Ethics Report on Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Corporation are well known across the globe for developing, producing, selling, and servicing of electrical and electronic products. The corporation operates through appliances, connected solutions, and other segments (Arita, & Harikai, 2011). The services allow them to offer air conditioners, washing machines, digital cameras, wiring devices and water-related products just to name a few. The company services and products are offered to both industrial and business consumers. Panasonic Corporation was founded in the year 1918 and it was formerly known as “Matsushita Electric Corporation” but was later changed to the current Panasonic Corporation in the year 2008 (Utsumi, & Kumakawa, 2010). This crucial organization situated in Japan should conduct their operation ethically to ensure safety and sustainability for their consumers. This report will entirely deal with the decisions that are made by the Panasonic Corporation, in order to understand properly the way the company has been operating ethically since it was founded.

Safety

Safety is a key ethical area for the Panasonic Corporation. The electrical networks should be connected and maintained safely to ensure safety for the million consumers of the organization’s products and services inside and outside Japan (Huang, et al. 2015). It is, therefore, important for the corporation to investigate anything that hinders the safety of their consumers and try all they can to implement strategies to prevent such occurrences to reduce the number of accidents in question. It is very disgusting to recall the death that had occurred in one of the workplaces in the year 2016. This accident was as a result of an employee being crushed by a heavy machinery and the corporation took this as a very serious issue (Okita, et al. 2017).
The other problem facing the organization in regard to the safety of its employees is handling of chemicals. The company has not fully complied with June 2016 regulations that were meant for risk assessment for chemical substances. In addition, there is no proper screening and monitoring for their employees in order to prevent undesirable impacts on health as stated in the law. At a point, it can be considered that the contractors are mainly focused on making profits and they will only do what they are asked by the Panasonic to do (Yuno, Kawase & Akai, 2015). The fact that Panasonic serves the public, it is also responsible for deciding what to offer. In connection, they are, therefore, required to ensure that the services and products they offer are safe for their consumers and it will be unethical to neglect such concerns as Panasonic are currently doing. The Panasonic will be endangering the safety of their own consumers if they are not going to deal with these unsafe practices.

Honesty and fair dealing

The other ethical problem that is facing the Panasonic Corporation is honesty and fair dealing with their consumers. The Panasonic has set rules that comply with corporate ethics. This was aimed at ensuring fare dealings across the globe in all countries (Rampersad, & Saleh, 2014). The company has employed several individuals to ensure that all the employees worldwide adhere to their set rules. The set rules to ensure honesty and fair dealing are ignored in several instances due to dishonest and criminal acts by the employees in the company and as a result of lack of understanding and awareness. This is normally common for individuals working for the company in countries where the legal system are not clearly realized (Kozolchyk, 2014). Ignoring internal regulations of any institution is a key consideration because they are meant to ensure honesty and fairness and it might build a bad picture of the company if not adhered to. It is was noted sometimes back that some company information had leaked outside and this was a clear indication that somebody could not be trusted among the employees. However, the company claims that dishonesty employees are not as per the company’s intentions, but it is important to note that it is illegal and unethical to go against the Procurement act (Banerjee, 2015).

Respect

The other key issue in the Panasonic Corporation is “respect” which is a key consideration in the operation of any given company across the globe (Amano, 2014). Previous records clearly indicate that there have been cases of lack of respect by the employees to their consumers. The statements uttered by some of the employees in the company show a lack of concern for the safety of the company’s consumers. The company is trying everything to ensure that such cases are not experienced in future at any cost. The company will be committed to ensuring respect for human dignity and will try everything humanly possible to ensure that employees in the company realize their potential (Yamagata, et al. 2014). The company will also ensure respect for their employees and respect for all the basic human rights without discrimination. The unethical practices that have been recorded previously it the core issue the company should work extra hard to solve in future.

Improvements

In order to make Panasonic better, there are many things that need to be rectified in the company. The most important issue to deal with is safety for both the consumers and the employees. It is clear that the company does not follow some of the regulations on chemical handling and security of employees when handling heavy machinery. However, it is true that the chemical use has not led to any casualties so far, but lack of prevention is very dangerous in case of occurrence. On the other hand, the occurrence will lead to a reduced trust in the company’s products and services. Therefore, the Panasonic should consider safety and try their best to ignore their priorities. All their contractors should at higher levels consider safety and check safety in any of their connection. This is the best step for the company to ensure the prevention of accidents in the long term. Another important step is ensuring that they keep open information for shareholders to avoid distrust amongst themselves.

Causes

The main cause of the unethical practices in the Panasonic Corporation in greatly connected in the way the company is dealing with both the free market and the government. Besides, the fact that the company is largely being financed by the state, they don’t consider the fact that the operation happens on an open market. The company lacks a consideration for both sides which should be a key consideration, therefore, making it very difficult to satisfy both sides for the services and products they offer. In order to prevent unethical decisions, it is important if the company will ensure an open environment for the Panasonic and the government and between Panasonic and the contractors in the corporation. Regardless of the fact that decision making will be slowed in the company, it will as well lead to the making of informed decisions.

Conclusion

Panasonic has faced a number of challenges in the past few years in connection to ethical dealings. These involve personalized interests among the shareholders and the several dishonesty practices that were recorded by the employees of the company. However, if proper steps are considered, it will be very easy for the company to deal with such unethical practices. The company should try everything to ensure that they build an environment of trust and honesty in order to stop leaking of information and ensuring informed decision making among shareholders. This will be the best way to improve the reputation of the Panasonic Corporation and reduce the number of accidents that have been recorded previously.