BarCharts QuickStudy Business Ethics.pdf
(
3753 KB
)
Pobierz
QuickStudy - Business Ethics
BarCharts, Inc.
®
WORLD’S #1
QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE
DEFINITION:
CONSTITUENTS OF THE
BUSINESS ETHIC SCENARIO
BUSINESS MORAL
RESPONSIBILITY
The study of the nature, purpose, function and
justification of rules of right conduct within the context
of commerce; broadly conceived to include the
transaction of goods and services at the individual,
corporate, and international level of exchange.
1.
Owners:
Generally are persons who own the means
of production, resources, and capital that allow a
business to function. Owners are at times placed in
a precarious ethical position when their obligations
to their employees and/or shareholders conflict with
greater societal/environmental obligations.
2.
Employees:
Employees may also be placed into a
precarious ethical position when, even with limited
decision-making power, they are expected to carry
out work which is unethical in a societal dimension,
but may be profitable for the company. In such
cases, it is problematic to make a determination as to
the exact extent of the employee’s culpability in the
wrong-doing.
3.
Management:
Managers generally have moral and
legal duties to manage a company to promote the
interests of the owners/stockholders. Concurrently,
managers have obligations toward the security and
well-being of employees. This dual-responsibility
can often lead to conflicts and tensions in the owner-
manager-employee triad. This situation is
compounded by collateral ethical responsibilities to
the public and its safety.
4.
Consumers:
Although ordinarily the consumers
needs are paramount and may well dictate over-all
policy, this should be counter-balanced with long-
term societal/environmental responsibilities. For
instance, cheap lumber resulting from deforestation
will benefit the consumer, but its overall long-term
impact to the environment and society can be
devastating.
5.
Marketing:
Dubious marketing tactics can give rise
to a myriad of ethical problems, including false,
misleading, or deceptive advertising. More
significantly, pricing strategies may amount to price
gouging in cases where a product is critically needed
and a company has a monopoly on it – e.g., certain
drugs that are produced by only one pharmaceutical
company that holds patent rights. Lastly, omission
of product information can lead to serious breaches
of ethics where serious safety issues are
downplayed, minimized, suppressed or distorted by
the manufacturer.
6.
Accounting:
A company's accounting staff may be
placed in a compromised ethical stance in cases
where short-term accounting “irregularities,” though
beneficial to the profit margin – or the job security
of certain executives – may be unfair to
stockholders, or even illegal. In such instances, the
accountant may be in the unenviable position of
tolerating a cover-up (and possibly being held
criminally liable if discovered) or disclosing the
problem and likely losing their job.
1.
The Economic Dimension:
Large businesses can
affect the economy in a variety of ways; each affect
carries with it a social responsibility of the business
for the overall economy. Business may have political
power due to its economic power; also, issues
pertaining to monopolies, down-sizing, equal job
opportunity, unfair pricing practices, and
environmental impact all pertain to a business’
economic responsibility.
2.
Competition and Responsibility:
The greater the
competition between rival business factions, and the
greater the perceived risks associated with failure
(including the possible liquidation of the company),
the greater the likelihood that ethically questionable
business practices will be used. These include
sustained price cuts, discriminatory pricing to drive
small businesses out of business, and price wars. In
the case of pricing irregularities, it is often difficult
to initially discern whether a tactic is legitimate
competition that will enhance consumer welfare, or
will ultimately be detrimental to consumer welfare.
Cases of corporate espionage, insider trading, and
leveraged buy-outs provide somewhat more clear-
cut cases of unfair competition.
PRIMARY ETHICAL CONSTRUCTS
1.
The Question of Generality:
Can the rules of right
conduct that apply to individuals be generalized to
collective entities, such as corporations?
2.
The Question of Responsibility:
Can a corporation
have moral responsibility? If so, how is
responsibility to be diffused and distributed
throughout the corporate hierarchical structure?
3.
The Question of Liability:
Provided that
corporations can be meaningfully said to be morally
responsible, must their liability
necessarily
be
proportional to their responsibility?
4.
The Question of Allegiance:
Do the commonly
accepted personal virtues of loyalty, commitment,
and devotion have a place in the employer/
employee dichotomy? Does a corporation have an
obligation to provide for a worker based purely upon
that worker’s loyalty to the corporation over many
years – even if the continued employment of the
worker is counter-productive?
THE LEGAL DIMENSION
ETHICAL CONCEPTS IN BUSINESS
The legal arena of business social responsibility exists to
regulate business behavior. The prevailing overall view
is due to the severe potential of conflict of interests;
businesses cannot generally be trusted to be self-
regulating. Some have argued that over-regulation of
business stifles competition, research and development,
and ultimately is a disservice to the consumer.
Nonetheless, it is still necessary to regulate business on
several legal dimensions. These include:
1.
Regulating Competition:
The essence of these laws
is to promote
procompetitive
practices in order to
provide the consumer with the lowest possible price
for the best possible product. Contained in this intent
are anti-trust laws designed to prevent businesses
from holding monopolies in the market for their
particular product.
2.
Consumer Protection:
These laws function to foster
the safety and well being of the consumer by two
primary means: First, insuring that the product
manufactured is safe and complies with safety
regulations; second, providing consumers accurate
and understandable information so they can make
informed decisions in purchasing the product. This
last could include truth in advertising, proper
labeling of the contents and ingredients contained in
the product, and the clear disclosure of the terms and
conditions of contracts.
3.
Environmental Protection:
Given that a short-term
business profit can often be produced at a devastating
long-term environmental cost, laws preventing the
irresponsible use of natural resources have been
enacted. Such phenomenon as strip-mining, toxic
waste dumping, indiscriminate logging and
deforestation all cause tremendous long-term
environmental damage while netting the business
responsible a greater short-term profit than more
ecologically conscientious methods.
4.
Workplace Safety:
A business can often turn a
greater profit by keeping production costs to an
absolute minimum. This will often result in
compromising worker safety. The protection of
worker safety then becomes the paramount concern
for regulations designed to hold businesses
accountable for the safety of employees, and their
compensation in case of injury.
1.
Conflict of Interest:
A state of affairs is said to
constitute a conflict of interests – or potential
thereof – in a set of circumstances where the
individual has the capacity to influence decisions
that promote their self-interest but may have a
detrimental impact upon the organization they
belong to, or the well-being of some other group.
Crucial to a charge of a conflict of interest is the
reasonable expectation that some individuals in
similar circumstances may unfairly favor their own
self-interest at the expense of others (e.g., the group,
organization, or agency).
2.
Honesty and Fairness:
Honesty is a predisposition
to generally tell the truth and inspire trust. Fairness
is the ability to be objective relative to one’s own
self-interest and to treat the self-interest of others
justly and equitably. Impartiality to one’s own needs
is the hallmark of fairness.
3.
Private and Public Morality:
Private morality
pertains to actions encompassing an individual’s life
insofar as others are not significantly impacted.
Public morality (of which business morality is a
sub-category) pertains to actions encompassing a
group and its members as to how this significantly
affects others (i.e., other groups or individuals).
SOME MORAL THEORIES
RELEVANT TO BUSINESS ETHICS
1.
Teleology:
An act is judged to be right based upon
its propensity to produce certain kinds of
consequences. These consequences are often
judged, predicted, or estimated using empirically
gathered evidence.
2.
Deontology:
An act is judged to be right based upon
the subjective intentions of the agent committing the
act, independently of the prospective consequences
– good or bad – of the act. The intentions of the
agent are often motivated by some perceived
universal moral standard (e.g., the “Golden Rule”).
3.
Relativism:
All moral standards are relative to
person, place, time and/or culture. There is no
objective, immutable, universal moral standard.
4.
Virtue Ethics:
The view that the primary and
fundamental moral foundation is to be found in a
person’s character. Rather than rules of conduct to
which persons must adhere, an individual's
personality is cultivated so that by nature and habit
they will have a predisposition to behave in a
morally righteous way.
RECOGNIZING POTENTIAL
ETHICAL ISSUES
Corporate organizations are especially vulnerable to the
phenomenon of “
group-think
”–a group dysfunction
wherein the preservation of harmony becomes more
important than the critical evaluation of ideas. Corporate
groups are especially susceptible to this when the
drive to produce profits may overshadow and
minimize the possible ethical drawbacks of the
means to produce the profits. This can prompt a
situation where safety concerns may be overlooked or
dismissed in an effort to produce the greatest profit at the
least possible cost. To avoid this, a critical dialogue between
in-group and out-group members is often necessary. The
opinions of external observers, if taken seriously, may
suffice to overcome the myopia of group-think.
1
5.
Workplace Equity:
Laws enacted to insure equal
employment opportunity for previously marginalized
groups seek to enforce compliance to affirmative
action guidelines. These tactics are designed to foster
and cultivate a workplace demographic that
accurately reflects the racial, age, gender, and other
types of diversity found in the overall population.
Controversy arises when businesses protest that they
should have the right to hire the
most qualified
person
for the job. This sometimes means that
certain types of individuals must be excluded from
consideration, resulting in the employee population
not reflecting the diversity of the overall society. For
instance, a religious educational institution may
demand the right to hire only staff of a particular
religious denomination.
6.
The Problem of Sentencing Irregularities:
Sentencing of persons convicted of so-called “white-
collar crimes”—the typical domain of breaches in
business ethics—is often along more lenient
guidelines than those for criminal convictions such as
robbery. This disparity in the application of the law
has been brought into serious question. Why should
a banking industry executive who embezzles a
fortune be given a lesser punishment than a bank
robber – provided neither incident resulted in
physical harm to persons or property?
THE PHILANTHROPIC ARENA
D.
Social Conscience:
The scope of empathy is
expanded to include not only specific others, but
the society or community as a whole. A
preliminary rudiment of conscience begins to be
formed at this stage.
E.
Social Contract and Rights:
A tacit, or perhaps
explicit, recognition of the utility and
advantage of rights and contracts
characterize this stage. Rights, values, and
legal contracts to society are recognized as
worthy of respect and preservation.
F.
Universal Ethical Principles:
The scope of
individual rights and duties to others is expanded
to become the notion of universal inalienable
rights and ethical principles. These are held to be
true regardless of any particular society’s or
legislative body’s recognition.
3.
The Role of Corporate Culture:
The prevailing corporate moral milieu can
significantly affect the moral decision-making of the
members of the organization. For instance, an
employee of a camping gear manufacturer may
become more environmentally conscientious as a
result of company campaigns that raise “ecological
awareness.” Conversely, the corporate culture of
organized crime may foster and cultivate an ethic of
callous disregard for law and law enforcement.
A.
Significant Others:
This group includes an
employee’s peers, managers and subordinates.
Of all the people in an organizational hierarchy,
significant others within the work group have the
greatest impact upon an employee’s decisions.
In the ethical arena, this is especially pertinent
since directives, memos, and seminars from
higher management may have little impact if the
significant others disagree with such
information.
B.
Absolute of Responsibility:
Employees
may feel exempt from responsibility for
unethical behavior in cases where they
were following directives from bosses and
managers. The degree to which subordinates
bear moral responsibility for the consequences of
unethical actions undertaken at the expressed
direction of their superiors is a difficult and
complex issue.
C.
Incentives and Disincentives:
Unethical
behavior may be fostered or discouraged within
the corporate culture by the system of positive
and negative reinforcement functioning within
the culture. For instance, if a large sale is made
using a system of bribes and kick-backs, and the
salesperson responsible for the unethical
business practice is not reprimanded, but may
indeed be commended, then the message is
implicit but clear: Unethical practices will be
tolerated (even rewarded), provided that they
increase sales.
D.
Extraneous Factors Influencing Ethical
Decision-Making:
Even in cases where an
employee may initially feel that they are being
required to carry out unethical directives,
compliance can be rationalized due to the
influence of extraneous factors, including low
self-esteem and the need to fit in, the need for
acceptance, the fear of losing their job, or the
fear of being demoted or not being promoted.
4.
Interpersonal Influences on Ethical Decision
Making:
The psychological aggregates of
interpersonal behavior and interaction at the
corporate level play a key role in determining
the capacity of the individual to make ethical
decisions. These factors can be organized via the
dynamics of group interaction, as well as analyzed at
the level of individual dominating personalities
within the group.
This arena encompasses business’ role as a
community member with commensurate obligations
to improve the well-being of the community. There is
an expectation that business should contribute to
improving the community. This may be realized by
subsidizing, promoting cultural events, fostering
educational programs or charitable donations.
1.
The Compatibility Paradox:
Oftentimes, the very
services and products consumers demand and
businesses attempt to supply, in their most
desirable form, may lead in the production process
to a decrease in the consumers' overall quality of
life. The methods of manufacturing that will bring
consumers the best possible product at the least
possible price may require manufacturing
techniques that have a negative impact upon the
consumer’s quality of life in the long run. E.g.,
ever faster and more ubiquitous information
technology gives rise to ever-increasing risks of
invasion of privacy and its attendant ethical
dilemmas. Frequently, the most consumer-
friendly production methods have the most
environmentally unfriendly impact. Balancing the
short-term convenience of the products’
advantages for the consumer with long-term
quality of life repercussions is a major challenge
for business and society.
2.
Philanthropic Incentives:
In many instances,
charitable donations produce indirect positive
dividends for a business. For example,
contributions for improving the educational
standards within a business’ community can be
beneficial because they increase the educational
level of the local workforce, thus saving the
company great expense in recruiting non-localized
labor.
THE ETHICAL DIMENSION
This pertains to areas of conduct within the corporation,
the community, or the society which, though not
regulated by law, are nonetheless governed by implicit
expectations and prohibitions regarding acceptable
behavior.
THE MAIN PROBLEM
Perhaps more crucial in business than any other area:
How is that which is beneficial at the societal level to be
made morally obligatory at the individual corporate
level, assuring that such compliance still allows the
primary goals of business (to wit, to make a profit) to be
sought, relatively unimpeded?
1.
Are Ethics Adequate For Instilling Social
Responsibility?
There is a divergence of opinion
whether ethical requirements that have no legal
ramifications are adequate for assuring compliance
with standards of social responsibility. Virtue theory
would hold that if the individuals that constitute a
corporation are of good character, then the
organization as a whole will be responsible, and
outside intervention and regulation would be an
unnecessary and superfluous intrusion. This leaves it
unresolved as to whether a corporation could
reasonably be expected to foster the virtues of social
responsibility, if this would significantly undercut
their profit margin.
2.
To What Extent Should The Corporate Ethical
Direction Reflect Social Responsibility?
A
business ordinarily gauges its responsibility primarily
in terms of maximizing the profit for investors and
shareholders; how can a business effectively replace
this focus with a paradigm where ethical decision
making, as this reflects the requirements of social
responsibility, becomes the core of business strategy?
3.
Can Public Relations Promoting A Positive
Corporate Image Foster Social Responsibility?
A
positive corporate image portraying the corporation
as socially responsible (e.g., by manufacturing
“environmentally friendly” products), can make the
corporation more profitable, if consumers favor the
values the corporation is promoting. Otherwise, with
a lack of profitability, the impetus for corporate
social responsibility would be lost.
THE DECISION-MAKING
SCENARIO
1
. Identifying The Ethical Issue:
The first step in any
ethical decision is to identify the problematic issue.
Two factors in this process are the perceived
relevance of the issue to overall corporate strategy
and the perceived intensity or need for the
resolution of the issue at hand. Many obstacles can
impede this process, such as group-think, which
could distort perceptions so that the relevance of the
issue is minimized or entirely dismissed, and
insensitivity of the group to the general nuances of
the issue. This last in turn can be a function of the
moral development of group members.
2.
Stages of Moral Development:
Kohlberg identifies
six stages of cognitive moral development of the
individual, ideally maturing to the final stage during
their lifetime; the stages may be summarized as
follows:
A.
Primitivism:
Individual views right conduct
simplistically in terms of negative consequences
for bad conduct. The likelihood of getting
caught for transgressions, and ensuing
punishment for disobedience, dictates the
degree of obedience, making this a very
unreliable and inefficient system.
B.
Reciprocity:
Right behavior is determined by a
reciprocal and mutually beneficial arrangement
where each party's self-interests have been
equitably satisfied. Fairness becomes of
paramount importance in this stage.
C.
Empathy:
There is a vicarious identification
with the needs and interests of others in this
stage, such that the perception of right behavior
reflects their needs and interests.
2
DECISION-MAKING SCENARIO
INTRA-ORGANIZATIONAL
INFLUENCES ON ETHICAL
DECISION-MAKING:
CONFLICT & CONFLICT
RESOLUTION
1.
Conflict:
Conflict is the result of discord between an
individual’s values and those of the corporate
culture, significant others, or society, and
it is
ambiguous as to which values should prevail.
Conflict can occur between two equally desirable
alternatives, as well as two undesirable alternatives.
Conflict can also span several dimensions of the
corporate structure.
A.
Personal-Corporate Conflict:
When there is
discord between an individual’s personal values
and corporate policy, there is the potential for
conflict. For instance, an advertising agency
may land an account for a lucrative campaign
advertising cigarettes. A top executive is put in
charge of the campaign, but may experience
conflict due to disapproval of the product,
because a parent recently died from lung cancer
caused by smoking.
B.
Social-Personal Conflict:
Disparity between
an individual’s values and the established social
norms can cause potential for conflict. For
instance, an individual with strong convictions
about the acceptability of alcohol consumption
may be in conflict with a society’s laws
restricting Sunday liquor sales.
C.
Corporate-Social Conflict:
When a corporation's
values, or products, are in discord with societal
norms, there is potential for conflict. For example, a
videogame manufacturer might want to market an
especially violent video game at local arcades; the
societal norms might disapprove of this in the wake
of increased gang violence. Sometimes,
dilemmas
may arise
in such conflicts when the production of
a product may not conform to societal values, but its
continued production may greatly help the local
economy.
2.
Guidelines for Conflict Management and
Resolution:
Although conflict resolution, especially
under conditions of great ambiguity, is complex and
difficult, there are general guidelines in such
circumstances:
A.
Personal Accountability:
Individuals working
within the coporate environment can never be
fully absolved of personal responsibility for
their unethical actions. Excuses to the effect that
they were “just doing their job” or “following
orders” can only have limited validity. For
instance, a trucker who illegally dumps toxic
waste on the directive of upper-management is
still partly responsible for his actions – even if
he does need the bonus, the job, and has a large
family to support.
B.
Long and Short-Term Corporate Interest:
Though unethical actions taken on a short-term
basis may be very profitable, on a long-term
basis they may lead to financial ruin. In conflict
resolution, it is important to be objective and
look at the big picture. For instance, a car
dealership may offer sub-standard, defective cars
at a very low price using deceptive advertising
tactics. Though sales may soar initially, once the
dealer acquires a bad reputation, it may lose
credibility and go bankrupt.
C.
The Scope of Responsibility:
The repercussions
of ethical decision-making are far ranging in
their impact. This may reverberate not only to
the immediate corporation and its
investors/shareholders, but also the surrounding
community, the environment, and the well-being
of future generations. In managing and
resolving conflict, it is important to be objective
and consider the overall situation.
Identifying
the Ethical
Issue
Stages of
Moral
Development
A.
Leadership:
The ability to assert positive
leadership is a vital part of inspiring subordinates
to ethical behavior. There are four factors which
play key roles in a leader’s effectiveness:
i.
Explicit Positive Reinforcement/Reward:
Can take the form of praise from the leader in
private or public commendation and
recognition.
ii.
Explicit Negative Reinforcement/Punishment:
May include reprimands, poor performance
reviews, demotions, or loss of pay.
iii.
Implicit Positive Reinforcement/Reward:
Occurs when a leader will tacitly tolerate
and ignore the unethical behavior of
subordinates. By failing to take appropriate
action, the leader indirectly encourages the
unethical behavior.
iv.
Implicit Negative Reinforcement/Punishment
:
By displaying hostility, scorn, ridicule, or
harassment toward “whistle blowers” or employees
attempting to behave appropriately, a leader
indirectly punishes them.
B.
Motivation:
The ability to provide incentive for
employees to do a good job and work
productively toward company goals which are
important from both a leadership and
organizational perspective.
The motivating
factors can change depending upon an
individual’s place in the corporate hierarchy.
At
the rudimentary level, the worker may only need
job security and a steady paycheck; in middle
management, bonuses, recognition, and possible
promotion become motivating factors; at the
executive level, power, prestige, and recognition
become important.
C.
Power:
The power and influence of leaders and
significant others has a direct correlation with
their effectiveness and motivational ability. John
R. P. French and Bertram Ravin have identified
five sources of power that motivate people within
an organizational hierarchy:
i.
Reward Power:
A person’s or organization’s
ability to regulate behavior by the incentive of
desirable outcomes. These may include
bonuses, recognition, pay raises, or promotion.
ii.
Coercive Power:
The operative mechanism
here is fear and intimidation for failure to
comply or conform. The measures employed
could include coercion, harassment, threatened
or actual loss of job, and demotions. Coercion
almost always leads to resentment, conflict,
low employee morale, and is best avoided.
iii.
Legitimate Power:
When a leader has
inspired strong loyalty and is a recognized
authority with legitimate power, they will have
a great influence on subordinates. This
influence could extend to an enhanced ability
to motivate employees to unethical behavior.
iv.
Expert Power:
Can yield an extremely
powerful influence upon subordinates and
their willingness to abide by the expert’s
recommendations. Expertise may be
recognized due to experience and seniority on
the job, education, and general credibility.
v.
Referent Power:
When one individual
perceives another as having like goals and
aspirations,
and has some degree of empathy
for the other,
then a base of referent power can
be established. Thus, the two view their
cooperation as mutually beneficial.
The Role of
Corporate
Culture
Interpersonal
Influences on
Ethical Decision-
Making
A.
Employee Conduct:
Generally, employees will
transgress company policy in proportion to the
likelihood of getting caught. The
extent and
severity
of such transgressions can be
significantly amplified if the employee feels
mistreated, exploited, or treated unfairly by the
corporation. For instance, an employee who
feels exploited by a company will be more likely
to make unauthorized personal long-distance
calls.
B.
Socialization:
Socialization involves the process
of assimilation and adoption of the views,
attitudes, and values of a group to which the
individual becomes a part. As a result of this
process the individual may significantly alter
their ethical outlook in an effort to “fit in.”
C.
Role-Functionality:
The role a person adopts
within an organization may also significantly
impact their ethical stance and decisions. For
instance, being in a supervisory position can
make the individual less likely to behave
unethically because they are more accountable
for their behavior and know they are expected to
provide an inspiring and professional role model.
The role-functionality of the individual then
becomes the efficiency with which they function
in their assigned role and fulfill the requirements
of the role.
D.
Process of Ethical Decision-Making:
In a
typical situation, the flow of the decision-
making process is as follows:
i.
Personal Ethics:
The individual brings with
them certain pre-existing ethical presuppositions
about what is morally permissible.
ii.
Challenge:
A situation may be confronted that
challenges the individual's convictions when an
opportunity is presented for them to transgress, and
there is an incentive to do so.
iii.
Significant Others:
The influence exerted by
significant others seems to be the greatest
determinant in the individual's decision.
iv.
Ethical Decision:
As a result of the interaction
between personal beliefs, the challenge to abide by
them, and the input of significant others, a decision
to act is made.
v.
Action:
Precipitated by the previous factors, the
individual acts either ethically or unethically.
E.
Differential Association:
This is the process of
acquiring ethical or unethical behavior patterns
due to the interaction with close co-workers,
including peers, subordinates and superiors.
Employees are more likely to behave unethically
and
rationalize it as acceptable
when close co-
workers do so. For instance, a business person
who regularly observes a co-worker charging
personal expenses to their corporate account
with the rationalization that the company “owes
them” for all their overtime, may similarly justify
their own unethical behavior. The differential
association theory holds that had the person not
observed such behavior in a co-worker, they
would have been much less likely to transgress
company policy.
3
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
ETHICS
a “traditional custom.” In such circumstances, it can
be a problematic decision for the corporation. They
must determine how far they will go to
accommodate the traditions and culture of the
foreign host. Ethical conflict is likely in such
situations.
3.
Multinational Corporations and Ethical Conflict:
Multinational corporations (MNCs) are corporate
entities that operate internationally without any
significant ties to any one country or region. The
method of operation of MNCs has raised many
questions about ethically dubious and controversial
practices undertaken by such corporations. Problem
areas include:
A
. Transfer of Jobs:
MNCs will sometimes
transfer jobs to overseas locations in an effort to
avoid local laws governing workman’s
compensation, worker’s rights to unionize, and
minimum wage. This often results in rising
unemployment at the local level. MNCs argue
that this practice raises the standard of living for
the labor hired overseas, and overall benefits the
consumer when the savings on labor result in a
less expensive product.
B.
Resource Exploitation:
Some MNCs have
been criticized for plundering local natural
resources by purchasing them at a very low
price, producing products from these resources
that are sold at a very high price, and returning
only a very small percentage of the profit to the
local economy.
4.
Areas of Ethical Conflict:
Both MNCs and
corporations doing international business can run
into ethical problems in the course of conducting
business on foreign soil. These areas include:
A.
Discrimination:
Racial, sexual, religious, or
ethnic discrimination may not only be tolerated
in certain cultures, but may be an expected part
of traditional customs and behaviors. If such
discrimination is not acceptable to a corporation
doing business abroad, this could easily mean the
failure of its enterprise. For instance, Middle
Eastern culture may exclude women from
participating in business transactions; an
American corporation that insisted on sending a
female executive to negotiate with a Middle
Eastern business interest could offend the
foreign parties and seriously jeopardize – or
completely destroy – its chances for finalizing a
contract.
B.
Price Discrimination:
This practice can take
one of two forms:
i.
Price Gouging:
Products sold abroad often
cost more than the same product sold locally
due to the added cost of tariffs, taxes,
transportation, and storage fees. Sometimes,
however, exorbitantly higher prices are
charged abroad – far higher than these
additional costs can justify. This is called
price gouging. Such practices are especially
controversial when the product is critically
needed, or essential; e.g., pharmaceuticals.
ii.
Dumping:
Occurs when a corporation will
sell its product abroad at a substantially lower
price than the cost of production. This may
occur as a tactic to drive competitors out of
business, and to create a monopoly in the
market for the product.
C.
Bribery:
In many cultures, bribery, euphemized
as “facilitating payments,” is standard business
practice. Oftentimes, there is a specific percent
of the total sale that is the understood rate of the
bribe, for expediting a specific transaction.
D.
Dumping Hazardous Products:
In some
instances, a corporation’s home country may
ban, severely restrict, or regulate its product. The
corporation may then try to sell the product in a
foreign market with much less stringent laws, or
where local officials are amenable to bribes and
“looking the other way.” For instance,
certain pesticides that have been banned in
the U.S. market because they are hazardous
to humans are marketed to foreign agricultural
concerns.
E.
Compromised Worker Safety:
Due to less
regulation of labor, worker’s rights, unionization,
minimum wage, and worker’s safety in many
developing nations, MNCs and corporations with
foreign interests will favor using such cheap,
unregulated labor. Severe ethical issues may be
raised when the labor performed is under
conditions that the home culture views as
abhorrent. For instance, child-labor, “sweat-
shops” and virtual “slave labor.” Businesses
often defend these practices with the argument
that as bad as conditions are, the jobs still afford
the people a significantly higher standard of
living than alternative employment (or lack of)
opportunities.
5.
A Global Business Ethic:
With the advent of the
Internet and ever more integrated international
business, it is foreseeable that a global business
ethic will eventually develop. Such a prediction
seems feasible in the face of ever-increasing inter-
dependency on international commerce and the
ever-increasing assimilation, cooperation, and
communication between previously isolated markets
and cultures.
The opportunity for conflict increases at the level of
international business interaction due to different
culturally defined standards of appropriate behavior in
matters of ethics, etiquette, and civility.
1.
Cultural Factors:
The tendency of people to perceive
their social milieu in terms of how their own group
differs from another is called the
self-reference
criterion
, or
SRC
for short. This criterion develops
as a function of an individual’s background and core
cultural base of socialization. Culture, broadly
conceived, comprises everything in a person’s
immediate surroundings, including shared concepts
and values peculiar to a given group. Cultural
differentiation may exist when two (or more)
cultures interact and experience incongruence and
disparity on many levels. These may include:
A.
Language:
There may be enormous
discrepancies in the meaning of words when
translation is attempted from one language to
another. This is especially the case with
advertising slogans which rely on vernacular,
colloquial, or slang expressions which may
translate awkwardly, or offensively, to another
language. For instance, to have the ability to fly
by “the seat of one’s pants” is a compliment to a
U.S. pilot, but the literal translation of this
expression would be an insult to a Russian.
B.
Body Language:
Everyday gestures and
mannerisms having a clear interpretation in one
culture may be completely misunderstood in
another. To nod one’s head up and down may
mean agreement, acknowledgment that the
speaker has been understood, or disagreement –
depending upon the culture. The amount of
personal space people find comfortable in face-
to-face interaction (i.e., the distance they prefer
to stand from one another) also varies greatly
based upon culture.
C.
Punctuality:
The acceptable margin of
tardiness may vary greatly from culture to
culture. Americans traditionally place great
importance on punctuality, but Greeks and South
Americans prefer a more relaxed approach.
D.
Conversational Etiquette:
The subject matter
and the length of time of a discussion can have
extreme cultural variation. For instance,
Americans prefer to “get down to business” right
away and immediately discuss the pertinent
issues. In some Middle Eastern cultures,
however, the convention is that the party who
first brings up business matters in a meeting has
the weaker negotiating posture, and is thus
expected to make more concessions.
E.
Ethnocentrism:
Is the often implicit,
sometimes explicit, notion that one’s own culture
is superior in some respect to another culture.
Clearly, such attitudes, if manifest, convey an
attitude of disrespect and can be extremely
counter-productive in cross-cultural business
dealings.
2.
Cultural Relativism and Ethical Conflict:
Cultural relativism is the belief that there is no single
standard for appropriate behavior that applies to all
people, everywhere, all the time. Each culture’s
standard is as valid as any other. This stance is a clear
contrast to ethnocentrism. The problem arises when
a corporation attempts to conduct business abroad in
a culture whose practices are in great discord with
that of the corporation’s home culture. For instance,
the host culture may find bribery an acceptable
business practice and discrimination against women
CREDITS:
Author:
Dr. Albert Lyngzeidetson
Layout:
Eddy Pierre
free downloads &
hundreds of titles at
PRICE: U.S. $4.95
CAN $7.50
ISBN-13: 978-142320407-7
ISBN-10: 142320407-7
Customer Hotline # 1.800.230.9522
We welcome your feedback so we can
maintain and exceed your expectations.
Note:
This
Quick Study
®
guide is an
outline
of
basic
Business Ethics. Due to its
condensed nature, we recommend you to use
it as a guide, but not as a replacement for expert,
in-depth advice.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any
information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
®
2001 BarCharts Inc. 1007
4
quickstudy.com
Plik z chomika:
adam001d
Inne pliki z tego folderu:
BarCharts QuickStudy Accounting Vol 1.pdf
(3900 KB)
BarCharts QuickStudy Accounting Vol 2.pdf
(853 KB)
BarCharts QuickStudy Algebra Vol 1.pdf
(4704 KB)
BarCharts QuickStudy Anatomy Vol 2.pdf
(10445 KB)
BarCharts QuickStudy Algebra Vol 2.pdf
(554 KB)
Inne foldery tego chomika:
Architektura i Sztuka
Astronautyka
Astronomia
Biologia
Biznes i samodoskonalenie
Zgłoś jeśli
naruszono regulamin