Consumer Product Safety
Business ethics issues and conflicts are all about relationships. Consumers, suppliers, investors, employees, government agencies or any others that have a claim or stake in any aspect of a business can be regarded as stakeholders (Ferrel et al. 31) These stakeholders have a huge influence on the success of a business because they define substantial ethical issues in business. They also have the ability to withdraw the resources a company needs in order for it to survive. Therefore a company’s relationship with stakeholders is critical. Such a relationship explains why businesses and manufacturers have a legal and moral responsibility to provide consumers with safe products. There are many responsibilities businesses have towards consumers concerning product quality, labeling, prices, and packaging. Furthermore, there are government regulations that are designed to protect a consumer’s well-being.
A business’s responsibility for protecting, providing for, and understanding the interests of the consumer comes from the fact that consumers rely on businesses to satisfy their various wants and needs. We can see, in today’s highly technological era, a very complex economy with intense specialization and urban concentration (Shaw 352). Because most of us don’t - or don’t know how to - make our own clothing, construct our own homes, or even grow our own food we depend on business for our own survival and enrichment. Consumer dependence increases a business’s responsibility to the consumer - particularly on its conscientious efforts to support product safety.
A firm has a certain stakeholder orientation, that is, the degree to which it understands and addresses stakeholder demands (Ferrel et al. 34). In order for a company’s stakeholder orientation to be fully comprehensive, product safety must be taken under consideration. For example, many Chinese manufacturers and companies use Chinese suppliers. In recent years, these companies have been under criticism and media
A business’s responsibility for protecting, providing for, and understanding the interests of the consumer comes from the fact that consumers rely on businesses to satisfy their various wants and needs. We can see, in today’s highly technological era, a very complex economy with intense specialization and urban concentration (Shaw 352). Because most of us don’t - or don’t know how to - make our own clothing, construct our own homes, or even grow our own food we depend on business for our own survival and enrichment. Consumer dependence increases a business’s responsibility to the consumer - particularly on its conscientious efforts to support product safety.
A firm has a certain stakeholder orientation, that is, the degree to which it understands and addresses stakeholder demands (Ferrel et al. 34). In order for a company’s stakeholder orientation to be fully comprehensive, product safety must be taken under consideration. For example, many Chinese manufacturers and companies use Chinese suppliers. In recent years, these companies have been under criticism and media
Cited: Bate, Roger. “China’s Bad Medicine” The Wall Street Journal. May 5, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124146383501884323.html Ferrel, O.C., John Fraedrich, and Linda Ferrel. Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, 8th Edition. Mason, OH: South-Western Cenage Learning, 2008. Shaw, William H. Business Ethics, 6th Edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008. 352-386. Print. Velasquez, Manuel G. Business Ethics, 6th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006. List of ODU Library Resources: • http://www.lib.odu.edu • Business & Economics Database 1) Business Source Complete 2) ABI/Inform