Analyzing the Duty Ethics Essay

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duty-based or deontological ethics will be defined and applied to Mattel Inc.'s case.

Duty-Based Ethics

Duty-based or deontological ethics deals with what individuals do, rather than the outcomes of their doings. Its key tenets are:

Do what is ethically right.

Do it since it's ethically right.

Refrain from doing wrong things.

Refrain from doing them since they're wrong.

Under deontological ethics, one cannot simply validate one's actions by proving that its end result was good; thus, this approach is occasionally termed as "non-Consequentialist." "Deontological" is derived from deon (the Greek term for "duty"). This ethical approach is commonly referred to as 'the principle of the thing', by society (BBC - Ethics - Introduction to ethics: Duty-based ethics). It teaches us that specific actions are wrong or right due to the "types" of actions they are. Further, individuals are duty-bound to act in accordance to this knowledge, irrespective of whether the outcomes are bad or good.

An individual who is a follower of deontological ethics must do what is right, even if his/her actions do less good (or more harm) as compared to doing what is wrong: In other words, individuals are duty-bound to act right, even when the end result will probably be negative (BBC - Ethics - Introduction to ethics: Duty-based ethics). A deontologist seems to be doing things backwards, first deciding which action is 'right' and then proceeding from there. (The actual fact is that, this is what they actually do, and not the actual basis of their thoughts.) Deontological ethics focuses on every person's individual value and addresses goals and purposes. Thus, an individual does the good thing only if he/she does what is ethically correct.

Mattel Case

In the course of the past two decades or more, multinational companies have braved accusations of unethical and unjust business practices and market power abuse, particularly with regard to management of their supply chains and operations in foreign countries.

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These allegations include, but are not limited to, personnel exploitation, in the form of paying unduly low wages, unsafe work atmosphere, and too many work hours; contamination and pollution of ground water, land, and air; and, weakening the natural government's ability to safeguard their citizens' welfare. Multinational companies have reacted to such allegations by developing voluntary conduct codes that require all organizational members to commit to certain standards in order to tackle these problems (Sethi, et.al, 2010). The codes are formulated at company as well as industrial levels. Unfortunately, they have not been successful in garnering sufficient public trust and generating sufficient credibility, since one cannot independently verify their claims of compliance. Furthermore, the codes are not fully disclosed to the public, and also lack transparency. This paper will examine a case dealing with Mattel Incorporated's voluntary conduct code. Mattel is the biggest toy company in the world. The code, named "Global Manufacturing Principles" (GMP), handles broad criticisms against voluntary conduct codes through (a) creation of comprehensive compliance standards, (b) Disclosing uncensored and complete audit reports and organizational remedial action to the public, and (c) Independent external supervision of the organization's adherence to its conduct code.

Code adherence success and greater levels of transparency when it comes to disclosing information to the public accorded field managers a feeling of professional gratification, and their achievements became publicly recognized. However, an equally steep drop was witnessed in GMP adherence (Sethi, et.al, 2010). After realization of all conveniently achievable targets at Mattel-operated plants, a novel series of challenges was posed when attempting to address vendor plants' adherence, which required management commitment and overstretched company resources. It would appear that ethics- and value- oriented considerations, namely, doing what is right and for proper reasons, no….....

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