ETHICS IN OUR WORLD
Viraj Muthreja
Introduction
International business has been changing drastically throughout the years. New laws,new markets and new technologies have been created. Which has caused countless amount businesses to change as well. It all depends on how companies and organizations implement and deal with the change, use it to their own advantage in a manner or structure that they are still relevant and successful. Companies should always be on the lookout for innovation as something new arrives everyday in the market, organizations should be able to adapt to that and be ready to provide consumers with more innovative products and services. There is intense competition and the company that fails to deliver or live up to the altering standards that take place everyday loses the game. Many ethical and unethical companies exist in the world today. Below you'll see two large companies one which is ethically good and another which can improve a bit.
Background Of Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts also known EA, is a multinational company that is known for publishing and selling video games. They produce games in almost every console including PS3. Xbox 360, PC, Wii and Xbox 1. EA has been around for over 30 years and has been doing well financially, they are currently the third largest gaming company after Blizzard and Nintendo in terms of revenue. The company also has a handful of labels under their name like, EA Sports, Need For Speed, Sims and the Battlefield series. However ethically EA has not been doing so great the company was voted “the worst company in America” for two consecutive years. There are countless reasons why they voted the worst country. To start off, EA has published many high quality games but they are known to also finish games rather quickly through the development process so they can move forward to the next. High pricing is also another factor, many consumers feel that the games EA sells are not worth the market price. When a new Electronic Arts game is released in stores the retail price usually starts at $70 dollars including tax. Since many EA games are rapidly developed, when new games are released, there are countless amounts of bugs and glitches in the game, which is why many consumers have stopped purchasing their brand.
EA Games
"Worst Company in America"
Electronic Arts employees
Consumer Cost
Cost 1- EA has been selling video games at a unreasonable price.Many other gaming businesses publish similar games for much cheaper prices. Even the free to play games that Electronic Arts publishes require consumers to buy in game purchases otherwise the game won’t be as fun or fair. EA continues to make consumers pay extra for their video games anyway possible.
Cost 2- Give consumers what they want and for the right price. Consumers feel that the development process for most video games are poorly done and that they should take more time fixing up the glitches and bugs.The corporation benefitted tremendously since the development process was rushed rapidly they could quickly move on to developing the next game to make more revenue. Throughout the years Electronic Arts have been attempting to for the game quality for the consumers.
Employee Treatment
Cost 1- Electronic Arts employees used to work up to 100 hours a week. The required timings were from 9am to 10 pm 7 days a week and the employees were not getting paid for working overtime. Electronic Arts saved millions of dollars off expenses since they weren’t paying employees for working 5 hours more a day. Employees working overtime was happening for around a decade until the programmers and the game artists put two lawsuits towards the company for unpaid overtime. Each were settled for around 15 million.
Studio Takeovers
Cost 1- Electronic Arts is often known for taking over small gaming businesses and completely redesigning their games to a subpar level. For example EA took control over the Ultima series and changed the entire game up adding new characters , scripts and media. Consumers felt that the new video game was “below average” from the normal series this may have been because of the poor work done by EA development process. EA is rapidly becoming the biggest gaming company in the world.
Code of Ethics
1. Eco-Friendly- Many businesses are using up tons of energy and the earth's limited resources. All companies should be more active environmentally and find ways to reduce waste and power. If companies continue running the way they are now there won’t be many resources left for future generations.
2. Health and Safety - Work and health safely is essential to any company. The employee should always feel protected to complete any task given without any mistrust. There are many laws that force employees to be trained correctly and for them to have a hazard free job. If employees get injured because of a safety hazard businesses can be solely responsible and may have to pay expenses.
3.Right Pricing- All consumers and business deals should benefit both sides fairly.There shouldn't be any fraud or cheating involved. Consumers should know exactly what they're paying and know what the quality of the product is and what is it worth.
4. Treat employees fairly- All employees should be treated equally and fairly. It is more likely they should would show more respect and trust towards the company which would often increase the workers productivity since they are more happy. Which will benefit the company and the workers.