Essay On Ethics In International Business: Bribery And Corruption Analysis.

Analysis of ethics that are related to bribery and corruption.

Ethical Issues in International Business Practices

Organization is associated with the various set of activities which are undertaken to achieve the certain goals and objective. Ethics is the term which is used to determine the rightness of the act and moral philosophy which is used to determine the concept of rightness and wrongdoing of the particular undertaken act. With the increasing international business, many organizations are breaching with the ethical business practices and code of conduct to adapt with the international culture. The main objective of this report is to identify the ethical issue related to bribery and corruption cases in the international business cases.  In the starting of this report, ethical issues in the international business practices are being identified after that by using proper international ethical business theories and ethics code of conduct proper resolution program is developed to mitigate those identified issues.

Ethics are the element of evaluating the actions in according to the moral principles of values and assists in mitigating the unethical business operations in organization. It reflects the language, values, beliefs, behavioural patterns and attitudes which define the operational culture of any organisation in ethical manner. It has been an important part of economic environment. The bribery and corruption have resulted to several big issues on international level which have been faced by new international organisation. These issues could be resolved with the ethical standards and set business practices (Cavusgil, et al. 2014).  Managing ethical standards for any business is the primary concern for its management. Ethical issues vary from nation to nation which rise in according to their economic, political and legal norms. Ethical issues can be differing in condition of a host country to the other multinational countries (Trevino. & Nelson, 2016). These differences of standard can arise due to its employment practices, environmental norms or other human rights and moral obligations. However, many of the organizations and bodies with a view to ease the system support are inclined towards bribery and corruption. Therefore, these types of problems and issues have resulted to increased ethical issues in the business practice of the international business organization (Mason, 2017).

There are several researchers and authors have suggested how corruption and bribery have impacted the ethical perspectives of international business (Jones, Wicks, & Freeman, (2017). 

Chris MacDonald (2010), defined ethics as structural and critical philosophies which studies behaviour of people. According to him ethics are structured because it is a system of unifying diverse opinions and not an individual opinion. Ethics are the term which cannot be ignored by any firm or business organisation as it covers the whole spectrum of interaction between any individual, firm, society or the state. In the increasing globalising process which eroded the territorial bases for any political, economic or social relations or activities. These corporations which are surrounded by these overseas markets have found themselves with diverse and contradicting ethical demands. Some international markets dramatize by claiming that ethically the competitors’ tactics are destroying all the rivals. An unethical behaviour may generate immediate advantage but on a long term this can negatively affect the business (Shildrick, 2015).

Impact of Corruption and Bribery on International Business Ethics

Ethical issues which are mainly faced by the business organisation are commonly corruption, moral obligation, environmental regulations, human rights and employment practices of any corporations. In mitigating the ethical issues of any business organisation managers should acknowledge their role to shape the organisational ethics by seizing the opportunity that can strengthen the reputation of their company. Now a day companies are implementing ethics programme which is compliance based that is to prevent legal violations and ethical misconduct.  However, in order to mitigate these corruption and bribery cases, all the international business organization should adopt the stakeholder’s theory which focuses on delivering the best interest of the stakeholders (Pearson, 2017). There are some approaches to ethical issues which can help in developing the ethical growth in any organization.

There are several ethical theories and standards which could be used by international business organization to mitigate the ethical and issues such as bribery and corruptions. Many big organizations such as Wesfarmers, Fletcher building, KIWI Glassware and other international business organization have used the teleological theory, deontological virtue theory, ethical support development theory and business ethic theory. These theories have assisted all the international organizations to set up their operations on these particular countries where ethical issues related to bribery and corruption has increased the complexity and issues in the operational program (Lord, 2014). This international business organization could use virtual theories in determining the ethical values for the operational work program that will get affected by the bribery and corruptions. The virtue ethical theories will assist in determining the ethical value for the people who will get affected by the undertaken bribery and corruption cases in the long run. Another theory is ethical support system which will assist organizations to determine the code of conduct and ethical business perspective in long run.  The deontological theory is also designed to develop ethical program for employees who allow them to take all the work ethically and effectively.  These all the theories and system process have allowed organizations to strengthen the code of conduct and ethical policies in the system process (Kolk, 2016). First is the Utilitarian theory which is given by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill (19^th Century) that helps in legislator to determine the laws. According to them, ethical actions help in providing greatest balance of good over evils. This principle says that in any two actions the most ethical one will give the exact balance of benefit over the harms. The second theory of ethical standards is Virtue theory (Crane, & Matten, 2016). Virtues are similar to habits which are once acquired; it can become identity of a person.

Ethical Theories and Standards to Mitigate Bribery and Corruption

This theory strives our attention towards certain ideals which provide development of humanity and potentiality of one person to become something. This theory enables integrity, generosity, courage and self-control throughout the world. The person who developed virtues naturally disposed with moral principles and acts consistent with it. Third theory towards mitigating ethical issues are justice or fairness theory given by Greek philosopher Aristotle, who defines equal treatment for the equals and unequal, should be treated unequally. This theory runs on the fairness of any action in the business. Favouritism and discrimination is treated wrong and unjust which gives benefit to one and gives burdens to the other by discriminating them. The next theory to the ethics is common good theory given by Frederickson (Frederickson, 2016).This theory explains the interconnection between the good of any society with individuals own goods. He said that there are general conditions which are equally advantageous to everyone. This theory urges to the common good which shows us the needs of same society as our own individual needs. Like these theories lay down certain moral and ethical standards of an individual and society at large which can help in judging the ethical value of the decision of any business entity. By applying these theories managers of any international organisation will be able to distinguish the ethical and non-ethical business issues in effective manner. However, there are several countries such as Hong-Kong, Malaysia and Myanmar where accepting the bribery and corruption have been taken as custom and normal process system (Crane, & Matten, 2016). If new international business organization wants to tap this new international market then they will also have to indulge in bribery and corruption cases. It will not only make their business process ease but also assist them to easily grab the potential clients in long run. Nonetheless, immoral acts, unethical business practice and adoption of corruption and bribery cases have resulted to acceptance of unethical business practice which has negatively impacted the business functioning of organization in long run. It is analyzed that ethical morality, personhood and code of conduct to run the business on international level are the major aspects which should be considered by the international business organization to overcome these bribery and corruption cases in the particular economy (Dunfee, & Donaldson, 2017). It will eventually result to keeping the effective organization culture where employees and other concerned person will avoid the bribery and corruption cases (McWalters, Fitzpatrick, D., & Bruce, A. (2015). 

Utilitarian Theory

These ethical theories and set ethical code of conducts will allow international organization to strengthen its business transparency for its stakeholders. These codes of business practices and ethical theories will result to expending the bureaucratic processes, mitigating the ethical issues related to bribery and corruption and strengthen the work program to increase the transparency.  The support system program developed by the ethical theories will also result to sustainable business practice in long run and retain company from bribery and corruption cases in effective approach (McWalters, Fitzpatrick, & Bruce, 2015). 

There are several ethical issues and international business perceptive which could be faced by the organization due to the bribery and corruption. These two all factors have been observed as obstacles for the effective running of the business on international level for the socio-economic development.  It is analyzed that all the international business should develop proper ethical code of conduct and ethical support system in their business process to evaporate all the ethical issues in easy and determined approach.  It is analyzed that set up ethical support program and use of ethical theories and practice work as ethical support program which could strengthen the overall integrity, business virtue and ethical business practice in long run.

References

Cavusgil, S. T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J. R., Rammal, H. G., & Rose, E. L. (2014). International business. Pearson Australia, 51(1), 23-34.

Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.

Dunfee, T. W., & Donaldson, T. J. (2017). Untangling the corruption knot: global bribery viewed through the lens of integrative social contract theory. The Blackwell guide to business ethics, 61-76.

Frederickson, H. G. (2016). Public ethics and the new managerialism: An axiomatic theory. In Ethics in public management (pp. 173-191). Routledge.

Jones, T. M., Wicks, A. C., & Freeman, R. E. (2017). Stakeholder theory: The state of the art. The Blackwell guide to business ethics, 17-37.

Kolk, A. (2016). The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the environment to CSR and sustainable development. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 23-34.

Lord, N. J. (2014). Responding to transnational corporate bribery using international frameworks for enforcement: Anti-bribery and corruption in the UK and Germany. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 14(1), 100-120.

Mason, R. O. (2017). Four ethical issues of the information age. In Computer Ethics (pp. 41-48). Routledge.

McWalters, I., Fitzpatrick, D., & Bruce, A. (2015). Bribery and corruption law in Hong Kong. LexisNexis.

Pearson, R. (2017). Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). Routledge.

Shildrick, M. (2015). Leaky bodies and boundaries: Feminism, postmodernism and (bio) ethics. Routledge.

Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2016). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley & Sons.