I will start today's presentation with a number, 996.

Can you guess what this number

represents?

the inflation rate of a country ( is it possible for a country's inflation rate to be 996%),
signal, morse code, cryptocurrency, frequency, density, population , nutritional index,
product composition, amount of waste polluting the environment, house number, phone
number, the year 1996, license plate, code, password

So many ideas here, you guys are so unique, i love your curiosity

First I will give the complete calculation for this number, 996 equals 72.

You guys are also very eager to know the hidden meaning behind this calculation arent
you, let's follow today's presentation to understand it.

So, Our topic today is

Ehics in International Business: What ethical standards did Alibaba Group "sacrifice" to
achieve such great achievements today?

Let's first define ethics in international business for mutual understanding

Many ethical issues in international business stem from the fact that political systems,
laws, economic developments, and cultures vary considerably from country to country.
A common situation in one country may be considered unethical in another.

Thus, in an international business of one of the world's largest retailers and trading
companies, Alibaba Group, are common ethical issues such as human rights,
environmental regulations and moral obligation performed ethically from the point of
view of another country?, that’s what we are looking at in today's presentation.

LO1: What ethical issues had Alibaba Corp faced ?

Environmental Pollution:
In Singles Day 2020, Alibaba made nearly $76 billion, 4 times the revenue from the US
Black Friday and Cyber Monday events combined. According to Greenpeace, Singles'
Day in China has generated 52,400 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from production,
packaging and shipping.

Consumption record also means waste record. This seems to be too normal for China
when this is the most populous country in the world, consumption and waste also sets a
record as one of the world's leaders in plastic waste. In Vancouver and 9 other cities in
the Canadian region of British Columbia banning single-use plastic bags or Germany
banning the use of all single-use plastic products, the pollution Alibaba has caused to
the environment is a serious moral violation.

Moral Obligation:
Some ethical philosophers argue that along with power comes a social responsibility for
multinationals to give something back to societies that help them prosper and thrive.
However, there are examples of multinational companies that have abused their power
to achieve high profits.

TikTok, an application owned by Alibaba, is accused of illegally collecting personal

data on a large scale in many countries.
As one of the most popular social networks in the Czech Republic, TikTok is said to be
collecting data on about 2 million users, mainly teenagers under 24 years old in the
country. This Eastern Europe or in 2019, Alibaba was fined a record $5.7 million by the
US Federal Trade Commission for allegedly illegally collecting children's personal
information. Additionally, the app was banned in India for allegedly "degrading culture
and encouraging pornography".

TikTok has done business in 200 countries and repeatedly abused their position and
power to invade privacy, illegally collect user data, and have seriously violated ethics in
international business.

Human rights:
And now is the moment you've all been waiting for, the calculation 996 equals 72, let's
decipher it.
996 work culture – is a trend in China, especially among tech giants and e-commerce
businesses. These companies require workers to work 72 hours a week.
Yes, you didn't hear me wrong, working from 9am to 9pm 6 days per week equals to a
total of 72 hours a week.
According to Chinese labor law, a standard working day is 8 hours, with a maximum of
44 hours a week. But the law has not been well enforced at Alibaba as well as many of
the country's biggest companies - especially in the thriving tech sector where employees
often work longer hours and are not always paid.
It is the work ethic of the harsh 996 work culture that is considered to be the driving
force behind the success of Alibaba as well as many leading technology companies in
China, making Alibaba one of the largest retailers and trading, investing companies in
the world.
However on the west coast of the world, 996 is an immoral culture.
According to EU's Working Time Directive and Eurostat, in 2021, employed people
between the ages of 20 and 64 work an average of 36.4 hours per week. The country
with the longest working week is Greece (40.1 hours) and the Netherlands has the
shortest average working week (32.2 hours),so working 54 hours a week here is a
violation of human rights and is a serious ethical violation in international business.
Lo2+Lo3: Well, Had Alibaba faced any ethical dilemma, how did they solve it? Has the
manager solved the dilemma ethically? Why do managers behave in ways that might be
judged unethical in an international business environment?

First thing first, Let's dive into the Ethical dilemma: an ethical dilemma that arises when
one has to choose between different possibilities that, in one way or another, can create
a situation that can objectionable from an ethical point of view.

A specific example is the case where a female employee of Alibaba reported her boss
for sexual harassment and assault in 2021. The female employee reported the incident to
her superiors and Alibaba's human resources department but received no response or
feedback.

Even when the controversy took place and caused public attention, the case also came to
an end that both the female employee, the director and two senior executives for not
handling the case properly, and 10 employees who leaked the case, all were fired. In
addition, the female employee does not receive any severance pay, only a compensation
until the date of contract termination.

According to Bloomberg, a news channel that owns popular American news sites, radio
stations, television stations, and magazines, Alibaba Group's dismissal is a setback for
the anti-sexual assault movement in the workplace in China.

In China, Article 237 of the Chinese Penal Code stipulates that anyone who uses force,
pressure, or other methods to coerce or harass a woman or to humiliate a woman shall
be punished by a maximum of 5 five years in prison, a sentence that is nothing
compared to 10 years in prison for sexual assault in the UK, 10 years in prison for
sexual harassment in Australia or in Singapore which is 8 years in prison with the intent
to rape.

Consider China's male-dominated culture, where a series of executives and senior with
high positions at companies, whether it is public or private enterprises, more than 80
percent are male, this is almost a culture in this country when a series of laws,
movements against gender inequality in the workplace take place every year. but almost
no progress.

It is too obvious that this story of workplace sexul harassment is an ethical dilemma and
of course there is no right, ethical answer to this case.

Is it the right decision to not fire the female employee who has caused Alibaba to be
criticized by the public, caused the company to face not only legal ethics but also human
morality and making the company wobble for half a year for the company? Is it right for
the company to fire the female employee who is the victim in the story of the female
employee being harassed and sexually assaulted by her boss? There are no right or
wrong answers to these questions. This is the nature of ethical dilemmas, they are
situations for which there are no available alternatives that can be morally acceptable.
To put it more simply, there is no single right way to deal with an ethical dilemma.

Even so, managers still have to make business decisions, so managers are often faced
with ethical dilemmas like these, many of which are situations show that managers
behave in ways that might be judged unethical in an international business environment.

Even knowing that it would be judged unethical, the authorities still decided to fire both
the victim and those involved in the story "Sexual harassment in the workplace". It's not
just pressure from a billion dollar business that disciplinary decisions are made in the
company's interest or unrealistic performance expectations the company has put in place
for the good of the business, but It may also be due to personal factors such as the
context or experience of the authorities, in whose processes they may not have
incorporated ethical considerations into business decision making.

Let's continue with Mei to learn the moral philosophies that Alibaba has violated

LO4: Which ethical philosophy that Alibaba violated during

its development and prosperity?
1.Cultural Relativism, one of Straw Men approaches is the belief that ethics are
nothing more than the reflection of a culture which means all ethics are
culturally determined-and that accordingly, a business should adopt the ethics
of the culture in which it is operating.
 
According to Greenpeace, On Singles Day 11-11, Chinese e-commerce giants
such as Alibaba or JD.com attracted a large number of customers and received
four times revenue. This means a huge amount of materials for packaging were
created. Not only the increase in plastic bags for shopping and packaging but
also those Chinese e-commerce generated huge tons of carbon dioxide (CO2)
from the manufacturing and the shipping. 
  
Based on this, the violation of environmental ethics by companies in the
technology and e-commerce sectors of China including Alibaba is almost
impossible to deny. The problems that Alibaba causes to the environment are
not widely noticed or condemned as China is familiar with its descent issue,
“pollution issue”. 

2. The utilitarian and kantian ethics: 

From a utilitarian perspective, are those that produce the greatest good for the
greatest number of people. 
The problem with utilitarianism is that it ignores the concept of equity. Actions
that create the greatest benefit for the greatest number may result in unfair
treatment of a minority. As mentioned about the dismissal of the female Alibaba
employee after denouncing the boss, Alibaba not only fired the director
surnamed Wang in the story, but also two senior executives of the e-commerce
giant. This guy also resigned because he did not handle the case properly, in
addition, Alibaba also fired 10 employees who leaked the case. Making
dismissal decisions that ignore unfairness to minorities, victims of the incident,
and those responsible for them is an act of the pragmatist view that "decisions
of great benefit are maximum for the largest number".

3. The Rights theories assume that human beings have fundamental rights and
privileges that transcend national boundaries and cultures. When it comes to
Alibaba group, JackMa violated the Rights theories by supporting the “996
working system”, in which employees work from 9 AM to 9 PM and work 6 days
a week. According to China’s labor laws, employees should not work more than
eight hours a day, nor more than 40 hours a week. This type of working culture
is not only against the law but is also harmful to the employees because they
have to overwork without being paid extra. The Rights theories emphasize
human rights: the right to receive equal pay for equal work, the right to just and
favorable conditions of work, and anything acceptable to human rights. 

4. The Justice theory assumes that all economic goods and services should be
distributed equally except when an unequal distribution would work to
everyone's advantage. We found news that Alibaba violated the antitrust policy.
Many times, Alibaba was accused of making unfair market practices and these
practices had negatively affected other companies. 
A situation in 2019, the world's largest microwave maker- Galanz, accused
Alibaba of diverting customer access from the Tmall booth after it sold on
Pinduoduo, Alibaba's rival. Galanz said its sales dramatically decreased
because it did not use Alibaba. JD and Pinduoduo — both are e-commerce
platforms and supported by Tencent— also sued Alibaba for similar behavior:
using monopoly power to discourage them from selling merchants on their
platforms. After the case, the Chinese government decided to launch an
antitrust investigation and Alibaba Group Holding was fined 18.2 billion yuan
(US$2.8 billion). 

The further area I want to dive into in this situation is that Alibaba has violated
business ethics, The Justice theory particularly, creating an unfair trade
regardless of business laws to make it difficult for other businesses to operate
so that it could earn more profits. 

LO5: What did Alibaba managers do to incorporate ethical

considerations into their decision making?

Due to the rapid economic development and high urbanization rate, China
generates hundreds of millions of tons of waste every year. Knowing China is
facing such a disastrous issue, Alibaba assumes that waste treatment becomes
an urgent issue that needs to be solved. It is expected that by the end of this
year, China will apply Alibaba Cloud's AI technology to treat waste. 
 
Then comes to turning waste into electricity: Burning waste to generate
electricity is one of the most advanced methods today. By burning a large
amount of waste, China can generate megawatts of power supply. Such an
economic way to use the garbage and create electricity instead of using fossil
fuels.   

Another area I want to mention is how Alibaba manages the human rights issue.
There was a time that Alibaba was fined because its subsidiary Taobao had
content and images capable of influencing and infringing on the image of
children (specifically african children). The story caused Alibaba's shares to fall.
The question is: when sellers post posters advertising such products, does the
children’s supervisor agree or not? Is the advertising money really paid hand-in-
hand for those kids? Or through a middleman? A lot of the risk behind hasn't
been revealed. In response to the incident, Alibaba has said it will investigate
and prevent vendors from using images that are potentially harmful for human
and children rights.

And that is the end of our case study.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/lfsa_ewhan2/default/table?lang=en
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Hours_of_work_-
_annual_statistics#Patterns_in_average_working_week:_full-time_and_part-
time_workers
https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2372&context=tcl
https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/this-is-996-culture-a-grueling-72-hour-work-
week-popular-in-china-thats-been-criticized-for-ruining-work-life-balance/articleshow/
84706514.cms
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-58381538
https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/09/the-future-of-chinas-work-culture/
https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3173545/alibabas-artificial-intelligence-tool-
improve-efficiency-chinas-waste
https://www.alizila.com/alibabas-trash-recognition-tech-sorts-out-recycling-woes/
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/
pages/global-eu-working-hour-directive.aspx#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20EU
%20directive,of%20rest%20every%2024%20hours.
https://kr-asia.com/can-the-chinese-e-commerce-sector-solve-its-waste-problem
https://medium.com/@athirahsyamimi/jack-ma-praises-996-72-hours-a-week-work-
culture-ce975aaa31c9
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-59627131
https://fortune.com/2021/12/13/alibaba-fires-employee-accused-manager-sexual-
assault-china-tech-metoo/
https://thechinaproject.com/2022/06/23/alibaba-sexual-assault-case-finally-ends-in-
conviction/
https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/tiktok-accused-of-secretly-gathering-user-data-and-
sending-it-to-china/
https://www.ft.com/content/02bb235f-f6f3-42be-a921-bc2c86b86271
https://thediplomat.com/2021/03/are-chinas-companies-taking-action-on-sexual-
harassment/
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/2/28/18244996/tiktok-children-privacy-data-ftc-
settlement
https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3154115/chinas-996-work-culture-
labour-exploitation-another-name
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-40958209
Alibaba’s #MeToo scandal is warning for China tech | Reuters
https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3129017/alibaba-antitrust-investigation-
beijing-slaps-e-commerce-giant-record
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/alibaba-working-police-amid-sexual-
assault-allegations-79347441
https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/10/16121668/chinese-web-merchants-taobao-african-
children-advertise-search-engines-Child Labor in China, Factories & Child
Traffickingcamgirls
https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/china-regulators-fine-alibaba-275-
bln-anti-monopoly-violations-2021-04-10/
Pollution in China: how bad is it? - The Helpful Panda