Pros And Cons Of Glue

Businesses always need to answer this difficult question; how to balance between profit and ethical conduct? In 1985, H.B. Fuller had to answer this question. H.B. Fuller is the leader of producing industrial glue. They have a good reputation on conducting business ethically. However, the industrial shoe glue Resistol was misused by street children in Honduras. The children were stiffing the glue’s extreme toxic fumes to get high. This issue raised attention to the public at that moment. The situation was so serious that it made up to the news and came the name of glue sniffing addicts – “Resistoleros.” As a company, they have the obligation to ensure the safety of their product, and the issue starts here. The ethical issue …show more content…
Fuller, I would argue like a Kantian, I make actions because they favor the majority of the public. I believe that we should keep selling the product in Honduras. There are two main reasons that supports my argument; one, we should not stop sales because of individuals are misusing the product, and two, pulling out is actually unethical. Firstly, in a certain extent, some population misusing our product is not our responsibility. We had clearly advertise the purpose of Resistol as an industrial shoe glue, not a drug. We also clearly warned the user of its dangerous effects. The point can be easily illustrated by an example: knifes. Knifes are obviously to be used in a kitchen to cook. If some individuals are using knifes to stab others randomly, we do not ban knifes. It is hard for a company to control every single individual from how they are using our product. The above example is just a classical explanation. Secondly, immediately pulling out of Honduras will only worsen the problem. There is a huge demand for shoe glues in Honduras since they heavily rely on exporting clothing to other countries. When we pull out, shoe manufacturers will fine another source of glue to substitute. Chances are, they will find a supplier who has less commitment to the society than us. I think the best chance to improve the problem is still in our hands. Since we are a multi-million international company, we have resources and power to resolve the …show more content…
Solving a social problem cannot be done single handed, we need the aid from the government and education organizations. There are actions we can take to directly engage with cleaning up the mess. The most effective one will be educating the public of drug use. Honduras is a developing country; they lack serious degree of education. We can team up with the government and charity organizations to help the street children to get educated. We can attack the root of the problem by, announcing PSAs, giving them schools to attend, providing addiction treatment services, etc… The problem will not be resolved in one night. However, if we do not give up, the problem will be gone in a foreseeable future. H.B. Fuller had the done the same to solve the problem. They took the responsibility and acted according to it. For them to bear the consequences it makes a good role model to demonstrate to other companies. It shows that carrying the ethical responsibility is an essential action a company should