Amazon’s Ethical Concerns (Research Paper Sample)

Amazon’s Ethical Concerns
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Amazon’s Ethical Concerns
Businesses globally have stakeholders that ensure their interests are protected. While stakeholders are of different interests, employees form an integral part of the success of the firm. For a firm to be successful, it has to treat its employees with decorum and respect they deserve. In line with that, the firm must incorporate policies that govern employees' welfares, particularly in the workplace. A reputable firm must be ethical in the manner it treats its employees. In the spirit of ethical treatment, it will be imperative to analyze Amazon's share in practicing ethics in its offices globally. The case study of Amazon will look into issues affecting employees, theories and proposed recommendations that Amazon can utilize in ensuring its good reputation worldwide is never derailed.
Ethical Problems in Amazon
The ruthless firing of employees is eminent in the world's largest retail firm, Amazon. It is reported that by April last year, the firm had fired four of its employees because of whistle-blowing (Bosupeng, 2017, p22). The purported whistle-blowers only echoed their frustrations concerning coronavirus spread in the company's warehouses (Conger, 2020). The company acted contrary to laws that govern workers' safety and security and breached their freedom of expression. A good company should listen to employees' grievances rather than silencing them for advocating for their rights, privileges, and freedoms. Every employee in any firm is entitled to a better working environment and conditions. For optimum production to be eminent in an organization, employees must be granted a conducive working environment encumbered with good standards.
Amazon never allowed its employees to be in workers’ unions. Attempts by its employees to champion for unionization were rendered futile by the top executive. This is evident when an employee tried to rally people for union formation, the employee was fired (Conger, 2020). It is known centuries that unionization of workers is the best labor practices that all companies should emulate. Worker’s unions advocate for better wages, benefits, promotions, complaint procedures, workplace safety and policies, and hiring and firing. If Amazon could have had employees’ union, then these four employees would not have been fired. There was no union voice to advocate for them.
Amazon never applied corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the majority of its offices. When Ms. Costa and Ms. Cunningham pressed the company to reduce its carbon footprints, they were fired immediately. These two designers were concerned about the impact of Amazon's carbon emission on its surrounding environment (Conger, 2020). It is unfortunate when different companies are championing green energy and the use of eco-friendly fuel; Amazon does the opposite. Carbon footprints in the environment cause the greenhouse effect, which results in global warming. Global warming behaves like a pandemic in the long-run, and if not checked well, then, a large population of people has their health at risk. People living near Amazon warehouses are at risk of contracting diseases and sicknesses like frequent headaches and comas (Härkönen et al.,2019). Companies that uphold CSR have a good reputation, and the majority of people tend to associate with them by buying their products and giving them conducive environments of operation.
The company has a rigid communication channel for addressing issues affecting it. Amazon has a weak internal communication channel and rigid in that only top-level managers have the authority to communicate to people. When Bashir Mohamed raised concerns about the conditions of the company's warehouse, he was fired. Ms. Costa and Ms. Cunningham were also fired because they talked about raising concerns about the carbon footprints that the company was responsible (Conger, 2020). They were fired when the company had an internal event. Chris Smalls was fired for allegedly holding a protest (Conger, 2020). The company did not create any informal communication space, hence the crackdown on dissenting opinions and employees who never adhered to their purported rules and policies.
Ethical Problems Development and People Responsible
The problems mentioned above affected Amazon's reputation; thus, the Senate had to intervene for more intrigues and possible solutions to be found. For every problem, there must always be its origin. Ethical problems in the company developed when employees raised concerns regarding their working environment, specifically the company's warehouses (Bosupeng, 2017, p24). Coronavirus pandemic escalated problems when employees who were working in different warehouses in different places were getting infected. A good number of employees died due to coronavirus infection. Therefore, Amazon's problems originated from its top-level management. The Chief Executive, Jeff Bezos, is solely responsible for all these unethical moves that the company participated in. Bezos never heed to the outcry of his employees. He had the authority and power to listen to the concerns of companies' employees. Head of Human resource also contributed heavily to the detrimental working environment and unethical conducts as employees' welfare directly fall in this department. Amazon's spokeswoman has a share of the blame as all communication comes from her and ought to have provided a way through which employees can air out their grievances.