4 Acting unethically (P2)

Acting unethically. 

Phillip Morris International is the leading non-government international tobacco company. It owns seven of the world’s top fifteen international brands, including Marlboro, the world’s best-selling cigarette brand. The company has always had doubt from the government and consumer but has been leading in the tobacco industry. What I wanted to know is what is it exactly that this business does to be so 'unethical'. It is still the leading tobacco company so their is something not being told to the public I suspect. 

So the first thing I tracked back to was Before 2009, where the Phillip Morris International website allegedly contained information stating that the company was against the use of children for labor practices. This was before an extensive report, compiled by the Human Rights Watch. According to the report, migrant workers contracted by farms in Kazakhstan that supply tobacco to the Philip Morris Company were subjected to conditions that often amounted to forced labor. These workers usually had their passports confiscated and were often forced to do additional work for no pay. (Independent). This is very suspicious because you could say this is a lead to child labour, the evidence of no pay and stolen passports indicates that the workers were most likely under the legal age. With knowing this the company has done 2 unethical practises within 1 issue. The first of which is telling false information on their website and the second is the unethical actions taken towards their workers and the law. Clearly doing illegal practices. 

From this research I understood that Philip morris had more incidents with the government and its law and not following them. The company has been acting unethically. This does not look good on the stakeholders of the company. The business actions can affect or be affected by those in government and the regulatory sector. 

The other stakeholders such as retailers, growers and  suppliers want to have a very transparent communication line with the company. If certain issues are not discussed it can mean people are left out and communication has not passed everyone before making decisions. To ensure a smooth running of the business and an effective production all these stakeholders have to work together and be on the same page. Am I right? But unfortunately Philip Morris the company has not done this. Meaning bad publicity and relationships created with the media and its stakeholders. 

On the other hand external stakeholders like customers want to have good quality products. It is easy for Philip Morris to keep selling cigarettes because people that smoke are addicted. Here for the company acting unethically has less of an impact on the customer. They will still want to buy the product if the quality is still good. 

Internal stake holders such as the employees might be concerned with their position in the business since it is under fire by the government. It can appose a threat of them loosing their job and also going away with bad reference. Some employees might not agree with what the business does and this can create problems within the production and management of the business. Now this goes for the people that are working in the headquarters or factory lines.. The people or children that are being forced to work in horrible condition with a minimum pay are going to want recognition and help. They are hoping for someone to step up and show the world that the business is handling illegal practices and unethical behaviour. 

Philip Morris has tried to cover up many of their unethical actions. However for a large company like them, it is very difficult to try and keep everyone happy. Customers will want good quality cigarets for a cheap price, this means the company needs to find good but cheap production lines/workers. However they have done this in an unethical way and this impacts those people that have to work under these bad conditions. Then at the same time retailers will want a large supply of cigarets to be able to sell but they cant do this when the company has a bad name. This means Philip Morris needs to retain its name and a constant supply of good quality cigarettes. With out getting any bad publicity. 

Conflicts between stakeholders can now easily be created if Philip Morris has not covered up their unethical behaviour and gotten a bad reputation trough media for example. Retailers will not want to sell their cigarets if they know that people would rather buy a different brand. social concerns are that the quality of their cigarets might have gone down due to the cheap production. Here for the other internal stakeholders of the business might experience changes in pay or certain rules. This can get them to disagree with the company and raise awareness to the employee's rights. If this happens Philip Morris has to deal with both internal and external stakeholders, basically having everyone unhappy.


The benefits of the business in the way it operates is that they are able to produce their products very cheaply. Using unethical behaviour yes! but it does allow them to make or catch more money. Philip Morris had gotten away with it for a while and even when threatened by the government, the company still tried to cover up their tracks. What the actual reason was for the unethical behaviour we don't seem to know. Thinking logically would be saying that just like any other big company Philip Morris is looking for good deals and cheap prices to produce their product. Going to less economically developed counties and employing cheap labour their is what most do. However Philip Morris decided to go 1 step further which was employing child labour. This is illegal and so in the end of the day the company was exposed by the media and put in front of the government facing major law suits. Another major drawback that came from the bad publicity was that customers were actually considering not to buy the cigarets from Philip Morris anymore. Even though most customers are addicted they still have the option to go for different cigarets that are produced under a better environment. This would take away sales from the company and so a possible loss in profit. 

To conclude, at the end of the day the companies unethical behaviour got them a bad image with their internal and external stakeholders. Then again Philip Morris tried to cover up their unethical behaviour with more unethical behaviour, which obviestly does not work.. Very stupid I would say. There is a fine line between what is accepted and what goes to far. Phillip Morris has pushed these boundaries to the limit. Here for their law suits and major public disgrace. 

please be sure to check out the rest of my blog and don't be afraid to send me a message. Im more than happy to answer any of your questions :)

Signing off

Sjors