Bribery: Facts and Arguments

This essay sample essay on Bribery Essay offers an extensive list of facts and arguments related to it. The essay’s introduction, body paragraphs and the conclusion are provided below.

Ethical Issues – Bribery In this paper on ethical issues, I will be presenting my perspective on the issue of Bribery in doing business. I will be summarizing three distinct articles from different sources, namely, Harvard Business Review, Bloomberg Businessweek and The Wall Street Journal, respectively. Later in this paper, I will provide some insight on how this aspect of corruption could potentially affect my business project for this course.

The three articles that I have used in this paper are varied in their content.

I have tried to use each article to portray an example of a potential bribe, the thin lines of definition for bribery, and how there are laws existing in this country to prevent the occurrence of bribery in doing business. The Harvard Business Review, for a brief time handled a forum in its blog titled ‘Good Decisions’ and in which I came across an article where an IT consultant wants to know if the sales commission that he was offered from a vendor he selected for a client is legitimate.

This example is important because the vendor has already benefited from an impartial selection process that consultant did for his client.

Example Of Bribery In Business Ethics

The controller of this forum, Clinton Krover lists out three reasons why it may not be right for the consultant to accept the ‘Commission’.

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As he points out, legally, the consultant represents his employer and so any ‘commission’ actually belongs to his employer and not him personally. It is another thing that the ‘commission’ itself may “violate bribery and kickback laws” notwithstanding the fact that the consultant may also violate his contractual obligations to his employers by a potential acceptance of the ‘commission’.

The more obvious judgment with relation to this paper is with regards to ethics. An acceptance of the ‘commission’ would mean that the consultant would keep this vendor in his good books for future selection processes for his clients. Mr. Clinton provides an easy self questioning test to satisfy ethical guidelines with questions on how you may feel if “your employer and client found out about your “commission”? ” and if one is “willing to ask your employer and client upfront if they object to you taking it? The author also points out the prudential reasons wherein the concerned person is at risk of a conflict of interest for indulging in such an act. Overall, it shows that bribery, in its forms of kickbacks or commissions can jeopardize an individual or a firm’s reputation and damage its business. In my next article in study from Bloomberg Businessweek, the author stresses on the need for a global standard on ethical practices and denounces the use of “Situation Ethics” in dealing with businesses abroad where standards of ethics in business are different than in the US.

The author mentions the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) which makes it unlawful for American firms to indulge in bribery or kickbacks or any form of payment to secure or retain a business abroad. While American multinationals complain of losing competition to companies from other countries, maintenance of such ethical standards is required across all fronts in all parts of the world. The author lists out a few repercussions due to failure of maintaining such standards globally. As stated above, the reputation of a company is at stake each time an employee of the company or its subsidiary involves in corruption to win contracts abroad.

The examples of Siemens and BAE systems is shocking and yet, as the author says, something company executives do not shy from to win large contracts. The author also stresses on the need for the CEO to fully spread through his chain of command, the importance of engaging in corruption free practices everywhere in the world. I see the need because an employee in a remote subsidiary abroad may not be aware of the strictness of the guidelines by which his company operates and a mistake by him costs the entire company a lot in reputation and in fines imposed by institutions of justice.

As in the course textbook “10 day MBA”, wherein the author discourages the view of Milton Friedman’s “Businesses are in the business of maximizing shareholder’s value…” and that “Corporations pay the taxes that supports government’s social action”, this author also stresses on the importance of ethical business practice before a crude capitalistic view of profit making at any cost. In fact, the author endorses the idea that “good ethics create shareholder value”.

My third article, from the Wall Street Journal showcases the stringent rules surrounding the conduct of businesses abroad enforced by the US Dept. of Justice. And while this article focuses on the foreign business aspect of corporations, I wanted to bring this up because of the nature of the bribes that involves “lavish dinners” and “holiday gifts” that also come under corrupt practices. The penalties imposed upon corporations regardless of their nationality, so long as they are registered in the US stock markets is also something that educates.

The repercussion, beyond the multimillion dollar fines, is the loss of reputations and even the stepping down of CEO and board members because of the shareholder backlash because of such events. In conclusion, these articles do not differ on their opinion that bribery and similar corrupt acts demolish the reputation of an individual or a firm, and the reuslting loss of trust and business in the future. They do not differ in their examples from a legal microscope. Where they may differ is in their geographies but never in their belief in good ethical practices.

And while foreign corrupt practices do not affect my business, the possibility of bribe in a business such is mine is highly possible because of our efforts to obtain customers to sell low cost authentic food to corporate workforce. Even to the extent of obtaining favoritism within corporations for marketing our services. It may also come in the form of biased contracts for our resources such as vegetables, meat and grains. These are the two major areas where I see a possibility of bribery as a corrupt act.

The importance of ethics in business practices notwithstanding, I would like to quote from the first article “we judge ourselves by our motivations, but we judge others by their actions”. I would like to have my business be judged solely in terms of its quality of service and value. Abirami Rajendran [email protected] edu ——————————————– [ 1 ]. http://blogs. hbr. org/korver/2008/10/sales-commission-or-bribe-1. html [ 2 ]. http://www. businessweek. com/managing/content/feb2008/ca20080212_394828. htm? chan=careers_managing+index+page_top+stories [ 3 ]. http://online. wsj. com/article/SB124329477230952689. html