Ethical Issues In The Biotech Company

Ethical issue

The head of Packaging and Distribution at Biotech Health and Life Products, Josh Garett was examining the costing reports for different branches.Upon examining the cost data, he was concerned about the increasing costs of unskilled labour at the Germany Branch.Most of them made minimum wage.The distribution costs between Europe and North America have also increased recently(Hanhijärvi et al.,2016).The 2016 shipping crisis  has facilitated a rise of shipping costs for all routes in the Atlantic.Josh figured that by shifting the Package and Distribution division from Germany to Iceland, the production and distribution costs would be reduced.Iceland is the middle region beween all the shipping routes in the Atlantic. This new location removed the need to ship long distance hauls(Hanhijärvi et al.,2016).

An  ethical issue refers to a problem or a scenario that needs a person or an enterprise to make a choice among alternatives that may be construed as either right or wrong. Ethics gives  a general sense of guidance about the good aspects that one should aspire to,for both individuals and the society at large.Our concept of ethics is an amalgamation of culture, religion and philosophy.. Ethical judgments, on whether actions help or harm, can be classified as right or wrong based on the assumption that there is some underlying universal or relative moral standard for making such judgments(Hollingworth & Valentine, 2015)..Examples of ethical issues include issues bordering on matters of honesty, fairness, justice and confliction of interests(Williamson et al.,2017).

After researching all available data that he could find on Iceland being a better cost cutting alternative than Germany , he found that the average salary base for adult workers in Iceland is much higher than in Germany(Hollingworth & Valentine, 2015).There would be an increase in labour costs as a result of this.Josh however believed that by recruiting young people whose ages were between 15 to 18 years, who could work long hours, he would save on labour costs. By employing these young people, Josh thought that he could negotiate a lower salary.Josh’s hiring practices were considered to be unethical because he was taking advantage of the system .He was  intentionally not paying workers a fair wage and preventing them from getting employed full time,since after turning 18 years old,the contract of a worker has to be negotiated again.He was exploiting the system for the company’s gain.

By shifting the packaging and distribution centers from Germany and Canada to IcelandT, he was saving a fortune on cargo and shipping costs.Iceland would remove the need to ship for long distance hauls.In view of this case study,the non ethical issue refers to Biotech’s genuine intention of creating more employment opportunities in Iceland.This country is one of the poorest nations in Europe, with very limited resources(Ayal et al., 2015). There is a dearth of financially viable jobs in Iceland.Shifting the package and distribution center to Iceland and taking advantage of its shipping routes and its favourable position on the transatlantic route would be a great boost to the Iceland economy.

An ethical dilemma is a conundrum among two moral absolutes, neither of them being vaguely desirable or satisfactory(Anderson & Anderson,2014). In this context, Josh employed more young workers than adults in the packaging and distribution center. Josh intended on helping the youth of Iceland. He believed that he was being socially considerate in boosting Iceland and its less than adequate job structure. However the young workers were not in a position to negotiate their own salary. They could only do that after they reached 19 years of age. So he exclusively staffed young workers and released them before they reached 19 years of age, just before the contract of the worker had to be negotiated again(Ayal et al., 2015). They were employed part time and worked 40 hours a week.This was a cost cutting measure and it reduced labour costs. Josh was trying to do right by his company in terms of financial gain but he did not do anything illegal. The Iceland labour force questioned the use of taking advantage of the system and not paying workers a fair wage rate.The dilemma in this case is between considering the financial objective of the company, that is, reducing labour costs or employing more full time workers  and paying a significantly higher wage rate to appease the Icelandic labour force to prevent an impending labour strike(Sparber et al.,2016).

Ethical relativism  is  the idea that no moral absolutes exist and that there is no one right or wrong thing. This position would assert that our morals change and evolve with the evolution of social norms and regulations.This philosophy allows people to ethically consider  the  change in culture, knowledge, and technology. Slavery is a good example of ethical relativism. The value of a human being is repeatedly determined by a combination of social norms, preferences and “rules” that would bring about the most benefit(Pearson, 2016).

Moral Universalism is a concept which states that there is an universal code of ethics which applies to all of humanity, irrespective of race, religion,sex, or other discerning feature. An universal code of ethics is a moral set of guidelines that  surpasses culture and personal impulse(Crimston et.al.,2016).The justification of this system is meant to be within human nature, a vulnerability that is shared commonly by all of mankind  in view of the suffering and pain or the burden of everyday life

In the context of Biotech, moral universalism can be interpreted. There is an assumed universal ethic that illustrates equal pay for everyone, irrespective of age or other distinguishing feature. The young workers were paid significantly less , because they were not in a position to negotiate their salary.According to moral universalism, they should have been paid at a rate that was consistent with the adult Icelandic labour force.

References:

Anderson, M., & Anderson, S. L. (2014, July). GenEth: A General Ethical Dilemma Analyzer. In AAAI (pp. 253-261).

Ayal, S., Gino, F., Barkan, R., & Ariely, D. (2015). Three principles to REVISE people’s unethical behavior. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(6), 738-741.

Crimston, D., Bain, P. G., Hornsey, M. J., & Bastian, B. (2016). Moral expansiveness: Examining variability in the extension of the moral world. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(4), 636.

Hanhijärvi, K. J., Ziedaite, G., Bamford, D. H., Hæggström, E., & Poranen, M. M. (2016). Single-molecule measurements of viral ssRNA packaging. RNA, rna-057471.

Hollingworth, D., & Valentine, S. (2015). The moderating effect of perceived organizational ethical context on employees’ ethical issue recognition and ethical judgments. Journal of business ethics, 128(2), 457-466

Pearson, R. (2016). Beyond ethical relativism in public relations: Coorientation, rules, and the idea of communication symmetry. In Public relations research annual (pp. 77-96). Routledge.

Sparber, L., McLeod-Sordjan, R., Patel, V., Doscher, W., & Barrera, R. (2016). 1692: WHEN THE DECISION IS INDECISION AN ETHICAL DILEMMA IN THE SICU. Critical Care Medicine, 44(12), 498.

Williamson, A. A., Raglin Bignall, W. J., Swift, L. E., Hung, A. H., Power, T. J., Robins, P. M., & Mautone, J. A. (2017). Ethical and legal issues in integrated care settings: Case examples from pediatric primary care. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 5(2), 196.