Global Bus Chapter 5

The most common ethical issues in business involve:

Employment practices, Human rights, Environmental pollution, Corruption, Moral obligations

Approaches to business ethics include:

Straw men .The Friedman doctrine .Cultural relativism .The righteous moralist .The naïve immoralist Utilitarian and Kantian Rights theories Justice Theories

Ethical strategy

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

Business ethics

accepted principles of right or wrong governing the conduct of business people

Righteous Moralist

an MNE's home country standards of ethics are the appropriate ones for companies to follow in foreign countries

Kantian ethics

based on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant who argued that people should be treated as ends and never purely as means to the ends of others

just distribution

one that is considered fair and equitable

stakeholders Internal stakeholders

people who work for or who own the business such as employees, the board of directors, and stockholders

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

prohibits U.S. companies from paying bribes to foreign government officials in order to gain business

Ethical dilemmas

situations in which none of the available alternatives seems ethically acceptable

Sustainable strategies

strategies that not only help the MNC make good profits, but that also do so without harming the environment while simultaneously ensuring that the company operates in a socially responsible manner with regard to its stakeholders

Corporate social responsibility

the idea that business people should take the social consequences of economic actions into account when making business decisions

Do MNEs have a responsibility to give back to societies that enable them to grow and prosper?

the idea that business people should take the social consequences of economic actions into account when making business decisions There should be a presumption in favor of decisions that have both good economic and good social consequences

External stakeholders

the individuals or groups who have some claim on a firm such as customers, suppliers, and unions

Utilitarian approach

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

Friedman doctrine

the only social responsibility of business is to increase profits, so long as the company stays within the rules of law

organization culture

the values and norms that are shared among employees of an organization)

Code of ethics

a formal statement of the ethical priorities a business adheres to

Cultural relativism

ethics are culturally determined and firms should adopt the ethics of the cultures in which they operate

veil of ignorance

everyone is imagined to be ignorant of all his or her particular characteristics

Rights theories

human beings that have fundamental rights and privileges that transcend national boundaries and culture

Naïve Immoralist

if a manager of an MNE sees that firms from other nations are not following ethical norms in a host nation, that manager should not either

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

obliges member states to make the bribery of foreign public officials a criminal offense