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Current Event Introduction
In South Korea, a fire at Lithium battery plant killed 23 people due to poor
safety protocols and lack of training to unskilled workers. The company, which had
recently failed an inspection of quality controls for the lithium batteries, was
negligent in enforcing safety standards in order to complete production on time.
The report states that the large number of casualties is in part due to a lack of
emergency training even though a representative of the company states that all
safety precautions and training was completed for all employees. (Kim, 2024)
Ethical Standards Breached
Safety in relation to business ethics seems natural. “According to
stakeholder theory, when organizations and groups engage in an interdependent
relationship, both parties form mutual expectations of ethical and responsible
handling of each other’s interest (Credo et al.,2010).” While the executives of
Aricell have a contract as a supplier of lithium batteries, they have an intrinsic
relationship with their employees to provide a safe working environment in
exchange for producing goods. Aricell had a breach of business ethics when they
used shortcuts to prevent falling behind in production. They continued to use
defective parts to maintain production to ensure completion by the deadline.
Additionally, Aricell executives took shortcuts with emergency planning and
training of new unskilled employees. Companies have a moral obligation and
responsibility to provide the necessary, satisfactory training for employees. When
shortcuts in the standard of safety training take place, a company is putting the
profit margin above the cost of human life. Madsen argues that “Because
organizational safety processes involve financial investment, organizational
decision makers desiring to enhance short-term profitability could choose to scale
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back such safety investments (Madsen, 2011).” This is exactly what the executives
of Aricell chose to do. They made the decision for the organization to prioritize the
short-term profitability. Madsen also uses the phrase, “Safety is good for business”.
I would argue that more importantly, “Ethics is good for business”.
If Aricell had followed the standards of business ethics, they would have 23
employees and a battery plant still operational. Instead, the are most likely looking
at lawsuits for negligence resulting in death. This is a direct representation of the
company’s view of long-term vs short-term sustainability. They allowed a short-
term deadline to get in the way of their duty of care. Aside from their lack of duty
of care, the executives of the company did not correctly weigh out the
consequences of neglect vs. successful models of safety and profitability. Ethical
decisions making in this case should have involved finding a balance between
safety standards for employees without compromising financial stability.
Biblical Integration
1 John 4:7 talks about how love for one another comes from God. It states
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for loves comes from God. Everyone who
loves has been born of God and knows God (1 John 4:7, NIV).” As we are all
children of God, this passage of scripture emphasizes the importance of duty of
care as an ethical principle in decision making. Duty of care as a leader in business
is a result from love, which is a central belief in our Christian faith. Aside from
duty of care, this principle extends to leading with empathy, compassion, and
respect. Ethical decision making that takes into account those three tenants
consider the well-being all stakeholders including employees and customers.
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Proverbs are another place in scripture that highlights ethical decision
making in regard to profitability. “The Lord detests dishonest scales, but accurate
weights find favor with Him (Proverbs 11:1, NIV).” This verse suggests that ethical
practices are more important than profit if gained through dishonesty or unsafe
practices. The leaders of Aricell violated their integrity by not ensuring that their
workers were trained to the correct standards of safety as well as by not
prioritizing a safe work environment over profit. An ethical business prioritizes
safety even if it has negative impacts on short-term profitability. Additional costs to
train new employees can be less costly than cutting corners to meet a deadline.
This is a direct reflection in the outcome of Aricell from the battery fire.
Conclusion
Both passages of scripture key into the responsibility of employers in
ensuring safe working conditions for employees. By being loving Christians and
prioritizing the love for God’s children over the bottom-line profitability, we can
ensure long term success and sustainability of a company. Ethical decision making
in the workplace can be rooted in a biblical worldview, just as much as it can from
an ethics mindset. Providing training and education to our workers, not cutting
corners on safety, and having a sense of duty of care are all ethical practices that
we can use to set a standard of best practices in the workplace. These secular
principles integrated with a biblical worldview demonstrates the importance of
ethics in business. With what I know now, I would have performed a standdown
after the previous quality audit failure had occurred. With a focus on duty of care
through training my employees, the future quality issues could have been
prevented and therefore preventing the fire. My idea on this is based on the fact
that since we were already behind schedule, a contract negotiation should have
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taken place after the initial quality failure to manage expectations with the
customer. This would have given our company enough time to train on production
and safety protocols to ensure quality goods were being delivered in a safe manner
to our customer.
References
Credo, K. R., Armenakis, A. A., Feild, H. S., & Young, R. L. (2010). Organizational
Ethics, Leader-Member Exchange, and Organizational Support: Relationships With
Workplace Safety. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies., 17(4), 325–334.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051810366712
Kim, J. (2024). South Korea police blame quality failures for fatal fire at Battery
Maker | Reuters. South Korea police blame quality failures for fatal fire at battery
maker. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/deadly-fire-south-korea-battery-
maker-due-quality-failure-police-say-2024-08-23/
Madsen, P. M. (2013). Perils and Profits: A Reexamination of the Link Between
Profitability and Safety in U.S. Aviation. Journal of Management, 39(3), 763-791.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310396374
The Holy Bible: New International Version. (n.d.). 1 John 4:7. Zondervan. (Original
work published 1978)
