Hbs Hitting a Wall

HBS: Hitting the Wall: Nike and International Labor Practices

In this reading, Nike: The Sweatshop Debate, the matter of Nike and the ethics behind how the company is run is discussed. Founder Phillip Knight, a graduate of the University of Oregon, is of the richest people in America. Throughout the past sixteen years or so, both Phillip and Nike have been battling the ongoing accusations of pertaining issues such as unfair working conditions and low wages in international factories. With 600 factories worldwide and approximately 650,000 Nike employees, Nike continues to both enforce rules and defend their company’s morals and awareness of fair human rights.

Due to the many protests and cases against Nike, Nike has taken initiative in order to insure that their company is abiding by the moral views of the public. Nike joined a presidential task force in order to help find ways to banish sweatshops in the shoe and clothing industry. The task force agreed to establish an independent monitoring association, which is known as the Fair Labor Association (FLA). The objective of this establishment was to assess and make sure that companies are abiding by the code (minimum wages, work week hours, etc.) Although Nike has made an effort to do good, the articles written in papers such as The New York Times are just as good, almost better than Nike at defending their cases.

Regarding the activity that transpired in Indonesia, I feel as though Nike’s actions were both productive as well as a way to make outsiders feel as though Nike wasn’t just looking to please the public. In 1997, Nike terminated relationships with four Indonesian subcontractors due to their inability to cooperate with the company’s standards regarding wage levels and working conditions. However, instead of then going on to further address the importance of following through with fair wages and working conditions, Nike took a different turn.

An excerpt from an article a critic...