Common Threats to Multinational Companies and Powerful Citizens

Multinational Corporation - business enterprise with manufacturing, sales, or service subsidiaries in one or more foreign countries, also known as a transnational or international corporation. These corporations originated early in the 20th century and proliferated after World War II.

As previously identified, there are also “non-legal/extra-governmental” political risks which could bring unexpected upheaval to foreign firms. Macro political risks such as the threat of violence, corruption, war or military coup, political instability and terrorism are all direct threats to foreign investors.

The ethical responsibility of a multinational corporation is making sure that they are responsible for their own actions. When it comes to operating in a different country a corporation should go in their remembering that they are there for a temporary time. The important thing is that they are there as visitors that have a privilege to be there. A corporation should be able to work in a different country and create as minimal damage as possible. A corporation should be responsible for all the damage that happens due to their operation in the country. In Savages, the oil corporations went into Ecuador to operate but failed to clean up the mess that was left behind. The oil company did only what they said they would clean. Meaning that they did only the very minimal that they agreed to do. Although some might argue and say that the oil company did all that needed to be done. They are still responsible for all the damage that they have caused in Ecuador. It is not morally right for the company to just leave and not help Ecuador with all the damage that would have not been there if it was not for the oil companies operating in their country. It is not fair to the people to have to deal with all these problems

Globalization, defined as “a process that aims to expand business operations on a worldwide level, and was precipitated by the facilitation of global communications due to technological advancements, and socioeconomic, political and environmental developments” has been around for ages. However, it is a force that is becoming increasing more relevant in today’s world. In layman’s terms, globalism is the merging or “melting” of individual perspectives and markets into a more global market. As of recently, society has been obsessed with studying globalization. However, the conversation is rarely economical. Globalization is typically looked at as a social or cultural force that is shaping and connecting the world. This is scene in clothing styles, human travel, and popular culture that has become increasingly similar across nations. That sentiment isn’t wrong-globalization does have a cultural side, but many people are missing the economic impacts that this new world is facing. In fact, the economic implications of globalization and how governments legislate to control them leads to significant opportunity, but also huge threat globally.

Strategic managers have the responsibility to ensure that work places are safe when work is outsourced. Strategic decision makers must consider many aspects when pursuing international strategies (Coulter, 2013, p.198). Before doing business internationally, however, strategic managers need to explore, examine, and understand as best as they can, the important issues in the international environment (Coulter, 2013, p.198). Although outsourcing work has its advantages, the drawbacks must also be considered. Some safety concerns could include: 1) differences in language, culture, and value systems, 2) ethnic, religious, and

The United States has many great threats to their security. There are people everyday who would do anything to make sure the US can no longer be the biggest world power. The United States is currently battling some pretty serious threats to their security such as: ISIS, cyber threats, climate change, and nuclear security within other states. Globalization has hugely impacted America’s position in the world because of our democracy being the world’s leading superpower and our MNC’s contributing greatly to American consumerism.

During the late 19th century, America was seen as a flourishing nation which provided a desired relocation for millions of people. From these mass migrations into the United States, citizens developed concern from the fluctuations between economic depression and prosperity and if the nation could afford absorbing than many people (Schaller, Schulzinger, Selfa, Greenwood, Kirk, Purcell, & Dean p. 619) Migrations haven’t stopped in the 21st century and today more than ever there is increasing foreign threats because of the negative sentiment many countries have towards US policy. From this ever changing world with higher threat levels what has homeland security evolved into, and why is it important in Texas amongst the rest of the southern states that share a border with Mexico? With the combination of international airports, a large coastline, and a long stretch of border Texas can potentially be vulnerable from numerous foreign threats because of its sheer size and lack of oversight of many locations.

It is also important to note that quite a number of multinational corporations have in the past setup operations in developing nations in an attempt to make cost savings especially in terms of labor and production costs. With a growing

Corruption may undermine the fight against terrorism by draining public resources, and trust in government institutions. As one scholar puts it, “corruption begets distrust, which begets disorder, which breeds a host of other evils.” The expectation is that countries or regimes in the developing world witnessing an aggravated grand corruption will have difficulties curbing terrorism. Comprehending how illegal and corrupt behavior cause systemic damage to national security is essential to how states, especially, weaker states, plan to defeat terrorism. It will also aid the international community to know how and where to direct foreign assistance and military aid to countries battling against terrorism.

Governments might change or new political parties might be elected, but the concern of the multinational corporation is the continuity of the set of rules or codes of behavior and the continuation of the rule of law—regardless of which government is in power.

In the past decade, a pattern has emerged of large corporations choosing to contract their labour to foreign countries in order to remain competitive. However, companies tend to relocate production to the poorest nations where labour is cheap and output is chief. As a result, outsourcing labour has made multinational companies subject to criticism for their immoral practices. This has created the classic ethical debate as to whether it is possible for multinationals to engage in developing nations in both an ethical and lucrative manner. For businesses, the difficulty is if one of these values should be favoured over the other.

These corporations are a direct by-product of this ‘Money Culture’, and definitely its most unsettling one. In the corporate world, only the most ruthless corporations, with their hostile money grabbing policies and intelligently tailored advertisements to promote their revenues; while advancing the cause of consumerism; thrive. Owing to the legalization of extensive lobbying, where lawmaking can be influenced by paying politicians, these few capital rich corporations and organizations can influence governmental decisions to a great degree, especially foreign policies, effectively leaving third world countries open for exploitation by them.

Analysts agree that TNCs have altered the international relations principles that were once dominated by nation-state relations (Kline, 2005).Transnational Corporations have in many ways exploited the weaknesses in the territorially guarded national laws. In many developing countries, organizations affiliated to external control have challenged and in some instances threatened government sovereignty. Economically stable countries such as the United States of America, have attempted to extend their influence to other countries of the world through TNC. This situation is what led to governments endorsing the non-interference policy in national political affairs (United Nations, 2003). Interesting to note is the role that non-governmental organizations played in this debate. Nongovernmental organizations have been known to not only exert political pressure on governments with little democratic space, but also collaborate with TNCs in this quest. (Heinrich, 2001). For example, many NGOs sort the active involvement of TNC in removal of the apartheid regime in South Africa. This in return, has created tension between these governments and the NGOs with the NGOs calling for the increased political involvement of the TNCs.

Since the phenomenon of globalization, companies that decided to broaden their horizons have to face multiple challenges and their management functions need some adaptations. While going abroad, companies may become concerned with the subject of corruption that makes the business with foreign countries even more complicated. Even if there is a willingness to fight and reduce the corruption across the world, companies must be aware that this subject exists and must take it into account while dealing with foreign companies, their efforts to understand and adapt to local corruption influencing their success of

For example the "pajama game" discussed in global perspective is not unusual for multinational corporations. The pajama caper was a controversy arose over a US embargo forbidding US businesses to trade with Cuba. Wal-Mart was selling Cuban made pajamas in Canadian market. When Wal-Mart officials in US came to know about this, they ordered all offending Cuban pajama's as it was against US law. Canada was incensed with the obtrusion of US law on Canadian citizens. The Canadian citizen's felt that they should be able to buy Cuban-made pajama's if they wanted to. Wal-Mart was caught between a Canada-US foreign policy feud. Wal-Mart Canada was breaking US law if it continued to sell pajamas, and was subject to a million-dollar fine and possible imprisonment. However, if it did pull out pajamas from Canadian market it was subject to 1.2 million dollar fine under Canadian law. The ideal political climate for a multinational firm is stable, friendly environment. Unfortunately, that is never really the case, it's not always friendly and stable. Since foreign businesses are judged by standards as variable as there are nations, the friendliness and stability of the government in each country must be assessed as an ongoing business practice. STABILITY OF GOVERNMENT