1. Which way of thinking about ethical behavior best describes Tom's of Maine and its founder, Tom Chappell?
The business ethics behind Toms of Maine and its founder, Tom Chappell, is one which places environmental wellbeing and natural good towards society as opposed to that of using whichever practice is necessary ranging from extreme pollution in factories, animal testing, unsafe chemical ingredients, or poor working conditions, to eventually succeed in a very competitive market. Even though Tom Chappell noticed the organizations around him such as Johnson and Johnson having a much greater percentage in the markets which he competes in, with the continuing of ethical practices which his original foundations which he started the company on, and the extra work needed to be successful in competing with these other companies who have not based their business practices on such friendly terms like that of Toms of Maine does deserve recognition for the strong belief in a common good. Most companies would be discouraged with the huge faults that Tom Chappell had experienced early on in his road to success, however through continuous efforts and improvements in his own practices, Tom Chappell was able to eventually make a name for his company and the hard work did pay off with actually gaining more customers by seeing his good deed towards society. After reading the mission statement http://www.toms-of-maine.com/about/mission.asp you can really understand the reasoning behind which, the company has become such a great success, because of the goals well beyond profit in dollars, but for the environment, workers, customers and products which all contribute to a profit in the long run.
2. What potential dilemma did Tom Chappell face in the mid-1980's?
In the mid 1980s the potential dilemma Tom Chappell had to face was the way in which his products were to be sold and incorporated into the public. Such that, We were working for the numbers, and we got the numbers. But I was confused by success, unhappy with success" (Chappell) he did not just want to post good product sales, because that would have made his company the exact same as all the other companies out there. Thus he decided to enter the Harvard Divinity School where he learned his true reasoning behind his company which was I'm here to succeed. But there's a qualifier. It's not to succeed at all costs, it's to succeed according to my principles. He did not want to achieve success by testing products on animals or using unnatural ingredients in his products, and yet had he switched to using those practices on all of his products, may have made him more money, money was not the major priority in this company, which he learned after time, but it is what you can do for the whole working experience that is based internally and externally in the company. The Harvard Divinity School ended up resolving his moral dilemma of working in to the extent of not only satisfying profit but making you feel good about doing well to others.
3. How important were Tom Chappell's personal views in helping Tom's of Maine to be successful?
Tom Chappells personal views in helping Toms Of Maine to be successful were very important in that it was his driving force and did make him rise up to the challenge of not only having a lot of money, but making everyone else happy and the community being able to share his benefits. Although it would have made things much easier for Toms of Maine to follow the practices of Johnson and Johnson, the train of thought that forced Toms of Maine to make themselves a competitive distributor of household products, by having society see the efforts and the priorities set in many places as opposed to just making profit off of goods, but the charity and worker treatment, in the end, after the name has come out to the public, does in fact attract more customers than it may normally have gotten had they been just like another company that did business the typical business way that didnt regard forces outside of the company.
4. Find five internet sites that discuss ethics and social responsibility.
http://www.besr.org/aboutethics/index.html
http://www.swlearning.com/management/management_news/mgmt_news_ethics.html
http://www.learningplaceonline.com/workplace/ethics-intro.htm
http://www.businessethics.org/
http://www.businesscommunication.org/conventions/Proceedings/2003/PDF/06ABC03.pdf
another website that lists various links to other sites that discuss ethics and social responsibility but not any information specifically:
http://www.prenhall.com/scarbzim/html/links/links9.html
