Comparative Business Ethics And Social Responsibility In Assam's Tea Essay.

Workers' Exploitation in Assam Tea Industry

Discuss about the Comparative Business Ethics and Social Responsibility.

Indian tea workers work and live in unconducive environment. The workers in the Assam’s tea industry are mostly women and are paid far below the minimum wage requirement in the industry.  According to the article done by The Economic times, Assam tea industry, located in the northeast India is the largest tea producer in the country; boasting of supplying tea to world’s top brands such as the popular Britain’s Twinning and Tetley as per Davvetas and Diamantopoulos (2016). The tea industry has been accused on several occasions of not improving the welfare of the workers and the surrounding environment and society, a fact that violets the business or corporate ethics (Baruah 2013).

According to Hsieh (2017), business or corporate ethics are the basic principles and organizational standards, norms and values that govern the behavior and decisions of individuals in an organization on day to today basis. Ethics reflects the philosophy of the corporation, which determine the main purpose of the firm, company or corporation. These ethics tend to control various areas of the operations of the company such as the business or corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, and leadership

The industry is legally mandated to provide several services to the workers such as housing, subsidized food, toilets, health facilities, and schools to at least cover for the low wages. Contrarily, the workers live in pathetic conditions under leaking roofs, no toilets nor health facilities (Hsieh 2017). They are sometimes forced to go for long calls in the bushes and seek medical services from other expensive health centers; a move that forces them into excessive overtime or bonded labor in order to be able to provide family needs. Several attempts by the workers to make the management improve their living and working conditions have been futile; the management notes the registered complaints but do not take any action, according to one worker.

As illustrated in the article, Assam’s tea industry has been on the fore front in exploitative cases such as workers exploitation. The tea giant has been accused of paying low wages, poor working conditions and not being keen on the health and welfare of their workers (Baruah 2013). A research done in one of the local hospital in Assam area indicates that the main source of the deaths that occur in the area is labeled as Assam tea estate. The patients from the tea estate, mostly women suffer from acute anemia and high pressure.

Importance of Ethical Decision-making Process

Dutta & Bahadur (2016) explained that doctors there allege that the tea garden community is even more vulnerable to maternal deaths due to the frail economic conditions, the workers cannot afford nutritious foods and good healthcare due the peanuts they earn. Some workers who consider themselves lucky to have permanent job work for nine hour picking tea leaves with bamboo baskets trapped on her back the whole day and get paid Rs1300 for 12 days work.

Such workers consider themselves better as they are assured of their wages and continuous work throughout the year. As illustrated by Basole, Basu, and Bhattacharya (2015), Assam uses a good percentage of temporary workers who are sometimes not sure if their wages would be paid. The exploitation in the tea estate is dated back to many years ago but there has never been any improvement.

Assam tea industry being the largest tea producer in India supplying the products to some of the tea brands in the world should appreciate its workers through better working and living environment. As indicated in the article, the multinational brands should not just boast of their names and good quality of tea they sell but should at least be more transparent on the sources of their products. Companies, corporations and industries like Assam that exploit its workers should be dealt with through economic sanctions in a bid to force them improve their bad culture of exploitation. The world’s leading brand can stop sourcing their products from such exploitative industries and notify the world of their actions.

Additionally, Gawronski, Armstrong, Conway, Friesdorf, and Hütter argued in 2017 that the government of India should take legal and administrative actions against the tea estate manages to compel them to improve the working conditions and even compensate victims of their exploitation. Such tea estates are formed and protected by the government through subsidies and tax waivers to improve the living standards of the citizens and give back to their immediate society, it is therefore upon the government to demand such services from the estates.

As quoted by martin Cohen, ‘Ethics is about choices which matter, and choices which matter are dilemmas’. Ethical dilemmas are normally complex conditions where ethical standards go against each other. In such situations, ethical decision making process enables us take right course of action and analyze the decisions made by other people who may be our college or competitors as indicated by (Stockall & Dennis 2015). In ethical decision making process, our ethics are the personal set standards that determine whether an action is wrong or right. The process takes into account various rules, standards, and virtues that guide the judgment or actions to be taken.

Steps in Ethical Decision-making Process

Identification of the Ethical issue

The main purpose is ethical decision making is to help solve an issue deemed as unethical. The decision maker must therefore be able to notice if there is possibility of violation of any societal norm, ethical standard or organizational principle. As in this case, the violation of labor rules regarding minimum wages and the working as well as living conditions of workers.

The decision maker should also determine if there are possible consequences of the violation that should be avoided such as poor sanitation and lack of proper health services.

Gathering of Relevant Information

The decision maker is required to collect as much information as possible concerning the ethical value being violated, the victims and determine the extent of the vice. Mishra, Sarma, and Upadhyay directed in 2011 an individual would then seek information on the amount of ham the violation inflicts on the victims. In the case of Assam, the decision maker would want to know the level of suffering the workers undergo.

Evaluation of the Gathered Information.

Beekun, Stedham, Westerman, and Yamamura (2010) argued that the collected information should be subjected to some level of standards to avoid being bias at the point of making the decision. It should be noted that some victims may give skewed pieces of information due to emotional touch inflicted. The decision maker should be able to identify if justice was denied or not.

Consider Alternatives

The decision maker should take into consideration the specific virtues relevant in the situation and consider what other people who have decided on in the same situation. He or she should remember that the decision would have impacts in future as some future judgments would be based on the decision he or she is making.

One should be creative to make sure the decision being made is not as a result of some pressure either side. Make sure you have exploited all the possible alternatives.

Make a decision

One should make a decision based on the evaluations made at step three, a course of action supported by the theories governing ethics and be ready to face any opposition or challenge that may arise due to the decision made.

Take Action or Implement the Findings

In a bid to truly resolve the unethical act, the decision maker should implement the findings as per the information collected.

Action review

After taking action or implementation of the decision and the results known, one should review the process. If the intended results are not achieved, the decision maker should adjust or repeat the whole decision making process.

Moral philosophies tend to explore the morality of humanity and how people should live with one another, therefore contemplate what is right and what is wrong (Marta et al. 2012). The three main branches of moral philosophies include meta-ethics that questions what morality is and if justice truly exists (Kriegstein, 2015). Normative ethics illustrates what we real should do in order to live in harmony with other people but divided into deontology, utilitarianism, and virtue ethics. The last branch is the applied ethics that tend to take some specific moral challenges that we face on daily basis. As in the case of Assam, the deontology is a relevant philosophy. Deontology requires that people follow law and do their duties as the states. Assam tea industry just needs to do their duties and honor their part of contract with the workers; pay good wages and provide a good working and living conditions for the employees.

Conclusion

From the article about exploitation of workers at Assam tea industry, it can be observed that that the industry has violated the ethics on corporate citizenship. Under this ethical issue, a business, company, corporation or industry has an obligation to service its workers and make sure it improves the environment where it has been licensed to operate. Contrarily, Assam tea estates have been accused of letting its workers live in filthy conditions under leaking roofs with no toilets not proper healthcare. The industry ought to have observed the deontology philosophy under normative moral ethics that requires that people and organizations should just follow the law and do their duties as required by the laws.

Reference List

Baruah, M 2013, 'Space and community between the local and the global: two examples from the Brahmaputra Valley of Assam', Asian Ethnicity, 14, 3, pp. 276-292.

Basole, A, Basu, D, & Bhattacharya, R 2015, 'Determinants and impacts of subcontracting: evidence from India’s unorganized manufacturing sector', International Review Of Applied Economics, 29, 3, pp. 374-402.

Beekun, R, Stedham, Y, Westerman, J, & Yamamura, J 2010, 'Effects of justice and utilitarianism on ethical decision making: a cross-cultural examination of gender similarities and differences', Business Ethics: A European Review, 19, 4, pp. 309-325.

Davvetas, V, & Diamantopoulos, A 2016, 'How Product Category Shapes Preferences Toward Global and Local Brands: A Schema Theory Perspective', Journal Of International Marketing, 24, 4, pp. 61-81.

Devika, J 2016, 'Aspects of Socioeconomic Exclusion in Kerala, India: Reflections from an Urban Slum', Critical Asian Studies, 48, 2, pp. 193-214.

Dutta, S, & Bahadur, M 2016, 'Cytogenetic analysis of micronuclei and cell death parameters in epithelial cells of pesticide exposed tea garden workers', Toxicology Mechanisms & Methods, 26, 8, pp. 627-634.

Gawronski, B, Armstrong, J, Conway, P, Friesdorf, R, & Hütter, M 2017, 'Consequences, Norms, and Generalized Inaction in Moral Dilemmas: The CNI Model of Moral Decision-Making', Journal Of Personality & Social Psychology, 113, 3, pp. 343-376.

Hsieh, N 2017, 'The Responsibilities and Role of Business in Relation to Society: Back to Basics?', Business Ethics Quarterly, 27, 2, pp. 293-314.

Kriegstein, H 2015, 'Shareholder Primacy and Deontology', Business & Society Review (00453609), 120, 3, pp. 465-490.

Marta, J, Singhapakdi, A, Lee, D, Burnaz, S, Ilker Topcu, Y, Serap Atakan, M, & Ozkaracalar, T 2012, 'The Effects of Corporate Ethical Values and Personal Moral Philosophies on Ethical Intentions in Selling Situations: Evidence from Turkish, Thai, and American Businesspeople', Journal Of Business Ethics, 106, 2, pp. 229-241.

Mishra, D, Sarma, A, & Upadhyay, V 2011, 'Invisible chains? Crisis in the tea industry and the 'unfreedom' of labour in Assam's tea plantations', Contemporary South Asia, 19, 1, pp. 75-90.

Stockall, N, & Dennis, L 2015, 'Seven Basic Steps to Solving Ethical Dilemmas in Special Education: A Decision-Making Framework', Education & Treatment Of Children, 38, 3, pp. 329-344.