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NIKE Managing Ethical Missteps
NIKE: Managing Ethical Missteps
Introduction
While Nike is a giant manufacturing company specializing in the production of indoor and outdoor footwear’s and sweatshirt, it is also among the best managed companies in the world. However, this is from the economic point of view. There are many cases that might lead to the fall of the manufacturing giant, and these cases are mainly ethical despite the fact that the company has not been in the limelight for ethical and professional malpractices (Brian, 2009).
Discern How a More Effective Ethics Programs and a More Viable Code of Conduct Could Have Mitigated the Ethical Issues Faced by Nike.
Nike failed to implement internal programs aimed at detecting and preventing violation of laws hence is eligible for a significant increase in penalties. Therefore, had Nike developed a compliance program before the offenses, they would have averted most of the ethics related problems that the company faced. A viable code of ethics does not only act as a deterrent, but also as a guideline for ethical operations and activities within a company. If the company had a viable code of ethics, the employees would have been more aware of the impact of their practices on the environment as well as on the community. The management would have been more strict with its employment rules before absorbing employee and would have ensured that all the documents used by the company are genuine and up to date (Greenhouse, 2011).
Describe an Ethics Training and Communications Program that May Have Kept Nike from Encountering the Ethical Issues It Did in This Scenario Ethical Training Program.
An effective ethics training program offers a number of benefits that can be instrumental in detecting unethical behaviors that are likely to devastate an organization. For example, issues like child labor and corporate social unresponsiveness experienced in Nike are unethical activities that could have brought the giant company down.
An ethics and training program must communicate standards and the integrity visions of the company. In this way, the identified integrity risks are reduced, and open communication lines are created as well as a transparent work environment. A program must create a work environment that is free from any form of retaliation and intimidation. On the other hand, an ethics and communication program should set clear, expected standards of behaviors and the communicating channels to be used for conveying the integrity messages across the company. It should also set rules on how the stakeholders can become engaged in the process (Edward, 2010).
Determine and Discuss how Nike Could Have Benefited Early on from Ethics Auditing.
Ethical auditing is the process by which company’s measures internal and external consistency of their value base. This is a value linked process by which stakeholders are incorporated into the organization (Brian, 2009). For example, Nike incorporated the stakeholder into their value base and considered how their practices were aligned to their stakeholder. Nike stakeholders do not only refer to the shareholder but also the communities in which the company operates the employee, customers as well as suppliers. Ethical audit is intended to ensure accountability and transparency to all the stakeholders of the company. This process is also important in ensuring that the company meets its ethical objectives. Though this process is mainly an internal control measure, it focuses more on the external factors such as the community response, the social welfare as well as the stakeholder interest. Ethical audits are mainly meant to captures nukes ethical profile. Ethical profiles combine financial profile, service profile and employer profile to investors, customers and employees respectively (Edward, 2010). All the factors that might have an impact on the Nikes reputation are put into perspective by an ethical audit. If Nike had taken a picture of its value system in time, it would have:
1) Clarified the definite values to which it operates:
Nike has a number of flows in its supply chain; these flaws are easily identified if all the public views are considered. If the company had established an ethical audit before, the company would have streamlined its supply chain and clarified the actual value within which it operates and not just remain vague. These ethical audits communicates to the employees the ethical training objectives, ethical code of conducts, Hotline usage, Ethical issues, Conflicts of interest, Kickbacks, Accounting irregularities, Protection from retaliation, Internal theft as well as employee responsiveness (Brian, 2009).
Learnt how to establish and provide a better baseline for measuring the future improvement.
Factors such as corporate social responsibilities that Nike is facing, and is still likely to face in future, are some of the things that the company should give proper considerations to. The company is in fault for employing underage workers, having unpaid wages for employees and using falsified documents for worker permits. The company could have steered clear of all these by benchmarking and ensuring that all the regulations are met properly before implementing any program and ensuring that there are internal policies and ethics officers charged with ensuring that the policies related to employment and working conditions are always footed (Greenhouse, 2011).
Leant how to meet the societal expectation that it did not meet at that time:
Nike would have employed and trained more CSR specialists in all plants. This is to uphold compliance and societal focus into the company mainstream objectives, thereby increasing the company’s reach to the community and reducing the child labor. By establishing plants in poor areas, the company is set to exploit the cheap labor. Though this is seen as a positive move, the company could have established a proper salary scale for the workers. A realistic salary scale is much more effective in the reduction of employee unrest and the other related problems within the company.
Given the entire stakeholder the opportunities to clarify what they expected from the company.
Ethical audit involves the establishment of compromise between the company and the stakeholder, this process offers opportunities form collection of the stakeholder views, which can be instrumental in shaping the strategy goals of the company and setting direction with the stakeholders in mind (Edward, 2010).
Identified those problem areas that existed within the company.
Most of these problems include the wages, worker condition as well worker tight. Though this is limited in scope, the company could have joined the global alliance before their problem stated and achieved these goals before.
Learnt about the issue which motivated the employees as well as, the community?
The community is the backbone of the company in any setting, therefore, their concern is much more important than the company success. It is therefore, imperative for the company to ensure that the community has a positive attitude towards it to help the company prosper. A slight change in the attitude of the employees is injurious to the company’s reputation and success (Edward, 2010).
Identified the overall areas of vulnerability especially those areas related to transparency.
Attract more customers:
As the company’s customer base widens, the number of interested participants increases, the general perceptions of the customer as an ethical company increases the customers positive perception about the company. The number of male, female and fashion oriented customers would increase (Brian, 2009).
Create A High-Level Outline For What The Ethics Auditing Process Should Look Like At Nike.
References
Brian, A. (2009). The Natural Treads for Business: Ecology, Wealth & Evolutionary Corporation. British Columbia: Society Publishers.
Edward, G. (2010). Corporate Strategy & Exploration of Ethics. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Greenhouse, S. (2011). “Nike’s Chief Rescinds a Gift over Screening of Sweatshops”. The New York Times.
Nike Inc Organization Profile Part I
Nike Inc Organization Profile: Part I
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Nike Inc. Organizational Profile: Part I
Nike Inc. is one of the leading apparel company in the world having been able to establish themselves in various parts of the world. In looking at organizational conflict I did feel it would be best as it has had several controversies. Nike was a company that was established in January 25th, 1964 but during its establishment it was referred to as Blue Ribbon Sports. Phi Knight who was a track and athlete student at the University of Oregon and he did collaborate with his coach Bill Bowerman (Meyer, 2019). When the company initially begun, it’s main point of operation was in Eugene Oregon and acted as a distributor for shoes for a Japanese apparel company that was the Onitsuka Tiger and they were able to make successful sales. The first Nike shoe is said to have been made by the Coach for one of his students. This paper generally will examine Nike Inc. by looking at one of its organizational conflict and how they were able to solve it.
When Blue Ribbon Shoes opened its doors to start selling Japanese shoes they sold 1300 pairs that year grossing $8000. They rose each year and by 1965, they had increased their sales to $20,000. In 1966, that is when they were first able to open their retail stores Santa Monica in California and also expanding their business in Massachusetts. By 19671, their relationship with Onitsuka had ended and they were now ready to open up their line of footwear’s and it is at this point that they also rebranded their named from BRS to Nike. Their logo would be rebranded by Carolyn Davidson and this new swoosh was first used by 1971, June 18. The Swoosh was registered with U.S Patent and Trademark Office in the year 1974.
Nike kicked off their brand and they really did focus on advertising a key factor that helped in their product placement in the market and in helping people know about them. In j1976, Nike hired John Brown and Partners, which was an advertising agency that was based in Seattle to do the campaign for them. The first brand Ad that was created for the company was “There is no Finish line” however in this advertisement there were no Nike products shown, the advertisement however was really important in placing Nike on the competition field with other apparel lines especially the shoes. As of 1980, Nike already had 50% market share in the United States when it came to the athletic shoes and it is that same year that they were able to go public.
Nike wanted to spread their wings into the market now that they had went public and in order to achieve this they hired another advertising agent. Wieden + Kennedy would end up being Nike’s main advertising agency creating all their television as well as their print ads. The founder of the agency was Dan Wieden who is accredited to having created the slogan “Just Do It” that officially debuted in July 1st 1988. Wieden got the slogan as an inspiration from Gary Gilmore last words “Let’s do it” just before his execution (Nayat, 2017). In the 1980’s Nike were able to expand their retail stores in various parts of the world. Aside from shoes, they were able to expand their products to include other sports equipment’s including street fashion that encompassed socks, men boxers, sweat pants, among so many other things. They are one of the highest ranked companies when it comes to the sale of sporting merchandise.
Nike just as any company has good as well as bad publicity. Early 1990s, there emerged allegations that Nike were using child labor in their factories in Pakistan as well as Cambodia which were companies that were contracted to manufacture their soccer balls. Although it was Nike directly but rather the company that they had contracted, their image was still heart. The company did take a few measures to ensure that this practice stooped, they still continued contracting countries located in regions that do not seem to have enough regulation when it comes to child labor. The company they had contracted in Cambodia was featured in a BBC documentary in 2001, a documentary that did feature six girls that worked in these factories for all the seven days, 16 hours a day. Another incidence was the strike in China in the year 2014. The workers who were working for Yue Yuen a company that was manufacturing shoes including for Nike were underpaying their workers as they were paying them l250 yuan which was an equivalent of $40.82 per month.
In looking at the history of Nike company, it is important to discuss their Just Do It campaign by Colin Kaepernick a controversial NFL player. Kaepernick had faced backlash for taking a knee during singing of the National anthem as a sign of protest against racial injustices especially police brutality against the African Americans. He was dropped out of the NFL and when Nike decided to use him for their advertisements, there was a lot of conversas around the advertisement with those who were against his kneeling bashing the organization. Despite the many controversies this paper will focus on one organizational conflict which was dropping of Allyson Felix for being pregnant.
References
Meyer, J. (2019, August 15). History of Nike: Timeline and
Nayak, T. (2017). ” Just Do It”@ Ad Campaign: The Case of Nike Inc. Globsyn Management Journal, 11. Facts. Retrieved from https://www.thestreet.com/lifestyle/history-of-nike-15057083
Nikes brand image and sources of brand equity in the United States
Nike company
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Nike’s brand image and sources of brand equity in the United States
The increased demand for the products in the sporting clothing market in USA over the last 20 years provided a great opportunity for Nike Shoe Company. This economic situation provided a very good environment for Nike brand to take root very quickly due to its availability and affordability (Booch, 1996).
Nike’s efforts to become a global corporation
These include such factors as climate and weather changes in a period. Changes in environment are hard to determine or control and they have greater impact on businesses either directly or indirectly. The environmental plan exhibited by Nike has helped in building very strong public relations and has enticed many customers and investors (Bigelow, 1980). Nike shoes are greener and more ethical as compared with other products in the USA market. Nike shoes are easier to recycle, and the solvent use of reduced by over 85% when compared with other brands like tiger and Adidas.
Nike has benefited from product development. This gives Nike the opportunity of its products not becoming unfashionable before they wear out. Building of strong global brand recognition is another opportunity of developing the business internationally. Emerging markets like china and India has new generations of consumers so penetrating such markets is a great opportunity. Worked cup and world Olympic events are well positioned to market Nike brand. Increased female participation in athletics is an opportunity for the aerobic female wear product from Nike. Expiration of new technology and innovation makes Nike to remain top in the market.
What Nike should do different to defend its position
Nike has a lot of competitors as far as sportswear industry is concerned. The companies have expanded globally due to emergences of internet marketing and e-commerce. Competition is fierce particularly in footwear industry and the competitors who dominate the market do so with strategic marketing, strong brand identity, aggressive sales, and very high capital expenditure (Booch, 1996). The recent emergency of Adidas-Reebok merge has posed a lot of challenge to Nike. Nike had dominated the footwear market in US making then a dominate force worldwide. However, with the recent merger of Adidas and Reebok has posed a threat to Nike market share.
Innovation
Nike should keep on with the pace of techno innovation. This will improve its products differentiation and increase the customer base. Innovations of foot wear for the athletics that makes runner fill like they are bear footed will compete Adidas and other brands which produce products which are heavy.
Marketing
Marketing will help the company to increase sales and reduce costs. Utilization of internet for marketing will provide Nike with an intangible asset such as market research and consumer buying trends. Through data retrieved from consumer’s Nike will be able to analyze and monitor the buying behaviors. Market research helps them to generate data to be used in analyzing the market trends to organize promotions and marketing campaigns (Bigelow, 1980).
Price
Nike has no problem with the price, this is because it acts as prices setter alongside Adidas and Reebok. Nike sells its products at whatever price because of an inelastic demand for its products. Expensive promotions don for Nike produced tuned consumers to believe that Nike produces quality products, which are worthy whichever price they will charge. More so, Nike does not gain competitive advantage through the prices they charge customers.
Works cited
Bigelow, J. (1980) Strategies of Evolutionary and Revolutionary Organizational Change,Academy of Management Proceedings, 4p, 1 diagram.
Booch, G. (1996) Object Solutions: Managing the Object Oriented Project, Addison-Wesley,London UK.
Nike: Building a global brand.