This is a continuation of your first assignment. Imagine your company Essay

This is a continuation of your first assignment. Imagine your company does not currently have an ethics program and you believe - Essay Example Its aim, as far as workers are concerned, is to ensure that they work in a favorable environment that supports their career development and are treated with dignity. St. Louis Delights, though a small company when compared to international players in the chocolate industry, has a diversified workforce. The company is also committed to ensuring that it remains profitable and preserves cordial relationships with its suppliers. For the company, its stakeholders are a kind of extended family which it treats with respect. St. Louis Delights also strives to maintain the best possible service for all customers while actively looking for ways in which it can contribute to their further development. The community at large is guaranteed high quality food products and a commitment to meet and fulfill universally accepted ethical values. The company also aims to be a participant in the social as well as economical development of its community. The internationally known chocolate company, Mars, I ncorporated, has a group of five principles that it strives to adhere to in its operations in different nations. These include Mutuality, Quality, Efficiency, Responsibility, and Freedom (Karunakaran and Chatterjee, 2008). Mars Incorporated has also recently been recognized for its efforts towards ensuring that cacao harvesters in third world nations, who are its main suppliers, also benefit from the business. In West Africa, the world’s largest Cacao producer, Mars Incorporated has started programs such as the ‘Sustainable Cocoa Initiative’ to make it possible for poor farmers to operate sustainable businesses by increasing incomes along the cocoa chain of supply (Hosmer, 2008). Mars Incorporated also aims to meet other environmental preservation targets such as minimizing water use, and stopping the use of fossil fuels as an energy source in the next three decades. Other famous international corporations such as Barry Callebaut and Kraft Foods which took over C adbury’s, along with seeking to improve working conditions for third world suppliers, have also vowed to deal only in cocoa that is ethically sourced (Karunakaran and Chatterjee, 2008). All over the world, consumers, particularly in developed nations, are increasingly becoming interested in only procuring socially conscious products. St. Louis Delights is well aware of this and aims to make the necessary changes before the ethical market for chocolate grows too large to accept new entrants. Analyze ways ethical challenges affect your business and create a code of conduct for your company. Provide a rationale on how these specific codes enhance your company’s ethics program. St. Louis Delights, though not an international corporation yet, is aware of the conditions that most West African suppliers work with. The biggest ethical issue concerns the use of child labor; or, more specifically, child slaves. In West African communities where cacao is grown, poor children are used to harvest the crop without being paid in most cases (Karunakaran and Chatterjee, 2008). The children may be provided with a single meal as payment for their services. However, for them, as well as their parents, they may feel that this is adequate because they would not have any food otherwise. In places where they are paid, they receive extremely low wages. At present, there is no fail safe strategy that can be used to