Mattel faces its social and environmental responsabilities

Résumé du document

Today's business organizations constantly face internal and external pressures in addressing their social and environmental responsibilities. Since the 1960s, the society has expressed growing expectations for more responsible management of companies through the incentive of the social activist movement. A decade later, the workforce, environment and consumers were officially accepted by governmental bodies as important actors of business. Nowadays, MultiNational Corporations publish regularly their Corporate Social Responsibility reports not only to prove their concerns about their environment or to give themselves a clear conscience but also to gain the trust of their stakeholders. Freeman and Reed defined stakeholders as 'any identifiable group or individual who can affect or be affected by the achievement of an organization's objectives'. Corporate Social Responsibility also helps companies forecast trends and analyze non-economic potential risks. According to the agency theory, managers of companies are seen as agents who act on the behalf of stakeholder's interests.

Extraits

[...] However, since the first products recall of Power Wheels toy cars in 1998, Mattel seems to show weak points in their GMP protocol, that may explain their focus on their Code of Conduct in their 2009 GCC report. Indeed, the giant of toys has taken six recall operations between 2003 and 2006 (Mattel inc., 2007). The biggest recall appeared in 2007 with four recalls in three months implying the return of 20 millions toys worldwide manufactured in China (Quelch, 2007). [...]

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[...] Mattel seems to be a model of ethical behaviour, but despite appearance lot of work remains to do. In October 2009, the China Labour Watch urged Robert Eckert to implement corrective actions as what is stated in their GCC report is not completed in reality. They still observed illegal work scheduling, non-respect of voluntary overtime, wages under the legal requirements, overtime above the legality, no annual leaves and poor living conditions (food at the canteen). As Norman and McDonald (2004) state CSR report is a new marketing and communicative support with glossy and smiling picture to underline the good points of the company but disclose a lot information to their stakeholders. [...]

[...] Mattel is proud to announce they work actively and closely with the ICTI to provide better health and working conditions (Mattel, 2009). Manufacturers bear the cost of implementation of these standards and cannot afford to pay for these (Ethical Consumer, 2008). Why Mattel do not bear these costs for better working and social condition since factories cannot and since the company is willing to invest millions of dollars in their CSR department ? In 2009, Mattel was rewarded for its ethical behaviour and progress. [...]

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