In this lesson, we will analyze the Bayer Crop Science Case in detail and raise issues using the framework for moral reasoning which we introduced earlier in Lesson one. Let's do something else with the Bayer case before we make conclusions about it. Let's go back to our framework for moral reasoning. The reason I do this and I keep doing it is that this is the most important element of this course. When you leave this course, you're not going to remember all the ethical theories. You're not going to remember all the cases, but what I really like you to remember is the ethical decision-making process, and the reason is, you're going to get into some tight spot. You're going to face some ethical decisions I know that. I don't know what they are though, I can't predict. If you can just sit down for five minutes or maybe 10 minutes, but five and go through these steps, sometimes it helps you think through the case and sometimes it helps you also be defending your position to your other managers, and that's important or to your team. It's very important to be able to do that because you're going to have to do that a lot, and sometimes you can convince companies to change the way they're doing things as a result we saw that in the case where the head researchers said, "Look we just have to do this." This is critical to all these people and their illnesses at stake, and by having strong arguments, he was able to convince the whole company to engage in the process of developing this drug. He didn't do it by just saying, "I think we ought to do that." He did by his clear rational decision-making. So, that's why you're going to get tired of me doing this, but what I really want is that's the take-away from the course. Very clear rational decision-making. If you don't remember anything else, this is what I'd like you to remember. Now, let's look again at Bayer Crop Science. We know what the facts are. We know something about the culture in India. We don't probably know enough except for those of you who are from India and you know a lot. But we do know there's this ancient tradition of using child labor in the farms, and it's partly because of poverty. It's part because sometimes people are too poor to get other laborers. Is partly driven by customer. But it's so ingrained and think about habits you have that are ingrained. So hard to get rid of it. That isn't bad, it's just send some of our habits are good, like getting up in the morning, brushing your teeth, and when they're little stuff, really works pretty well. But we have to think about our habits, and this is what we end up in a culture, we also want to examine the habits and the practices to see how good they are and how well they work. So, this is what this case is trying to do. Now, we saw the issues should they go ahead and forget this just block it out pretend they don't know there's child labor? But then what about the morale and the publicity bad. Should they sell it? Well, then they've got the cottonseed problem. Right, and they're going to buy from another company. There's no guarantee they don't have child labor records probably guarantee they do. So, and then there's the power dynamics. This is a huge company. It's gigantic. Multibillion dollar company. Been in India for years. It could just say "We're not going to use child labor here." But then how does that look? Big company bossing around a bunch of little farmers. They don't like it. I don't think Bayer likes it either. Most companies really don't want to do that even though they do sometimes as you know. So, they can do that. Now, we saw standard stakeholder map that I changed it by putting the children in the middle. Because I wanted us to focus on them as stakeholders. They're the issue here. Of all the issues in this case, the child labor is the issue. So, we know what the alternatives are. Sell it. Make a deal with farmers not to hire children, and then what kind of deal? Pay a premium? But how can Bayer Crop Science respect those farmers, avoid child labor, and not appear as neo-colonialist? Very difficult, but we'll see how they do it. Then these are the problems; selling Crop Science doesn't help children at all. Selling does affect Bayer's bottom line negatively. Cottonseeds are important, price is important. Indian farmers benefit from working with Crop Science. They're great. It works really well together, and the genetically modified seeds however you think about those, works very well. Indian children of course are the stakeholders. What about children's rights to education. In India education is supposed to be global. Every child is supposed to have a right to education. Supposed to be free of the government schools. But as you see and it happens in every country, in fact some children get left out for various reasons not always bad reasons, but that's what happens. So, then how do you choose? You can use a principle approach? Does this pass the mirror test? Can Bayer look themselves in the eyes [inaudible] may have child labor, right. Then we asked, what would the best company do? The most ethical company do. Will it stand the test of time? Bayer's mission to never have child labor is something they want to go on forever, and then who is harmed and who has benefit? What we've looked at that, and how do we prioritize? Can we prioritize the interests of those children? Then does it violate any moral minimums? I think the right to an education is something everyone has, and so, those are what rights are at stake. Very serious rights at stake. Then how does this actually fit with local culture? That's a real challenge, and then how do we move fair to the India? We must be fair to those Indian farmers. We must be fair to the company, and we must be fair to their mission. How is it going to be transparent? It is transparent everybody about this by the way. Companies that tried to hide things. That's crazy it doesn't work. We'll see that in the Volkswagen case. They tried to hide things then guess what? Got found out. So, there's no point in trying because everybody finds out everything these days in the media. So, there are no secrets even personal secret, so, give it up. Then what kind of virtue, what kind of company is this? Then the question about legality. Is this legal to have child labor? Actually, interestingly, in India and many of the states, India has states, it is not legal to use child labor. However, because India is so big, it's virtually impossible to enforce. So, in some of the states where they're Indian farmers using child labor, is illegal. In some it isn't. However, enforcing that is a really big challenge and the Indian government admits that. What values are at stake here? Obviously, Bayer's mission statement, the value of the cottonseeds, the respect for the farmers and their tradition, the rights of owners to get a return on their investment, the rate of Indian children for a decent education, and other consequences for each stakeholder. So, now we're left. What should Bayer do? I want you to think creatively about the options, In the next module, we'll see exactly what Bayer did.
