You are the CEO of a major U.S. apparel company that contracts work to garment manufacturers abroad. Employees of the contractors report 20-hour workdays, pay lower than the minimum wage, overcrowded living conditions, physically abusive supervisors, and confiscation of their passports. Contractors and government officials say local labor laws are adhered to and enforced, though abuses appear widespread. You send inspectors to the factories abroad but they uncover no labor violations. A labor-advocacy group claims that supervisors coached workers to lie to your inspectors about conditions and threatened workers with time in makeshift jails without food if they talked.
1. Should you implement a monitoring system to learn the truth about what is happening?
2. Do you help the factory improve conditions, withdraw your business, or simply do nothing?
3. How might your actions affect your relations with the factory owner and your ability to do business in the country?