Critiques Of Environmental And Ethical Decisions Essays Example

Over the years, Nike Inc. has grown tremendously because of globalization, innovation, and technology. Nike Inc. is a company that was started in 1964 and has been in business since 1972 (Nike, 2008). It is believed to have started from a handshake and agreement between Phil Knight and a track coach at the Oregon University, Bill Bowerman. The company later went ahead to become one of the most successful companies in sports fashion industry. However it was faced with several ethical issues which harmed its image. As a consquence, the company took pride in being an ethical company. In addition, Nike Inc. takes the priority of sharing their responsibility with their internal and external stakeholders. Nike Inc. is known to spend a great fortune and time to ensure that they are fulfilling their ethical duty as a company as well as maintaining the highest standards in the market. According to the company’s website, they have an excellent opportunity to gain profitable growth and to drive a competitive advantage in the market.
The company is a universal sports brand in wear as well as equipment (Duttton, 2012). It has become a global sports name in equipment and wear and it is known for hiring renowned athletes to advertise most of their products. Even though their products have been able to satisfy their clients, they have been in the spotlight for a number of unethical practices. At some point, Nike was accused of violating the human rights. In addition, the company has been accused of acting slowly on unethical issues reported to them from their overseas facilities. In the year 1996, Nike was accused of inequitable labor practices, child labor, safety and health issues, unreasonable work hours, sweatshops, and iniquitous wages for employees. The most lingering labor issue for Nike Company is the sweatshop problem where the working conditions were horrible. From then onwards, Nike had a number of ethical issues; for instance in Vietnam there was the violation of working hours and minimum wage. Moreover, there was the use of child labor in Cambodia and Malaysia as well as forced labor. Nonetheless, the company took full responsibility by recognizing their corporate social responsibilities. According to Dutton (2012), the organization made quick moves to adjust the circumstance, actualizing a code of social obligation all through its store network that enhanced working conditions for approximately 800,000 workers at 700 manufacturing plants in 52 nations. The company took an ethical responsibility as a global organization and took care of the ethical issues that were arising in their overseas facilities.
Nonetheless, Nike should not put the benefits of the corporation ahead of the employees’ wellbeing because they are the most valuable assets of the firm. Nike is facing a dilemma of poor working conditions and environment for its workers. The company had not adopted the OSHA standards for clean air in most of its factories. In addition, most of the Nike workers in many nations complain of low wages which is something that should be addressed by Nike. As a multi-national company, Nike should take action against these ethical dilemmas to ensure that, the company does not face the same problems in the future. The poor environment dilemma which included locked doors, unclean air and unsafe chemicals affects the the company’s reputation and its products’ quality (Conner, 2001). Therefore, it is vital for the organization through its leadership to find appropriate strategies to handle these problems.
In order to handle these issues, Nike should take an advantage of business ethics and improve their brand image. This achievement can be seen by focusing on activities that can help the firm improve its organizational identity and the image of their employees. Improving their leadership or a rather human resource will help rebrand the company and bring an end to the above mentioned ethical issues. When a company has good leadership that provides safe working conditions for its employees, there will be no complaints from the public. In addition, a company should focus on the interest of the community regarding the environment for its smooth running. Today, Nike has taken a corporate social responsibility, to clean up its image. In addition, Nike has made an ethical and an environmental conscious decision to build their customers trust in their products and their company (Dutton, 2012). This is evident because, it was named one of the Top Socially Responsible brands by young adults. Nike is on the forefront in the use of green products, donating to charity, and utilizing fair labor practices to its workers compared to the controversies they were involved in a few years back. In addition, they have introduced the re-use shoe policy whereby they take athletes used shoes and recycle them into new superior performance gears (Greenhouse, 2000). Moreover, they recycle polyester and plastic bottles thus keeping the environment clean and safe. With the re-use and recycle policy, Nike has become an environment-friendly company by making sure that they utilize materials that can be recycled again into new products (Greenhouse, 2000).
The Nike leadership is doing a great job by making the firm a number one environmentally friendly company despite its previous controversies (Dutton, 2012). After being labeled as forcing children into labor, and a harsh working conditions company, Nike made a mistake of denying the ownership of its companies overseas. Consequently, there were many protests from the workers and the human rights activists who criticized Nike Inc. for taking advantage of their foreign workers and making them work in a destructive environment (Marks, 2013). Nike later on realized that they have made a mistake and have made tremendous leaps to correct their mistakes. However, despite the controversy, Nike was able to deal with the legal consequences and fix their damages as a company by creating a reputation (Nike, 2008). The Nike leadership established a new code of ethics which had to be followed by all Nike stores (Nike, 2008). The company has created a Board of Directors that is responsible for corporate authority that is in line with legal requirements as well as its shareholders’ interests.
In conclusion, Nike Inc. is a global corporation with a number of facilities around the globe. Nike will always remain a hot subject matter just like any other multi-national company who uses overseas companies to make their products. However, despite their critics, Nike has a positive approval ranking from many of their overseas businesses. Nike was involved in unethical dilemmas with their overseas companies which affected their reputation. Even though they never dealt with the situation in the right was, Nike was able to earn its reputation back after some years of controversy. Over the years, Nike has been able to build a better relationship with their overseas factories and contractors. They were able to build up a Corporate Responsibility Board to guarantee the regulation of policies and laboring laws. In addition, Nike has improved its labors to be more ethical and to keep their business and work ethics proficient. Their primary goal was to improve their affiliation with their consumers and to make them value their products one again and this has been done over the past few years.

References

Conner, T. (2001). "Still Waiting for Nike to Do It." Global Exchange. Retrieved from
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/nike/faq.html.pf (25 Jan. 2004).
Dutton, G. (2012). How Nike is Changing the World, One Factory at a Time. Retrieved from
"http://ethisphere.com/how-nike-is-changing-the-world-one-factory-at-a-time/
Greenhouse S. (2000, April 25). Nike’s Chief Cancels a Gift Over Monitor of Sweatshops. The
New York Times.  Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2000
Marks, K. (2013, January 15). Nike supplier ‘Resisting Pay Rises' in Indonesia.
Retrieved from utm"http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/nike-supplier-resisting-pay-rises-in-indonesia-8452946.html?utm
Nike. (2008). Ethics and Conduct. Retrieved from Nikebiz:
"http://www.nikebiz.com/crreport/content/about/1-4-3-ethics-and-conduct.php?cat=governance-accountability.