An Ethical Analysis Model to DuPont’s PFOA Event Based on Consequentialism Perspective

DOI

10.2991/aebmr.k.210601.025How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Corporate Ethical Issues, Corporate Social Responsibility, Consequentialism, Stakeholder Analysis, Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA)

Abstract

Contemporarily, companies making unethical decisions when doing business is still a common phenomenon even facing hefty fines and reputation risk. In this paper, we focus on analyzing the consequences of DuPont’s decision to dump chemical waste - perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, toxic chemical material) into air and local waterway since the 1940s during the production of its famous product Telfon. This action had led to a serious of severe consequences to its stakeholders and a long-lasting health issues, including birth defects, cancers, etc. Stakeholder analysis is adopted in order to discuss the effects on DuPont’s four groups of stakeholders (employees, customers, the local resident, and the corporate itself) from the perspective of Consequentialism. According to the analysis of DuPont’s ethical problems, companies should consider long term consequences of their stakeholders carefully when making decision. Eventually, proposals are put forward to address ethical issues, especially for chemical companies. Firstly, the government should improve the legal system and regulatory system as well as strengthen the supervision. In addition, social media is supposed to play an importing role in finding companies’ unethical conduct and pressing on them. Lastly, in order to achieve sustainable success, it is critical for companies to raise the awareness and incorporate social responsibility into their own culture and strategies.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Zirui Liu
AU  - Xintong Li
AU  - Shang Shi
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/06/02
TI  - An Ethical Analysis Model to DuPont’s PFOA Event Based on Consequentialism Perspective
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Enterprise Management and Economic Development (ICEMED 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 143
EP  - 149
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/aebmr.k.210601.025
DO  - 10.2991/aebmr.k.210601.025
ID  - Liu2021
ER  -