Cross Cultural Perspectives on Business

The international market is the primp situation for all companies, even though almost every organization experiences growth as time passes. The main goal of almost every big business Is to be able to reach the largest market and enable growth; the international market. There are many different things that International markets bring to an organization, advantage wise, for Instance a bigger brand name, international market shares, Investors, or even growth that will allow the capability to be able to manufacture many products for a lot less expensive labor cost.

Even though most companies want to go big or go home, there are bound to be many different obstacles and difficulties in making the bigger picture happen. Between going national and international, there are so many deferent moral and social responsibilities that must be overcome as the organization progresses through the ranks to be a worldwide international organization. The organization that I choose is the Levi Strauss company, I love the Jeans and there is an over abundant amount of information available to the public about the history of their organization.

Levi Strauss and Company, which Is based In San Francisco, California has actually been one of many different companies that have been able to overcome all the adversity and become an International organization and one of the largest retail sale producers In apparel. The organization has their headquarters in California, but they are able to operate and be successful with their different plants and operations in 110 different nations across the globe. Breaking down the split of what their income as a company is generally split from the United States and outside the border to a ear 50/50 split.

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Actually, Levi Strauss has recently been dealing with issues with foreign organizations to incorporate stockholders, media sites, investment companies, and even employees' right's unions. There were noted to be a lot of different reasons that people were getting upset with Levi Strauss and Company, but one of the major reasons Levi Strauss and Company incurred so much trouble was in their two plants in Bangladesh. There was mass confusion about the laws and stipulations In that country compared to the united States.

What was stated Is that Levi Strauss was ring employees that were below the minimum age requirement, but in all actuality, in Bangladesh, there are different laws as to how old an individual must be to work in a similar plant as Levi Strauss and Company. The minimum age for an individual to work at a manufacturing plant comparable to Levi Strauss and Company is sixteen. When one looks at the history of Bangladesh, there is nothing out of the ordinary to see children, ages fifteen and younger to be out in the workforce and helping with their families household income.

One issue in Bangladesh to be specific is their lack f producing a birth certificate to prove age, another issue that has been brought up is the lack of nutrition for the supposedly younger kids, who most likely look younger than they actually are. Even though these younger people are working In different Levi Strauss' plants, these types of situations are very evident and continuous even though the Conditions of Engagement for and from Levi Strauss and Company. Levi Strauss isn't the first one to be in the microscope from external stakeholders for child As an ethical international company, Levi Strauss seems to have the moral views of he majority of people. To ensure they stay ethical, there are a few things that the organization must follow like the encouragement of dialogs interactions, motivation of involvement in making decisions, adjusts personal as well as company goals and conducts, imposes direct responsibility for expecting and addressing ethical crises.

These would be the most basic ethical requirements required by Levi Strauss along with an international anti bribery plan, a global rule of business actions, and An anti- corruption plan. During the year 2008, the organization was once again in the spotlight from many external pressures by the way they were breaking different child labor laws, like the way that Uzbekistan has been doing the same thing. Not only did Levi Straus help take care of the issue, but they have confessed that they have worried about the problem for a very long time.

Following the different problems, Levi Strauss and company went through major changes including no use of any product coming from Uzbekistan. Being involved in such a critical matter, Levi Strauss and company took added measures to relieve the pressure and stress from the child labor laws by not only ruminating employees that were part of the infractions, but would continue to help assist them with full pay and benefits contingent on them going to school and completing that for themselves and their families.

Laws against labor of underage is definitely a major concern for Levi Strauss, but unfortunately with having 110 different countries subject to the same standards, there are always other obstacles for the organization to overcome because they are such a large international organization. One of the other obstacles that happens more often than almost anything is discrimination in the workplace. This has actually become more of a recognized problem and enforced almost worldwide, not Just in the United States.

Many attempts to regulate discrimination are moral and the practices therein are sure to find their way into problems. In Vietnam, operational corruption is one of the biggest moral challenges to overcome, and it includes Levi Strauss and Company. Corruption in organizations has been noted to take away three to four percent of the world's total gross domestic products each year. In one of the latest researches, 67% of business proprietors in

Vietnam presume that they will have to pay for a bribe at some stage in a particular year to carry on in business operations (Inrush & Areola, 2010) These two examples are not even scratching the surface as to what an international organization must face on a daily basis to keep their head above water and to keep themselves profitable. The way that Levi Strauss and Company have been able to continue to be successful is the fact that they were able to instate one set of written rules and guideline to have as a basis for all of their companies and plants around the world to abide by.

This type of action is Just a preventative method that instills the idea and provides a little insurance plan to help prevent allegations of wrongdoings. Levi Strauss and Company is much like all international companies in the way that they have to uphold their integrity and ensure that they are conducting business in a throughout the company, a simple memo will not suffice. There must be people all over the world at all the different plants making sure that the code of ethics provided by the company are met and are not too specific to follow by all employees.

If these hypes of actions have been thought of years ago, there probably would never have been an issue in Bangladesh and the underage labor that was happening and they could have avoided that completely. Many, many businesses are striving for the international market in today's society. They are all wanting growth and potentially higher earnings. Social and Moral factors are often overlooked and ignored when businesses are up and coming. There will never be a way for one method or one set of rules to govern any international company from one end to another.

Arrangements according to the environment and he nation are essential clues to help adjust for each little market in the bigger picture of international business. The more of the little things each international companies do to ensure moral and social obligations, the longer and more thriving their business will become and continue to prosper. References Five compliance and ethics issues to consider in Vietnam. 2010, Gregory Inrush & Fernando Areola. Retrieved from http://knowledgeable. Thunderbird. Dude/ research/2009/11/04/Vietnam/ Levi Strauss & Co. (Unknown) 2010. Retrieved from http://en. Wisped. Org/wick/Levi_Strauss_&_Co.

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