DBA -301-BUSINESS ETHICS and CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

FINAL EXAMINATION
December 7, 2022
1. CASE

1.1. The Ohio Connection

Janey worked as an executive assistant to a product manager at her company: Ohio

Connection. Overall, she loved her job; she was happy to work with a company that
provided great benefits, and she and found enjoyment in her day-to-day work. She
had the same product manager boss for years, but last year, her manager left Ohio
Connection and retired. Recently her new manager has been treating her unfairly and
showcasing bullying behavior.

Yesterday, Janey came into work, and her boss decided to use their power as her
manager and her “superior” to demand that she stay late to cover for him, correct
reports that he had made mistakes on, and would not pay her overtime. She was going
to be late to pick up her son from soccer practice if she stayed late; she told him this,
and he was not happy.

Over subsequent days, her boss consistently would make comments about her
performance, even though she had always had good remarks on reviews, and created
a very negative work environment. The next time she was asked to stay late, she
complied for fear of losing her job or having other negative impacts on her job.
Janey’s situation was not ideal, but she didn’t feel she had a choice.

Questions

1. What type of power did Janey’s boss employ to get her to do the things that he wanted
her to do?
2. What negative consequences are apparent in this situation and other situations where
power is not balanced in the workplace?
3. What steps should Janey take do to counteract the power struggle that is occurring with
her new manager?

1.2. Case Study: Corporate Social Responsibility at The Body Shop

The Body Shop (TBS) has developed 2500 stores in 60 countries with a range of over 1,200
products in approximately 30 years, and is the second largest cosmetic franchise in the world.
After the first TBS’s outlet founded in 1976, the company has experienced rapid growth and with
expanding rate of 50% annually. When its stock first obtained a full listing on the London Stock
Exchange, its price increased by more than 500%. In 1999, TBS was even voted as the second
most trusted brand in UK by the Consumers Association. The founder, Anita Roddick had
received numerous awards including Dame Commander of the British Empire for her
contributions. TBS’s success is hard to observe from the extrinsic value but the ethical value
which make the success of TBS so legendary and inspiring.

Anita Roddick, founder of TBS first entered the industry by using £4,000 to open a small stand-
alone shop of natural ingredient cosmetics and skincare products. Through her early travel
experience, she had seen the potential of those natural ingredients being produced as cosmetic
and skincare products commercially. Due to the budget constraint, Roddick used the urine
sample containers purchased from local hospital as the containers of her products. The shop’s
walls are painted with dark green to cover the damp. To save cost on advertisement, Roddick
spread aroma in front of her shop to gain attention of the patrons. The strategy pursued was a
huge success and another shop was able to be opened before the first year ended. In its second
year, the company started to franchise the operation and by 1984 TBS already had 138 stores
while 87 of them were located outside UK. The development of the company continued to soar
when it went public in 1984. At the same time, Roddick started her efforts to encourage and
contribute to social and environmental problems such as campaign of issues against animal
testing in cosmetic and recycling.

In 1987, TBS’s Trade Not Aid program started. It was aimed to help sustaining third countries’
people livelihood. Besides, TBS’s charitable activities included aiding communities close to
home and various donations. Roddick was strongly persistent with her own singular vision, that
business could be a force for good, and that profits could be made without compromising
principles which corresponding with TBS’s mission statement, “To dedicate our business to the
pursuit of social and environmental change.” In 1990, TBS Foundation was launched to give
financial support to pioneering and frontline organizations that aim to achieve progress in the
areas of human and civil rights, environmental and animal protection. The website of TBS was
launched in 1995 to keep pace with IT revolution. In 2002, Roddick stepped down as the co-
chairperson of TBS International PLC but remained back as non-executive director. In 2006,
TBS was purchased by Loreal which is not against animal testing. This move has raised a huge
controversy around the supporters of TBS, however the company clarified that it is operated
independently within the Loreal Group. Until now, TBS is still the icon of ethics business for
many people.

These are three well-known policies that TBS taken as their core values of products:

1. Against Animal Testing:  TBS is approved by the internationally recognized Humane

Cosmetic Standard which is against conducting or commission cruel tests on animal for
cosmetic ingredients and products. In 1980, animal tests were popular among cosmetics
brand. Later, these numbers dropped gradually and companies bowed to public opinion
and in 1999 there were none in Britain. While TBS is among one of the leading forces to
object these not humane experiments, they always emphasized that they have never and
will never test their cosmetic products or commission others to do it.
 2. Support Community Trade:  Most multinational corporate are just searching for cheap
labor force in undeveloped countries while TBS has pioneered a program called
‘community trade’, not only about charity trade, but to achieve economic development
and empowerment which provides opportunities for disadvantaged producers, especially
women and indigenous people. The value chain to the advantage of producers is
reconfigured, often via reducing multiple mark-up inefficiencies and cutting out
exploitative middleman. TBS realized that without development of the community, any
development in the community will be ineffective. As a result, the company introduces
fair trade by buying the ingredients and resources they demand in the production of their
products from those people with higher than market price. One of the examples is the
purchase of cocoa beans from Kuapa Kokoo Company in Ghana, which is a fair trade
cooperative with over 30,000 small-scale farmers.
3. Protect Our Planet:  The 3R concept which represents reuse, recycle, refill has been
utilized well in TBS. The company encourages the consumers to return the containers of
their products after use to their outlets. From early 2008 onwards, 100% recycled plastic
bottles and paper bags were introduced. TBS organized campaigns to raise conscious of
people about the responsibility being a citizen of earth to protect the environment.

Benefits to The Body Shop by  Corporate Social Responsibility Activities

TBS saves a huge amount of money by not advertising but to put more efforts in social activities
than other mainstream cosmetic brands, which gives it a same effect of publicity. It is an
alternative way to generate mass publicity for the company without throwing big money to
capture rosy commercial advertisement. A very good example of this is TBS’s first major
campaign in 1986 which is alliance with Greenpeace in UK, ‘Save the Whale’. This campaign
has helped to promote the new product line of TBS which is using jojoba oil as the ingredient to
substitute the whale spermaceti.

In the cosmetics market that time, the business models are already standardized. TBS has
focused on the business level strategy to obtain and sustain differentiation and advantage on
competitors in the same industries. Not like other cosmetic brands which highly advertised the
artificially created beauty and expensive ingredients, the products it offered provided no miracle
effects other than cleaning and protecting. The usual finely designed bottles were also replaced
with simple containers which are made from recyclable materials. The company also set up its
own store while most of the cosmetics brands were locating them inside the shopping centre.
TBS has highly concentrated on developing a drastically different image which is more focused
on the ethical value and natural quality in it. The company has succeeded in challenging the
accepted value curve of luxury cosmetics and beauty products to create one based on more
ethical values. The social activism approach that taken by TBS has created a whole new group of
consumer which is ethical living oriented. This is a very smart step taken by TBS, not only
building customer loyalty based on distinctive ethical values, the company itself also benefits
from gaining a high reputation and fame for environment friendly and contribution to the public.
This unique positioning of TBS also made itself more invulnerable from price cutting wars. The
company has presented such a distinct motive compared to other profit oriented corporations.
Consumers choose products of TBS based on the conscience that generate naturally by their own
judgments.
 2. DISCUSS BRIEFLY

2.1. Ethics and Causes of human conflict

2.2. Moral reasoning
2.3. Conflict resolution

Gbr-12-7-22