Ethics and Corporate Responsibility in the Workplace and the World Essay
Ethics and Corporate Responsibility in the Workplace and the World
Business ethics stands for ethical and societal liability and accountability of people who are in charge of carrying a resolution. There are numerous cases when moral issues are revealed within corporations, and these problems can frequently affect prosperity of different companies. The current paper will analyze PharmaCARE from the viewpoint of ethics and corporate responsibility, especially in Colberia. In the case of PharmaCARE, there are numerous ethical and moral issues, which have impacted the business. The paper will demonstrate that corporate activities of PharmaCARE led to ethical, environmental, and workplace safety issues.
Stakeholders in PharmaCARE
Stakeholders are individuals or sides that have a legitimate and lawful concern in regards with the organization’s business. There are three kinds of stakeholders, including primary stakeholders, secondary stakeholders, and major stakeholders (Freeman, 2010). The first type incorporates individuals or sides who are directly impacted by both good and bad operations of the corporation. The second type incorporates those stakeholders who may be indirectly impacted by the company’s operations (Freeman, 2010). The third type of stakeholders stands for those people who can have a positive or negative influence, and these people are the major administrators and decision-makers in the corporation (Phillips, 2003). A stakeholder might have a number of distinctive characteristics in regard to the organization itself or marketing considered. Their first characteristic concerns the interest. The second characteristic is involvement. The third characteristic concerns the ability to affect organization. The combination of these three characteristics identifies the overall position of a stakeholder (Phillips, 2003).
PharmaCARE has a number of stakeholders, incorporating the CEO of PharmaCARE, a number of therapists, the Colberians, Allen Jones, Medicare, Medicaid, convalescents, medical centers, clients, and PharmaCARE and CompCare workers (“PharmaCARE,” n.d.).
Human Rights Issues
PharmaCARE suffers from a number of moral and juridical problems, starting with the employees from Africa. PharmaCARE has employed African Colberian employees to perform their functions for $1.00 of daily wages, in order to crop plants for their commodities. They intentionally outsource labor to a country’s location, which is below poverty standards, in order to have a possibility to defray the smallest wages while manufacturing their commodities. PharmaCARE defrays the African employees merely a dollar a day, while devastating the state’s natural range and putting life species under the risk of extinction, which seriously affects the climate alterations around the globe. The government advocated endangered plants and animals and their habitats under the Endangered Species Act (known as ESA). The ESA demands from the government and federal agencies to assure that any authorized, financed, and carried out operations cannot imperil the proceeding subsistence of any endangered species, or ruin or seriously alternate any crucial habitat of these species (“Pesticides: Endangered Species,” n.d.).
PharmaCARE originated a subordinate company known as CompCare to be able to repudiate Food and Drug Administration (known as FDA) research and analysis, while the company reformulated one of their drugs, which was known to slower the Alzheimer disease progress.
In a haste to overcast themselves, they founded an exurban office and did the scarce minimal reconstruction to open the recently developed place. Nevertheless, when the mustiness started to grow and affect the personnel, no actions were carried out in order to improve the situation. In fact, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) directives and legislations were established in 1970 in order to assure that chief executives equip a secure and healthy workplace for the workers. Directors should object all relevant OSHA regulations (Halbert & Ingulli, 2012). In particular, chief executives must obey the General Duty Clause of the OSHA Act, which demands from directors to retain the workplace spare of severe avowed risks (Halbert & Ingulli, 2012).One of the spheres which PharmaCARE must improve instantly concerns the human rights problems, connected with their employees from Colberia. The company presently treats their indigenous employees with minimum consideration, poor payments, and severe laboring and livelihood circumstances. If the company does not address these problems in a short order, it will destroy PharmaCARE’s reputation on a global basis. The first recommendation is believed to be the least challenging. PharmaCARE has provided indigenous workers with the wages grounded on the last desired to receive. Therefore, the company pays merely $1.00 daily. This wage is shocking, comparing with the profits that the company receives from this working force. The profits are huge, as executives can live in the commodities completed with swimming pools, tennis courses and courts. Thus, it is recommended for the PharmaCARE to increase the salaries from the current ratio of $1.00, and to change it into a ratio of $0.45, as a salary which is paid each hour. It will help to elevate the diurnal ratio by $2.60. Any higher elevation might provoke dreadful and unexpected outcomes, including an enlarged crime ratio and deception within the indigenous population (Halbert & Ingulli, 2012). The second recommendation concerns the requirement to provide some type of transportation to the employees, for them to transport the plants from the jungle to the location of their processing. Presently, the employees have to move 50-pound hampers for five miles’ distance (Halbert & Ingulli, 2012). This work is not only ineffective, but also hazardous for employees’ backs. Elementary forms of transportation, including agrimotors, small auto trucks, and cross-country vehicles, can seriously elevate PharmaCARE’s cropping capacity and enlarge the labor force efficiency. This will also minimize PharmaCARE’s dormant repute as a human rights lawbreaker. The third recommendation concerns the indigenous people life caliber. Presently, PharmaCARE executives dwell in a luxurious house, at the same time when all the other employees dwell in primal chanteys without water and electricity. Therefore, it is obvious that treatment of employees is neglected, while executives have deluxe living and working conditions. While employees do not have the access to such primitive things as electricity and water, their executives live in luxurious commodities, having a swimming pool, tennis courts, and golf courts. Thus, PharmaCARE should invest into Colberia’s water and electricity infrastructure. This would supply the employees with enhanced working and resting settings. PharmaCARE takes indigenous resources; thus, the company should give something back.
Environmental Incentive
PharmaCARE does not only have problems with human rights issues, but it also impedes Colberia’s ecology. The initiative of PharmaCARE, which promotes and fosters reclamation, packaging alterations, and other eco-friendly strategies sometimes contradicts their lobbying attempts, which are believed to be anti-environmental, as well as their land appealing and addressing to life species under the risk of extension in Colberia. The company is considered to be disingenuous concerning its position regarding the environmental problems. In fact, PharmaCARE lately introduced the initiative “We CARE about YOUR world®”, which impawned company’s obligation to the environment via a number of other eco-strategies (“PharmaCARE,” n.d.). PharmaCARE believes itself to be a ‘green’ organization, therefore, the anticipation concerning their addressing to people and community must be much better than now. The primary objective of the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act stands for the clearing of the locations which are polluted with dangerous materials. Currently, Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation Act has broadened to incorporations infringements, which might negatively influence the community’s health (“Pesticides: Endangered Species,” n.d.). According to this act, PharmaCARE infringed the law and operated hazardously while promoting and marketing illegal drugs to people, medical centers, and therapists.
Ethical Theories and PharmaCARE
PharmaCARE demonstrated numerous human rights and ecological issues. In order to understand and analyze how PharmaCARE’s addresses Colberia indigenous people, it is important to analyze the company from different ethical approaches. The utilitarian ethical theory is grounded on the capability to forecast the outcomes of any operation or action (Halbert & Ingulli, 2012). PharmaCARE manufactures high-caliber commodities, which they believe will retain millions of lives and improve the life quality for millions of others. The negative side of this action stands for the fact that a number of villagers in Colberia suffer from severe laboring circumstances. It also conflicts with the ethical theory of Deontology, as the fulfillment of the moral requirements stands for the major concern, regardless of whether it makes people happy or not (Halbert & Ingulli, 2012). Partially, PharmaCARE could be believed to be ethical according to this theory. In fact, PharmaCARE provides a better standard of life by equipping complimentary and reduced-price commodities to low-revenue clients. It also sponsors medical service instructional projects and grants. It is hard to analyze PharmaCARE from a Virtue Ethics viewpoint due to the fact that only company’s character has to be judged and not their operations (Halbert & Ingulli, 2012). From the Colberians’ viewpoint, company behaves absolutely immorally. In accordance with an Ethics of Care theory, PharmaCARE is believed to be unethical and immoral. The theory concerns certain communities, which are believed to be more vulnerable than others, while non-vulnerable communities should do everything not to affect vulnerable communities (Halbert & Ingulli, 2012). People of Colberia are an example of vulnerable communities, and they are sprightly affected by the actions of PharmaCARE. Nothing is done to improve the living and working condition of Colberia workers, and too much attention is dedicated to PharmaCARE directors and their accommodations. According to my own moral compass, PharmaCARE should have more duties concerning the Colberia community. Making profit while actually utilizing people is absolutely unethical.
Comparison of PharmaCARE and FIFA
The previous analysis proved that PharmaCARE is unethical in regard with its Colberia employees. However, this is not the only company demonstrating such an unethical treatment to its workers. Similarly to PharmaCARE, the International Federation of Association Football (known as FIFA) demonstrates numerous ethical problems. FIFA, the global soccer organization is accountable for the World Cup. Their issues focus on human rights problems appearing in Qatar, the country which will organize World Cup in 2022 (Gibson, 2013). Qatar is known to outsource all the workforce, and it is engaged in numerous human rights infringements, including the facts that employees live in miserable, overpopulated accommodations without water supply and unprotected from sewage influences (Gibson, 2013). In fact, a lot of Nepalese employees died in several months. This also means that at least 4,000 employees might be killed before the actual inception of the football tournament (Gibson, 2013). Due to the fact that Qatar operates as FIFA’s agent concerning the World Cup, FIFA is responsible for all these actions. Similar to PharmaCARE, FIFA has an international liability to assure that fundamental human rights are maintained and the treatment of foreign employees is performed on a proper level. Similarly to PharmaCARE, FIFA starts to mislay international leadership and constructive cognizance in their industry. This can lead to serious financial loses.
Conclusion
PharmaCARE is an organization which faces serious ethical issues. PharmaCARE has a number of human rights issues, which can be easily solved if the company increases employees’ salary, provides them with the means of transport and appropriate living and working conditions. In addition, despite the fact that the company demonstrates itself as a green and eco-friendly organization, it destroyed the endangered species and their habitats. Thus, PharmaCARE looks absolutely unethical in regard with its ethical and corporate responsibility.
The company and its executives are interested in making profit only. In fact, this company can be compared to FIFA, which has similar problems in Qatar. Inappropriate treatment of workers can ruin the global reputation of both companies, as they should be responsible for each person working for them. In order to improve the overall company’s situation, PharmaCARE should change its treatment of Colberian employees and provide them with better living and working condition, together with a higher salary. None of the companies around the globe is allowed to make profit while affecting the vulnerable communities.