A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Consultation

Global Ethics Director
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Global Ethics Director
In today's business environment, abiding by acceptable behaviors has become paramount for a company that wants to succeed long-term, especially in the international business environment. As revealed by Burritt et al. (2020), multinational companies (MNCs) have long been accused of unethical and unsustainable business practices that negatively impact communities and the environment. MNCs continue facing challenges in environmental standards, human rights, labor standards, and inclusion and diversity, among others. It has become important to adhere to an acceptable ethical framework in different business environments to address these issues, hence the need for global ethics. According to Burritt et al. (2020), MNCs operate in culturally, geographically, and institutionally distant environments, and there is a need for an ethical code to address the issues of sustainability and ethics that arise as a result of these differences. There is also a need to assign someone specific to manage issues related to ethics and sustainability in international business. This paper provides a criterion for a Global Ethics Director (GED) who will be responsible for managing sustainability and ethics at XYZ Company across the United States, Denmark, South Africa, New Zealand, and Brazil offices.
Background
Being a fast-fashion company, XYZ has faced several ethical and sustainability issues that continue to taint its global image and reputation. This section discusses the key issues, how they have affected XYZ, and what needs to resolve the situation.
Areas of Poor Performance in Ethics and Sustainability
XYZ has been performing poorly in three areas of ethics and sustainability. One area is concerned with labor practices in some of the factories that XYZ uses in its supply chain. It recently came to the public's attention that XYZ has been sourcing its fabrics from some factories in Brazil that are practicing modern slavery. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) (2018), slavery, despite being illegal, is still common in Brazil and is characterized by debt bondage, forced labor, degrading working conditions, and exhaustive working hours. Many people, especially from poor backgrounds, are exploited in factories to make a living. The issue of slavery, especially forced labor, is common in the Brazilian clothing and textile industry because this industry is the second-largest source of jobs (Batista et al., 2021). This has made it easy for people to be exploited as they seek jobs in this industry for basic survival. XYZ never bothered to research or investigate the working conditions of workers in these factories, which has put it in a difficult position with the public.
Another issue that has come to the public's attention is XYZ's irresponsible sourcing of tree-based fabrics in South Africa. Rainforest Action Network (2018) reveals that many of the fashion products sold in the United States are made using tree-based fabrics from trees that have been cut from community-owned forests in countries such as South Africa and Indonesia. This has resulted in the destruction of forests and land grabbing i...