Corporate ethics
In every society there are laws and codes that are set to bring about law and order. In the case of corporations there is corporate governance, which is "simply the system by which companies are directed and controlled." However, as Chang and Ha state in their article "Corporate Governance in the Twenty-First Century," in today's global village with many multinational corporations being more powerful than some sovereign nations, do ethics essentially play a role in corporate governance decision- making? Or have they just been brushed aside, with boards "limiting their social responsibilities in order to maximize their profits." Looking at companies such as "The Body Shop," one would say that ethics are an integral part of a corporation, based on their record, showing them to be "socially conscious." Though one would also state that that is just one company amongst a colossal amount of companies that do brush ethics aside in order to achieve their goals. With one having only to look at the newspaper for recent scandals relating to bad corporate governance, that did turn a blind eye to ethics, such as the tobacco companies and more recently Swissair. In many cases boards do not fulfill
Everyday 3,000 kids start smoking cigarettes, most of them between the ages of 10 and 18. These kids account for 90% of all new smokers (Roberts, 1996). When looking at these statistics one can't help but wonder, what attracts these children towards smoking? Advertising and promotion are two key contributors towards attracting children to smoking, and the tobacco companies, such as Marlboro and Camel are prime examples of two large companies behind these media ploys. Marlboro through the use of Marlboro man, while camel uses Joe Camel, a "cool" looking cartoon character. These characters depicted as been "hip" and "cool" are posted everywhere, especially in teen-oriented magazines, such as Rolling Stone and Spin, showing the intended target market of these companies. When looking at the tobacco companies one sees a multibillion dollar, global giant that makes money mostly through bad ethics. With the intention of making as much profit as possible the Tobacco companies brush aside moral obligations, such as not targeting children, and opt instead to expand on that highly profitable market. With their board members ignoring the unethical, and dangerous repercussions that their actions have on the young adolescence health; while solely concentrating on their company's profitability and stockholders' returns, rather than on their moral responsibilities towards the public. After seeing what happened to Swissair, a company once revered by many, most would say, true all companies are run by corrupt boards which are only focused on maximizing profits, and will use fraud and deception as a means to get what they want. Allowing one to wonder if there actually are any companies that are run by good corporate governance. Though to contradict that, others would say, one only has to look at The Body Shop. "Retailing with a conscience," has become synonymous with The Body Shop an international chain of health and beauty stores. Anita L. Roddick, founder and chairmen of the Body Shop, w
Some common words found in the essay are:
Body Shop, Hentsch Swissair, Swissair Switzerland's, Sandefur Jrmore, Stone Spin, Minutes American, Twenty-First Century, , Joe Camel, Jeffrey Wigand, tobacco companies, corporate governance, body shop, maximizing profits, buerkle 2002, company run, companies brush, tobacco industry, safer cigarette, tobacco company,
Approximate Word count = 1344
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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