Do IKEA’s actions indicate that their position on business ethics is aligned wit

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Do IKEA’s actions indicate that their position on business ethics is aligned with the principle of ethical universalism or ethical relativism? Case Study below. ement Page IKEA's Global Supplier Standards: Maintaining Low Costs While Fighting the Root Causes of Known for its stylish, ready to-assemble home furnishings, IKI products and support its rapid global expansion. It has worked hard A has long rolied on an extensive supplier notwork to m to develop a successful approach to encourage high othical ds among its suppliers, including standards concerning the notoriously difficult issue of child labor KEA's initial plan to combat the use of child labor by its suppliors involved (D contracts that threatoned immediate cancollation and andom audts by a third-party partner Despite these safeguards, the company discovered that some of its Indian suppliers were stl employing children IKEA realized that this issue would crop countries-a critical element in its cost-containment strategy Do We Mean siness Ethics? up again and again if it continued to use low-cost suppliers in devoloping To address this problem, IKEA developed and introduced its new code for suppliors, IWAY, that addresses social, safety, and ssues across its purchasing model. When faced with a supplier slip-up, IKEA works with the company to figure out and tackle the root cause of violations Using child labor, for example, can signal bigger problems production inefficioncies that require the lowest-cost labor, lack of alternative options for children such as school or supervised community centers, family health or income challenges that mean children need to become breadwinners, and so on IKEA takes action to provide technical expertise to improve working conditions and processes, offer financing help at reasonable rates, run training programs onsite, and help develop resources and infrastructure in areas where its suppliers are based. The IKEA foundation also began focusing on these issues through partnerships with UNICEF and Save the Children aimed at funding long-term community programs that support access to education, health care, and sustainable family incomes. It expects the programs will reach 15 milion children by 2017 Next Section

Explanation / Answer

Ikea’s ethical principles are aligned with the ethical Universalism as the company wants to instill its ethical practices across all the components of the value chain that are present in different countries. Here, it is the ethical principle to prohibit child labor in different countries, even if the child labor is leniently allowed in some countries. Here, Ikea does not take the benefit of the country specific morally right principles and apply a uniform ethical conduct. Therefore, Ikea has set the example of ethical Universalism.

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