Case Study - Monsanto Company

Student Name: Nguyen Thi Phuong Nhung ( Nhung Nguyen)

Student ID: 30110703

Case Study: Monsanto Company

Summary about Monsanto Company:

Monsanto is a company that has been established around since 1901. To fulfill the social responsibility, it has renovated several times during the past century. Monsanto has been a supplier item such as artificial sweeter, saccharine, caffeine extract, vanillin and artificial vanilla flavoring which were sold to Coca-Cola.  Monsanto specializes in biotechnology, or the genetic manipulation of organism. It produced plants that can survive week of drought, ward off weeds and kill insects. The emergence of genetically modified (GM) seeds was a breakthrough in agriculture industry. This seeds increased the quantity and availability of crops, helped farmer in the over the world increase food production and revenues. Monsanto has experienced a touch time with ethics, socially, environmentally and business. However, it still tries to maintain a good ethical culture.

Question 1: Does Monsanto maintain an ethical culture that can effectively respond to various stakeholders?

What is the stakeholder? As Investopedia said that : “A stakeholder is a party that has an interest in a company, and can either affect or be affected by the business “. And, what is the ethical culture? According to Business Ethics book of O.C. Ferrell, John Fraedrich and Linda Ferrell defined that “Ethical culture is used to describe the component of corporate culture that captures the values and norms that an organization defines as appropriate conduct.”

During the 1970s, the company had produced a chemical named Agent Orange which was used in Vietnam world. That chemical contained dioxin which was extremely carcinogenic. Due to the harmful of Agent Orange, a lawsuit was filed. Moreover, Monsanto produced the herbicide to kill weeds in the crop as well as the good plants in 1981. In addition, for nearly forty years, the Monsanto Company had released toxic waste into a creek in the Alabama town of Anniston. To open-pit landfills in the area, the company had disposed of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – a highly toxic chemical. As the result, the fish from creek were deformed and the population had elevated PCBs level. In short, all the things that Monsanto performed brought horrendous effects on people health and environment. Particularly, FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has to get involved and consider whether or not the seeds that Monsanto produced were safe for the environment. To build a strong business, people have to respect the government and environment. Therefore, Monsanto Company did not maintain an ethical culture that can effectively respond to various stakeholders in the past.

Monsanto has had some ethical issues in the past, but in the more recent year, they have been trying to enforce the code of ethics and making efforts to have corporate responsibility performance. In more detail, the company has given million dollars to developing countries to help communities there. Moreover, Monsanto created a Code of Business Conduct to provide guidance on the firm’s ethical expectations which is considered as maintaining integrity among many different stakeholders. Additionally, Monsanto has developed a three-tiered commitment policy: (1) produce more yields in crops, (2) converse more resource, and (3) improve the lives of the farmer. Besides, Monsanto Company established the Monsanto Fund which contributed to educational opportunities and the needs of the community over the world. They committed $10 million to provide fellowship opportunities for Ph.D. students who seek to get their degree in rice or wheat plant breeding. Furthermore, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, Monsanto supported youth programs and donated about $1.5 million in scholarship to students who want to pursue agriculture-related degree. In my point of view, Monsanto is trying to maintain and fix an ethical culture responding to various stakeholders effectively in the recent years. However, I do not think they can response effectively in a timely manner.