Understanding The Link And Role Of Social Theories In Bribery, Corruption, And Ethics Essay.

• Explain what is bribery, corruption and its link to ethics.
• Examine bribery and corruption using ethical relativism. Can such practices be seen as part of a nation’s culture? If so what are the implications.
• Contrast bribery and corruption from the perspective of consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics and how a manager would use to explain, defend or refute the practice.
• Contrast the Australian legislation that addresses the bribery of foreign officials with at least 1 other country’s approach.
• Based on the above discussion, draw your own conclusions as to whether you believe bribery and corruption is or is not ethical.

Bribery, Corruption and its link to ethics

Corruption is dystopia and a market where the rules of the fair play and perfect competition are prevailing is a utopia. We can understand the depth of this statement while discussing corruption and bribery on the scale of laws and ethics. The definition of corruption and bribery may vary in different societies. They may vary in various countries as well; there are many societies in the developing world where bribery is not a social issue on the scale of ethics. These are the society where wealth acquired by the means of the wrong means can also be considered as a status symbol. On an interpersonal level or a micro social, we can always put the theories of personal virtue ethics and consequentialism to understand the mindset of various people in the favor of corruption.

All the small and big economies of the world are now trading on a global platform. The definitions of the bribery and corruption may vary from country to country. For instance, until 1980's German business persons were showing the money spent on bribery in their spreadsheets and requesting text authorities to treat them as investments. During the last few decades, two major changes took place in the field of corruption and bribery. Many countries have come up with strict laws and declared that corruption is a white collar crime but it attracts severe punishments. In the current essay, we are compiling certain facts related to the laws and opening a debate on the role of certain social theories in the eradication of the corrupt mindsets of the people.

When an organization welcomes a new entrant on board then they introduce him to the anti-bribery and anti-corruption policy of the organization. It is mandatory for every organization to have a policy draft ready for it. Now let's see the problem at the broader level. Most of the countries across the world are maintaining strict laws against them. They are considered criminal behaviors (Ryder, 2017). Now the question arises that why we are studying them under a chapter where they are promoting ethical practices. The ideal place to study bribery and corruption should be in the books of the criminology.

Bribery is a white-collar crime; in most of the cases it hampers the spirit of the” perfect competition.” The spirit of perfect competition in the business refers to certain ethics.  The first ethic is connected with the principle of the party. All the bidders or the players in the market should be given equal opportunity and equal information to compete in the market.  

Bribery and corruption under the framework of ethical relativism

Passing on information to give undue support to any given party is corruption and receiving money and other favors in the return of the services are called a bribe. Another method of the corruption is an oversight. It is a condition when an individual sitting on the post of the authority deliberately oversights a shortcoming and award the contract and other benefits to the party on the behest of a kickback (David Hume, 2011).

At the turn of the previous century, social engineers were trying to present bribery and corruptions as the social evils. However, at the turn of this century, it became a serious crime. The laws across the world identify bribe as the fruit gained from an unlawful act hampering the good faith of that particular institution. The books of the laws define corruption under the periphery of the prescribed code of conduct associated with a post of power, post of responsibility and the post of profit.

Things have changed now, in the year 1906, the authorities in the UK passed a law under the title of prevention of corruption law. Most of the recommendations of this law were not punishable. The law was aimed more at securing the justice for the parties that suffered because of malpractices. Now in the year 2010, the authorities in the UK have once again passed an anti-corruption bill. This time they have an elaborated document in their hands. Here four major methods of corruptions and bribe are mentioned and correspond to seven different laws of the land. Beyond the level of the unethical practice, corruption has become a criminal practice in the present world (Burton, 2015).

The proverbial story of Robin Hood is the best example when we talk of ethical relativism. Robin Hood was a dacoit for the rich and princely people. He was a hero for the masses. As a human being, we tend to govern by reverse psychology sometimes. This same principle is applicable to the ethical relativism of the corruption. Many developing countries of the world admitted the fact that corruption has formed a parallel economy in those countries. We can understand it with a simple example of tax evasions. Most of the developing countries across the world are facing the pangs of tax evasion. It has become organized loot against the sovereign or the authority.

The chain starts with a manufacturer and reaches to the customer. Nobody is keen to pay the taxes. Most of them have their own logic behind it. For instance, a corruption charge on a top politician can become an excuse for a layman to go for tax evasion. This is a basic example; we are living in a complex society where the gap between the rich and the poor is very high. Poor people think that rich people are glove in hand with the authorities and they are making money because they are not paying taxes and involved in other malpractices. ‘The subjectivity associated with the ethical relativism gives them a license to go for the corruption (VinyanJjanardhan, 2016). The biggest irony of the ethical relativism strikes when an honest lot of the society finds that they are in minority.

Bribery and corruption in contrast with consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics explanation of a manager’s role

The lens of ethical relativism recommends an absolute view of the social phenomenon present in any given society. In the case of corruption and bribery, we find that this absolute view promotes a parallel establishment in the existing system. When we check the history of past five decades and read the crux of various corruption and bribery related laws then we find that on most of the occasions the focus was more on the corrupt individuals and places. However, in the recent past Government of the UK has accepted that bribery and corruption are two issues that have a direct bearing on the socio-economic health of the country and they should be treated as a social evil (Lord, 2014). This statement written in a law book gives us this impression that finally, authorities have started identifying Bribery and corruption from an absolutely different perspective.

Greed is a heavyweight word; this word has the power to suppress the weight of big concepts like consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics. On the scale of consequentialism, the equation is clear. Corruption and bribery are crimes and be ready for the consequences if you are involved in them. Some individuals can write them off as conspiracy theories, however, it is a fact that during last five decades many big corporate houses involved in the corrupt practices ended up sacking their employees or patsy people (Mark Bevir, 2015). Now this determines the tone of the consequentialism. The punishment connected to the corruption was trivial in return to gains of an employee (Johnson, 2014). Legal authorities took note on it and now we have a separate chapter dedicated to the corporate fines and sanctions against the big corporate houses if they fail to curb the corruption at an external level while dealing with government authorities (Deming, 2014).

We can also understand it with the help of a case insider trading that took place in the Galleon group. A billionaire under the name Raj Rajaratnam leaked some vital information connected to the company as a tip. The value of the information was crucial and authorities considered it as an insider trading. He was booked for 11 wired charges and punished after the charges were proved true. (Ferrell and Fraedrich, 2015, p.530). The company laws of the USA and Sri Lanka says that anybody holding a post of profit and bowed under the oath of the secrecy cannot leak certain information in the market that can be considered as a fruit for the other party. The concept of consequentialism prevails here, sometimes a kickback becomes a profit and punishment or the fine becomes an investment for a person.   

If consequentialism promoted corruption on a big scale where the corrupt bodies converted consequences into earning opportunities or rewarding opportunities then we cannot write off the role of the deontology (Huemer, 2012). The concept of the deontology describes a person who has a set of virtue ethics to abide him by the book. Most of the whistleblowers in the field of corruption are an example of the presence of deontology based practices in the system. It is a balancing factor, when we check the social behavior patterns in the offices then we find that most of the people want to follow the ethical values set by deontology or the rules books of an organization (Milgram, 2017). They themselves don’t want to break the norms or the rules. Sometimes they oversight the issues and sometimes a powerful corrupt system forces them to be a part of a parallel system.

Quite surprisingly people and organizations involved in corrupt practice also follow a rule book. This rulebook keeps them faithful with their corrupt systems. We can also study this behavior under the framework of deontology. Corrupt people also follow a code of conduct they are also driven by deontology based frameworks. The decision of the good, bad and ugly is dependent on the virtue ethics of the individual. In the present case, we can term them as managers (Moore, 2017). Virtue ethics are personal traits of an individual. Every individual has a sense of justice, give him an opportunity and he will dispense justice. The concept of the consequentialism is fruit driven; if a person feels that it is fruitful he will go for it. The concept of deontology is a more personal thing; it is a personality trait that can be diverted by brainwashing. Once again the example of the Robin Hood is applicable here, he is the enemy of the state, now it is up to deontology based mind makeup of an individual to give him a shelter or hand him over to the authorities. Virtue ethics plays the role of a catalyst in this process (Slote, 2017).

The fiscal year of 2016-2017 was significant in many ways for the laws pertaining to bribing a foreign authority. It was the year when Australian authorities not only acknowledged it as a crime but took a note on the tangents of the problem and covered them in the main provisions to strengthen the grip of the law (Strutt, 2018). Most of the countries of the world have a standard draft on this issue. The genesis of this current draft is laid on the report tabled by OECD in the year 2012 (Miralis, 2018).

On a summarized not this current legislation empowers the authorities to confiscate the properties and sanction fines in the case of alleged bribery. This draft also allows them to demand more resources to investigate certain cases. This draft also presented a legal framework where various other departments like Australian Tax office, Australian securities, and investment commissions and commonwealth director of public prosecution can come together and do the necessary things to nab and punish the culprits (Gray, 2018). The arrangement of additional security for the whistleblowers is another highlight of this draft.

When we compare the same draft with the draft presented by the UK in the year 2011 then we find that Australian can be considered in the state of infancy. For instance, the draft (legislation now) of the UK clearly defines that facilitation charges given by any company will be considered a bribe. This is one example; the Australian draft is missing many such technical terms (Business, 2018). From an objective point of view, we can say that the Australian draft is an attempt to strengthen a mechanism against corruption. On the other hand, the draft or the legislation presented by the UK shows that they are well versed with the methods of the offenders and have a book full of terminologies to curb the impact of each method.

Conclusion

Bribery and corruption are crimes, they promote certain elements that have the power to destroy the socio-economic development and the balance of any given society. On a general level, we can say that previous generations did to try to discourage the culture of bribery and corruptions on the merits of the ethics and morals. However, a phenomenon like a consequentialism came into the existence and evil forces succeed in the beating the virtue ethics of many individuals.

The complete removal of corruption and bribery is difficult in present times because we have just awakened from a slumber. The example of facilitation fees is one such thing. Until 2011, businesses operating in the UK were using the term of facilitation fees in front of the tax authorities as a necessary expanse in their business. The time has come when we need to change the rule books. The UK has set an interesting example by removing facilitation fee from the list. Countries like Australia are taking a good initiative in the field of the removal however, they need to understand the core of the business all over again and add more terminology into their legal drafts.

Corruption and bribery are a white-collar crime. Things become even more difficult when the stakes become bigger. The introduction of the laws against the corporate bodies in the UK draft is a great example. Other countries should follow it. Just like the flies even the tiger in the cave of the corruption deserves equal punishment.

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Strutt, J. (2018). The CCC dishes up a banquet of scandal as corruption claims rock WA Health Department. Retrieved from  ABC News, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-18/ccc-dishes-up-banquet-of-scandal-in-health-department-corruption/10132106.

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