Theoretical discussion of Nikes labor standards in foreign nations - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1514 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Business Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? What labor standards regarding safety, working conditions, overtime, and the like, should Nike hold foreign factories to: those prevailing in that country or those prevailing in the United States? The unsuccessfully of labor standards which are child labor, hazardous working conditions, excessive working hours, and poor wages in developing countries are still the major problems. In order to increase company profits, Nike then reduces the cost by having the low labor wages paid. The multinational corporations such as Nike needs to developed code of conduct for their suppliers to make its unidirectional and correctly. The meaning of a code of conduct is the code that provides a guideline of ethical behaviors and values which company uses to follow when faced the problem in a day-to-day work (Locke, 2007). He also states that the code of conduct of Nike requires subcontractors to consider some basic labor, safety standards, and environmental and health. According to Kochan (2007), the codes of conduct do not protect the labor rights or improve working conditions but can limit legal liability and prevent the company reputation only. According to the case, Nike faced the problem of the low labor standards in foreign factories that are the subcontractors. Nike had become a sweatshop symbol of the evils of globalization. The definition of sweatshops is unsafe and unhealthy working conditions including low wages, long hours or work with no overtime pay, health or safety, and child labor (Banfe, 2001). The sweatshops will occur in the factories that have the problems of poor labor standards (Miller, 2006). For example, the company that pays the salaries less than minimum wages and forces employees to work overtime. The sweatshops and low labor standards are the important factors that can impact the economic development (Park-Poaps, 2009). According to Miller (2006), the sweatshops don ¿Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ½t help low educated workers in the develop ing countries from poverty due to the fact that people have less alternative choices in choosing a job. A big American company  ¿Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ½ Nike outsources the foreign factories to manufacture their athlete shoes. This will caused the United States has the impact on unemployment rate (Greene, 2007). Due to the fact, huge labor markets are needed to satisfy the demand which increasing continuously (Schwartz, 2000). He also states that the requirement of the huge labor markets will cause the talent is become not important. According to Greene (2007), the salaries are set based on the productivity level. No company can pay a labor wage beyond the productivity level. The reason of poor labor standards in terms of minimum wages and hiring child labor caused Nike ¿Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ½s subcontractors to become a sweatshop. The setting of minimum wages should be cancel to deny the problems of the poor labor standards (Greene, 2007). The statistical analysis found that the anti-sweatshops campaign can increase the unskilled labor wages around twenty percent in the footwear factories (Miller, 2006). Regarding to safety, working conditions, overtime, Nike should hold the conditions with foreign factories which are Indonesia, Vietnam, and China. If Nike persists on prevailing conditions in the United States, there is unessential for Nike to look for outside countries manufacturers. According to Park-Poaps (2009), the research found that the foreign outsourcing firms have impact on the stakeholders and governance structure in terms of the public pressure. Nevertheless, through the pressure that Nike received from many groups of association, the company should find the solution to improve the working conditions or labor standards from the Nike ¿Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ½s foreign manufacturers. If Nike can enhance its labor standards, Nike will receive benefits from the public relations rather than putting more effort. In addition, Nike can reduce the cost of developing public relation strategies. According to Park-Poaps (2009) in the recent time, the American companies place importance on corporate public relation in order to answer and perform the public response. The enhancement of labor standards in foreign factories could make Nike has good company ¿Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ½s reputation. To avoid the problems of the sweatshops, the improvement of education and a living wage should be done by the government in each country (Greene, 2007). Moreover, the viable systems of labor conditions should be control and restrict by non-governmental association such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (Park-Poaps, 2009). Nike has got a high public pressure from the problem of sweatshop in the foreign subcontractor companies. Therefore, Nike should response to the public by creating the ethical labor management strategies which respect to human rights and also public relation management strategies based on the moral practice (Park-Poaps, 2009). Nike can also establi sh the codes of ethics in the corporate culture. According to Kantor (2002), the codes of ethic can produce a good effect on corporate social responsibility (CSR). The company that does the corporate social responsibility can create the company reputation in the positive way. Nike should put more effort in decision making when doing business internationally by having the ethical standards in human resource management in supplying company. According to Park-Poaps (2009) the ethical standards of the company can refer to the role of top management that can impact on the company reputations. The managers should present their higher standards as role models to employee in the way they should behave (Kantor, 2002). If Nike practices the better ethical labor standards, the company will receive good corporate image. Moreover, Nike should hold the foreign subcontractors to those prevailing in the United States by having the possible standards in term of working conditions and overtime that p rotect the basic rights of employees. In the production period, the productivity limitation within a day should not exceed employee strength and also should not hurt the worker ¿Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ½s health (Schwartz, 2007). Regarding to the Nike case, the company could not meet the satisfaction of stakeholder which is the employees. The problem of employees seems to be the influential concern rather than other stakeholders. According to Schwartz (2000), a good company needs to meet the satisfaction of its stakeholders which are customers, shareholders, and employees. He also argued that if the employees lose their jobs, it is the company mistake. The emphasis of stakeholders especially in employees caused the company has more cost adding (Greene, 2007). He also states that many companies try to avoid the cost of labor by changing the ways in doing business. For example, the automated check-out counter in supermarkets and teller bank machines has been found in the developing world. T he cost saving is become a major concern at the present time when the economic problems occur. In addition, the technology changing is also the possible factor to reduce the number of workers. Therefore, the change in technology and the cost saving could be the cause of the unemployment in developed countries such as the United States. These factors lead the big company  ¿Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ½ Nike needs to use the outsourcing manufacturers in foreign countries to produce their products. According to Locke (2007), the ways Nike response to the public pressure are that all suppliers need to sign the code of conduct and post within the factories. In the code of conduct, it provides the training and the staff to control all of suppliers. In addition, Nike has approximately one thousand mangers working in those foreign factories to responsible for training Nike ¿Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ½s code of conduct and labor practices. Locke also argued that the new approval process of Nike is the three diff erent types of audit which are a basic environmental, safety and health audit, and a more in-depth management and working conditions audit. However, the codes of conduct of Nike seem to be unsuccessful in some countries which the problems of poor wages and inordinate work hours or harassment (Locke, 2007). Hence, Nike should continue to check and evaluate the foreign subcontractor firms. In another way, Nike can use the trusty auditor firms to inspect the accuracy within those manufacturers. In conclusion, the sweatshops are the major problem of Nike in doing business with foreign subcontractors to manufacturer their products. To eliminate the sweatshops, the related associations or government in those developing countries should come to look after and inspect Nike ¿Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ½s subcontractors. The needed of the huge labor markets in the real world can create the obstacle in the working conditions such as a low wages paid, no overtime pay, long-time working, and child labor. On the other hand, the education and a living wage are also important factors that need to concern in order to solve the problem of unskilled workers in developing countries. Moreover, Nike should hold the foreign factories to those prevailing in subcontractor countries  ¿Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ½ Vietnam, Indonesia, and China. To improve the labor standards regarding safety, working conditions, overtime, Nike should practice the ethical standards by concern on the human right and basic needs of employees. The managers should act as the role model on the ethical behavior to make the employees to follow the codes of ethic. In addition, the codes of conduct are important for the Nike foreign manufacturers to follow and practice in the correctly way. If Nike ¿Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ½s foreign subcontractors can improve the labor standards and working conditions by using the codes of conduct and the codes of ethic, Nike will get the benefit from the public relation in term of company reputation and als o avoid public pressure. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Theoretical discussion of Nikes labor standards in foreign nations" essay for you Create order

The Soldier by Rupert Brooke Text and Analysis

The poem The Soldier is one of English poet Rupert Brookes (1887–1915) most evocative and poignant poems—and an example of the dangers of romanticizing World War I, comforting the survivors but downplaying the grim reality. Written in 1914, the lines are still used in military memorials today. If I should die, think only this of me:That theres some corner of a foreign fieldThat is for ever England. There shall beIn that rich earth a richer dust concealed;A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,A body of Englands, breathing English air,Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.And think, this heart, all evil shed away,A pulse in the eternal mind, no lessGives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. Rupert Brooke, 1914 About the Poem The Soldier was the last of five poems of Brookes War Sonnets about the start of World War I. As Brooke reached the end of his series, he turned to what happened when the soldier died, while abroad, in the middle of the conflict. When The Soldier was written, the bodies of servicemen were not regularly brought back to their homeland but buried nearby where they had died. In World War I,  this produced vast graveyards of British soldiers in foreign fields, and allows Brooke to portray these graves as representing a piece of the world that will be forever England. Writing at the start of the war, Brooke prefigured the vast numbers of soldiers whose bodies, torn to shreds or buried by shellfire, would remain buried and unknown as a result of the methods of fighting that war. For a nation desperate to turn the senseless loss of its soldiers into something that could be coped with, even celebrated, Brooke’s poem became a cornerstone of the remembrance process and is still in heavy use today. It has been accused, not without merit, of idealizing and romanticizing war, and stands in stark contrast to the poetry of Wilfred Owen (1893–1918). Religion is central to the second half of The Soldier, expressing the idea that the soldier will awake in a heaven as a redeeming feature for his death in war. The poem also makes great use of patriotic language: it is not any dead soldier, but an English one, written at a time when to be English was considered (by the English) as the greatest thing to be. The soldier in the poem is considering his own death but is neither horrified nor regretful. Rather, religion, patriotism, and romanticism are central to distracting him. Some people regard Brooke’s poem as among the last great ideals before the true horror of modern mechanized warfare was made clear to the world, but Brooke had seen action and knew well of a history where soldiers had been dying on English adventures in foreign countries for centuries and still wrote it. About the Poet An established poet before the outbreak of World War I, Rupert Brooke had traveled, written, fallen in and out of love, joined great literary movements, and recovered from a mental collapse all before the declaration of war, when he volunteered for the Royal Naval Division. He saw combat action in the fight for Antwerp in 1914, as well as a retreat. As he awaited a new deployment, he wrote the short set of five 1914 War Sonnets, which concluded with one called The Soldier. Soon after he was sent to the Dardanelles, where he refused an offer to be moved away from the front lines—an offer sent because his poetry was so well-loved and good for recruiting—but died on April 23rd, 1915 of blood poisoning from an insect bite that weakened a body already ravaged by dysentery.

Slaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut - 1199 Words

War is an omnipresent evil. At times it might be necessary, as in stopping a tyrant from oppressing a society, but at other times, it causes more harm than good. War has demolished entire communities, reshaped lives, and damaged individuals’ mental stability. Not until recent centuries has the impact of war on a person’s psychological state been considered. One book, which was published in the middle of the twentieth century, Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, is able to show the various possible results war can have on a person’s mind. In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut is effectively able to portray the psychological effects of war through Billy Pilgrim and his fantasies, his indifference, and his alienation because of Vonnegut’s own personal experiences in war. Billy Pilgrim creates different fantasies after his experiences in Dresden. These fantasies are a direct result of Billy’s post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other prob lems he developed. Susanne Vees-Gulani states in â€Å"Diagnosing Billy Pilgrim† that â€Å"his problems are directly related to his war experiences† (293). PTSD is usually the result of people facing an event that involved serious threat to life or the well-being of themselves or others. A common symptom of PTSD is constantly reliving past traumatic events: which is seen through Billy’s cyclic timeline or his â€Å"time travel† (Vees-Gulani 294). According to Vees-Gulani, Billy never â€Å"psychologically left World War II;† therefore, withShow MoreRelatedSlaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut534 Words   |  2 PagesSome people may think the novel Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut is a failure. In fact, Kurt Vonnegut himself calls it a failure. A lot of people disagree with that, many think that Slaughterhouse Five is one of Vonneguts best novels. They say it is the most successful book they have ever read, just for reasons of the author himself. From him being bluntly honest, to his great wit. 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Five 23) Billy has no control over where he will end up next. â€Å"He has seen his birth and death many times, and he pays random visits to all the events in between†, and â€Å"is in a constant state of fright, ... because he never knows which part of his life he is going to have to act out next.†(Vonnegut S. Five 23)Read MoreSlaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut1997 Words   |  8 PagesKurt Vonnegut’s book, Slaughterhouse-Five, is full of historical context, scientific-fiction themes, modernistic themes, and even emphasizes the idea of free will. But Vonnegut’s novel contains one major theme of the destructiveness of war making the book anti-war. Vonnegut uses a variety of techniques to allude to this theme and he does it well. The combination of his writing style and his use of humor to degrade the human in the event of war is highly effective in the fact that it causes the readerRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five, By Kurt Vonnegut941 Words   |  4 Pageslargely fatal events, the survivors reflect upon the unbearable guilt and emotions they have experienced. Billy Pilgrim, the main protagon ist In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five, serves as Vonnegut’s vehicle to communicate his feelings and contemplations as a survivor. Throughout the story, Pilgrim, or the reader encounters an animal that Vonnegut uses to convey the range of emotions and incidents that humans are subject to as a result of war. In the novel, a mysterious dog resides alongsideRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut1154 Words   |  5 PagesTaylor Holmes In the novel Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut presents a framed narrative voiced through an unreliable narrator that stimulates the presence of universal and empirical truths. 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The Teachings Of Confucius, A Fair And Balanced Feminist...

There is much to be gained from studying the teachings of Confucius, but a fair and balanced feminist interpretation is not one of them. Confucious covers a large variety of topics in his anelects. These writings go deep into the nuances of life, but somehow he fails to mention women in any meaningful way. If mentioned they are as a distraction to followers or of little importance. This imbalance in the treatment of women and men is embedded throughout the Analects. In the teachings of Confucius, the ideals he encourages such as devotion, and respect are represented in men and show them as loyal followers of the Way. However, in the writings of Lady Hyegyeong, these same traits that she exemplifies do not garner her respect. Instead she is seen as passive and lesser than the men that surround her. A feminist reading of confucius would be irresponsible because it encourages an imbalanced power dynamic, placing men above women. Confucius lays out a wide and diverse system of values and ideals to uphold in the Analects. Mainstays of this system include the importance of devotion and loyalty to the vital people in one’s life. In this Confucian anelect, this kind of commitment is introduced â€Å"The gentlemen applies himself to the roots. ‘Once the roots are firmly established, the Way will grow.’ Might we not say that filial piety and respect for elders constitute the root of Goodness† (1.3). Here it is established that devotion and respect are pillars for the â€Å"perfect

Short Leadership Essay free essay sample

Leadership can be defined as the process in which one influences a group of individuals to attain a common goal , made possible by mutual cooperation and cohesive behavior. A leader is not someone who not only stands for himself, but takes into account the opinion of those he lead. Power is bestowed upon a leader but that power will not become his tool to lead. A good leader showcases a positive attitude and maintains a high self esteem. He works towards the goal, but is never pushy; he motivates. Good leaders include Martin Luther King Jr, and Gandhi. One particular leader I respect , though, is my own Volleyball captain in my previous school. Sure , he did not stop a war or neutralize a crisis, but under his leadership, our school has been able to clinch several victories at prestigious competitions. His name is Luo Hao. As an athlete, he always gives his all and as a result, our team usually wins. We will write a custom essay sample on Short Leadership Essay or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page On the field, he encourages and pushes his teammates to try their best , even when taking a break , he cheers on his teammate from the bench and help correct their flaws. Even with an injury , he would still attend matches and support his team. I can see that he hated being out of the game, but he did not show it. Luo Hao just sat there and watched, and cheered like any good teammate would. I used to be a very bad player, missing obvious shots, and screw up simple formations, but Luo Hao did not give up on me. He even took my under his wings and taught me all the he knew. Despite me throwing away precious points, he insisted that I remain in the field, despite the coach’s objections. We won that game, I scored the last point, my very first point.

Australian Tax Analysis Business Tax Residency

Question: Discuss about the Australian Tax Analysis for Business Tax Residency. Answer: 1. Issue It is known that Fred has come to Australia to set up office for his British employer and is accompanied by his wife while his teenage children attend college in London. His home is England is rented in his absence and he has taken a home on lease in Melbourne. Taking into consideration the above information, Freds tax residency needs to be determined. Rule The underlying tax residency plays a vital role in ascertaining assessable income of a given entity. In this regard, the tax ruling TR 98/17 comes handy as it enlists the various tests that the individual could apply for obtaining the tax residency of Australia in a given year under assessment. The basic details about these tests are highlighted below.(CCH, 2012). Domicile Test To pass the domicile test, the given taxpayer has to adhere with two conditions enumerated below (Woellner, 2014). Taxpayer needs to be Australian domicile holder in accordance with Domicile Act 1982. Permanent abode or residence of taxpayer must be in Australia and in this regard the factors outlined in IT 2650 provide immense guidance, 183 Day Test As per the requisite conditions associated with the test, the taxpayer under assessment needs to reside in Australia for a minimum period amounting to 183 days within the assessment year. However, an additional requirement is that the Tax Commissioner must not have doubts with regards to intent of the taxpayer to make Australia as permanent home going forward (Coleman, 2011). Resides Test The test is highly dependent on verdicts of court and other tax rulings for information on its scope and application. Based on these, the pivotal factors are identified as shown below (Nethercott, Richardson Devos, 2016). Underlying significance of the intent of coming to Australia Nature, scope and intensity of ties existing in Australia which includes both personal and professional The taxpayers social arrangement and lifestyle that the person leads in Australia and comparison of the same with the country of origin Superannuation Test This has limited utility since it determines the tax residency status of foreign based Australian government employees based on whether they make payments to atleast one designated superannuation fund (CCH, 2012). Application Based on the facts mentioned above, the application of test is highlighted below. Domicile Test Fred does not have domicile of Australia. Test Failed. 183 Day Test Fred satisfies the 183 day stay obligation but the given information directly or indirectly does not indicate any plan on Freds part to settle in Australia. Test Failed. Resides Test The reason for coming to Australia is significant as it is related to employment for which he has already stayed 11 months and stay is expected to be longer. He leads a life in the company of his wife which is similar to that which he led in England. Thus, this test is satisfied. Superannuation Test Fred is not employed by Federal Government. Test Failed. Conclusion Since Fred manages to satisfy the resides test, thus for the current assessment year, he would be regarded as an Australian tax resident. References CCH 2012, Australian Master Tax Guide 2012, 50th ed., CCH Australia Limited, Sydney Coleman, C 2011, Australian Tax Analysis, 4th ed., Thomson Reuters (Professional) Australia, Sydney: Nethercott, L, Richardson, G Devos, K 2016, Australian Taxation Study Manual 2016, 6th ed., Oxford University Press, Sydney, NSW Woellner, R 2014, Australian taxation law 2014, 7th ed., CCH Australia, North Ryde