Ethical Dilemma
Ethical dilemmas are common in a business setting; they are often situations that involve making decisions that are highly likely to benefit the managers and the organization. The issue with these decisions is that they are unethical and illegal. Managers are responsible for ensuring ethical conduct in these situations as well. In this situation, the company is facing several ethical dilemmas based on the changes made by the ANSI standards. One of the central dilemmas is the company is torn between using the fabric sent by the suppliers and doing away with the material. The company has spent a lot on acquiring the fabric; therefore, not using the fabric would lead to significant losses to the company. To our defense, we could argue that we were not aware of the new regulations by ANSI. However, this does not change the fact that going ahead is unethical and illegal. Also, the company could be facing the closure of the manufacturing facility if they fail to use the fabrics since the revenue gained from the fabrics is the one that keeps the manufacturing facility running.
Another dilemma is the fact that the company already had booked customer deliveries, in that clients had already made their orders to get the fabric they are just waiting for the deliveries. Failing to deliver the orders made by our clients would damage the image of the company as this would go against our core values. Our primary core value is to provide quality products promptly. The products being ruled out as not good quality by the federal regulations mean that these products should not be sold to the consumers. There the whole fabric shipment we had received is considered as not suitable for customers. Therefore, selling it to our customers would be regarded as unethical and, to some extend, illegal. Our dilemma is as much as we would like to adhere to the regulations and do what is considered right at the same time we have responsibilities towards the organization and our customers. Following the rules of the federal government means we suffer loses and even closing the manufacturing facility while going ahead and selling the products would be unethical since the sleepwear is not fire retardant.
Manufacturing facilities face the liability that once products leave the factories. The law governs product safety, and ethical concerns come in when one distributes products that not been verified as safe for consumers to use. When a company knowingly distributes products that have not been cleared as safe anyway, the use of these products may cause harm of effects to the users. Adhering to the legal requirements to follow the regulations towards the safe use of the products reduces the exposure to possible lawsuits. It ensures that the company fulfills its ethical duties. As a company choosing to keep the plant running by continuing with our distribution could lead to severe consequences with the law. Also, these clothes might end up causing harm to the users since they were considered unsafe by federal law. It’s important that as a company, we fulfill our responsibilities towards the law by operating ethically.
There are processes involved in manufacturing, which may cause the quality of the product to degrade, making the product not suitable for the consumers. I some other products, the danger is even more prominent as the mode of manufacturing would increase the chances of risk associated with the use of the product. In this case, these fabrics were considered to be retardant, meaning they could easily catch fire. Therefore the use of these fabrics to make sleepwear for children could consider as unethical. Clothes made for children should be as safe as they can be because things happen, and if the clothes they have could accelerate the danger, they should not be distributed for use. Therefore the dilemma lies in defining the level and degree of permissibility.
A majority of manufactures are usually involved in the production of the same goods. Different factors would result in a dilemma, such as the working conditions and the raw materials used. The materials used in the production of the fabric have led us to this dilemma are they are considered to be dangerous.
Ethics in the production and distribution of products is a subset of the business ethic, which is meant to make sure that the production and distribution of the products do not lead to damaging the consumer or the society at large. In ethics, there should be a set of codes of standards to be followed. However, the challenge comes to ensuring that ethics have complied. Sometimes the quality can overlap the ethical values when its use offers benefits to both the producers and consumers. Distributing a product that is considered harmless to the users according to the socially accepted principles also falls in the ethics.
The concepts of universalism and relativism have fuelled a debate in most sectors of business, especially when it comes to ethical matters. Universalism is the belief that the same rules and regulations of ethics apply to all cultures all over the world. This means that the same ethics apply to all people regardless of the geographical location, race, or ethnicity; they apply to everyone. This approach views the world in a lofty manner.
On the other hand, cultural relativism is the belief that human rights are dependent on a person’s culture. Relativism is the belief that the difference in moral judgment is found in different cultures and different people. This approach also believes that being right or wrong is dependent on culture. The differences in cultures should be tolerated since no one is wrong or right in this approach. This view is more realistic by understanding that different cultures view the same action differently. Various rules apply to different cultures; there are no moral principles that can be made to apply to all people.
Considering this era, where different standards and values apply to different countries and that distributing these fabrics to a different market in a different country would be ethical. This because of cultural relativism; what one country may consider dangerous and unsafe other countries may not have an issue with it as long as the consumers are informed of the side effects of the product. However, if these standards are universal, meaning they apply to all markets, it would be the responsibility of the company to act ethically and halt the distribution.
Social responsibility serves as a moral balance that can be applied in this case because as much as universalism is rejected, there are dangers of applying extreme relativism. This fabric was considered unsafe and dangerous to use; this is a severe issue for something unsafe to use in one place; it does not become any less risky in a different location. It is the social responsibility of the company to identify the effect the product has on the users and take the social responsibility of determining if it’s ethically right to distribute to other people regardless of whether they have a rule against it or not. Some issues are better treated as universal as it is morally right although they are not written or considered as law.