The Right Stance By Caltex in South Africa?

The Right Stand By Caltex in South Africa?
In looking back in retrospect over things that have happened in an individual’s life as well as events in the world, it is both difficult and easy to look at a tense, volatile situation in the present and decide which course of action might have been the better choice. There is also no denying that it is difficult for leadership of all levels to decide if the needs of the group as a whole outweigh the needs of those few who are not satisfied for whatever reason. Often many managers in a business setting find themselves weighing the decision to push forward to do what it takes to earn a profit for the organization or side with personal morals in key decisions.
The following are issues both positive and negative that were facing Caltex in 1977 as they were looking building a plant in South Africa:
Positive
• Caltex had a clear responsibility to develop income for their shareholders.
• By building this plant, Caltex estimated a 20% annual return on the original investment.
• Caltex was committed to improving the economic condition of its employees in South
Africa.
• If Caltex had not decided to build the plant, another company may have stepped in to do so; one who whose morals and ethics may not have been so focused.
Negative
• South Africa had enacted a policy for decades known as apartheid (where the black majority was suppressed by the white minority).
• Apartheid negated basic human rights to the black majority; including the right to vote, where they could live, and even being denied a political voice. It is notable to say that the world at the time found this political system to be immoral and unjust. • According to South African law, Caltex would be required to bring in at least $100 million of these investment funds from outside the country.
• If Caltex