The Business Ethics Used At Nike Commerce Essay

The Business Ethics Used At Nike Commerce EssayLets take Nike for example. Founded in 1964, and the brand name created in 1971, head office in Oregon USA, it is the biggest manuf biturer of sportswear in the world, selling footwear and apparels and related sports equipment. Also outsourcing contracts to 500 factories that operate in clx countries, they employ nearly 1 million people directly or indirectly (Business-humanrights 2009).According to NIKE, A good name and reputation result in large part from their collective actions. That means the work-related activities of e real employee must reflect standards of h hotshotsty, loyalty, trustworthiness, fairness, refer for another(prenominal)s and accountability. They are expected to be sensitive to whatsoever web sites that shadower adversely impact NIKEs reputation and are expected to use good judgment and common sense in the way to conduct melodic phrase(nikbiz 2010).NIKE is one brand which achieved the buy the farm in worl d class by setting high standards and following the task morality by forming a code of conduct. This code of conduct was authorisation and was to be followed by on the whole of the team members of NIKE whether they were the Sales Agents, Consultants, Representatives, independent Contractors or even external temporary workers.NIKE understands that in order to obtain optimum instruction execution from an employee, they must provide them with an environment void of harassment and discrimination of all(prenominal) sorts such as that related to age, gender, religion, disability, ethnic group, marital status, veteran status or any other similar status relative to class or caste. Sometimes people feel harassed and this harassment doesnt come against the protected law. human being acts which cause hurt and emotional strains like rude abusive, insensitive impolite behavior shown to people is against the familys code of conduct and will fall in the act of harassment against a person or group of people. enclose of any complaints, the harassed must report to the concerned manager. This code of conduct in like manner applies to all the business partners who manufacture NIKE products. Harassments of any sort is strictly forbidden whether pertaining to legal laws or company policies. But in any case if such a situation may arise, NIKE has made sure of an effective complaint process through the Employee Relations or Human Resources Department.On the social responsibilities, NIKE further adds, NIKE is affiliated to socially responsible sourcing practices. We are driven to do not tho what is required by law, but also what is expected of a leader. We expect our business partners to do the same. We do this through the NIKE Code of Conduct, which covers contractors who manufacture NIKE product. (SampleBusiness 2009.)This code calls for our partners management practices to respect the rights of all employees, to minimize the impact on the environment, provide a safe and healthy work place, and promote the health and well being of all employees. As a member of the NIKE team, when presented the opportunity, you have a responsibleness to promote accord with the NIKE Code of Conduct and to report any instances of non-compliance, of which you become aware, to the Corporate obligation complaisance Group. (nikebiz.com).That being the social interpersonal issues of the company, NIKE claims to also comply with the health and natural rubber rules and regulations. They feel that their duty is to not only provide innovative products to their clients but also be finite in knowing that the products supplied are safe and non-hazardous in all ways. This not only helps gain domain confidence but also grants a better competitive ranking in the lucrative market. And the conclusion of the safety does not end here. They also emphasize that the employees be an environmentally responsible citizen and so if they feel that a condition may cause a potential impa ct to the surroundings either socially, scientifically or economically, they report to the authorities immediately. (Schwartz, J. 2010)Like with all organizations, NIKE also expects its customers to be sincere and loyal by protecting the Nike info, ideas intellectual property. Every now then, a companys strategic plans, sales figures, financial info, product designs,negotiations, software, employees personal info, trade secrets, patents, trademarks and similar info is brought into the notice of one or several members of the organization and since the market is competitive, NIKE employees are prohibited to share or sell out any piece of detail, either manually or electronically .The employees must also safeguard the assets and records present under the ownership of the organization. Nike prioritizes privacy and hence it is committed to giving respect to all the rights of their customers.All the departments use the confidential information have to be on one foot at all times. That said because, no company can afford mishandling of information. Incase data is ever lost or misplaced, or even otherwise, the new records must never be made up or false statements, misleading, misinterpretations, or material omissions.Even more special care has to be taken with financial transactions. They should be accurate, fair and transparent. NIKE expects their work related activities to reflect extreme standards of trustworthiness, concern for others and accountability. Acts of fraud theft, or cheatings in anyway are strictly forbidden. NIKE relies in making relationships based on integrity. It is NIKEs policy to compete fairly anywhere and over and expect their product and service developments, manufacturing and sales to conform to highest good standards.These anti-trust competition laws, if violated could result in mega fines or even imprisonment. Even though NIKE requires its members to be strictly sincere and loyal, however, at the same time NIKE does respect the rights of their employees to participate in other business opportunities outside of the NIKEOrganization (Peter2000). But care must be taken, keeping in mind all the rules regulations of the company policies, which pertains to non-confliction of interests with Nike. That may include situations such as a team member exploiting opportunities for himself which were actually discover through NIKEs assets and information (nikbiz 2010).Moreover, an employee is not allowed to accept a gift, gratuity, entertainment or favor over a trustworthy limited amount and that also in non-cash form. An amount of $200 is considered a threshold limit over which, it is considered as a bribe. He is forbidden to give or take cash at any time. The bribery is not only unacceptable between a member and clients but also to government officials, civil servants or, as a subject area of fact, anyone at hand in order to influence them. An action shall be taken and employees will be taken into charge if they use any cheapjack methods or abuse the confidential information to have an unjust exploitation over competitors, suppliers, or customers.Laws, rules and regulations are not only limited to the organizations and affiliated parties indoors the USA. NIKE is very strict in complying with the laws of the country they do business with, even if it means losses on their part of the organization. Like majority of the US companies, NIKE is also governed by the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) according to which, It is illegal for anyone at NIKE to offer, promise, or pay money or anything of value, directly or indirectly to any foreign government official or employee, political party, or candidate for public office for the purpose of obtaining or maintaining business or for any other business advantage.(nikzbiz 2010). The FCPA only allows payments under some specific circumstances for which, if the need arises, the team member can consult the NIKE legal department. (Schwartz2010).Other tha n these rules, NIKE also has certain boycotting laws, with which NIKE complies strongly. For instance, if a certain Country A has boycotted a certain Country B, and if NIKE is doing business with Country A and that Country is asking for a certification that supplies not be made in Country B, then NIKE is not liable to accept the request of Country A, as it is against the USA Anti-Boycott law and NIKE will in conclusion be reporting it to the US authorities.A summarized view of NIKEs Ethical code of conductKeywordsThe Nike Code of ConductMemorandum of Understanding. Obligations of subcontractors/suppliersBasic principlesPrinciples governing the conduct of business trust teamwork honesty mutual respectNike expects compliance with the same principles by its trading partnersHuman rightsRespect of human rightsForced grokForced labour prison or otherwise must not be used at any stage of outturnNon-discriminationNike is a company made up of persons of all origins, which appreciates in dividual diversity and is dedicated to equal opportunity for each individualNo discrimination in hiring, salary, benefits, advancement, termination or retirement on the basis of gender, race, religion, age, sexual preference or ethnic originSafety and healthIn accordance with local regulationsHealth insurance, life insurance and workerscompensationIn accordance with local regulationsResponsibility of a global enterpriseTo do what is expected of a leader by participating in the betterment of peoples lives through sport and fitnessLegal requirementsIn accordance with local trade legislation as regards minimum stipend overtime child labour leave, public holidays mandatory retirement benefitsCompliance with local regulations practices established by NikeA Nike representative is responsible for the day-to-day application of the Memorandum in each subcontracted factory. Nike production managers update the Memorandum all(prenominal) two years.Nike may request an independent monitoring of plants at any time.In the event of non-compliance with the Memorandum, Nike may require that the situation be corrected or it may terminate its trade relations.All subcontractors must keep any documentation which may be necessary to turn off the correct application of the recommendations contained in the Memorandum and agree to provide these documents to Nike for any inspections required by the companyEnvironmentTo minimize impact on the environment. instruction execution of the trey Rsof environmental action Reduce, re-use and re-cycle(Sajhau 2010)NIKES LEGAL BATTLE FOR VIOLATION OF ETHICSThe criticism was started in early 90s about Nike being involved with child perseverance issues, employees suffering from safety and health problems and physical harming of employees. star of the major issues that was raised at NIKE in 1996, which put NIKEs integrity at risk was the child wear out issue in Pakistan. Young children aged between 9 to16 years were made to work and pictures of hand sewn footballs were splashed all over the net. NIKE was accuse of labor and human rights violations. A lawsuit had been filed and NIKE appealed legally.On the personal upfront, NIKE responded with labor codes, personal letters, campus visits and newspaper releases. The US Supreme Court decided 5-3 to postpone reigning on NIKE vs. the prosecutor. NIKE made a charity settlement, giving $1.5 million to the fair labor association. (Canizares2001).That experience squeeze us to decide who we were when it comes to corporate social responsibility, and forced us to really figure it out,(nikbiz 2010) confessed EITEL, one of the business executive remembering the difficult time the company typesetters cased. EITEL not only had to reassure the external bodies who were criticizing the state of grace and ethical motive of the corporate dealing but she also had to deal with the question and queries of 500,000 employees in 58 countries. Through a hard learned lesson, EITEL believes that th e code of ethics is not to be put on shelf and forgotten about, but has to be embedded by the executives in the roots of the corporate and make it THE culture. In this way the corporate can up guard their moral values under any difficult timing and can be up to face any legal or moral challenge (Cr 2009).It has been an enormous change in a decade that NIKE has come forward by charting a dissimilar course in corporate citizenship and all other aspects of their dealings from the face of a corporate villain where laws of child labor were dusted.NIKE, in their newly-published Corporate Responsibility (CR) Report for fiscal years 2007 to 2009, commented on its new strategy which is, Reaching a closed-loop business model where the goal is to achieve zero waste in the turn in chain and have products and materials that can be continuously reused no pre- or post-consumer waste. NIKE CEO Mark Parker writes in the reports introduction, We see sustainability, both social and environmental, a s a powerful path to innovation, and crucial to our growth strategies. (Connor 2010).At present, the main concern of the brand is to watch for labor human right violation. The company has three main product lines- footwear, apparel and equipment. Nearly 60 percent of the work force is in North Asia and 31 percent in South Asia. One major difficulty is that contract apparel factories generally produce for multiple brands, making it very difficult to maintain standards.NIKE insists that monitoring the contract factories for working conditions, wages and overtime and several other issues, including possible unionization is not a piece of cake. While we can point to many examples of improvements, challenging issues remain for our company and our industry in systemically identifying and tackling how to affect long-term system-wide change,(nikbiz 2010) the company says. (Canizares2001)In evaluating where our targets fell short, we saw a consistent pattern a focus on auditing against a se t of criteria sometimes results in on-the-ground improvements for workers, but it rarely produces systemic change in the area of concern, (Canizares2001). NIKE says. On further reflection, we realized that, if we want to make sustainable improvements for workers, we need to significantly change the way we engage and interact with our supply chain as a whole(nikbiz 2010).One subject that NIKE shows loads of concern towards is a workers overtime. Asking factories to manufacture too many styles is one of the highest contributors to factory overtime in apparel. We have an opportunity to reduce this pressure by reducing the egress of apparel styles and partnering with the factories to improve efficiencies through lean production method.(nikz 2010).Recently, NIKE took a very ambitious initiative. That is, A goal of reducing excessive overtime for workers in their supply chain by 2011 (nikbiz2010). This admonisher came in response to the criticism that NIKE received frequently, which even tually lead the way to innovative solutions to labor rights challenges.NIKE was the first to make its come of affiliated factories public in 2005 for open inspection for anyone who felt the need to spy for violation of any labor and human rights. By doing this they provided another ethical example of protecting human rights by elimination of overtime work and by altering their own internal buying practices(.Icmrindia 2002).NIKE also undertook a very Eco-Friendly approach by launching a shoe called CONSIDERED in 2005 (Icmrindia 2010). This was a step towards a more healthy and safer product line which was devoid of insidious adhesives and more of re-used materials. It also eliminated sulphur hexafluoride (a very harmful chemical to health) from its shoes called NIKE AIR(nikzbiz 2010). It also started making sports surfaces from recycled shoes and manufacturing waste. It further started worldwide collaboration with NGOS to reduce the vituperate to the environment through its human and monetary resources and to eventually reduce the effects of Global Warming. The concept was further extended to be used in apparel and sports equipment that the company produced. NIKE had developed an index called Considered Index using which NIKEs designers could get a ranking based on the environmental friendliness during the design phase out front they went for commercial production. Nike aimed at making its own facilities and business travel climate neutral by 2011. (-1.htmlSporting Goods Business 2009). It had set a target of making all its footwear meet the minimum standard of Considered Index by 2011 ,its apparel by 2015, and sports equipment by 2020(nikbiz 2010). In other words, NIKE truly took a step to gratify their code of ethics to support and safeguard the health and safety of every person associated with them. (Schwartz 2010)NIKE has been on the list of the most ethical companies in the world from 2007-2010 every year, along with several other mega awards (Caniza res 2001). Even though NIKE tries its max to set the best possible ethical standards, there are two noted watchdogs, the Oxfams NIKE view and TeamSweat, who constantly find loopholes with NIKEs performance and other agendas. (Connor 2010). But NIKE has not been defied by such activists and they are continuing to lay examples of how the process of good reporting can lead to data being gathered, metrics developed and performance benchmarks set. NIKE has learnt a great deal from its past experiences, and it has not been deterred in its work but only grown stronger in every way possible. Says the CEO Parker, We learnt to view transparency as an asset, not a risks (Connor 2010).This document depicts the Pros and Cons of NIKEs Organization, and this only proves that No body is spare of the unethical code of conduct. Yet, there are ways to improve under good intentions or even improvise if needed.In conclusion, just a reminder for us allTHE ETHICS OF EXCELLENCE REQUIRES A SENSE OF PERS PECTIVE. LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE IF YOU LIVE FOR THE MOMENT, DO YOUMORTGAGE THE FUTURE? WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU draw YOUR REPUTATION AT RISK.. LOSE THE BET?Reference-Sajhau, J.P 2010. Business ethics in the textile, clothing and footwear (TCF) industries,Sector Publications (SAP 2.60/WP.110 ).Available at http//www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/ field/papers/bzethics/bthics7.htmAccessed 12 March 2010.Bradley, G.O 1998. A World of Nuclear Giants Available athttp//www.gzcenter.org/leaflets/mar_leaf.htm.Accessed 10 March 2010.Ethicalcorp 2009. Ethical Corporation. Nike and sustainability Making the running for business ethics Available athttp//www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=5421. .Accessed 02 March 2010.Sporting Goods Business 2009. Nike endorses Global Reporting Initiative Available at http//www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-miscellaneous/4458064-1.html .Accessed 6 Feb 2010.Icmrindia 2010. Nike Considered An Environmental Sustainability Initiative. A vailable at http//www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/ account/Business%20Ethics/BECG111.htm.Accessed 16 Feb 2010.Connor, M.2010. Nike Corporate Responsibility at a Tipping Point Business Ethics. Available at http//business-ethics.com/2010/01/24/2154-nike-corporate-responsibility-at-a-tipping-point/Accessed 23 March 2010Canizares,K 2001. NIKE Failed On Sweatshop mitigate Promises.Availabe at http//www.albionmonitor.com/0105b/copyright/nikereport.html . Accessed 16 April 2010. Accessed 29 March 2010.Cr 2009. 100 Best Corporate Citizens 2009. Available at http//www.thecro.com/100best09Accessed 13 March 2010.Business-humanrights 2009 http//www.business-humanrights.org/Categories/Miscellaneous/Ratingsindexes/100BestCorporateCitizensUSAAccessed 13 March 2010.Bized 2005. Business Ethics. Available at http//www.bized.co.uk/dataserv/chron/news/2331.htm Accessed 12 March 2010Slideshare 2009. Nike Ethics. Available at http//www.slideshare.net/eonemo/nike-ethics Accessed 01 March 2010NikBiz 2010 Ethics, Governance and Responsibility Available at http//www.nikebiz.com/responsibility/cr_governance.html Accessed 12-30MarchIcmrindia 2002. Nikes Labor Practices Available at http//www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Business%20Ethics/BECG018.htmAccessed 16 Feb 2010.Peter S. 2000. Panorama Gap and Nike no sweat? Available at http//www.allbusiness.com/management/3496230-1.htmlAccessed 30 March 2010Schwartz, J. 2010. Business Ethics Fortnight Available at http//www.ethicsandbusiness.org/Photo_gallery/montgomerygroup.htm Accessed 30 March 2010SampleBusiness 2009. Available at http//sample-business.com/nike-business-ethicsAccessed 28 March 2010Cascio, J.2005. World changing Starbucks Nike, Doing the counterbalance Thing Available at http//www.worldchanging.com/archives/002534.html Accessed 09 March 2010Willian, S. 2002. Its not just a Code, its a Culture Available at http//www.savvypr.com/iabcethicscolumn2.htmlAccessed 09 March 2010Ceruleanangela 2007. Business ethics, Nike C ompliance Life Cycle Available at http//ceruleanangela.10.forumer.com/a/business-ethics_post2.htmlAccessed 09 March 2010