...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...
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...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...
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...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...
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...The 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...
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...Group Project Case Study #1 1 Table of content Executive Summary ......................................................................................... 3 Benefit of the “Big 4....................................................................................... 3-4 Moral and Human Rights Infractions ............................................................. 4-5 Recommendation........................................................................................... 6-7 Challenges.........................................................................................................7 References.........................................................................................................8 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Chocolate is really extremely delicious and many people are addicted to it, But did they have a background that this chocolate are coming from the worst conditions of children suffer. In our report we present some of main elements of slavery in the chocolate industry which they are, Firstly the benefit that cocoa industry get from the US big 4. Moreover, we are going to explain the moral and human right infraction in the farms and the difficulty they are faced. In additional, there is section for the recommendation that we applied to solve the problem in cocoa industry and improve the situation. And the results of these recommendations have some challenges that will affect to cocoa industry. BENEFIT OF THE “BIG...
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...Case Study: Slavery in the Chocolate Industry 1. From the perspective of Utilitarianism, child slavery contributes the financial side spot of the country. As far as I am concerned, the financial condition of the nation is corrupt. They are one of the third world nations. What is more, cocoa beans prices decreased in the year 1996 - 2000. So, farmers want to decrease the rate of manufacture with deducting the salaries and using slavery. Conferring to Utilitarianism, the “right” action or policy is the one that will produce the highest net profits otherwise the lowermost net costs. From that point, they decrease costs, and capitalize on their net profits from child slavery. The foremost struggle with Utilitarianism is that it is not capable to deal with rights and justice. For example, 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 labour or child labour rights. Also, poor children deprived of the moral rights. They...
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............................................................................................ 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:...
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...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...
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...The 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...
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...CHILD LABOURIN COCOA INDUSTRY INTRODUCTION There is a surprising association between chocolate and child labor in the Cote d'Ivoire. Young boys whose ages range from 12 to 16 have been sold into slave labor and are forced to work in cocoa farms in order to harvest the beans, from which chocolate is made, under inhumane conditions and extreme abuse. This West African country is the leading exporter of cocoa beans to the world market. Thus, the existence of slave labor is relevant to the entire international economic community. Through trade relations, many actors are inevitably implicated in this problem, whether it is the Ivorian government, the farmers, the American or European chocolate manufacturers, or consumers who unknowingly buy chocolate. Discussions have arisen regarding how to respond to the problem. Issues mentioned include causes of slave labor relating to the economic system and to the country's dependence on an unstable export crop. There are also debates concerning the appropriate response from the chocolate industry, government officials, and consumers concerning whether there should be boycotting, establishment of government legislation to put "made by slaves" labels on products, or whether some type of international cooperation is needed to ensure improved working conditions. The complexity of the problem makes finding an effective solution a challenging task. Description Slavery and the Link to Chocolate Slave traders are trafficking boys ranging from...
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...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...
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...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...
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...Case Study: Slavery in the Chocolate Industry- Close to half of the world's chocolate is made from highly prized top-quality cocoa beans that are grown in the farms in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, a small nation on the Western side of Africa. The farmers of these poor nations are notorious, however for sometimes relying on slaves to harvest their beans. The slave are boys between 12 and 16 , sometimes as young as 9-- who are kidnapped from villages in surrounding nations and sold to cocoa farmers, who use whippings, beatings, and starvation to force the boys 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 and are locked in windowless rooms where they sleep in 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 severely beaten as an example to others and then locked in solitary confinement for a prolonged period of time. Every year an unknown number of boys die or are killed on the cocoa farms of the Ivory Coast and Ghana. The plight of the enslaved children was publized around the world in September 2000 when True Vision, a British television company, took video on slave boys on several ivory. Coast farms and broadcast a documentary in Britain and the United Sates. An erlier 1998 report...
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...Case Study: Slavery in the Chocolate Industry- Close to half of the world's cocoa is made from highly prized top-quality cocoa beans that are grown in the farms in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, a small nation on the Western side of Africa. The farmers of these poor nations are notorious, however for sometimes relying on slaves to harvest their beans. The slave are boys between 12 and 16 , sometimes as young as 9-- who are kidnapped from villages in surrounding nations and sold to cocoa farmers, who use whippings, beatings, and starvation to force the boys 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 and are locked in windowless rooms where they sleep in 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 severely beaten as an example to others and then locked in solitary confinement for a prolonged period of time. Every year an unknown number of boys die or are killed on the cocoa farms of the Ivory Coast and Ghana. The plight of the enslaved children was publized widely around the world, by True Vision, a British television company , through videos and documentaries in Britain and the United States. News reports from the United Nations Children's Fund and other form of Human...
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...2. Select one of the case studies in our textbook (chapters 1-2) and discuss how and why you would make a decision you would consider to be ethical. (refer to the case study analysis steps we discussed in class) Why is your chosen case study important for the study of ehics in the workplace? Slavery in the Chocolate Industry: The Ivory Coast in Africa produces much of the world’s cocoa beans, but in order to do so cheaply, thousands of cocoa farms use child slavery. Many large American chocolate companies knowingly purchase these tainted cocoa beans, also in order to keep costs low. The stakeholders in this case study are child slaves, the farmers, the distributors, and the chocolate manufacturing corporations and the consumers. The slaves keep the costs low for the farmers and the corporations. The distributors gather the cocoa beans from the small farms. The chocolate manufactures produce the goods and the consumers buy the products. The large American chocolate factories unwillingness to get involved in the issue of child slavery would imply that their mission is to continue to make cheaper products. Because the companies involved are all large corporations, it would seem that they are more concerned with pleasing their investors and shareholders, rather than focusing on their ethical/social responsibilities. The managers of these large companies should be looking for the truth and asking themselves if they are doing enough to improve the situation. They should...
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