Code Of Ethics Case Study: Mattel Toys

Mattel was founded in 1945 by Elliott and Ruth Handler. Mattel started out as a picture framed business but grew into the world’s largest toy manufacturer. The toys made by Mattel were distributed throughout 150 different countries worldwide. The enormous demand caused Mattel to seek manufacturing options in China to keep up. The company was running strong until about 2007 when their toys were found to have lead in them due to cheap paint used in the manufacturing process in China. This caused a major uproar due to safety concerns of children and hurt Mattel’s good standing as well as diminished revenues. This created some major marketing challenges for Mattel to bounce back as a trustworthy profitable business. More importantly it caused them to focus more on their ethics and responsibilities to consumers abroad. In this paper the writer will discuss some questions relating to these challenges presented. Mattel Case Study

Question 1: Manufacturers of toys most certainly have an obligation to the consumers and the society as a whole. The fact that their products are being utilized by young children and …show more content…
Mattel themselves are not the only ones to follow a code of ethics but their supply chain follows them as well. Mattel puts an enormous amount of value on ethics and the writer believes this is the main reason for their overwhelming success. Whenever Mattel becomes aware of a violation of the Code of Conduct, Company Policy or the law, we will act to correct the problem and prevent future occurrences. Depending on the circumstances, the corrective and preventive steps might include training, counseling and disciplinary actions up to and including termination of employment and civil or criminal prosecution (Mattel, 2018). Some of their principles include treating customers and employees as equal and respecting their cultural and environmental