of presence of
slavery in supply chain management in leading tuna production firms is given in this report along
with recommendation for solving this issue.
PART 1
Rationale from looking at this issue from an ethical preselective
The pacific area fulfils 60% demand of tuna from all over the globe and international
fishing organisations gain their supply of tuns from this region. The issue associated with large
tuna production organisations is the presence of slavery in their supply chain. The opaque and
remote nature of tuna production supply chain has contributed to the production of this problem.
The main reason behind the introduction of modern slavery in the current working environment
for various business organisation is that business organisations aim to gain high profitability
without considering societal consequences of their actions.
Modern slavery is defined as the practice institutionalised slavery conducted by business
organisations where a person is forcibly or subtly controlled by a corporation for commercial
gain (Acquier, 2018). Business organisation operating in tuna industry of pacific region create an
environment which facilitates modern slavery. This issue has an ethical dimension as business
organisation form tuna production industry have negative impact on society by creating
exploitative working environment for fishing workers which generates various forms of modern
slavery such as bonded labour, forced labour and unlawful recruitment of child labourers.
1

Aldi south group is one of the leading corporations which conducts fishing operations in
the pacific region to obtain tuna. Presence of slavery is an ethical problem faced by the company,
as it creates exploitative conditions for their workers and is harmful for the society. This problem
neds to be evaluated from an ethical preselective in order to focus on societal consequences from
the situation instead of looking at the profitability of the company.
Impact of this issue on public image of the company
Public perception of an organisation has huge impact on the main shareholders and
stakeholders of the firm (Brinkmann, 2019). The issue of presence of modern slavery in supply
chain of the company has ma major impact on the public image constructed by Aldi south group.
Consumers, competitors, governments, workers and investors are the main stakeholders of Aldi
south group. Public image of the company is of an ethical and sustainable organisation which
aims to create sustainable products to their consumers and ensure that societal responsibility of
the company is completed. Presence of modern slavery negatively affects major stakeholders of
the company which includes their investors. Elimination of this issue is highly important to
major stakeholders of Aldi South group as presence of such issues discourages from further
investment of stakeholders in the company. Public view related to factors which are important
for the company include conducting business activities which are not only profitable for the
company but also benefit the overall society and community associated with the organisation.
Alternative ways of business role in society
Business organisations aim to conduct business operations for the economic development
of the society by creation of employment opportunities, to conduct business operations for the
profitability of the firm and provide financial resources to government authorities by regularly
paying taxes (Canestrino and Magliocca, 2018). These business roles of corporations play a vital
part in economic development of the society. In context of Aldi south group, the company
completes various roles for economic prosperity of the society. Alternative roles of business
corporations for mutual benefit of society and the company include corporate social
responsibility initiatives. Corporate social responsibility includes practices and policies
undertaken by business corporation with the aim of creating positive influence on the society.
The presence of modern slavery in supply chain of the tuna production operations of the
respective company is a major barrier in completion of alternative business role towards society.
The main purpose of the respective organisation in relation to conducting alternative business
2

role is to ensure elimination of modern slavery from supply chain of the tuna production
operations of the company. The business organisation needs to take strict action against this issue
by tracking their supply chain and eliminating exploitative practices on workforce with special
focus on workers employed in fishing industry of the pacific region.
Stakeholders which are impacted by this issue
Workers
The issue of modern slavery primarily impacts workers of the company (Dmytriyev and
Wicks, 2018). As the Aldi south group does not have detailed information about their supply
chain, workers which conduct the task of catching fishes face the threat of getting harmed by
exploitative practices.
Consumers
Consumers are affected by this issue as they aim to purchase products from business
firms which are conducting business operations in an ethical manner. This issue impacts the
target consumer base of the Aldi south group by inducing them to purchase products from other
organisations which are not associated with modern slavery.
Investors
The investors of business organisations which are involved in practice of modern slavery
get negatively affected. This is because the dale of the company is directly affected by utilisation
of slave labour in supply chain. In context of investors of Aldi south grope, issue of unchecked
supply chain which facilitate creation and growth of modern slavery in the fishing industry
affects investors of the respective organisation directly. Their investment in the company is at
stake due to negative impact on sale of the organisation.
Competitors
Rival organisations of the respective company are affected by the presence of modern
slavery in supply chain of a corporations. This is because the consumers of the company shift
towards purchasing products of the rival business organisations. In relation to the Aldi south
group, presence of modern forms of slavery in supply chain of the company provides growth
opportunity to rival firms to increase their sales by offering consumers tuna products from supply
chains which are free from any form of modern slavery.
Governments
3

Governments are harmed by the presence of any form of slavery in their region. Presence
of modern slavery in corporate world of country has negative effect on the image and economic
progress of the nation. This is highly harmful for the government as it not only reduces
continuous economic growth of the area but also harms the residents of the nation. Governments
play a vital role in eradication of slavery from their region and help business organisation create
a supply chain which is free from, slavery. Implementation of legislation is the main way
through which such practices are eradicates by the government of any region. In context of Aldi
south group, lack of government intervention is the main reason behind business organisations
easily utilising modern slavery practices and creating supply chain on the basis of exploitative
practices.
Benefits of ethical decisions and negative impact of bad decisions on the company
Ethical decision making is highly beneficial for the company. Business organisations
which conduct their business operations in an ethical manner are able to create profitable
business models while ensuring that their responsibility towards society is completed (Giannouli,
2020). Fishing industry of the pacific utilises various forms of modern slavery which needs to be
eliminated by business organisation. Business firms which take steps to remove forms of modern
slavery from their supply chain not only gain increased consumers through their ethical business
practices but also complete their responsibility towards society. Bumble bee foods US based
business firm which sells tuna products have taken various steps to ensure that their consumers
are given tuna which is ethically produced. Removal of practices which facilitate labour
exploitation such as removal of trans shipment and usage of advanced technology to track fishes
are some of the major steps taken by the company to create a supply chain which is free from
modern slavery.
TESCO is a British retail chain which operates in the pacific region for obtaining tuna
fished. The company has failed to take any effective steps against modern slavery in their supply
chain. This increases the risk of their fishing workers getting harmed by modern slavery
practices and becoming the victim of exploitative business practices. TESCO and Aldi south
group need to take various actions against modern slavery in order to efficiently perform their
functions toward the society.
4

Recommendation
 The company needs to develop complaint channels which can be easily accessed by
workers in order to report labour violations.
 The respective organisation needs to conduct profound analysis of their supply chain in
order to gain information about parts of the supply chain which are at risk of modern
slavery or any other unethical business practice.
 Aldi south group needs to track every product of their company with detailed infromation
about their supply chain in order to ensure that their supply chain is free from exploitative
practices.
 Aldi south group needs to collaborate with external stakeholders which includes
government authorities of pacific region, workers union and victims of exploitative
labour in order to gain a deeper understanding of this issue. This will help the company
construct and implement policies and process for eliminating exploitative labour practices
from their community.
 Aldi needs to conduct human right training sessions across all of their business operations
in order to ensure that each of their employees understands modern slavery and is
equipped with ways to protect themselves from becoming a victim of modern slavery.
Application of ethical theories in context of the ethical issue of presence of slavery in supply
chain of large tuna producing organisations
Utilitarianism theory
This theory states that an action is morally right if the end result of the action produces
happiness for a large number of people. Utilitarianism focuses on conducting actions which
maximise happiness and pleasure for minimising pain (Hartman, 2020). The main principles of
this theory is that it considers everyone's happiness equal and considers pleasure and happiness
to be the only thing which has intrinsic value. According to this ethical theory, something is held
to be good in itself apart from other consequences and all other values are believed to be derived
from worth of their relation to this intrinsic good.
In context of the issue of presence of slavery in supply chain of business operations
which operate in the fishing industry of the pacific region, this theory states that actions of the
business organisations are ethically wrong as the consequences of not eliminating slavery from
the supply chain of business organisations results in creation of displeasure for a large number of
5

people. The main stakeholder for which this issue results in creation of displeasure are workers,
government organisations of the pacific region and investors of the company. The government
authorities of the pacific region face displeasure due to the consequences of the action taken by
tuna production organisations. The main factors which arise due to the consequence of action
taken by tuna producers are reduction in reduction of the company, decrease in economic
progress of the are and creation an environment which decreases the well being of the citizens of
the country. Apart from this the workers of the company face destructive consequences as a
result of action taken by the company. They become a part of exploitative practices which are
highly harmful for them. Application of this theory states that the action taken by tuna
manufacturing organisations to not take strict steps for elimination of modern slavery from their
supply chain is ethically wrong.
Deontology theory
This theory of ethics focuses on the action to determine morality of the action instead on
using consequences to understand if the action is right or wrong. This ethical theory revolves
around the importance of relationship between duty and morality associated with any set of
actions (Hauser, 2019). Certain characteristic of an action decides if the action is right or wrong
and takes the focus away from the result of the action. Kantianism is a branch of deontological
philosophy which states that a good action is morally good in itself and good without
qualification. This theory states that the morality of an action is not dependent on the result
produced by the implementation of the action but can be determined by the motive of the person
which conducts the action.
In relation to the problem of presence of modern slavery in fish producing organisation
the pacific region, this theory states that the action taken by the business organisations to not
remove modern slavery from their supply chain is that morally wrong. The justification given
according to this theory for the action of business organisations to be morally wrong is that the
motive of such action is to intentionally create exploitative situations for their workers in order to
increase profitability of the company. Business organisations which are not making efforts for
constructing supply chain which is free from slave labour are morally wrong. The main
stakeholders of the international tuna producing organisation which are considered to be losers
according to this theory are the investors of the company along with top management present in
the company. These stakeholders are avoiding taking action against the presence of modern
6

slavery which is put them in a morally wrong position. The main winners associated with
application this theory are the consumers which take the morally right decision to not purchase
products of business firms which are engaged in modern slavery. This is because the motive
behind this decision is focused on forcing business organisation to take a look into exploitative
practices of their workers in their supply chain. The intention of this act is for the benefit of
workers which places this act in a morally correct position.
PART 2
Relation between an ethical manager and and ethical leader
An ethical leaders and ethical managers perform various business functions of the
company in collaboration with each other. The interrelation between an ethical leader and ethical
manager helps a business organisation conduct various business operations which is beneficial
for the company along with various stakeholders associated with the company. Ethical managers
take various managerial decision with focus on completing decision is an ethical manner while
leaders take action and focus on creating an environment where employees are driven by
example (Hunt and Radford, 2018). In addition to this leaders communicate with employees to
understand their grievances and managers construct business environment which beneficial to
the company along with their employees.
Attributes needed fore ethical leadership and creation of an ethical organisation
Ethical leadership is a form of leadership in which individuals focus on depicting and
promoting normatively suitable actions with the help of personnel actions and interpersonal
relations. The main attributes required for increasing ethical leadership in a business organisation
is to respect each employee present in the organisation regardless of their position in the
organisational hierarchy. Leaders can develop this attribute by understanding the contribution of
each employee in progress of the company and identifying the value of their daily activities in
accomplishing business objectives. Values driven decision making is another attribute of ethical
leadership which helps leaders create a morally right business environment which is beneficial
for each individual (Poesche, 2019). Apart from this leading by example is another trait
associated with ethical leadership as creates an environment of contentious progress without
usage of force. Adoption of these attributes can help a business organisation create ethical
business firm and complete their responsibility towards society effectively.
7

Construction of best environment for ethical practice
Business organisations need to construct an organisational code of ethics which includes
information about organisations expectations form the employees related to ethical completion of
business activities. In addition to this, organisational code of ethics need to include consequences
associated with failure to meet the set standards for ethical completion of various business
objectives (Purg and Walravens, 2019). Ethics communication strategy need to be developed by
the company in order to communicate with employees related to values standards and conduct of
the company. Ethics training is another step in constructionist business practices of the company.
8

9

CONCLUSION
From the above report it is determined that business organisations need to conduct
various business practices for the mutual benefit of the company and the society. Business
organisations which aim to increase their profitability without considering consequences of their
action on their major stakeholders and society are considered unethical business organisations.
Major stakeholders which are affected by unethical actions of business organisations include the
consumers of the company, investors, competitors and government organisations which are
present in the operating market of the company. Ethical theories consists of various fundamental
statements which provide basis of determining weather actions of a business entity is morally
right or wrong. Utilitarianism and deontology theory are one of the main ethical theories which
provide basis of determining morally right and wrong characteristics. Ethical managers and
leaders share some attributes which help in development of a business organisation.
10

REFRENCES
Books and journals
Acquier, A., 2018. Dr Pilar Acosta is Assistant Professor at the School of Business and
Economic Sciences at Universidad Icesi, in Cali, Colombia. She earned her PhD at
ESCP Europe and Université Paris 1-Panthéon Sorbonne in 2015. Her work has been
published in inter-national journals such as Journal of Business Ethics, Supply Chain
Forum: An International Journal, book chapters and international conferences. Her
research focuses on the. Business Strategies for Sustainability.
Brinkmann, J., 2019. “Troubling times” on the agenda of business ethics: drafting a dialogue
approach, aiming at a consensus. In Ethical Business Leadership in Troubling Times.
Edward Elgar Publishing.
Canestrino, R. and Magliocca, P., 2018. Managing Business Ethics in a Global Environment:
The Impact of Cultural Diversities. In Geopolitics and Strategic Management in the
Global Economy (pp. 137-169). IGI Global.
Dmytriyev, S. and Wicks, A.C., 2018. Building Bridges: Patricia Werhane, Business Ethics and
Health Care. In The Moral Imagination of Patricia Werhane: A Festschrift (pp. 143-
163). Springer, Cham.
Giannouli, V., 2020. Business ethics in healthcare: The case of Greece. In Examining Ethics and
Intercultural Interactions in International Relations (pp. 138-167). IGI Global.
Hartman, E.M., 2020. The Status of Business Ethics. In Arriving Where We Started (pp. 153-
191). Springer, Cham.
Hauser, C., 2019. Fighting against corruption: does anti-corruption training make any
difference?. Journal of Business Ethics. 159(1). pp.281-299.
Hunt, D.M. and Radford, S.K., 2018. Teaching Business Ethics.
Poesche, J., 2019. Business ethics and sovereignty in settler colonial states. International
Indigenous Policy Journal, 10(3).
Purg, D. and Walravens, A., 2019. Business Ethics and Corporate Governance in Africa, Central
and Eastern Europe and Turkey. Academy of Management Global Proceedings, (2019),
p.210.
Rendtorff, J.D., 2019. Philosophy of Management and Ethical Interdependence in the
Anthropocene Age. In Philosophy of Management and Sustainability: Rethinking
Business Ethics and Social Responsibility in Sustainable Development. Emerald
Publishing Limited.
Ssemwanga, A. and Sengupta, E., 2020. Teaching Business Ethics to Students in Uganda–
Exploring its Significance in an African Context: A Case Study of St Lawrence
University. In Civil Society and Social Responsibility in Higher Education:
International Perspectives on Curriculum and Teaching Development. Emerald
Publishing Limited.
Surdam, D.G., 2020. Quakers and Business Ethics. In Business Ethics from Antiquity to the 19th
Century (pp. 281-294). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Uhl, M. and Lütge, C., 2018. Teaching Business Ethics with Experiments. Journal of Business
Ethics Education. 15. pp.203-217.
Yuan, Y., and et. al. 2020. Business strategy and corporate social responsibility. Journal of
Business Ethics. 162(2). pp.359-377.
11

12