Essay Example on Building a Positive Reputation: Key to Business Success

A good performance of a business relies so much on a topline and bottom line that is good which is accompanied by super ethical standards. Since the media and companies have globalized, business reputations have become exposed to the people so much. This is contributing highly to the growth of reputation (Monshipouri,2017). Building a reputation can take the longest time but destroying it takes a single event as shown in the case on Nike as an international company. The leaders to the business should be alert when it comes to potential crises and create a response that acceptable so that the reputation of a company may be maintained and upheld. Nike company has to show both benefits and risks that it experiences globally like an athletic footwear industry.

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Nike company holds a high famous position in the world that sells people's sportswear for the longest time. It is however well known for quality athletic footwear and a major sports equipment manufacturer. Nike's slogan is ''Just Do It'' and was started in Oregon, the United States by Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight in the year 1962. Nike has an approximate of 45 offices outside the United States only and around 700 or more retail outlets all over the world (Lee,2019). Around 30,000 people all over the world are employed by Nike Company. Its factories are located mostly in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, China, and Vietnam. In 2007, the revenue of $16 billion was produced by this company. The company had a market share of 50% in the 1980 shoe market only in the United States. When the company decided to go public, there was a success by December 1980. Nike has decided to expand its product line in the 80s that will cater to many sports like baseball, badminton, cricket, tennis, and golf.

Nike is a global company is ranked as a role model in society at large as well as in the market place. This leads to high expectations from the company by the society. People expect responsible actions and the right humanity dealings from this company. It is expected to bring good results to the natural world. Global opportunities bring a source of benefits to the Nike Company, therefore, production and logistics areas have been put in order for them to partner with low-wage counties such as Thailand, Indonesia, China and Vietnam (Merk,2015). This has resulted in the company being limited to its main Marketing and Design competencies. Currently, the company does not sell its products. This is because they are spending billions of dollars to advertise contracts with Tiger Woods which is a famous athlete in order to increase their brand value by linking their products to the lifestyle factor.

The image of Nike's company has been damaged many times by a number of NGOs and released presses. NGOs have noticed and stated the working conditions in the facilities that produce manufactured sporting goods that are so inhuman. The conditions of labor are so inhuman that Nike has to communicate with the standard US group in order to improve this situation. The pressure of NGOs on Nike has been growing and this has led them into coming up with a concept that makes promises to improve the monitoring of their contractor's environmental and social standards (Katz,2015). Nike's principle states that "Nike was formed on a handshake'' and this gives the company the responsibility of working together and lead its business partners to this concept. The company presents a relationship symbol of all its parties which states the values of honesty, mutual respect, teamwork, and trust. Nike's SHAPE concept represents Safety, Health, Attitude, People and Environment which goes hand in hand with the Code of Conduct.

Legal responsibility refers to the things that society thinks are appropriate with the respect best behavior. All companies are therefore expected to fulfill their respective economic goals that are within this legal framework. These legal requirements are expected by the regulatory services starting from local, national to international. The legal dimension also includes rules and regulations stated to control employee's behavior. Company legal challenges would be EEO (equal employment opportunity) and those that Nike was facing include the ones stated below. They included: Ethic Analysis, Ethic Issues, and Ethic perspectives. Ethics are moral values and principles that aid in overseeing the employee's and team's behavior concerning what is right and not (Claire,2017). The ethic analysis explains a company taking the responsibility of doing what is right and required.

For Nike decision-makers to be ethically responsible, they are supposed to practice impartiality and fairness, equity, respect individual's rights and provide employees and individuals with different treatment when it's best to the objectives and goals of the company. These days, organizations are being faced with ethical dilemma issues that mostly arise when each alternative behavior or choice in a certain situation is not desirable because of ethical harmful consequences that are potential (Yusoof,2017). Nike company has been facing the following ethical challenges: -Child labor issues and sweatshop issues. Another problem is that very low wages are given to the workers who are also made to do overtime in counties like China, Vietnam, and Indonesia under a subcontract. Squalid working conditions, poor working conditions and forced labor in their product manufacturing factories are also challenges being faced by Nike company.

Damage to the environment that is experienced by society by water and air pollution, noises from the company and climate change due to all this pollution caused. The government plays a major role in these challenges experienced by Nike. Laws and regulations differ from country to country which is well known and this poses a major problem to product manufacturing in Nike being an international company. Different roles played in the following countries: Vietnam, Indonesia, and China by the government hosts in Nike's global operation were that they ignored poor working conditions of plant manufacturing (Gurnani,2015). The other role was that they turned a blind eye on the worker's low wages. These governments also did not do anything concerning sweatshop and child labor problems. Some of the principles that can be used to guide and prevent Nike scandals include Employment practices and Ethical Responsibility.

Nike management made a great move towards its employment practices where they had to make sure that the company follows rules on recruitment, health, training, welfare, and safety. The company's management should also look carefully into environmental practices and be responsible when it comes to the disposal of waste and energy inputs. Employee's training program that will equip them with greater responsibilities has been enrolled. Nike's ethical responsibility is highly required in the organization that will be used in making the right decisions that also affect society (Segerlund,2016). Working conditions, customer satisfaction, community involvement, human rights, company's suppliers' relations and respect for different cultures and people are some of the ethics put into place. Nike CEO and the company's senior managers should have a strong and open commitment to ethical conduct and social responsibility.

References

Claire, M. D. (2017). Human rights: The emerging norm of corporate social responsibility. In Human Rights and Corporations (pp. 149-178).

Gurnani, R. M. (2015). Globalization and ethical challenges. The Business & Management Review, 5(4), 116.

Katz, H. C., & Colvin, A. (2015). Global Pressures: Multinational Corporations, International Unionism, and NGOs.

Lee, L. W., Hannah, D., & McCarthy, I. P. (2019). Do your employees think your slogan is "fake news?" A framework for understanding the impact of fake company slogans on employees.

Merk, J. (2015). Global outsourcing and socialization of labor-the case of Nike. The International Political Economy of Production, 115-131.

Monshipouri, M., Welch, C. E., & Kennedy, E. T. (2017). Multinational corporations and the ethics of global responsibility: Problems and possibilities. In Human Rights and Corporations (pp. 123-147).

Segerlund, L. (2016). Making corporate social responsibility a global concern: norm construction in a globalizing world.

Yusoof, S., Zuber, F., & Toriry, S. (2017). Wages of Labor Discrimination: Case Study on Nike Company Indonesia. International Journal of Academic Research in Public Policy and Governance, 4(1), 2312-4040.