Globalization and Business Ethics Write a three-page essay on an issue of business and the environment or globalization and business ethics.
Possible topics include:
Sustainable production
Green marketing
Fairtrade products
Unions in international business
Cross-cultural values and international rights
Human rights in international business
A topic approved by the professor
The essay requires outside reading. You should use at least 4 sources, provide in-text citation and works cited page.
Globalization and Business Ethics MLA Paper Format
Follow the MLA format. See the detailed specifications in the attachment.
Pre-essay preparation
A week before your essay is turned in, you should provide a provisional thesis statement, an outline and a works cited page, with at least four properly cited texts.
The thesis should generally provide the main point point, or the main conclusion drawn in your paper. It draws attention to the result of your research. It presents your finding. A good thesis should be specific.
Here’s an example of a the kind of preparation work expected in the pre-essay preparation assignment.
Thesis
The triple bottom line is a term developed by John Elkington to draw attention to a sustainable business model. In such a model, a sustainable company must care about the traditional bottom line—profits—but also about people (the company’s human resources), and the planet (the natural resources that are used in production). While it is certainly necessary for companies to consider all of these elements, in fact, there is a continual tension between the desire for profits and the need for environmental sustainability. I argue that this tension will only be overcome with legislation that requires a basic respect for the natural environment. The analogy I draw on is that of child labor. Just as laws were needed to bring about a condition in which profits were no longer able to made at the costs of the lives of children, laws are needed to bring about conditions in which profits are made at the cost of the environment.
Globalization and Business Ethics Outline
I. Thesis: See above
II. The Triple Bottom Line Introduced
a. Profits
b. People
c. Planet
III. The unresolved tension between profits and environmental sustainability
a. Profits versus the environment in oil production
b. Profits versus the environment in the agroindustry
c. Profits versus the environment in EU legislation
d. The tilting of the balance: In each case there is a preference for profits over the environment
IV. This analogous historical case of child labor
a. 19th century arguments for child labor
b. the end of child labor
c. the current status quo: profits without child labor
V. Conclusion: Just as laws were required to overcome a culture that accepted child labor as the necessary cost for business, laws today are needed to overcome the culture that accepts environmental degradation as a necessary cost for business. We can have profits but not at the cost of our children’s lives, and not at the cost of the environment.
Globalization and Business Ethics Works Cited
Dauvergne, Peter. The Shadows of Consumption. Cambridge, MA: MIT U P, 2008.
Dryzek, John. Political and Ecological Communication. In Ecology and Democracy. Ed. Freya Mathews. London: Frank Cass. 1996.
Eckersley, Robyn. The Green State. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004.
Feenberg, Andrew. Between Reason and Experience: Essays in Technology and Modernity. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 2010.
Hawken, Paul, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins. Natural Capitalism. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1999
