Ethics in Business Communications
Joseph Mallory
COM/295
January, 19, 2015
Jamey Pippert

Ethics in Business Communications In a business world driven by profitability, sometimes decisions are made despite the ethical consequences. Business owners are under constant pressure from their company’s share- holders and/or investors to do whatever it takes to cut costs and increase profits. It’s the “what- ever it takes” mindset that often backfires on a company in light of their decisions leading to un- ethical behavior. Many companies in the United States are outsourcing workers from other countries to do their work because the lack of laws in these other countries allow work to be done at a much lower cost. In America, the cost of labor is higher than a lot of other countries because of laws pertaining to the forty hour work week, overtime pay, the minimum wage law, and so on. Some business owners take advantage of the lack of these types of laws and by doing so, their company increases their profitability. According to Blodget (2012) “Your iPhone was built, in part, by 13 year-olds working 16 hours a day for 70 cents an hour….And that's why it's disconcerting to remember that the low prices of our iPhones and iPads — and the super-high profit margins of Apple — are only possible because our iPhones and iPads are made with labor practices that would be illegal in the United States” (p.1). Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-child-labor-2012-1#ixzz3PJSvC6xS Many Americans don’t like seeing jobs from American companies get outsourced in other countries and many more are against underage kids working, let alone long hours for what would be considered hardly any money. Those two statements alone are enough to make a negative impact on the way people from an American culture think about companies that allow unethical things like this to happen. In conclusion, a business owner would be wise to consider the ethics of their decisions and the impact of those decisions instead of just thinking about ways to improve their profitability. An unethical decision may benefit a company in the short term, but in the long term the risks simply do not outweigh the rewards. References Blodget, H. (2012, January). Your iPhone was built, in part, by 13 year-olds working 16 hours a day for 70 cents an hour. Business Insider, (). Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-child-labor-2012-1#ixzz3PJSvC6xS