Cross Cultural Perspectives

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Cross-Cultural Perspectives Cross-Cultural Perspectives In international business, companies must be sure to adhere to the cultural principles and ethics of not only the nation in which they are based or incorporated, but also of the nations in which they have factories and production lines. There have been several companies that have found themselves under increased scrutiny because they violated some form of cultural ethics. One of the more famous companies to do this is Nike, a U.S. based manufacturer of sneakers and other athletic wear. The below text will give a little background on their transgressions and the ethical conflict, as well as cover the steps Nike took to resolve the problems. Situational Background In the 1980s, Nike maintained several production factories in Korea and Taiwan. However, towards the end of the decade, wages and unionized labor in those countries began to threaten Nike's bottom line. As a result, Nike started to urge production contractors to move to Indonesia, China, and Vietnam. Lower production costs in those countries would allow Nike to keep producing the same high quality products at a cheaper rate. In 1991, real problems began to emerge when it was discovered that wages and working conditions at Nike factories were extremely poor. In one report, it was documented that one Indonesian worker worked for only 14 cents a day, which is far below Indonesian minimum wage. Although there were further accusations and reports regarding the working conditions, allegations such as this one kicked off almost a decade worth of protests against Nike. In fact, in 1998, then-Nike CEO Phil Knight stated that Nike had become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime, and arbitrary abuse (Nisen, 2015). Internal v. Cultural Ethics Internally, Nike was really only concerned with two issues: providing high quality products to its
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