Ethical Issue Ikea - 2982 Words

Introduction of IKEA IKEA is a Swedish company producing home furnishing products at low prices to make them affordable to people. The company was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad and kept growing tremendously from 2 stores in 1964 to 114 stores in 1994 to 285 stores in 2008 in 36 countries with an additional 26 stores to be opened in 2009 welcoming a total of 522 million visitors. IKEA’s success story is the result of its founders opening store in 1951 to allow customers to inspect products before buying them, using a catalog to tempt people to visit an exhibition. Its key feature of providing self-assembled furniture starting from 1953 significantly cut transport and storage costs. In 1956, IKEA began testing the concept of flat pack to†¦show more content†¦The way out First we take a look at how the company responded to environmental and social issues when they first emerged. According to the case document that referring to the child labor problem raised by a Swedish television documentary that showed children in Pakistan working at weaving loom, we first look at how IKEA addressed the event according to the case document. It â€Å"sent a legal team to Geneva to seek input and advice from the International Labor Organization (ILO) on how to deal with the problem. It turned out that India, Pakistan, and Nepal were not signatories to the convention†. The fact that India, Pakistan, and Nepal were not signatories to the convention implies it is unreasonable to accuse IKEA of violating the law of child labor. Still, this fact did not help IKEA much as child labor is an ethical issue. IKEA therefore â€Å"added a clause to all supply contracts, stating simply that if the supplier employed children under legalworking age, the contract would be ca ncelled†. The third step was to appoint a third-party agent to monitor child labor practices at its suppliers in India and Pakistan. This third step helped the company in publicity and media, and made things seem fairer from the public’s view. The business manager Barner did some more research about the child labor issue by contacting concerned organizations, such as Swedish Save the Children, UNICEF, and the ILO to get advice. After acquiring some knowledge about the issue, BarnerShow MoreRelatedThe Importance Of Corporate Social Responsibility And Ikea1695 Words   |  7 PagesThe Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility to IKEA This essay is about the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to IKEA. Corporate Social Responsibility is a broad subject comprising of many definitions. 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