Case 19, “Nike: Managing Ethical Missteps – Sweatshops to Leadership in Employment Practices.”

Case 19, “Nike: Managing Ethical Missteps – Sweatshops to Leadership in Employment Practices.” Briefly address the questions at the end.

1. Why did Nike fail to address corporate social responsibility earlier?

Nike failed to address corporate responsibility during their early ventures because the two men who started the company just simply did not know any better. They were not professional businessmen at the time the company was created. At this point in time, they were two sports enthusiast who were looking to turn their passion into a profit and early on in its existence, the Nike company was more so concerned with just making money. The company’s founders had not the slightest clue that the manner in which an upright American company operated included the act of participating in corporate responsibility ventures, like giving back to the needy.

2. Evaluate Nike’s response to societal and consumer concerns about its contract manufacturing.

The manner in which the Nike company has been carrying on suggests that the company does not care about the manner in which the public reacted to the Nike company’s contract manufacturing methods. The reason I say this is due to the fact that the Nike company has not even tried to make amends with the people and organizations that they let down when news broke out about the company using unethical practices in their design houses that are located overseas in countries that include both Pakistan and Japan. Interestingly enough, the company has always remained silent whenever they have received backlash from the public for failing to conduct its dealings in morally upright manners. They have never once apologized for the wrongdoing of which they have been accused in the past. In terms of corporate responsibility, the company has remained around the second stage where it is typical for such institutions to exhibit a sense of compliance in regards to corporate procedures.

3. What are the challenges facing Nike in the future?

The Nike company has made a great amount of wrongs that is imperative for them to correct now that the company has the means, manpower and knowledge to do so. Now that the Nike company is considered a veteran brand in the retail industry, the entity is running out of excuses for why it has not devised procedures where Nike employees are able to operate in manners that are consistent with the standards that are expected of such American retail companies. Working to clean up the mistakes that it has demonstrated in the past will ultimately provide substantial benefit to the sporting retailer. The company should start with orchestrating a detailed plan of action in which the Nike company will devise new methods of getting their merchandise made instead of using foreign labor that is executed in modern-day concentration camps. Next, the company would need to exhibit consistency and maintain a good rapport in which Nike consistently makes ethical decisions that benefits all participates involved in its operations, not just that of the company itself.