Panama Papers

Shaw, W.H. (2014). Business ethics: A Textbook with cases, (8th ed.). Boston, MA : Cengage.

Past research has discovered that managers react to ethical dilemmas according to the situation. If specific values that are related to ethical behavior can be identified, they would offer strong tools for managers who want to retain high standards of ethical behavior in their society.

Ethics and moral obligations are issues we all encounter at one time or another. In the professional setting, all people should act in a manner that would uphold the good of society. To be ethical, one has to determine their obligations, moral ideas, and moral philosophy (Boatright, p. 19, 2009). The case analysis involving Jacob Franklin was a perfect example of how an individual can face the dilemma of doing what is right or wrong. Businesses have their own code of ethics, and the employees within the business have to determine whether or not they will follow the company’s code of conduct. I will discuss several ethical issues in the case analysis including; failure to report information, remaining silent regarding faulty equipment,

1. Explain why ethics are an integral component of the manager’s toolbox in the 21st century. (5 Points)

The CIA is recognized as an intelligence-driven and threat-focused national security organization that works with confidential fiscal and administrative procedures, although have fallen through loop holes and broken some rules and regualtions. The case of CIA v. Wesley Swearingen will aid in conducting towards proving that the CIA is corrupt. Wesley Swearingen, an ex-FBI agent from 1951 until he retired in 1977 perpetrated and witnessed numerous violations of law by FBI and CIA agents and their operatives, heard revealing statements by other agents about their illegal activities, and read files that had documented violations of the rights of American citizens. Swearingen states that “activities of FBI agents and their ‘informers’ included warrantless

Ferrell, O.C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases (10th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage.

Careful analysis of the corporate code of ethics, applicable laws, and Scripture provided clear solutions for managers to take to avoid these incidents. First, provide employees the code of ethics, train them to follow the codes, supervise the work of the engineers, and immediately correct violations. Second, take similar steps regarding the knowledge and application of law. Third, Christians must conduct themselves within the construct of God’s Word and these principles should provide an example for others to follow.

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

9. Evans, S. T. (2010). Ethics, whether written or not, are what guide us in business. Inside

The problem to be investigated is the application of business ethics. In the business world, ethics are extremely important. Ethics are prime elements that help a business to grow and to become more productive. It is by applying proper business ethics that a business can operate in a moral or ethical business environment and managed to conduct all activities in a manner that maximizes profits while not compromising all other non-economic concerns(Schwab, 1996). Businesses have over the years failed to nurture business ethics in order to fulfill shareholders' interests and to have a culture that is oriented towards profit maximization and high performance(Jennings, 2012; Sims & Felton, 2006). This has led business to have gray areas in their activities. Gray areas are those situations or problems that do not fit exactly into any ethical analysis. These are the activities which may be represented to be immoral as a result of lying and false representations on the part of the business.

Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2011).Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases. (8th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

In the workplace as well as one’s personal life is essential for ethics to be maintained; often taking the right action is not always the most popular choice. It is important for maintaining an upstanding ethical code of conduct to be a productive individual as well as function as an employee in the workplace.

In an industry overwhelmed with fraud and corruption, Martin Marietta was ready to revamp their reputation to become an ethical company. This concept catapulted a decade of creating, developing, and tweaking an ethics program. Martin Marietta's goal was to maintain a work place with "descent people doing quality work" (page 1). But with this idea came a series of difficult challenges the company needed to overcome. Martin Marietta arose to the challenge and executed an elaborate ethics program. The programs successes were hard to measure at best. A SWOT analysis was designed to reflect upon all aspects of the ethics program. A case study was used to discuss Martin Marietta's

Just at the beginning of this month, on April 3, a gigantic leak of documents called the Panama Papers was published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Obtained from a global law firm based in Panama called Mossack Fonseca, the Panama Papers are documents that contain 11.5 million records from the past 40 years and include details on more than 214,000 offshore entities connected to people, ranging from political figureheads to criminals, in more than 200 countries and territories. The reason this is such a prime example of a leak is because the Panama Papers reveal everything about offshore tax havens and, as director of ICIJ said in a CNN article on the topic, "'The offshore world really only has one product and that is secrecy and when you take away that product they don't have anything for sale". This means that the leak shattered the secrecy of Mossack Fonseca's offshore industry, therefore possibly destroying the entire industry in itself.

In their personal and professional lives, people can and, unfortunately, sometimes do go against their moral and ethical standards. Ethical standards are what it means to be a good person, the social rules that govern our behavior. Ethics in business is essentially the study of what constitutes the right and wrong or the good or bad behavior in the workplace environment. A business is an organization whose objective is to provide goods or services for profit. The organization has a group of people that work together to achieve a common purpose. The moral challenges that these men and women face each day along with a whole range of problems that could occur, are why ethics plays such an important