Bribery and corruption is a way of life in many countries. These practices affect the way international business is regularly conducted. However, in most of these countries, it is illegal to offer or receive bribes or engage in corrupt practices. Yet corrupt practices are a part of the ‘culture’ of ‘doing businesses. Unless companies ‘conform’ to such practices, in many cases, international business cannot be transacted.
This essay will attempt to provide discussion about bribery and corruption in international trade example in vary different point of view in according to the principal ethical system suchlike religious, philosophical and ‘natural’. It will be analyse the case of Siemens bribery scandal related to ethical issues.
Bribery is a most important issue of concern to many companies. Incident of bribery vary across many countries but everyone has a different concept about it as Hong Kong and Greek managers are less critical of bribery in certain situations than Americas. Paying bribery carries with it a great risk to damaging the company reputation with the country which the briberies are paid and at home. Moreover, there is also the risk that the corporate culture of the company will become more open-minded of several of other practices at the legal issues. There is also evidence to suggest that those countries with the reputation for bribery and corruption damage themselves as it reflects in their economic growth has a low rates for high level of corruption suchlike Nigeria.
Corruption can be grand in which run through government ministers, head of state and senior officials, it is al about distortion of decision making “where there is a lot of government, there is a lot of bribery.” (The Economist 2006 p132). O...
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Ethics is concerned with the study of morality and the application of reason to elucidate specific rules and principles that determine right and wrong for a given situation (Crane & Matten, 2010). Since law does not necessarily cover the morality of many controversial issues, moral reflection ought to be performed on any action, regardless of its lawfulness. The growing power of business in today’s society has enabled businesses to significantly impact the world. Hence, business ethics is highly relevant as it could determine whether businesses contribute or cause harm to the society at large.
The question of why bribery is illegal in the first place is fundamental to the discussion of its practice and legality. Foremost, it can be considered wrong in terms of normative ethics, both deontologically and teleologically. Teleological ethics holds that the outcome of an action is the determining factor in whether or not it is moral. Should bribery create economic distortions resulting in suboptimal development in the aggregate, it would be economically beneficial in the long run to criminalise bribery. Therefore, application of a consequentialist view asserts that bribery, in being detrimental to the economy, i...
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The existence of bribery and unethical behavior is rampant in the world market and may not change overnight. The question of bribery has been distilled in business literature as a question of ethics. In this situation at the airport with the customs officer, it is important to distinguish between business ethics and personal ethics. In a business ethics situation, the Foreign Corruption Practices Act would prohibit offering any bribe to the custom office – for example to free a shipment of goods that was lost in red tape (Pitman & Sanford, 2006). Most companies also have policies against bribery as well. In this situation, however the main issue at hand is that of personal ethics. When in a situation where your company is unknown and there is no business being conducted, normal business ethics and laws (including FCPA) do not apply only personal ethical standards.