Essay about Ethics in International Business

The ethical-related issues have represented the foundation of different religions and life styles. Ethics can be found in all aspects of human activity as the individuals have been preoccupied with the quality of their behavior towards the people around. Even if they do not purposefully intend to improve their relations with the others, people always evaluate their behavior from the point of view of their correctness.

What is ethics? Ethics can be defined as a set of principles used by an individual to govern his or her decisions in an effort to ensure fairness and equality. Business ethics, as defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is the applied ethics discipline that addresses the moral features of commercial activity. The same source also gives a history of business ethics which states that the concept as an academic principle is relatively young-only about forty years old; but in general is as old as trade itself. In this paper, the following aspects of ethics will be discussed: Ethical issues faced in business; recent trends in business ethics; international considerations in business ethics; quantitative techniques and ethics.

Reflecting upon the lectures of Cross-Cultural management was very useful in linking the theory I learned with the experience I had, especially, it provided the opportunity to ‘step back’ from the decisions I made and helped to identify the reasons of my behaviour in different cross-cultural situations. Moreover, commenting upon past experience brought the chance to further develop social and communication skills, strengthen cultural sensitivity and open-mindedness which are of a paramount significance in today’s globalizing world.

In difficult financial times, companies face various moral issues to try to keep up with their competitors. Although these issues have a direct impact on employee decision making, businesses rarely address how employees should assess the ethics of their actions and incorporate ethics into their decisions. Often this can be alleviated by creating and maintaining a corporate culture with a focus on

Today’s business world presents numerous ethical issues. In today’s world above board/moral ethics in organizations do not often materialize intuitively. Organization must strive to provide employees with a clear understanding of the overall company vision. This will aid employees in practicing the code of ethics, policies and procedures in the workplace. Companies must be unwavering in continuously delivering the uppermost ethics of provision in which customers, applicants and employees are entitled to under fair business practices. One major core value is to uphold responsible and fair business practices.

During the announcement of the seventh annual list of most ethical companies in the world in 2013, Alex Brigham of Ethisphere, noted that more companies find that ethical business practices increase their competitiveness in their respective industries, helping to further substantiate the notion that a culture of ethic is crucial to sustainable excellence (Smith, 2013). Researchers in the field of Organizational Behavior has found that employees are subjected to an environment of ethical dilemma constantly. During such moments employees have a choice either to pursue with ethical conduct or engage in an unethical behavior which results in harming the organization or its stakeholder (Trevino & Brown, 2004). How the employee behave greatly depends

4. Read The Merck and River Blindness Case at the end of Chapter 9 of your text.

Ethics are extremely important in the workplace to maintain order, ensuring that a company runs properly and efficiently. According to authors Colquitt, LePine, & Wesson, ethics is noted as, “The degree to which the behaviors of an authority are in accordance with generally accepted moral norms” (Colquitt, LePine, & Wesson). The decisions that individuals make on a daily basis have a great deal morality within. Characteristics that aid in the ethical decision making process include dedication, integrity, conduct, and many more. Every company makes its values and ethics known immediately after hiring an employee, or specifically, during the interview process. In many businesses, no matter how well an employee performs, workplace values and ethics are

Admiring how ethics takes a role in the workplace is a significant way to start individual's thinking about the emotional and psychological aspects of ethical decision-making. There are many steps businesses can take into account when incorporating ethical decision-making into their practices, beginning with ethics training. All businesses, regardless of for-profit status should embrace ethics training at all levels of the organization. When an entire business takes part in learning the values of ethics together the program will be more successful. Ethics training is an important motivator for productivity as well as a way to practice the organization’s values. This training will enhance awareness of employees and open up the opportunity to discuss unusual ethical decisions that may

Conducting ethical business in the United States can be seen as clear cut to us. Although we are a diverse nation, as U.S. citizens, most gain experience in the professional environment where ethics is explained thoroughly enough that one is able to determine what is ethical and what is unethical. When it comes to ethics in the international arena, Thomas Donaldson explained how that structure almost does not exist since ethical culture, practices and the social norm is different in each country. In the article, Donaldson debunked previous theories like cultural relativism and ethical imperialism while coming up with a guideline that can help companies proceed in understanding cultural difference while still being ethical. (Donaldson, 1996, pp. 48-52) As I read through the article, it made me remember past events that had cultural dilemma while helping me find new ways to help my ethical decision making skills.

Moral and ethical integrity is a major factor that affects the success and productivity of an organization because of its impact on the functions of management and the management team. As organizational ethics has increasingly become an issue of major focus resulting in organizations to face huge dilemma, there have been several questions on who should manage ethics and integrity in the firm (Segon, n.d.). In most cases, organizations tend to delegate the ethics function to the human resource management practitioners or department. This is primarily because organizational ethics is largely related to the type of employees within an organization. Notably, the development and establishment of organizational ethics is regarded as a complex

Ethical behavior in the workplace work has been proven to have statistically good benefits for a company. Employees that use good ethical behavior build customer loyalty. By, building a loyal customer base, company’s reputation for ethical behavior can help it create a more positive image in the marketplace, which can bring in new customers through word-of-mouth. Companies that promote ethical behavior in the workplace also retain good employees. Companies who are fair and open in their dealings with employees have a better chance of retaining talented people.

2. Ethical Issues in Business. It seems that every day in the news we are hearing of new company that has acted at least unethically and possibly illegally in the operation and financial reporting of their company's business dealings. There are many ethical issues in business. One major issue that we see is over and under reporting net income. Companies like to show that every quarter the net income of the business has an increase or profit. In order to show this they adopt unethical or illegal means in the operation and financial reporting. One such method is the indiscriminate use of stock options for employees that enable companies to take employment costs off balance sheet and inflate earnings. With the recent ethical issues we have

DeGeorge (1993) raises an important question for international business ethics: When is there the convergence of ethical attitudes among members of different nationalities? Despite the enthusiasm for increased global interaction and economic exchange, many people have found that cultural differences have hindered their ability to efficiently conduct business or negotiations due to their lack of understanding of the

Today I am here to educate and raise a very important topic of discussion that may, or may not affect your opinion within international organisations. Do you believe international business encourage firms and organisations to become socially responsible and ethical global citizens? What I am here to tell you today is that with the correct organisational procedures, internationally renowned businesses are able to become socially responsible and ethically recognised. However when international organisations have unseemly and immoral behavioural standards, generating ethical global citizens is out of the question.