Allegations against Nike
Discuss about the Corporate Governance and Firm Value Contextualize.
The aim of this essay is to discuss about the report on Nike’s alleged discrimination of women and contextualize it within the broader framework of business ethics, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship and the issue of discrimination. Discrimination at the workplace have been part of the discussion in the business world especially in the light of the #MeToo movement have unveiled the stratification that is indispensable in the corporate world (The Business of Fashion. 2018). Bequeathing the spirit of gender equality that has become a part of the every discussions and the principle of corporate governance, the news of Nike Inc. In age of gender equality and consciousness about the rights of women, the ethical issues that emerged in Nike regarding blatant abuse of power and gender discrimination along with discrimination meted out to people of colour has shook the world. According to the Report published in the New York Times dated on April 28, 2018 Nike, one of the frontrunners in the sportswear has been alleged with gender discrimination in the form of vertical stratification of labour, male exclusionary policies, toxic masculine culture combined with the corporate culture, commoditization of women and the overall marginalization of women in the organization has led to a number of capable, competent and talented female employees who have left the organization (Northman et al. 2018). Instead of locating the problem as one of isolated incidents, the article has aptly focused on the dominant masculine culture in high-profile organizations like Nike that positions itself in the market as pro-women and upholding progressive principles. The rationale behind the selection of this article is that it is rich in narratives of the “insiders” of women who have been part of the organization and experience symbolic violence that have left them aghast about the brand.
The first allegation that has emerged against Nike is that despite the competence and experience of female employees, it is the male employees who are promoted to important positions in the company. A survey conducted on 50 employees found that this left the female employees feel dissatisfied. For example, Francesca Kante who has been associated with the company for more than five years realized that she did not see a future in the company as men despite low qualification and experience were promoted ahead of women (Creswell, Draper and Abrams 2018). The second allegation against Nike is that it promotes a work culture that blatantly demeans women and do not punish the perpetrators in the right manner. This is concerned with the superiors referring to the subordinate female employees in a derogatory manner. Women are apprehensive in coming out in the open about their identity fearing dire consequences from the company due to the non-disclosure agreement. This veracity of the incident is more pronounced in Portland where Nike wields enormous power. The female employees are of the view that the high-level officials comprising of men prefer to look the other way rather than addressing the concerns of the women. Amanda Shebeil left the company citing similar reasons of discrimination meted out to the female employees.
Issues on Ethics and Corporate Governance
As discussed previously, Nike is a key player in the world of sports its market value is worth of $112 billion and the annual revenues of the company amounts to $36 billion. Depite the global reputation, the workplace culture and discrimination meted out to the female employees underscore on the ethical concerns and ethical issues that have been plaguing the company. On examination, it can be stated that the ethical issue pertaining to Nike is one CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), discrimination, absence of transformational leadership and the corporate governance. The term corporate social responsibly (CSR) has multiple connotations and dimensions about the functioning of an organization. However given the nature of the challenges that have been plaguing Nike, it can be associated with the responsibility of the company towards its employees (Carroll and Buchholtz 2014). Whilst delivering the best service to the consumers of products and innovating marketing strategies to promote the brand, companies often forget about the workforce that contributes in the production and performance of the company. Employees are an important stakeholder of the organization and it is important to identify their problems, understand their demands and devise appropriate change management plan to address those concerns. CR (Corporate Social Responsibility encompasses an important aspect of business strategy. It is concerned with bringing the interests of the stakeholders to the foreground and in emphasizing that the concern of the business go beyond the usual actions and philanthropy. CSR is also concerned with the responsibility of maintaining cordial relationship with the employee (stakeholder) and in this way achieving the objective of corporate governance (Trevino and Nelson 2016). Considering the framework of corporate governance, the responsibilities and role of the directors is to ensure that the employees have a compatible workplace. In the given scenario, it could be seen that it was only after the intervention of the women employees through a covert survey that brought attention to the issue. Although, women but their visibility in the top positions of the company occupy half of the employment in Nike is low. There is an impression that Nike has pro-women policies considering the women’s category is positioned as an important strategy for the growth of revenue (Bebchuk and Weisbach 2010). However, all the sophisticated marketing strategies are concerned with men. Recently Nike came up with a commercial shoot that was underlined on the commoditization of women rather than the promotion of the new line of shoes. The human resources in Nike is completely passive to the concerns voiced by the numerous female employees. When Neuburger left the company she clearly mentioned that it harassment and exclusion of women form the key positions that have motivated her decision. There have been several incidents where women were addressed in an inappropriate manner or when women have faced untoward behaviour from the senior male employees and the human resource department was not quite helpful with the issue. Mr Wilkins from Nike was of the opinion that these cases cannot be judged from the on-sided perspective, as it demands more intervention to delve deeper into the issue. This approach by Wilkins and the senior male superior underscore on the ethical issue of leadership (De George 2011).
Gender Discrimination at the Workplace
Another ethical issue that emerges in this context is the style of leadership. There is an absence of transformational leadership in the context. The term transformational leadership refers to the style of leadership where the business aims to bring a change in the organization through transformation of the employees. The role of the leader is the leader is to motivate the employees, understand their concerns and resolve the issues (Williams 2012). However, in the light of the Nike incident it can be seen that top-level seniors tried to brush the issue under the carpet. The CEO of Nike, Mr Parker seems to be more interested in increasing the annual turnover of the company rather than reflecting on the high-attrition rate among the employees. The female employees who are discontented with Mr Parker or have left the organization feels that this is a deliberate negation of the concerns of the employees.
The most important ethical issue pertaining to this incident is the issue of gender discrimination at the workplace. This has been considered as an obstacle in the growth of women at the workplace. Gender inequalities have been identified as an issue that continue to create problems for the people especially women. In contemporary business gender discrimination at the workplace can be defined as the unfair treatment meted out to a person on the grounds of gender in terms of job evaluation, providing employee benefits to ne person over other person and through or limited scope of promotion or no promotion. It has been identified that gender discrimination can take place in four ways. Firstly, this takes place through direct discrimination that includes the acts of difference in salary motivated by the gender identity in the performance of job or during the promotion of the person. This can also be witnessed in case of promotion of a less qualified over a high-qualified person due to the gendered identities of both (Jo and Harjoto 2011). The second aspect of gender discrimination is indirect discrimination. This is concerned with the prevalence and application of laws for a certain gender whereas this might not be applicable for the other gender. Third aspect of discrimination at the workplace is related to the harassment at work. This kind of discrimination has been considered as the worst form of discrimination as it leads to the emotional and psychological trauma of the person. The incidents of sexual or verbal harassment are covered in this type of discrimination. The fourth aspect related to the discrimination at the workplace is related to victimization that amounts to bad or unfair treatment to the member of a particular gender that amounts to victimization at the workplace (Shafer-Landau 2014). Given the characteristics of the discrimination, the Nike issue completely is in consonance with gendered discrimination at the workplace have en stated so far.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Welfare
Wilkinson is if the opinion that the company is trying to review its and improve its existing practises and re-establish trust from the stakeholders. The company’s chief of the human resources Monique Matheson was of the opinion that the company is committed towards making changes to ensure that the minorities and the women of colour feel secured and valued within the company. Nike team is aware that the absence of women in the top positions is the reasons of disparity. Matheson has devised a series of measures that would to act as corrective programs. Some of these measures would be developing diverse talent, inclusive job descriptions, blind resume process and the elimination of the salary history during recruitment (Racked 2018). Another ethical decision that would be adopted in this light would be to make the mangers more accountable to their position for the diversity of the teams. There would be the implementation of unconscious bias training with the objective of eliminating the often-invisible preferences that develop for one group over the other group in the employee selection (Quartz at Work 2018). All these indicate that Nike is aware about the ethical issues that are involved in these spates of incident. Nike is aware that overlooking these issues would affect the integrity of the brand and would alienate a large section of female and non-white employees and bring loss to the company. It has realized that the grassroot force have the power to change the standard corporate procedure. Unethical behaviour demonstrated through gender discriminatory practises contributes to the existence of the glass ceiling for the employees. The ethical decision adopted by Nike has similarities with another ethical case of that of Google. Former Google Engineer Erica Joy Baker who ws dedicated towards her cause of diversity opine that in the year 2015 when she created an anonymous it led to the hike in the salary of employees by 5 per cent and therefore, this equitable pay was an outcome of the revolutionary data sheet. All these my indicate that Nike has finally woken up to the issue of gender discrimination at workplace and therefore is in the path of following principles ethics, however this was long due. There is still no statement from the CEO of the company despite the fact many men who are in the top positions have left the company. This silence reeks of the evident toxic masculine culture at Nike that needs to be altered from the top-level. The moral philosophy pertaining to the given context is that deontology. The central idea of deontology is rendering respect to all the individuals in the society irrespective of their social status. The deontologists are of the view that a person should refrain from engaging in certain activities irrespective of its potential to maximize the utility. In this context, the particular ethic is relevant considering that equal respect should be given to all the individuals in the society irrespective of their gender. Therefore, Nike needs to make fair, equitable and just decision that would benefit the female employees of the organization. There should be adherence to general moral ethics for fair practise in decision making and contributing to a healthy workplace non-sexist work culture.
Measures to address the issue
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be stated gender discrimination at the workplace is considered to be one of the ethical issues related to business ethics and this was visible in case of Nike. The paradox with Nike is that despite its positioning in the market as progressive and pro-women that company lacks the ethics that could retain its female employees who have faced numerous incidents of discrimination at the workplace. The brand has finally decided to respond to the concerns of the female employees in the light of the covert survey that was conducted by the female employees. Considering that an organization is built on the foundation of its workforce working like a team, it is important to engage in a critical analysis of Nike and examine the violation of business ethics.
Nike and other corporate firms have been neglecting the issue on gender discrimination that is considered to be an important aspect for taking care of the stakeholders (in this case the employees). The overwhelming presence of men in the top positions and their monopoly in controlling the career opportunities and moibility of women within the organization reeks of the sustenance of toxic male culture. Such an atmoshpre makes the female employees of the organization feel excluded and limit their growth. The high number of resignation from the experienced female employees is an indication that companies need to follow the ethical issue pertaining to discrimination and seek appropriate measures that would make the employees feel valued and in turn would be reflective of good corporate governance and accomplishment of CSR practises.
References
Bebchuk, L.A. and Weisbach, M.S., 2010. The state of corporate governance research. The Review of Financial Studies, 23(3), pp.939-961.
Carroll, A. and Buchholtz, A., 2014. Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education.
Creswell, J., Draper, K. and Abrams, R. (2018). At Nike, Revolt Led by Women Leads to Exodus of Male Executives. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/28/business/nike-women.html [Accessed 25 May 2018].
De George, R.T., 2011. Business ethics. Pearson Education India.
Jo, H. and Harjoto, M.A., 2011. Corporate governance and firm value: The impact of corporate social responsibility.Journal of business ethics, 103(3), pp.351-383.
Northman, T., Team, H., Team, H., Team, H., Team, H., Team, H., Team, H., Team, H., Team, H., Team, H. and Wiens, E. (2018). Male Executives Are Leaving Nike as Women Speak up About Inequality. [online] HYPEBAE. Available at: https://hypebae.com/2018/4/nike-employees-sexual-harassment-times-up [Accessed 25 May 2018].
Quartz at Work. (2018). Nike is publicly dismantling its toxic “boys club” culture. [online] Available at: https://work.qz.com/1245768/nike-says-it-needs-to-do-better-in-promoting-women-and-minorities/ [Accessed 25 May 2018].
Racked. (2018). Nike Is Trying to Be Less of a Boys’ Club. [online] Available at: https://www.racked.com/2018/5/1/17306794/nike-workplace-misconduct-hiring-women [Accessed 25 May 2018].
Shafer-Landau, R., 2014. The fundamentals of ethics.
The Business of Fashion. (2018). Nike Scandal Threatens Its Image With Women. [online] Available at: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/nike-scandal-threatens-its-image-with-women [Accessed 25 May 2018].
Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., 2016. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley & Sons.
Williams, B., 2012. Morality: An introduction to ethics. Cambridge University Press.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
