Business Ethics

1. What are the main facts of the case? (Not all the facts/the main facts) Monsanto is an enormous corporation, originating as a chemical company at the turn of the twentieth century. Expansion to India and Africa have been stated by the new CEO to before the interest of their shareholders. This agricultural system produces diminishing returns with more expensive fertilizer, pesticides and yearly seeds being needed as time goes on. They have been trying to recover their image after the disaster in 2003. This corporation had moved over scientific testing much faster than other stakeholders.

2. What are the ethical issues that need to be addressed (be specific; cite examples)?

The company has a code of conduct but is not that effective This company does not have someone responsible for the Ethics program. This company has not avoided major misconduct, for example, bribery, conflicts of interest, misrepresentations of products, lying to consumers and others. The company has not developed customer trust based on high integrity relationships and a stakeholder orientation The company does not take care of key stakeholder, customer or the community they only take care of those inside the company. The company has a charity named “Monsanto Fund”.

Gives roughly 30 million dollars a year to worldwide projects. Donate to 4-H and other youth programs.
Donations to seeds Haiti after the earthquake and are very interested in giving to certain projects in India and Africa. 3. What are the alternatives for the case characters (What could have been done differently)? They have to change their mission statement. They could rewrite it by focusing on the desire to make profits for the shareholders at the expense of certain stakeholders. Impose or even being more strict to control company behavior. The company should also write a new policy. The police should include a stop to putting officials in positions of influence in governments, more transparency in the regions they operate and create an even more rigorous oversight panel on the production of their goods. Rename the company and restricted completely each with the same goal and mission statement Monsanto currently has.

As an example they have to work directly in key areas of agricultural production around the world and provide resources to connect the local community to their agricultural system. By doing this Monsanto can archive his objectives. I think they have to expand locally by doing education, healthcare in each community instead of going into other nations. Doing this kind of expansion locally it will provide jobs and support the farmers, this will create creditability to Monsanto. The company also have to an immediate stop to the production and sale of Roundup, as well as all Roundup Ready crops to have the creation of sustainable food systems. B) Answer the questions at the end of the problem, page 317. The answers should be specific. Your answers may come from your analysis. I am interested in how you arrived at your answers.

1. Does Monsanto maintain an ethical culture that can effectively respond to various stakeholders? I think Monsanto does not maintain an ethical culture. He seems that he had tried, but fails. Many people do not understand or trust others. Also, Monsanto’s low levels of charitable giving and history of ethical lapses do not help the corporation’s case that it is seeking to improve the lives of the people of the world. But the company is considering to generate higher yields by using less water; this means that it will improve the lives of stakeholders around the world.

2. Compare the benefits of growing GM seeds for crops with the potential negative consequences of using them. The benefits of growing seeds could be a remarkable opportunity for humanity to create unparalleled abundance. The product have being observed and study by The United States, China, and Brazil and they remain quite permissive of GM products until science proves that they are harmful. Some day we can said that the gen could be expressed in any organism to help facilitate adaption, but always there is going to be some issues. The European Union has taken the opposite attitude about GM products. Some claim that “the EU has taken the issue too far and its stringent labeling requirements represent an informal trade barrier”. I think the environmental and health issues of Monsanto’s GM seeds can provide an opportunity for farmers to increase profits by allowing them to grow crops on land that would not support traditional seeds. Also, reducing bio-diversity by introducing poison into the ecosystem to the advantage of a single species are fairly well understood. Recycling of sinks and sources in a biological system with high bio-diversity represent sustainability.

3. How should Monsanto manage the potential harm to plant and animal life to using products such as Roundup? I think the only way is to completely stop the production and distribution of Roundup while they are refocusing their work on GMO’s to stop the focus on Roundup Ready phenotypes. The largest problem for Monsanto is that many farmers may not know the proper usage of the product, creating these larger problems for themselves and their fellow farmers in the future, for example, it can harm and causes species like tadpoles and it will be harm to human cells. I think it should be enough to stop polluting our ecosystems with this.