Business Ethics
HD Student Assignment for HC2121 in Trimester 1, 2010 2. How effective has Mattel been at encouraging ethical and legal conduct by its manufacturers? What changes and additions would you make to the company’s Global Manufacturing Principles? ____________________________________________________________
__ ‘Good ethics is good business and bad ethics is bad business are connected’ (Burton & Goldsby 2010). Mattel has been quite effective at encouraging ethical and legal conduct. It has developed its Global Manufacturing Principles for sub contractors and global manufacturers. These ‘including employee health and safety, environmental management and ensuring that employees are treated fairly and with respect, to the cultural, ethnic and philosophical differences of the countries where Mattel operates’ (Mattel Inc. 2010). Mattel also assists its manufacturers to meet its Global Manufacturing Principles or code of conduct. However, ‘if a business partner is either unable or unwilling to work with Mattel in order to meet and maintain its standards, Mattel is prepared to end the working relationship’ (Mattel Inc. 2010). Although Mattel has a good Global Manufacturing Principles, it also needs to update its principles in timely manner. The nature of business is rapidly changing nowadays. As Mattel is operating more than one hundred countries across the world, sometimes it is hard to control all the production facilities or code of conduct of sub contractors. To resolve this problem, Mattel can tighten its principles by specifying different principles in different regions based on ethics, local culture and law and work force. Another change Mattel could take into consideration is it should monitor the implementation of its Global Manufacturing Principles frequently, rather than to set the principles and do nothing. Finally, Mattel must tell its customers and stakeholders if any possible hazards or dangers occur using a product. Some ‘companies do not tell consumers about
__ ‘Good ethics is good business and bad ethics is bad business are connected’ (Burton & Goldsby 2010). Mattel has been quite effective at encouraging ethical and legal conduct. It has developed its Global Manufacturing Principles for sub contractors and global manufacturers. These ‘including employee health and safety, environmental management and ensuring that employees are treated fairly and with respect, to the cultural, ethnic and philosophical differences of the countries where Mattel operates’ (Mattel Inc. 2010). Mattel also assists its manufacturers to meet its Global Manufacturing Principles or code of conduct. However, ‘if a business partner is either unable or unwilling to work with Mattel in order to meet and maintain its standards, Mattel is prepared to end the working relationship’ (Mattel Inc. 2010). Although Mattel has a good Global Manufacturing Principles, it also needs to update its principles in timely manner. The nature of business is rapidly changing nowadays. As Mattel is operating more than one hundred countries across the world, sometimes it is hard to control all the production facilities or code of conduct of sub contractors. To resolve this problem, Mattel can tighten its principles by specifying different principles in different regions based on ethics, local culture and law and work force. Another change Mattel could take into consideration is it should monitor the implementation of its Global Manufacturing Principles frequently, rather than to set the principles and do nothing. Finally, Mattel must tell its customers and stakeholders if any possible hazards or dangers occur using a product. Some ‘companies do not tell consumers about
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