Bus 280 chapter 5

Sustainable Strategies

Strategies that not only help the multinational firm make good profits, but that also do so without harming the environment while simultaneously ensuring that the corporation acts in a socially responsible manner with regard to its stakeholders

Business ethics

The accepted principles of right or wrong governing the conduct of businesspeople

Ethics

The accepted principles of right or wrong that govern the conduct of a person, the members of a profession, or the actions of an organization

Cultural Relativism

The belief that ethics are nothing more than the reflection of a culture- all ethics are culturally determined- and that accordingly, a firm should adopt the ethics of the culture in which it is operating

Corporate Social Responsibility

The idea that businesspeople should consider the social consequences of economic actions when making business decisions and that there should be a presumption in favor of decision that have both good economic and social consequences

Difference Principle

The inequalities are justified if they benefit the position of the least-advantaged person

Organizational Culture

The values and norms that are shared among employees of an organization

Friedman Doctrine

Theory that states that businesses should not incur social expenditures unless required by law or required for the efficient operations of a business

Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions

Went into force in 1999, obliges member states and other signatories to make the bribery of foreign public officials a criminal offense

According to Friedman's basic position

is that "the social responsibility of business is to increase profits." so long as the company stays within the rules of law

Facilitating payments help a business to

receive the standard treatment from a foreign government

Seven actions that an international business and its managers can take to make sure ethical issues are considered in business decisions

1) Favor hiring and promoting people with a well-grounded sense of personal ethics 2) Build an organizational culture and exemplify leadership behaviors that place a high value on ethical behavior 3) Put decision-making processes in place that require people to consider the ethical dimension of business decisions 4) Institute ethical officers in the organization 5) Develop moral courage 6) Make corporate social responsibility a cornerstone of enterprise policy 7) Pursue strategies that are sustainable

Code of Ethics

A formal statement of the ethical priorities a business adheres to. Often draws heavily on documents such as the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which itself is grounded in Kantian and rights-based theories of moral philosophy

Ethical strategy

A strategy, or course of action, that does not violate these accepted principles

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Adopted in 1948, which has been ratified by almost every country on the planet and lays down basic principles that should always be adhered to irrespective of the culture in which one is doing business

External Stakeholders

All the other individuals and groups that have some direct or indirect claim on the firm

Native Immoralist

Asserts that if a manager of a multinational sees that firms from other nations are not following ethical norms in a host nation, that the manger should not either

Righteous Moralist

Claims that a multinational's home-country standards of ethics are the appropriate ones for companies to follow in foreign countries

Straw men

Either deny the value of business ethics or apply the concept in a very unsatisfactory way

Personal Ethics

Generally accepted principles of right and wrong governing the conduct of individuals

Utilitarian approaches to ethics

Hold that the moral worth of actions or practices is determined by their consequences

Kantian ethics

Holds that people should be treated as ends and never purely as mean to the ends of others

Stakeholders

Individuals or groups that have an interest, claim, or stake in the company, in what it does, and in how well it performs

Internal Stakeholders

Individuals or groups who work for or own the business

Just distribution

Is considered fair and equitable

The straw men approach to ethics is compromised of four abbroaches

Naive immoralist Cultural relativism Friedman doctrine Righteous moralists

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Outlawed the paying of bribes to foreign government officials to gain business

Facilitating payments (Speed money)

Payments to ensure receiving the standard treatment that a business ought to receive from a foreign government, but might not due to obstruction of a foreign official

Rights theories

Recognize that human beings have fundamental rights and privileges that transcend national boundaries and cultures

Ethical Dilemmas

Situations in which none of the available alternatives seems ethically acceptable