Discussion Board Scenario: You work as an analyst in the planning unit of a firm with international operations. From time to time, you might be called to a meeting to discuss certain aspects of international business.
As you state your responses to the Discussion Board questions, assume that you are in a formal, management discussion. Your manager has asked that you state your sources when citing facts or important concepts, for good order.
Question 1: You are part of a meeting with a managers from a unit of your firm about to establish business operations in China. Prior to the meeting, your manager has asked that you familiarize yourself with the business practices in China so that you could discuss some of the do's and don'ts's when they start their operations.
For example, your manager suggested that while they may be aware of the terms guanxi and guanxiwang, it may be good to explain why it is important to cultivate these in China, what they need to know about cultivating these effectively, what does this say about doing business the "American" way in China, and are there ethical issues (limits?) that may arise because of such practices.
Discussion Board Scenario: You work as an analyst in the planning unit of a firm with international operations. From time to time, you might be called to a meeting to discuss certain aspects of international business. As you state your responses to the Discussion Board questions, assume that you are in a formal, management discussion. Your manager has asked that you state your sources when citing facts or important concepts, for good order.
Question 2: Your manager has asked that you attend a meeting with another unit of your firm. The manager of that unit suspects that one of your firm's major subcontractors operating in a Southeast Asian country might be violating your firm's labor standards by employing minors.
As you prepare to attend the meeting, your manager mentioned a video from aljazeera on child labor that he thought was relevant to the discussion. He stated that if you have not seen it, that you should look for it first before you go to the meeting.
Of course you have been exposed to the social concerns regarding the employment of minors in American society and are aware of your firm's policy against the employment of minors. During the meeting, the unit manager informed the attendees that he decided to convene the meeting after he found out that the subcontractor's factory in the Southeast Asian country was actually subcontracting work to women who brought work home and returned finished products to the factory. They were paid by the piece.
While the factory's piece rate system was designed to allow employees working a regular eight-hour day to get paid the daily minimum wage, it was found that these women were earning much more than the minimum wage for a day's work. After speaking with the factory manager by long-distance, a citizen of that country, the unit manager was informed by the factory manager that these women were making their children help them work on the products to increase their production in order that they could earn more than the minimum wage.
The children were mostly minors. The government of that country has regulations against child labor, although it was common knowledge in that country that enforcement was lax. The minimum wage in the country was below what some argued to be a living wage for a family of four. What should be the firm's course of action on this issue?