Summary of the Strangers in the Strange Land:
Summary of the Strangers in the Strange Land: The Mitsubishi Sexual Harassment Case
Author’s Purpose
“An organization that is strong and stable and is ready to commit time, money, and patience will be more apt to reap rewards than the quick-hitting opportunist.” (,, )
Organization is composed of a group of people purposely structured to carry out an overall, common goal or set of goals. They have several aspects that were considered and are vital for progress. These sets of features includes vision (members would have an outlook in their mind on how it should be working in a time line that have been set), mission (the purpose of the organization), strategies and strategic goals (ways or set of task in order to achieve the set goal and as a final point, the values (this what truly makes the organization going, how their personal character builds a vigorous relationship with one another and their flexibility to meet the demands of every culture).
In this chapter it features the problem that existed between the managers and the employees of a multi-national corporation doing business in a foreign country knowing beforehand the diverse cultural values and belief system from their own. This clearly states that the universal ethics of foreign trade has been observed and that is highly called business ethics. In the previous viewpoint, if it is to be taken with high regards. Ergo, the acknowledged principles must be put to practice to strengthen the awareness and maintain harmonious working conditions.
Ethics is synonymous with moral philosophy that single out what is right from wrong. What has ethics got to do with business? Let me quote the words of Professor in a short interview in dated last 2005.
“Western capitalists need to enlist the entire human community in the capitalist dream, which is about pulling yourself up. Unless we can do that for everyone — in a way that respects local culture and doesn’t destroy underlying ecosystems — global capitalism is in trouble”.
This simply implies that ethical behavior is the heart of every company’s activities may it be an individual, peer or group activity depending in the cultural (region) one is habituated to stick to. Cultural differences are notable in the world of industry and trade, its function depends mainly in its employees especially by manual labor and that not only comprises a certain race or gender but variably and in multitude amounts. In this context, we shall discuss the relationship between the managers and the employees and how these two variables affect the other lawfully or just mainly on work ethics. Responsible management entails the transparency of the mandated vision, mission and goals that has been set to achieve in the long run which can be done by observing the basics of etiquette and upholding human rights.The loophole of this statement would be: how and why sexual harassment rises in distressing frequency in the corporate world. Is it because of power or gender inferiority? Or this proves that the very principle of existence, our inalienable rights together with the ideals of humanitarian movements’ that we are now facing human rights crisis in the shadow of sexual harassment in which the accustomed concern are the females in the workplace.
Ethical principles, Issues, and Applications involved
The main issue of this chapter is the examination of human rights in cross-cultural aspect in the said sexual harassment cases filed against Mitsubishi motors auto plant in America.
The said management neglected the so-called repeated occurrences of mistreatment. The U.S. EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) argued the five types of sexual harassment that has allotted an antagonistic working environment for female workers in the said enterprise. The U.S. EEOC defines workplace sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, under any of the following conditions.
- Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment
- Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual
- Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment
Basing on the above guidelines, one can say that the main factor of a sexual behavior to deem as sexual harassment is that it is unwanted by the victim. Examples of such advances are the following: unwanted and repeated indecent proposals, unwelcome gestures, jokes or comments which are sexual in nature, unwelcome flirting and pornographic photos displayed publicly or unwelcomingly.
As reported by in the morning edition, EEOC Files Sexual-Harassment Lawsuit against Mitsubishi dated April 11, 1996; , plaintiff’s attorney, partly blames the Japanese culture of Mitsubishi management for creating an atmosphere where sexual harassment may have been tolerated. However, the deputy officer of the U.S. EEOC, saying that most perpetrators were mainly Americans, did not support the pervious statement. True, that it was the culture of the plant but whether the culture of the plant had anything to do with the fact that the company was Japanese-run, is questionable.
The aforementioned simply proves that the management does have moral issues to settle. It’s not a question of cultural differences in running the said auto plant but it’s a query of adequacy in implementing laws and regulations to uphold ethical principles. Sexual harassment is a criminal offense that needs to be look-in. In the famous adage that says, “justice delayed is justice denied,” is a clear picture depicting the monopoly of power over the victim. Nonetheless, giving one a dose of his own medicine would bring about change. To embark it, is to take risk in the hope of winning the struggle. Fortunately, after long – years of tribulation, the Mitsubishi and the U.S. EEOC meet in an agreement to settle the case, last June 11, 1998 that benefited both parties.
Conclusion
Culture is defined as the way of living of people and ethnic groups. Language issues, diverse customary beliefs and practices and values are the barriers of understanding cultural differences between people of diverse ethnicity and race. The only way of becoming perceptive enough to know the boundaries of each culture is the willingness to adapt words and actions through valuing respect.
In an organization where it caters indifference among other employees not because of culture nor gender issues but the lack of responsibility to take matters at hand and create an environment free from hostility. The Mitsubishi sexual harassment case shows a defect in their administrative system to handle the said moral degradation of women that were victimized by their so – called supervisors or low – level managers but because of superiority complex they were being shunt to keep quiet or lose the job if they try to squeal or worse, receive death threats. Their executives have failed to educate themselves in the changing roles of the sexes, the laws of the land and careless enough to adapt in the cultural norms and ethical values in doing business abroad. Moreover, they have failed to exercise their power to attain a justified cause. The intimidating working milieu proves that they have been incognizant on certain inalienable truths and that is their failure to practice the two major concerns of the universal code of business ethics, the virtue theory and the natural right/natural law theory. Both laws, abhors every move that the Mitsubishi has made right from start of utter incompetence in tolerating sexual harassment towards women and the vicious sarcasm of their managers towards the complaints of such acts. The management has failed to act prudently on the moral welfare of its people by acting indifferently on the sexual allegations thus; certain human rights were tarnished and exploited. That made way for those women to make a stand.
For a foreign business to flourish in a foreign land, one must be capable to educate itself in the legal and moral obligations that might be an exact opposite from theirs. This case has made a mark in history, on how foreign businesses should act deliberately on a land other than their own. To make a commitment on their policies they have made and qualified enough to run a hostile-free environment. Thus, the adage goes, “ignorance of the law excuses no one.”
Reference:
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