Mattel Toy Company - Essay Example

Mattel Toy Company Behaving in an ethically and socially responsible way is every organization’s responsibility towards society. If however a company is immoral in any way, it must do all that it can to correct that mistake. If the organization does not do this, it will spoil its public image and this will have long-term negative impacts on the organization. This paper will look at the Mattel Toy Company case study. Every organization goes through a phase in which it faces the situation described above.

Similarly, Mattel Company also faced a situation in which the society pointed at the Company for not taking responsibility for the society. In August 2007, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission asked consumers to stop buying 967,000 pieces of a certain toy manufactured by Fisher Price which is a subsidiary of Mattel Company (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 2008). These toys were recalled because the lead in paints used in toys was 180 times more than the quantity allowed by law (O'Donnell, 2007).

This quantity of this toxic was clearly excessive and could cause a great deal of harm to the children who used it (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 2008). Besides this, a few of the Products produced by Mattel Company were also said to contain small magnets which were very dangerous for the young children who played with those toys because of the harm of swallowing them. How did Mattel Toy Company respond to this situation? Any company that wants to stay in the market, be it a giant or a leading company like Mattel Toy Company would assure the society that the company is concerned about them.

The first step that it took was to check its products immediately and consider itself accountable. It acknowledged that the lead in its paints was 0.11 percent while only 0.06 percent was allowed (O'Donnell, 2007). Mattel Toy Company also recognized its responsibility and immediately identified and recalled about 1.5 Million products that were dangerous. According to one source, the company gave the consumers the benefit of returning the products that were announced to contain excessive amounts of lead in the paint (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 2008).

Besides this, it also recalled all its toys that were said to contain small magnets. This was the result of deaths and surgeries of young children because of ingesting these small parts. The toys that were recalled because of magnets amounted to 18 Million (Mattel, 2007). All the recall information was posted on the internet and all the consumers were made aware to take action and prevent any kind of injury to their children. In conclusion, I would say that all the points discussed above clearly prove that Mattel Toy Company acted ethically after their toys were said to contain magnets and a high quantity of lead in paints.

There is no doubt that Mattel Toy Company should not have produced such products in the first place. However, it did strive to correct what had gone wrong therefore it did behave in an ethical and socially responsible way.