Free Essay Sample on Nike Sweatshops

Introduction

Many industries around the world are facing that have led to the collapse of specific companies. Over the years, numerous entities have focused on understanding some of the challenges encountered both by the employees and their employers. This has helped to identify issues such as wage theft, long working hours, ineffective regulations, and poor remuneration. Nike is one of the companies in the apparel industry that has witnessed many protests due to some of the leadership styles that are adopted either by the management. Besides, according to analysts, the company has struggled to clean up its image due to the appalling practices that have been witnessed at its premises. In the 1990s, many reports on employee mishandling surfaced, and these triggered protests against the operations that were being carried at the Nike factories (Pattacini, 2018). This was after anti-sweatshop activists challenged the company due to child labor claims as well as wage theft. Moreover, recently, a group of protestors stormed the company offices as well as the Vietnamese streets to raise the alarm on the escalating allegations of the verbal abuse on employees as well as long working hours.

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According to the United Students Against Sweatshops, many employees at the company were injured due to the failure of the management to observe safety requirements (Pattacini, 2018). Moreover, at some point, it was alleged that the entity denied the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) access its premises to conduct safety checks. Ineffective working conditions are some of the sweatshop issues experienced by employees at the Nike factories. This paper focuses on discussing the tendency that has been witnessed at the entity as well as the steps that have been conducted to deal with this challenge. It also involves an analysis of some of the allegations that have been issued by activist groups and workers at the company.

Ineffective Working Conditions at Nike

For many years, Nike has been identified by the term “sweatshop labour” due to its failure to take responsibility for the claims about labor exploitation. In 1998, the management of the company bowed to pressure and confessed that issues such as forced overtime, arbitrary abuse as well as slave wages were witnessed at the factories. The company also provided a detailed report addressing the allegations and promised to solve the issues without failure. Despite these efforts by the leadership, more issues were reported about indecent working conditions and wage theft. Also, in 2018, Colin Kaepernick, an athlete, found himself at the receiving end after the public challenged his association with Nike through an advertisement. According to the public, the American football player could not have linked himself with a company that exploits its workers.

In a 2017 report that was published by the Guardian, it was noted that mass seizures of female workers were witnessed at the Nike factories for a long period (Pattacini, 2018). In an account by Cambodian workers, these incidences were caused by the exploitation of the employees. According to research that was conducted by Danwatch and the Observer, the women who passed out worked for over 60 hours in a week (Williams, 2018). Besides, it was also noted that some of the factory workers were exposed to high temperatures for longer periods, therefore leading to unconsciousness. Following these reports, the southeast Asia field director at Nike noted that something drastic needed to be done to ensure that the employees do not suffer more injustices.

According to the Guardian, many workers feared for their lives after one of the workers suffered a seizure after working under high temperatures in one of the Nike factories in the Kampong Speu province (Williams, 2018). In his research, Robert Bartholomew, a medical sociologist, noted that the mass seizures that were witnessed in Cambodia could be likened to the 19th-century outbreaks that were experienced in the United Kingdom due to poor working conditions (Williams, 2018).

Moreover, the 2019 protests in Hansae, Vietnam, were caused by the outburst by some of the employees who claimed that the long working hours exposed them to injuries within the factories. Despite the media reports, Nike denied the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) entry into its operational areas for inspection. This led to some of the university affiliates to cut ties with the company by failing to renew their contracts. According to the WRC report, Nike continued to violate the rights of the laborers despite the public uproar. Nike workers toil for long hours under high temperatures to provide for their children, and this is a trend that should be discouraged in the strongest terms possible.

In a 2018 report that was published by CNN, it was indicated that a section of the workers still complains about their working environment (Williams, 2018). Some of the employees noted that they were forced to continue working until they met their targets.

Workplace Management Theories

Management theories relate to the collection of concepts that guide employers or leaders to operate their businesses or organizations effectively. The failure to create an effective working environment for every employee leads to the distortion of the public image, declining profits, low workplace motivation, as well as labor turnover. Besides, the use of best practices highlighted by the management theories enhances the success of teams at the workplace. Many approaches tend to focus on the leadership concepts that guide entities on developing strategies that work best for most of the teams. Despite the protests and the backlash that have been experienced by Nike, leaders at the company have focused on applying specific approaches to retain employees and also protect its reputation.

Scientific Management Theory

This approach was developed by Frederick Taylor, who recommended that people should be forced to work to achieve high productivity. Besides, the theorist maintained that leaders have the responsibility of assigning specific tasks to employees to match their abilities. He also recommended that team members should be trained and supervised to ensure that they remain efficient in their operations.

In his studies, Taylor also proposed an environment through which all people understand each other because this encourages effective planning, coordination, and control. He also added that productivity should be simplified and optimized, and therefore, every individual should be assigned responsibilities that they are good at. Some of the principles attached to the theory include monitoring of worker performance, hiring the right employees for each job, dividing duties between the management and workers, as well as determining the best way to accomplish a specific task.

While Frederick Taylor focused on optimizing operations, he ignored the aspect of humanity. Perhaps, this is one of the approaches that have been applied in the Nike factories. This is because the management focuses on increasing productivity while failing to make the working conditions more effective for the workers. This theory should not be applied by the company because it does not guarantee coordination between the employees and the employers. Protests that have been witnessed at Nike have been caused by failed talks or engagement between the laborers and the management.

Bureaucratic Management Theory

According to Max Weber, effective leadership is achieved through the establishment of clear rules of governance (Rosenberg et al., 2016). The theorist maintained that there should be total control over the workers in any entity. Achieving high productivity requires the managers to set specific goals through which the performance of the employees could be analyzed. The theory focuses on efficiency, and therefore, by establishing strict rules, workers would concentrate on achieving their targets.

The bureaucratic management approach is associated with the delegation of duties at the workplace. According to the theorist, there should be no flexibility, and therefore every employee should be able to complete all their tasks within the provided time frame. Besides, he maintained that duties should not be assigned to unauthorized individuals because this would lead to the disruption of the hierarchy. The approach holds that employees can only be hired based on their qualifications, and this implies that they can only be fixed to specific positions for efficiency.

Lack of flexibility at the workplace reduces the motivation of the employees. At Nike, the workers indicate that one of the reasons they feel that they are oppressed is because the management does not consider their working conditions (Rosenberg et al., 2016).

Human Relations Theory

This approach was developed by Elton Mayo, who focused on some of the ways of increasing productivity at the workplace. According to him, the performance and satisfaction of the workers can be achieved through the introduction break times and changing the length of the workdays (Rosenberg et al., 2016). Mayo also insisted that employers should concentrate on the workers and ensure they feel valued at the workplace. Appreciating the workers can be achieved by listening and fulfilling their demands, enhancing flexibility, introducing rest days, and also providing better pay.

Analysis of the Data on Workplace Ineffectiveness

In the 2018 publication on the GQ magazine, it was noted that Nike is an example of the companies with a toxic environment (Williams, 2018). Due to such reports, numerous employees and leaders have exited the company. According to the Times report, it was established that specific women cited their disappointment with the working environment at the company (Williams, 2018). These media reports triggered a number of resignations at Nike. In March 2018, Trevor Edwards, the president of the brand, announced that he was ready to exit. However, reports indicated that he presided over a meeting that was aimed at locking women out of the company leadership (Williams, 2018). Few days after his announcement, Edwards’ vice president also issued a similar message. In April, other resignations by leaders followed, and this included the head of diversity, brand director, as well as the vice president of digital marketing. In May, Mark Parker, the CEO, also announced that he was not willing to renew his contract at the company.

According to the Guardian, Nike employees in southeast Asia earn 45 to 65 percent lower than the “living wage.” It was also noted that over 500 workers get hospitalized annually due to poor working conditions such as high temperatures as well as long working hours (Williams, 2018). According to an analysis by the GQ magazine, it was also recorded that the Cambodian workers received a monthly wage of 120 British sterling pounds. Besides, they were awarded an average of 170 GBP on overtime, and this also depended on the amount of work accomplished.

Conclusion

Economic recession is one of the factors that affect the profitability of the company and thus affecting workplace motivation for the employees (Williams, 2018). Despite its experience in the industry, Nike operates in a highly competitive environment, and therefore for it to achieve more revenues, it has to cut the labor costs. The increase in competitors is an external factor that affects wages.

Besides, the development of social media platforms has led to the distortion of the reputation of the company, and therefore, many qualified candidates have been discouraged from working for the company, and this has led to work overload on the existing employees.