Question

All employees are expected to act according to their organization's Code of Ethics or Conduct, based upon the values of the organization. Furthermore, product safety engineers are asked to: (a) Determine "safety" ofproducts (b) Obtain various non-govermmental agency certifications for products (c) Confirm that products comply with govenment regulations (d) Examine and test products according to various standards They are required to do this using the minimum time, money, andnumber ofproduct samples - usually at the end of the product development process, when changes are more difficult and everyone wants to ship products

Answer 1

Scenario 5)

A) Should you reduce the warning labels only to the important ones or just follow the standards of the certification agencies

Business ethics is an important concept for all organizations and countries alike. Over the year’s business have transformed themselves into understanding the concepts and implementing policies that have made them the big brands that they today are.

In order for an organization to be able to run its operations seamlessly, it is increasingly important for it to fall in line with the standards that are set by the government agencies and which allow for higher safety to the consumers.

At times, companies need to go beyond the line in complying with law enforcement and certification agencies that help them in various times.

In the case study above, though the extra labels may not be perceived well with the consumers these become necessary and should not be avoided since government agencies have previously taken strict action against those who have failed to perform on these parts.

A clear example for one’s understanding is that of cigarettes. An average smoker, never wants the display of warning labels on the pack he smokes. But norms mandate companies to have labels to make consumers aware over the risks of smoking.

Therefore in this case, the company should follow the current norms, in which all labels should clearly be depicted.

B) Your Marketing Department wants to color coordinate and reduce the size in the warning labels. The new version still would comply with the standards but would not stand out on the machine. Should you resist change?

As long as the standards of warning labels in this case allow for a reduction to take place, the same can be implemented subject to changes required in the machine.

The machine must be able to adopt the changes so as to ensure that the manufacturing stage does not fail. This change however of reducing the overall size which is in compliance with the standards should not be restricted in my opinion respectively.

The change could result in better sales as is evident that consumers do not like bigger labels on the product respectively.

C) The factory has a lot of old inventory with silk-screened markings that do not comply with new requirements, although they did comply with the previous edition. To change them would cost thousands of dollars.

Should you let the company use the old stock?

Over the years trade requirements and regulations rapidly change, to adopt new policies in the interests of the consumers and to protect their larger interests.

In the case study above, the old inventory should not be allowed to be sold unless they comply with the new norms. Even though it may cause the company a lot, compliance authorities are very strict on companies that flout norms even when they were told well in advance over what they expect from you.

The case is that of ethics which a company must enforce regardless of the costs that it would have to bare. In the long run this will only benefit the company. Defaulters in most states are dealt with extremely seriously.

Please feel free to ask your doubts in the comments section