Ethics and Business

Assignment One

Individual Essay

We are now living in a globalising world where the word “boundary” is becoming more and more irrelevant. Multinational corporations are emerging like mushrooms, these corporations have increasingly outsourced their production function overseas to minimise costs. But at the same time a problem arises too. Is it ethical for these corporations to use the gap between developed and developing nations, sacrificing developing countries employees’ working condition just for their own interests? This essay aims to dig into the business management ethics through analyse the foundry business Foxconn’s employee suicide incident happened in 2010. Potential causes for this incident caused by external factors will be presented, the management theory and structure underpin this incident will also be discussed.

Foxconn, the Taiwanese company is now the world’s largest manufacturer for electronic components. It nets 2.64 billion income in 2011 and employs over 1.2 million employees. Foxcoon is also the contracted supplier for many world leading technology firms include Apple, Sony, Intel .etc Terry Gou, a Taiwanese businessman is the current president and chairman. Foxcoon was an unsung giant until 2010. When 15 employees of its mainland China manufacture plants commit suicide consecutively by jumping. Before the suicide happen, the company name is barely known by the majority. Dean from the Wall Street Journal(2007) compared the Foxconn Empire to the “forbidden city” where “Confidentiality is a selling point for contract manufacturers, whose customers count on them to shield their products and plans from outsiders.”

The glory of Foxconn has been concealed by its secretive feature while the poor working conditions and ruthless management over its employees are also concealed. The suicide has brought Foxconn workers’ working condition under spotlight. According to investigation, there are three main reasons underpin the 15...