Posted: May 2nd, 2015

Business Operation

In light of the globalization of business and the increasing salience of business ethics, how have businesses today tackled the complexities of international operations?
What have some companies done specifically?
How can ethical yet sustainable and profitable international business operations be achieved and improved?
You should use operations management concepts in your argument; concepts such as productivity, cost reduction and planning, optimization, green supply chain, work design and so on. Choose some relevant concepts to frame your argument. Use real-world evidence to support your argument. Give some explanation about how you think things can be improved upon.

MN 421 Final Paper Instructions

Write your research paper based on the following:

Many major companies now have international operations for various strategic reasons including economies of scale, lower costs and the presence of lucrative markets just to name a few. The internationalization or globalization of business however, gives rise to more complex business operations and the accompanying ethical implications. Despite efforts to standardize and integrate, international businesses may have to contend with or even take advantage of major differences in ideologies, systems of government and laws of different countries. In the international environment, an operations manager may have to navigate through a maze of different social, cultural, political, economic and legal systems and yet strive to do things well and ethically at the same time. Dilemmas can arise and international managers have to juggle with different forces in making decisions. For example, certain countries may not have sufficient laws for labor and environmental protection. In order to save costs or increase profits, firms may actually use such lower standards to their advantage. Nike has in the past used the strategy of going from country to country to exploit the lowest costs available in the so-called sweatshops instead of taking the plight of the workers into consideration. But another firm, the Body Shop has made environmental protection a core business principle and still performed well despite steadfast ethical business practices. Gap has at least been forthcoming about the lack of oversight in some of its international business operations and taken steps to make progress in the area of social responsibility. But because different governments have different levels of power, different public policies and also different relations with their respective citizens and the world, the resulting practice of international business operations can vary. Some multinational corporations in the past have literally negotiated with foreign governments to exploit their people so that they got to benefit wholesale while those foreign governments also gained through nepotistic and cronyistic actions, exploitation and oppression. This is becoming a much criticized practice in the advent of concepts such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Today’s international operations have to contend with a more transparent world and are pressured to place greater emphasis on ethics. In light of the globalization of business and the increasing salience of business ethics, how have international businesses today tackled these complexities from an operations point of view? What have some companies done specifically? How can ethical yet sustainable and profitable international business operations be improved?

Present your argument based on evidence and with logical reasoning and maturity of thought. Consult different sources and substantiate your points with examples. Even though you are free to use any citation style, you must cite your references clearly. Your paper must be at least 5 pages long. This paper carries 15% of your course grade.