Essay on business ethics

Résumé du document

The fair-trade is a social movement and a commercial partnership, which obeys to various social standards, economic and environmental standards aiming at improving the situation of the producers who adhere to it. The movement privileges the North-south trades, quite particularly in the food sectors and the raw materials, and also in the crafts. The initiative of fair-trade aims at modifying in depth the commercial practices and of consumption by proposing an alternate model of production and organization protecting the rights of the producers and the marginalized workers. The dealers of fair-trade make the promotion of the democracy; the transparency and the respect for human rights about objectives defined by the producers. Production costs are determined by the economic costs, but also by the human, social and environmental production costs.

Extraits

[...] United Kingdom is a country who possesses a big cultural coeducation. According to Geert Hofstede, there are several dimensions that change according to the culture. We shall be interested in the individualistic and collectivist dimension. This dimension changes according to the cultures. In certain countries, we notice that people are more individualistic than in certain country. The individualists will be can be a little less touched by the fact that there are many problems in foreign countries. United Kingdom has a large number of different and foreign cultures. [...]

[...] So the miss of information is another big barrier to buy ethically! So in the reality, it is very difficult to be an ethical Consumer, that's why there are many magazines (like Ethical consumer magazine) who teach people how to become an ethical consumer!!! In Conclusion of our study, Fairtrade is something who does not cease taking importance in our purchase of days in days. This table proves that the number of ethical consumer increases enormously. We have seen that every consumers in the UK have a moral responsibility when they shop because they have to choose if they want to contribute at the development of a better world, more balanced, but making an effort (price, time), or if they just want to consider their own interest. [...]

[...] What is the difference between the fairtrade and the ethical trade? The first thing is that the fairtrade can be considered as a part of the ethical trade. To begin, the fair business owes to respect many number of rules, stricter than those of the ethical trade. Indeed, the ethical business bases itself essentially on moral values, as to assure a just payment the workers, forbid the work of the children, to guarantee conditions of work and life healthy and corresponding to the values approved by a large majority by the statement of human rights. [...]

[...] *What moral responsibility do consumers in the UK have to purchase such products? * Is it morally justifiable to ask all consumers to broaden their purchase criteria to include ethical considerations? To begin this study and be able to answer has our two big problems, it countered beforehand very important to be able to define what is the fairtrade and the difference who it exists with the ethical trade. The context set up in introduction, it will be easier to answer to both questions. [...]

[...] To finish this part, we can add that as in the book of Rob Harrison Ethical Consumer”, even with the consumers wanting to buy ethical, there is sometimes a shift between how they think and how they act. Actually, an ethical consumer who enters in a store changes sometimes his way of buying, because the tools of marketing of competitors brands change his first motivation. Many factors like that are changing our main idea and our way of buying. Consequently, we can say that it becomes difficult to ask to everyone to buy ethically all the time. And moreover, consumers haven't all information inside shops to buy ethically. [...]