Business Ethic

1. What were Nike’s mistakes in handling the negative publicity?

Nike had been criticized for sourcing its products in factories/countries where low wages, poor working conditions, and human rights problems were rampant.

Initially, Nike was making mistakes in adopting a denial approach; Nike’s initial reaction to this negative publicity was to ignore them. They reasoned that that they did not own the factories and were therefore not responsible for labor and human rights violations. They claimed to be marketers and designers lacking knowledge about manufacturing.

Nike, being a multinational company, should have acknowledged the fact that it would not have successfully operated without regard to local social, labor, and environmental standards.

2. Discuss the intent of their public relations tactics.

The intent of the public relations campaign is to counter the allegations about labor and human rights violations in its contract factories.

Nike denied the criticisms and claimed that the problems had to do with public relations rather than actual factory conditions. Hence they employed the public relations tactics of codes and pledges with third-party endorsements like Michael Jordan.

3. Do you think Nike is doing enough to improve conditions in its contract factories? What might they do differently or better?

Following years of criticism over its poor labor and environmental standards, Nike has taken measures to improve conditions in its contract factories, which can be well-appreciated.

After failed litigation case in 2002, Nike has realized the importance of corporate responsibility for the growth of business. It has learnt to deliver equal value to its five different stakeholder groups: consumers, shareholders, business partners, employees and the community.

It has followed an open-minded approach to the issues facing its industry. It has moved away from focusing on its own code of conduct and toward creating a standard code of...