REACTION PAPER – Chapter 10 Ethics in IT Organizations
Submission: December 28, 2020
1. Problems with Suppliers
Many computer hardware manufacturers rely on foreign companies to provide raw materials; build computer
parts; and assemble hard drives, monitors, keyboards, and other components. While there are many advantages
to dealing with foreign suppliers, hardware manufacturers may find certain aspects of their business (such as
quality and cost control, shipping, and communication) more complicated when dealing with a supplier in
another country.
In addition to these fairly common business problems, hardware manufacturers are sometimes faced with
serious ethical issues relating to their foreign suppliers. Two such issues that have recently surfaced involve (1)
suppliers who run their factories in a manner that is unsafe or unfair to their workers and (2) raw materials
suppliers who funnel money to groups engaged in armed conflict, including some that commit crimes and human
rights abuses.
In February 2009, alarming information came to light about the Meitai Plastics and Electronics factory in
Dongguan City, in China’s Guangdong province. This factory, in fact, represents an extreme example of a supplier
who runs its factory in an unsafe and unfair manner. Meitai Plastics employs 2,000 workers, mostly young
women, who make computer equipment and peripherals—such as printer cases and keyboards—for Dell, IBM,
Lenovo, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard products.70 Based on research conducted between June 2008 and
January 2009, the National Labor Committee (a human rights organization based in the United States) published
a report in February 2009 highly critical of the work environment at the factory.71According to the report, young
workers were required to sit on hard wooden stools for 12 hours a day, working on an assembly line that never
stopped. Workers were prohibited from talking, listening to music, raising their heads from their work, or putting
their hands in their pockets. Employees were fined for stepping on the grass of the factory grounds, not trimming
their fingernails, and for being even one minute late. A worker who needed to use the restroom had to wait until
there was a group break.
The average workweek consisted of 74 hours, with a take-home pay of $57.19—well below the amount
necessary to meet subsistence-level needs in China. If a worker took a Sunday off, she was docked one-and-a-
half-day’s wages. Workers were housed 10 to 12 per dorm room. The dorms had no air conditioning, and
temperatures in the rooms could reach the high 90s in the summer. Workers were required to walk down several
floors to get hot water in a small bucket to use for personal hygiene.
Manufacturers who use rare raw materials face another ethical issue related to the use of foreign suppliers: how
to ensure that their suppliers do not funnel money to groups that engage in armed conflict or commit crimes
and human rights abuses. Manufacturers of computers, digital cameras, cell phones, and other electronics
frequently purchase rare minerals such as gold, tin, tantalum, and tungsten for use in their products.
Unfortunately, some of these purchases are helping to finance the deadliest conflict in the world today—the
war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The war began in 1998 and has dragged on long after a peace
agreement was signed in 2003. During the war and its aftermath, over 5 million people have died—mostly from
low cost but who behaves in an unethical manner? How can senior management justify its decision to do
business instead with a supplier who provides lower quality or higher-priced materials but behaves in an
ethical manner?