...Slavery in the Chocolate Factory 1. What are the systemic, corporate, and individual ethical issues raised by this case? First of all, this article was interesting to read because it pertains to ethical issues on several levels as we can see throughout and I personally never knew about slavery in the chocolate industry. From a systemic approach, ethical issues arise from the producer or farmers of the cocoa beans to the manufacturer of chocolate and ultimately the end consumer of the goods. As the media and formal documentaries have pointed out, the reason for child slavery in this industry is because farmers need to keep their costs down in order to meet the demand of the world’s chocolate consumption. This world consumption is the driving force that continues to sustain child slavery in areas like the Ivory Coast. We can see that some governmental action has tried to disrupt the systemic ethical issues that arise, but the problem continues today because the corporate level has a lot of political weight that adds to the problem. The corporate figures of our world including Hersey Foods Corp. and M&M Mars, Inc. continue to add to the problem of child slavery in the Ivory Coast. With self-interests in mind, these chocolate producing powerhouses unethically know that they are toying with legislation to give Americans the impression that they are actually attempting to solve the issues at hand. We can see from their lack of effort and extended deadlines to complete their...
Words: 714 - Pages: 3
...case study Slavery in the Chocolate Industry raises systemic, corporate, and individual ethical issues with all the parties involved in the chocolate industry. Systemic issues in business ethics are ethical questions raised about the economic, political, legal, and other institutions within which business operate. (M. Velasques) Corporate issues in business ethics are ethical are ethical questions raised about a particular organization. These include questions about the morality of the activities, policies, practices, or organizational structure of an individual company taken as a whole. (M. Velasques) Individual issues in business ethics are ethical questions raised about a particular individual or particular individuals within a company and their behaviors and discussions. These include questions about the morality of the decisions, actions, or character of an individual. (M. Velasques) The farmers who are kidnapping or buying children on a “black market” type situation are displaying their individual ethical issues. They have no concern for the boy’s welfare, their only concern is to make a profit off the cocoa beans they farm. The systemic ethical issues raised in this case study are the public officials in the neighboring communities of the cocoa farmers who allow the sale of children and who take bribes from the farmers enslaving these children. The corporate ethics issue present in the case is with the large manufactures in the chocolate industry fighting the...
Words: 653 - Pages: 3
...case study Slavery in the Chocolate Industry raises systemic, corporate, and individual ethical issues with all the parties involved in the chocolate industry. Systemic issues in business ethics are ethical questions raised about the economic, political, legal, and other institutions within which business operate. (M. Velasques) Corporate issues in business ethics are ethical are ethical questions raised about a particular organization. These include questions about the morality of the activities, policies, practices, or organizational structure of an individual company taken as a whole. (M. Velasques) Individual issues in business ethics are ethical questions raised about a particular individual or particular individuals within a company and their behaviors and discussions. These include questions about the morality of the decisions, actions, or character of an individual. (M. Velasques) The farmers who are kidnapping or buying children on a “black market” type situation are displaying their individual ethical issues. They have no concern for the boy’s welfare, their only concern is to make a profit off the cocoa beans they farm. The systemic ethical issues raised in this case study are the public officials in the neighboring communities of the cocoa farmers who allow the sale of children and who take bribes from the farmers enslaving these children. The corporate ethics issue present in the case is with the large manufactures in the chocolate industry fighting...
Words: 305 - Pages: 2
...November 1st , 2010 TRM 409.01 BUSINESS ETHICS Case Study: “Slavery in the Chocolate Industry” Instructor: Perran Akan Student: Neşe Roman Student ID: 2006104603 From the perspective of Utilitarianism, child slavery contributes the economics position of the country. As I know, the economic situation of the country is bad, they are one of the third world countries. What is more, cocoa beans prices decreased in the year 1996 - 2000. So, farmers want to reduce the cost of production with cutting the wages and using slavery. According to Utilitarianism, the “right” action or policy is the one that will produce the greatest net benefits or the lowest net costs. From that point, they reduce costs, and maximize their net benefits from child slavery. The major difficulty with Utilitarianism is that it is unable to deal with rights and justice. For instance, from the point of social justice, it is clear that child slavery is the result of unequal distribution of burdens. Utilitarianism only looks at the utility, not the distribution of it among the members of society. The important ignorance on ethics in Utilitarianism, bring the consideration of justice and rights. Justice looks at how the benefits and burdens distributed among the society. On the other hand, rights look at the individual entitlements to freedom of choice and well being. From the rights point of view, there are no clues about the legal rights of the children. I do not think that government has labor or child...
Words: 853 - Pages: 4
...Slavery in the Chocolate Industry Forty-five percent of the chocolate we consume in the United States and in the rest of the world is made from cocoa beans grown and harvested on farms in the Ivory Coast, a small nation on the western coast of Africa. Few realize that a portion of the Ivory Coast cocoa beans that goes into the chocolate we eat was grown and harvested by slave children. The slaves are boys between 12 and 16—but sometimes as young as 9—who are kidnapped from villages in surrounding nations and sold to the cocoa farmers by traffickers. The farmers whip, beat, and starve the boys to force them to do the hot, difficult work of clearing the fields, harvesting the beans, and drying them in the sun. The boys work from sunrise to sunset. Some are locked in at night in windowless rooms where they sleep on bare wooden planks. Far from home, unsure of their location, unable to speak the language, isolated in rural areas, and threatened with harsh beatings if they try to get away, the boys rarely attempt to escape their nightmare situation. Those who do try are usually caught, severely beaten as an example to others, and then locked in solitary confinement. Every year unknown numbers of these boys die or are killed on the cocoa farms that supply our chocolate. The plight of the enslaved children was first widely publicized at the turn of the twenty-first century when True Vision, a British television company, took videos of slave boys working on Ivory Coast farms and made...
Words: 2912 - Pages: 12
...Managers and Leader Management Professor Robert Croyle Jacquelynne Hackmer Leadership and management may go hand in hand but they are not the same. They both may complement each other when working in a world of business. The manager’s job is to plan, organize and coordinate. The leader’s job is to inspire and motivate colleagues and their surrounding peers. The manager administers while the leader innovates. There are many differences between the two. One of the biggest difference between the two is the way they motivate the people who follow them or work for them. Managers has the power and the control over their company. Many eyes are on the managers for what is happening next. Managers maintain and focuses on systems and structures and they rely on having that control. Manager’s goal is to make a productive person, building someone up with strengths and knowledge. Managers at GEICO plans the details and we are their subordinates. They are more focused on the company and telling other what to do and what is changing with the company. The managers at GEICO are more to themselves and you do not have much contact with them as you do with your own supervisor. Leaders are the ones who want to listen to the problems and build up a person to be better. A leader can be born or trained to be a leader. Leader focuses on the person and tries to help the person find within themselves the meaning to be successful. They want to see others around them move up in companies....
Words: 415 - Pages: 2
...Name: Asher Andrews Submitted to: Ms Elishah St.Luce Class: Business Ethics “The case of slavery in the chocolate industry” ‘ What are the systemic, corporate and individual ethical issues raised by the case? First of all what is ethics? According to Manuel G Velasquez “Ethics is the discipline that examines ones moral standard or the moral standards of a society. It asks how these standards applies to our lives and whether these standards are reasonable or unreasonable, that is, whether they are supported by good reasons or poor ones.” In a nut shell ethics is what individuals and the society view as being right or wrong. The case "Slavery in the Chocolate Industry" discusses labor exploitation in the chocolate industry. It specifically addresses the cocoa beans grown on farms in West Africa, especially the Ivory Coast and Ghana, which make up close to half of the world's chocolate. The cocoa farmers of these nations, rely on slaves to harvest their beans, and in some cases, enslavement of young males. The plight of the enslaved children was publicized around the world in September 2000 when True Vision, a British television company, took videos of slave boys on several Ivory Coast farms and broadcast a documentary in Britain and the United Sates. In 2002, the Chocolate Manufactures Association and the World Cocoa Foundations along with major producers signed an agreement to establish a system of certification to certify use of “slave free” cocoa beans....
Words: 1087 - Pages: 5
...| Name: Dortea Nauyoma Student No: WB/11/AC312 Level: Higher Diploma Course: Finance Management CORPORATE STRATEGY ASSIGNMENT NO:2 How can the SWOT analysis be useful for both internal and external organizational environment analysis? Use the International University of Management as your case study. SWOT analysis is a structural planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats involved in an organization. It involves specifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable in achieving an objective. The analysis is carried out to allow achievable goals or objectives to be set for the organization. It looks at the internal factors which are: Strengths and Weaknesses of an organization and external factors which are: Opportunities and Threats represented by the external environment to the organization. A SWOT analysis can offer help-full perspectives at any stage of an effort and it might be used to explore possibilities for new efforts or solutions to business, make decision about the best path for initiative, identifying opportunities for success in context of threats and can also be used to adjust and refine plans mid-course. SWOT when broken down simply means analyzing: Strength- that characteristics of the business that give it an advantage over others. Weakness- the disadvantages the business have internally compared to its competitors. Opportunities- current external trends which are waiting to...
Words: 684 - Pages: 3
...Case Study - Slavery in Chocolate 1. What are the systemic, corporate, and individual ethical issues raised by this case? • Local and Global Laws are not enforced due to lack of resources or the desire to enforce the laws. • The number of farmers (1M) and the system makes it difficult to identify the source of the cocoa beans harvested using slavery. • Global decline in cocoa bean prices drove farmers to use slavery to lower labor cost. • Corporations are unable or unwilling to take action to improve the situation in harvesting the cocoa bean. • The fundamental demands of shareholder profits drives corporation to turn a blind eye to how cocoa is harvested. • Chocolate Consumers are kept so far removed from the Cocoa source that they are unaware or choose to be ignorant of the cost involved to create chocolate. 2) In your view is the kind of child slavery discussed in this case absolutely wrong no matter what or is it only relatively wrong i.e. if one happens to live in a society like ours that disapproves of Slavery. I believe that Slavery is wrong. Kidnapping is wrong. Forced labor for children is wrong. I would like to believe Slavery is absolutely wrong but this is coming from a Western perspective where we hold personal freedom as a right. We also don’t see the populations of poverty that some third world countries face. In countries where there is a high infant/child death rate due to poverty, and starvation, living as a slave could be seen as a preferable...
Words: 466 - Pages: 2
...Slavery in the Chocolate Industry Day to day many of us consumers just buy products in stores and consume them without really thinking how and where they came from. Surprisingly the chocolate industry yields approximately 13 billion dollars annual. This number is very high although, should be a reasonably lower since there is slavery in the chocolate industry. Child slavery has been increasing over the past decade in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Greed and corruption has in the past decade ruined the morality of the chocolate industry. It has also ruined countless lives and families in the process of making an already wealthy individual even wealthier. There are many surrounding issues behind the child slavery in the chocolate industry. The underlying problems are systemic, corporate, and individual issues. The systemic issues are that even though these are put in place, they are rarely enforced. This is a main concern because there are many “open borders and a large shortage of enforcement officers.” The oaths and outlooks of local officers are altered by bribery of money and other materialistic items and privileges from the members of the slave trade. Many cocoa farmers believe that slavery is the only way to lower the already low prices even more. Recently the prices fell from 67 cents a pound to 51 cents a pound due to global forces (which are no control to the farmers). The problem is these farmers are already making a substantial amount of money. They are just being...
Words: 1171 - Pages: 5
...What are the systemic, corporate and individual ethical issues raised by this case? Slavery in the chocolate industry case has systemic, corporate and individual ethical issues.Firstly, from the point of systemic ethical issue , economic systems should be taken intoconsideration. Between 1996 and 2000, cocoa bean prices had declined. The decline wasdictated by the global forces over which farmers had no control. With low prices, farmersturned to slavery to try to cut labor cost for their survival in this situation. There is another systemic issue relates to the legal aspect of slavery in the chocolate industry. Actually, slaveryon farms is illegal in the Ivory Coast but the law is rarely enforced. Open borders, a shortageof enforcement officers, and the willingness of local officials to accept bribes from membersof the slave trade all contribute to the problem.Secondly, corporate ethical issue raised by the case. Middlemen who grind and processcocoa beans they acquire from the Ivory Coast and sell the product to manufacturers. Somiddlemen aware of the slavery labor problem. After the media attention and antislaverygroup activities, U.S. Senator Tom Harkin and U.S. Representative Eliot Engel, the membersof the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and the World Cocoa Foundation, together withseveral human rights groups and the Ivory Coast. signed Memorandum of Cooperation. Theyalso agreed to establish a system of certification. But the problem is, they can not control over anything...
Words: 583 - Pages: 3
...Case Study - Slavery in Chocolate Case Study - Slavery in Chocolate 1. What are the systemic, corporate, and individual ethical issues raised by this case? • Local and Global Laws are not enforced due to lack of resources or the desire to enforce the laws. • The number of farmers (1M) and the system makes it difficult to identify the source of the cocoa beans harvested using slavery. • Global decline in cocoa bean prices drove farmers to use slavery to lower labor cost. • Corporations are unable or unwilling to take action to improve the situation in harvesting the cocoa bean. • The fundamental demands of shareholder profits drives corporation to turn a blind eye to how cocoa is harvested. • Chocolate Consumers are kept so far removed from the Cocoa source that they are unaware or choose to be ignorant of the cost involved to create chocolate. 2) In your view is the kind of child slavery discussed in this case absolutely wrong no matter what or is it only relatively wrong i.e. if one happens to live in a society like ours that disapproves of Slavery. I believe that Slavery is wrong. Kidnapping is wrong. Forced labor for children is wrong. I would like to believe Slavery is absolutely wrong but this is coming from a Western perspective where we hold personal freedom as a right. We also don’t see the populations of poverty that some third world countries face. In countries where there is a high infant/child death rate due to poverty, and starvation, living...
Words: 331 - Pages: 2
............................................................................................ 5 Common project between Marc and Hershey ................................................................................... 6 “Big4”, consequentialism and utilitarianism....................................................................................... 6 Moral and human rights infractions ....................................................................................................... 7 Recommendations for cocoa and chocolate industry ............................................................................ 9 Challenges remaining for the cocoa and chocolate industry................................................................ 11 References ............................................................................................................................................ 13 Summary This report will illustrate the benefits of the largest chocolate manufacturers “big4”, and discuss the ethical concepts:...
Words: 3968 - Pages: 16
...If we would stop eating chocolate it would be an important message to slave holders. F. e., as 60% of Ivory Coast income is chocolate; stopping chocolate will damage its economy. Thus, government and authorities themselves will try to fix child slavery. We should stop eating chocolate made from Western Africa until they fix slavery. We should impose an embargo on chocolate from countries where are child labor. The UN and modern society stands against slavery, so if we eat chocolate made by children hands, we are partners in this because we get benefit from slavery. It means all speeches and laws against slavery are empty words. Poverty. Nothing changed from medieval ages. Children works in farms a whole week and do not get payments or their payment is 2 dollars a day. This is only one positive thing that they get but does it worth much. If children would not be slaves they could go to schools. Government has to provide education. Hence, literacy of people would increase and as a result it can decrease poverty and unemployment. What future can be if children do not have education? According to trade economics there is 15% of unemployment in Ivory Coast and this is only official numbers. If we stop eating chocolate from this country, government sunderstand that the only way to supply chocolate is give a job to adults. A special commission must be created to control this in such countries. If child labor disappears and will not exist anymore, only then trade can be reopened. Must...
Words: 650 - Pages: 3
...is the kind of child slavery discussed in this case absolutely wrong nomatter what, or is it only relatively wrong, i.e., if one happens to live in a society (likeours) that disapproves of slavery? I think the answer varies in culture to culture. But in my opinion, there is no way to acceptchild slavery. Children are kidnapped, sold and forced into harvesting. Farmers are beatingthem. From may point of view, children should not be used for labor. They should have aright to choose their lifestyle. They should have education and then contribute the country’seconomy and welfare. Regardless of the society one may live in, I think child labor isabsolutely wrong. 3. Who shares in the moral responsibility for the slavery occurring in the chocolateindustry: African farmers? African governments? American chocolate companies likeHershey, Mars, Nestle and Kraft foods? Distributors like Archer Daniels Midland Co.,Barry Callebaut, and Cargill Inc? Consumers like you and I who know about thesituation but continue to purchase tainted chocolate? I believe, African Farmers, African governments, American chocolate companies,distributors, consumers and people who know the situation, shares in the moral responsibilityfor the slavery occurring in the chocolate industry. African farmers use child slavery labor.African government do not control over the rules. Middlemen buys cocoa beans from farmerswho use slavery labor. American chocolate companies know farmers use slavery labor andthey continue...
Words: 264 - Pages: 2
