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U5Dis_Det_Rpl.docxAssignment Details:
Read and analyze a multinational corporation’s (MNC’s) list of values/ value statement/or code of ethics. Share one ethical or one legal global situation the company is currently involved in.
· Explain how corporate culture or values should have influenced its decision making.
· Submit two recommendations on how this situation could have been avoided.
· Please reply to the presented statement(s) below.
Deliverable Length: 250 words (minimum) per reply
Procter & Gamble
The Procter & Gamble Company is an American multinational consumer goods corporation, founded in 1837with a headquarters located in Cincinnati, Ohio. P&G carries an array of products from personal hygiene items to food products all focused on an individual’s health, hygiene and self-care along with a variety of different food/snack products as well as beverages (Procter & Gamble, 2021).
P&G’s business ethics/policies are driven by variables from within their Purpose, Values and Principles ; Aspirational statements are what make up P&G’s policies and drives their overall purpose, helping them to meet the expectations of society (Procter & Gamble, 2021). P&G is committed to working very hard in the achieving of outstanding leadership which they believe will lead them to business success, focusing on the end result and how those results can be achieved. Proctor & Gamble “will never condone nor tolerate efforts or activities to achieve results through illegal or unethical dealings anywhere in the world” (Procter & Gamble, 2021).
Procter & gamble Values
Integrity: 1. Proctor & Gamble’s number one priority is doing what is right. 2. Upholding of an honest an ethical workplace environment.
3. Always concerned with the upholding of laws/values and principles.
4. The corporation is both data-based and intellectually honest.
5. Recognizes and addresses risks when they present themselves.
Leadership: 1. At P&G everyone is considered to be a leader, upholding responsibilities and staying
committed to the delivery of only the best results to their consumer base.
2. Maintains a clear vision.
3. Resources are utilized in order to reach top level leadership objectives and or strategies. 4. At P&G they are focused on fulfilling all planned strategies in eliminating organizational barriers.
Ownership: 1. Accepts personal accountability in order to meet all business needs.
2. Everyone at the company is treated as equals and fairly.
3. Always focusing on long-term success.
Passion for Winning: 1. P&G vows to perform at their best in the meeting of consumer needs.
2. The company has a desire to continually improve on its products and the way in which it does business.
Trust: Proctor & Gamble upholds the respecting of not only their colleagues but their consumers as well, having confidence and trust in all abilities and stands by the fact that individuals work their best when given a stable working environment that is trustworthy, leading to their overall success.
Legal global situation facing Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble, one of the largest companies in the world has been facing issues concerning the way in which they handle their forest foresting; palm oil and fiber are utilized in order to produce such items as soap, paper towels and various hygiene/beauty products (STAND, 2020). Investor groups have concerns that there currently is a significant amount of damage involving the climate within climate-critical forests and as a result have caused harm or have the potential to cause harm to the endangered species that thrive there as well as the frontline communities (STAND, 2020).
Upon the launch of its newly announced climate initiative “Our Home” P&G ensured that all operations would be considered carbon neutral moving forward and continued to downplay the accusations that had been made, although in Canada for instance it has been found/documented that the boreal forest; considered to be a climate critical ecosystem has been severely damaged by these actions (STAND, 2020).
Despite the growing concerns over these issues P&G still has not released a date or any specific plans as to when they will discontinue such sourcing within Canada (STAND, 2020).The company has also disregarded issues revolving around their suppliers not adhering to the set guidelines concerning Informed Consent being obtained during these processes (STAND, 2020).
How corporate culture or values should have influenced P&G’s
decision making
Procter & Gamble should have been more aware of the cultural values/corporate culture in Canada and made the appropriate provisions before moving forward with their foresting. In order to rectify this problem P&G needs to revise the way in which they develop their number one product, toilet paper which is currently made from virgin pulp and try a more sustainable approach (STAND, 2020). Canada is seriously concerned when it comes to their policies evolving around climate control and continue to devise ways and differences in which to reach a comfortable level for everyone, P & G should have been more aware of these provisions well before start up and or the continuing of foresting in Canada (STAND, 2020).
Two recommendations on how this situation could have been avoided
Procter & Gamble needs to take a closer look at how it handles the company’s business sustainability and conservation measures concerning the environment in becoming more knowledgeable and focused on making strategic changes for the long term, focusing on external factors and change as well as the improvement of the quality of their product (Procter & Gamble, 2020). Over a period of time situations change as so should your business practices in order to come out ahead of their comparators and remain a company that has ethical values and cares about the sustainability of their environment and conservation measures (Procter & Gamble, 2020).
References
Procter & Gamble. (2020). P&G Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2020 Results.
https://news.pg.com/news-releases/news-details/2020/PG-Announces-Fourth-
Quarter-and-Fiscal-Year-2020-Results/default.aspx
Procter & Gamble. (2021). Policies and Practices.
https://in.pg.com/policies-and- practices/purpose-values-and-principles/
STAND. (2020). Procter & Gamble faces mounting criticism over its 'Our Home” climate
initiative. https://www.stand.earth/latest/forest- conservation/
TWO:
In 2010 Toyota had to recall it’s floor mats because the gas pedals were getting stuck in them. This meant that Toyota had to recall 8.1 million vehicles. In 2014 Toyota paid a $1.2 billion fine for covering up the safety problems for the ill-fitting car mats. This was also attributed to 89 deaths.
Toyota states that dedicate their business to providing clean and safe products. They knew that these floor mats were not safe, which was why they paid the $1.2 billion fine for covering up the problem. Their saying of enriching lives around the world with the safest and most reliable ways of moving people cost them tremendously.
This situation could have been avoided if Toyota would have listened to the warnings from Consumer Reports data as well as from other sources. They chose to ignore them to keep up with their worldwide growth. They lost sight of the warnings in favor of mass producing. They also lost sight of their policies and procedures to execute countermeasures of issues. They got to be lax in their processes and were relying on other employees to pick up the slack and it simply didn’t happen. Another layer of protection should have been added by an oversight committee or group should have been added.
THREE:
An ethical or legal global situation Facebook is currently involved in is the failure to protect consumer’s privacy rights. Facebook was fined $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Facebook was fined because they deceived users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal information. Facebook also shared users’ information with third-party apps that were downloaded by the user’s friends on Facebook and that these users were unaware their information was being shared and therefore did not take steps needed to opt-out of sharing.
The corporate culture and values of the company should have influenced change because it is the right thing to do when protecting someone’s privacy. If one of the people involved, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, would have put themselves or their family or friends in the shoes of the users on Facebook then they may have made different decisions.
One recommendation that could have avoided this is to start a new privacy department that would be in charge of using the information of Facebook users but only with their permission. The privacy department would have had the ability to send an opt-out option to the friends of Facebook users which is the ethical and right thing to do.
A second recommendation that could have avoided this is to send a notification to each user that they have the option to change/set their privacy settings to allow them to block their information from being used or seen by other third-party apps. This would have given the users the choice.
In the end the fine was assessed and it was due to the privacy of consumers/users not being protected. Not protecting user’s privacy or notifying them that they have the option to control them is deceptive and unethical.
Snider, M & Baig, E. (2019). Facebook fined $5 billion by FTC, must update and adopt new privacy, security measures. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2019/07/24/facebook-pay-record-5-billion-fine-u-s-privacy-violations/1812499001/
