Mattel and Toy Safety Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Mattel and Toy Safety - Research Paper Example Toy safety is a kind of regulation based practice by which a regulating body of a country ensures the safety of the kids from the harm generated by using unsafe products. There are certain potential hazards which can cause harm to the kids such as ingestion of the magnetic toys, the presence of small parts of the toy, sharp parts of the toy and use of the chemical substance. To ensure the product safety, the regulating institutions set different standards which need to be maintained by the toy makers. This is done to eliminate the accidents that can cause injury to the kids. A few of the regulating bodies include the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Toy Industry Association and International Center for Corporate Accountability (ICCA). By the period of 2000, China had become the leader in the world in respect of toy production. Until the time of 2007, 80 percent of the toys coming to the US were manufactured in China. Mattel produced 65 percent toys in China. One of the primary reasons behind this is definitely cheaper human resources. For the cost minimization perspective, Mattel delivers its most of the demands through the manufacturing head present in China but owing to the corruption of a few subcontractors in China it created a major obstacle for the company in terms of its goodwill by a considerable extent. Noticeably, it can be highlighted that Mattel has achieved various awards rendered by a few of the well-known organizations such as World’s Most Ethical Companies 2013 by Ethisphere Institute, Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For and CR Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens 2012. These recognitions have increased the company’s goodwill (Schmidt, 2008).     Mattel’s Social Responsibility and Ethicalness towards the Safety of Its Toys Mattel has been recognized as one of the most ethical along with so cially responsible organizations but in relation to the issue of product recall it violated the child safety norms thus, it can be termed guilty and socially irresponsible. Acting Chairman of Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Thomas Moore stated: â€Å"This penalty should serve notice to toy makers that CPSC is committed to the safety of children, to reducing their exposure to lead, and to the implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act" (CNN Money, 2009). Each and every organization works for its profit and sales maximization. Its motive is to survive in the market but it always needs to maintain certain rules and regulations with regard to its safety of products during its manufacturing process. In the year of 2007, Mattel recalled nearly 20 million Chinese manufactured toys after violating the safety norms.