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QUESTION: Critically examine the ethical and social concerns in global business and their relevance in the Kenyan economic situation.
Introduction
Ethics are defined as the process of distinguishing the right and good from the wrong and bad and they call for a moral responsibility to pursue the good and right. Business ethics are concerned with the good or right and the bad or wrong behavior in the business organization context. Social responsibility on the other hand goes hand in hand with business ethics. It advocates that a business should act more responsibly beyond the pure profit or economic motive. The expectations of both ethical conduct and socially responsible conduct can vary in
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3) Illegal/immoral activities in the host country; practices such as pollution of the environment, the maintenance of unsafe working conditions, the violation of intellectual rights laws in product/technology copying where the protection of patents, trademarks and copyrights is at stake. This has in particular affected to a degree the Kenyan music industry where pirating is rampant. 4) Involvement in political affairs; where political personnel get actively engaged in a country’s normal marketing operations and engage in unjust practices such as illegal technology transfers. The Kenyan government has recently handled claims where top political officers are reported to have liaised with other governments to defraud the state. These include the sale of maize to Sudan and the purchase of government land at china. 5) Questionable commissions paid to channel members; where unreasonably high commissions are paid to sales agents, middlemen, consultants and import officials as fees, there is a reason to raise eyebrows. This is an unethical practice that is present especially in the less developed and developing countries. In Kenya, import officers are known as perpetrators to this menace. 6) Dumping; I since considered dumping as an unethical practice of its own since it is present in Kenya. Dumping is where substandard products are sold cheaply to a country where the use of the product in the manufacturing country is outlawed, used
I think he should pay commission to the Middle East Ministry’s advisor. Like the advisor and the agent lawyer said it is common for these deals. The German and the Italian vendors did it. Also local agent’s most of clients which means Canadian companies did it before. It is a huge deal and he has to take it. Also advisor negotiated only $75,000 off the contract price. And I think the reason is he is interesting in his commission not about
According to Omidyar & Branson (2016), business ethics are called as corporate ethics which is a set of rules that define the right and wrong behaviour. From the research, ethics are a form of applied ethic that can be used to evaluate whether the conduct of the people are considered acceptable and appropriate. Besides, business ethics are the collective values of a business organization that can be used to evaluate whether the behaviour of the collective members of the organization are considered acceptable and appropriate. In the most basic term, a definition for business ethics boils down to knowing the difference between right and wrong and choosing to do what is right.
Both key elements have an interactive relationship that helps in building profitable businesses, as well as a well-rounded community. Ethics refers to set of beliefs about right and wrong, good and bad. Therefore, Good ethical practice help build our business, as well as help our staff members to make ethical decisions. The decision of each official can affect the entire organization. Whereas, most people come from different background and culture which also plays a vital role in shaping their ethics. Business ethics involves the application of the issues in the workplace. While much unethical behavior is illegal, one important role of business ethics is to manage behavior that cannot be covered by government laws. The universal ethical standards, which involve respect, responsibility, and citizenship, are rules that apply to people and should be held high within the workplace. Social responsibility is the obligation of a business to contribute to society. The cheesecake restaurant social responsibility affects the environment, customers, investors, and our employees. (Bruning, 2014)
Corruption schemes have differences as well as similarities. Bribery is a scheme that impacts a legal deed by proposing, providing, obtaining, or lobbying something of value to change the outcome in a favorable fashion. On the other hand commercial is similar in that something of value is offered in exchange for a certain business decision. Illegal gratuities are perks given as a reward to an employee in exchange for a decision. Most of the time illegal gratuities influence employees to make decisions not in the best interest of the organization. Economic extortion has to do with an organization or individual making a payment that will bring unwanted attention or impairment to the organization. These types of corruption schemes are very similar; however the differences exist in the conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest occur
In the business world companies will run into times that they have to make decision based on ethics. This outcome may not be illegal, but unethical, which is just as important when running a business. Business Ethics is the concept of distinguishing between right and wrong and then making the right choice. The right choice may not always be the easiest or best alternative for the organization financially, but it is the greatest option for the company and its shareholders overall. The idea of business ethics is important to create trust between consumers, the community, and others involved with a given organization.
Moreover, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it unlawful for certain classes of people and entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business. Specifically, the anti-bribery provision of the FCPA prohibits the willful use of the mails or any means of instrumentality of interstate commerce to be corruptly in furtherance of any offer, payment, promise to pay, or authorization of the payment of money on anything of value to any person. While knowing that all or a portion of such money or thing of value will be offered, given or promised, directly or indirectly, to a foreign official to influence the foreign official. Through his or her official capacity inducing the foreign official to do or omit to do an act in violation of he is or her lawful duties, or to secure any improper advantage in order to
“country characteristics affect the magnitude of the bribes and the benefits that firms derive from them.”
This typology includes government and other senior authorities in positions of trust who manhandle their influence for private increase/illegal advancement through washing of the returns of defilement. The exemplary technique utilized is complicity with suppliers of products and administrations in under-or over-invoicing merchandise and administrations supplied to the establishments headed by the degenerate
enterprise by engaging in various criminal activities, including fraud, bribery and money laundering. Two generations of
an agent of the company offered a bribe and it is shown that the company failed to create and maintain a corporate culture that required compliance with the laws against bribing foreign public officials.
The notion of ethics deals with people’s behaviors within a company. Social responsibility involves a company’s moral obligations and the manner in which the organization makes its decisions. Although ethics and social responsibility are similar on a conceptual basis, each has its own unique characteristics that express their differences and its independence of the other. Ethics and social responsibility have to be present and coincide with one another for a business to be ethically sound.
Bribery has become a common term in the corporate world, specifically when international business deals are discussed. Until 1977, it was legal in the United States to bribe foreign officials in order to receive preference or a better business deal. But, the passing of the Foreign Corruption Practices Act of 1977 and its subsequent amendments made it a criminal act for any organization within the U.S. or foreign organization doing business in the United States, to practice any form of bribery and also required the President of the United States to engage other nations in creating similar laws. Since, many nations have chosen to band together against bribery and have formed the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that ultimately created the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. This now makes it illegal to practice bribery in any of the countries that are part of this organization. While the United States and the world has come a long way in stamping out bribery, there are still some organizations that think they can get away with it but end up with massive fines and prison time. But, with so many nations banding together, one can still be hopeful for a world in which we can do business ethically with other ethical businesses around the world.
Ethics are values that guide personal thoughts and actions in knowing right from wrong. Personal conduct and behavior is based on how the individual views unethical behavior. Social responsibility is the company, management, and employees working and conducting themselves by following rules of society.
Then there is bribery, which means to offer something of value to influence actions that are going to happen. A really famous case of bribery happened in Britain with the British aerospace company. The main concern was the deal between the company and Saudi Arabia, this deal was made so Saudi Arabia could be supplied with fighter jets. The investigation spread to BAE's dealings in South Africa, Tanzania, Chile, Romania, the Czech Republic and Qatar. The investigation focused on payments made by BAE through a go between
“As a branch of ethics the field of business ethics is interested in how judgments of right and wrong, good and bad, moral obligation and responsibility, rights and duties, and the like, are made and justified” (Gill, David). As a descriptive enterprise, business ethics is an analytical exercise in understanding and explaining how people and businesses make their ethical judgments and decisions. If your business does not carry the proper ethics it cannot thrive. It takes the necessary steps within the business management to enforce these ethics upon their business. The field of business ethics is interested in more than just social and environmental responsibilities but those are certainly critical component areas.