An Introduction to Business Ethics

The purpose of this paper is to carefully analyze the two required textbooks for this course. The two texts are: “An Introduction to Business Ethics” by Joseph DesJardins and “Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life” by Robert Reich. This paper will analyze the views of each author as well as address the differences and similarities between the two texts.

This paper will answer a number of questions, including: what are the views of each author in regards to socially responsible behavior, what are the ethical principals or theories the books address, how does each book address the concepts of ethical and unethical behavior, what are the general differences and similarities between both books, and how does each author’s viewpoint incorporate stakeholder management and economic theory. The information and content presented throughout this paper is mainly based on the two textbooks, but additional information was gathered from multiple online scholarly sources.

The various conclusions reached throughout this paper should provide a detailed analysis of both books.Reich Versus DesJardins In its simplest form, ethics is a system of moral principals that affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. It is the branch of study dealing with what the proper actions for individuals are. It helps us answer the question, “What do I do? Fundamentally, ethics is the method by which we categorize our values and then pursue them.

Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and covers a wide variety of dilemmas such as: our rights and responsibilities, the language of right and wrong, and moral decision-making (“What is Ethics,” n. d. ). Ethics is a necessary requirement for human life. It is what guides us in deciding what course of action should be taken in various situations. Without ethics, our decisions, actions, and behaviors would be meaningless and random. Ethical standards allow us to correctly organize our goals and actions to accomplish what we value most in life. While the study of ethics is undoubtedly important, the study of business ethics is essential to the success and existence of our current business world. Business ethics is defined as the behaviors that a business adheres to in its daily operations, activities, and correspondence with the world. Most people involved in business will, at some point or another, face ethical or moral decisions and dilemmas. “These dilemmas will result in having to make choices by weighing the benefits of business decisions impart on individuals and groups with the negative repercussions that those same decisions have on other individuals and groups.

This is the core concept and dilemma most face when making ethical business decisions (“What is Business,” n. d. ). ” The difficulties and complexities of ethics, both in an individual context as well as a business context, are the foundations upon which Robert Reich and Joseph Desjardins based their books on. Robert B. Reich is the author of a book titled, “Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business Democracy and Everyday Life,” and Joseph DesJardins is the author of “An Introduction to Business Ethics.” This paper will act as an analysis comparing the views and beliefs of each author. It will look at the viewpoints of both DesJardins and Reich and uncover the methods and implementation strategies dealing with ethical behavior and the ethical decision making process. It is clear that neither author condones unethical behavior, but their approaches to dealing with such behavior differ significantly. This paper will carefully and meticulously analyze both books and compare their similarities as well as differences.

While the heart of this paper will revolve around the concept of corporate social responsibility, we will also look at a number of other components of ethics and ethical decision-making. Before beginning, I will take a brief look at each book. Reich’s book explores the transformation of American democratic capitalism into a system of supercapitalism in which corporations and the market exercise unrestrained power. It addresses the economy as hypercompetitive and turbocharged and explores the expanding disparity of income and wealth, the increase in job uncertainty, and corporate corruption, all as being part of a logical and efficient system. While Reich addresses ethics in a more abstract and creative fashion, DesJardins book is straightforward and tailored to an academic audience. Desjardins book takes a more unique approach to business ethics than most other academic literature; however, the book still manages to carefully analyze the many components, theories, and philosophies associated with the study of business ethics. The book addresses concepts such as: ethical theory, corporate social responsibility, moral rights, employee’s responsibilities, and globalization.

Although both books view ethics very differently, we will see that they still have many similarities in their methods and techniques. This paper will be broken down into various sections, each highlighting specific topics and concepts regarding business ethics. This paper will accomplish the following goals:

  • Thoroughly address each books content, methods, theories, and viewpoints regarding business ethics.
  • Address the similarities and differences between the two books.
  • Provide a brief summary of both books.
  • Highlight some of the books main topics such as: stakeholder management, economic theory, and profitability.
  • Present an in-depth analysis of corporate social responsibility and the views both authors have regarding the subject.

DesJardins: Business Ethics “An Introduction To Business Ethics” written by Joseph DesJardins is an academic textbook that incorporates current issues and topics with a straightforward and accurate evaluation of the field of business ethics. DesJardins uses a creative and distinctive approach to analyze business ethics from a multidisciplinary perspective.

The book offers a detailed analysis of many current issues and events while successfully integrating subjects such as philosophy, management, law, economics, and public policy into the subject. DesJardins focuses heavily on ethical reasoning and critical analysis throughout the book. The book is broken down into twelve chapters covering a wide range of topics such as: ethical theory, moral rights, corporate culture, ethical leadership, marketing ethics, corporate social responsibility, international business, and globalization. The book begins by providing a detailed explanation regarding the importance of studying ethics. The chapter discusses the reasons why business students frequently feel no need to take a formal course in business ethics. The chapter stresses the idea that the philosophical study of ethics will help business managers answer ethical questions of right and wrong that arise throughout everyday business activities and operations. It also explores the difference between ethos; the beliefs and customs a culture may follow, with a reasoned analysis of those customs as well as a logical defense of how we must live (“An Introduction to,” 2003).

The first chapter sets the foundation for which the rest of the book is based. It helps us understand the importance of studying business ethics, the difference between doing good and doing well, how business ethics fits into the law, and the differences between morality, virtues, and social ethics. The remainder of the book is set up in a clear-cut and simple fashion. Each chapter begins with a list of discussion questions that are later reflected upon. The chapters are also divided into various subsections. The entire book is informative, easy to follow, interesting, appealing, and precisely describes the various concepts related to business ethics. Reich: Supercapitalism “Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life,” written by Robert Reich describes, from the authors perspective, our economic life in today’s capitalist economy and the price we are paying for the political health of democracies. Robert Reich is a well-acclaimed author and political figure.

He was President Clinton’s first secretary of labor and is currently a professor of public policy. Reich argues that, in recent decades, the United States has grown stronger as a capitalist economy and has grown weaker as a democratic nation. Reich begins the book by discussing the political and economic history that has led us to our current state of capitalism and democracy. He argues that democracy in the United States is in jeopardy, as more Americans are becoming immersed in their roles as consumers and investors, and are neglecting their roles as American citizens. Reich addresses a concept and time period, which he calls the “Not Quite Golden Age” of American capitalism. This period ps from the end of World War II through the 1970’s. Reich describes this period as: “a remarkable accommodation between capitalism and democracy, where a hugely productive economic system was combined with a broadly responsive and widely admired political system (Reich, 2007, p. 15). ” During this period, the economic life of American citizens was described as stable and comfortable.

Large corporations, big labor, and the government plagued this period of stability and managed the interests of workers, consumers, and investors. Reich’s main argument addresses how the spread of capitalism, on a global level, has yet to relate with the spread of democracy. This has led to negative social consequences, such as the widening inequalities of income and wealth, the reduction in our social safety net, and heightened job insecurity. The book itself is divided into six chapters, ranging in topics from politics, to democracy, to the road to supercapitalism. Reich uses tables and charts throughout the book to demonstrate how the economy has grown proficient and successful and how democracy is becoming less receptive to common values. I believe Reich is urging Americans to take a closer look at the success of capitalism, the decline of democracy, and how we need to rebalance the roles of businesses and the government. Reich describes, in detail, how we can attain vibrant capitalism and an equally vibrant democracy.

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Business Ethics Essay Example

The watches retailed upwards of $26,000 ND were given to executives as gifts, and there was a second Instance in which the watches were 5 to 6 figure range retail price. This has not been the only case that FIFE has been in the spotlight for bribery. Another instance is with the next World Cup in 2018, in which Qatar was awarded the right to be the host country for the tournament. The reason why it is strange is that the World Cup takes place during the early summer months and in Qatar during that time frame – It Is 115 degrees outside.

This was such an obvious bribe situation again because who in their right mind would host a soccer tournament when it is 115 degrees outside? That became such a big issue that rumor has it that once the investigation is completed, If it indeed Is true that Qatar won the bid due to outside reasons, then the united States would be next In line to host the tournament. At this time US Soccer officials have declined any official word of this rumor being true. If the united States is awarded the 201 8 World Cup it will be the second time the US has hosted the games since 1994. At the end of the day, bribery happens in sports all the time.

The time when any evidence leaks out of any bribery happening behind closed doors. Then it is a public relations situation that must be contained by any sporting league. Conclude with this, do not bribe yourself in sports, play the game right and win fairly.  FIFE which is the and were given to executives as gifts, and there was second instance in which the watches were 5 to 6 figure range retail price. This has not been the only case that during the early summer months and in Qatar during that time frame – it is 115 degrees outside. This was such an obvious bribe situation again because who in completed, if it indeed is true that Qatar won the bid due to outside reasons, then the United States would be next in line to host the tournament.

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Business ethics mod

Table of contents
  • Which department do you think faces the greatest number of ethical challenges? Why?

I think human resource department faces the maximum number of ethical challenges. The human resources function within an organization should ideally be directly involved in the relationship between the company and the employee throughout that employee’s contract with the company. Each of these activities demands transparency and very challenging from an ethical perspective. The creation of the Job description for the position.

The recruitment and selection of the right candidate for the position. The orientation of the newly hired employee. The efficient management of payroll and benefits for the (hopefully) happy and Productive employee. The documentation of periodic performance reviews. The documentation of disciplinary behavior and remedial training, if needed. The creation of a career development program for the employee. HRS department should coordinate final paperwork and should host an exit interview to ensure that anything the organization can learn from the departure is fed back into the company’s strategic plan.

If the right people are hired in the first place, it is believed, many other problems are avoided down the road. Many advocates of ethical business conduct argue that HRS should be at the center of any corporate code of ethics – not as the sole creator of the code, since it is a document that should represent the entire organization HRS professionals must help ensure that ethics is a top organizational priority. HRS must ensure that the leadership selection and development processes include an ethics component. HRS is responsible for ensuring that the right programs and policies are in place.

HRS must stay abreast of ethics issues The finance function of an organization can be divided into three distinct areas: financial transactions, the accounting function, and the auditing function.

  • Financial transactions – the process by which the flow of money through an organization is Enola.
  • Accounting Tunnel – Keeps track AT all ten company’s Atlanta transactions by documenting the money coming in and money going out and balancing the accounts at the end of the period.
  • Auditing function – the certification of an organization’s financial statements, or “books” as being accurate by an impartial third-party professional. Existing and potential investors will make the decision to invest in the shares of an organization.

Provide three examples of unethical behavior that you have observed at the company you work or (or worked for in the past).

  • What were the outcomes of this behavior?

Deliberate Deception

I have seen following types: taking credit for work done by someone else, calling in sick in order to go to the beach, sabotaging the work of another person. This can be very damaging by using a person’s trust to undermine his rights and security.

In a workplace environment, this results in conflict and retaliation and less productivity. Conscience violation: My sales manager threatened to fire you unless I could sell 50 inferior quality but pricey products within the next MO. To keep your Job, I had to violate my conscience and recommend that your customers buy the pricey inferior quality product. My boss was engaging in unethical behavior by forcing me to do something wrong, and also was risking the ire and potential loss of valuable customers to meet a product sales goal.

Failed to Honor Commitments

My boss promised me an extra day off if I could rush out an important project by a certain date. But when the project was successful by that deadline and I anted to realize the day off, my boss did not agree to give me that day off citing a lot of work still pending.

Philip Kettle argues that professional marketers “should have the same ambivalence as nuclear scientists who help build nuclear bombs. ” Is that a valid argument? Why or why not? While I suppose this statement has some validity, it seems somehow exaggerated.

I would say that they probably should feel some ambivalence, but not “the same ambivalence” as the people who make nuclear weapons. The validity of this statement rests on the idea that marketing is harmful to those who are exposed to it. This is true to some degree. First of all, marketing can cause people to waste money. It can cause them to buy things that they would not have wanted to buy if they had not been exposed to the marketing. It might cause them to buy things that they will not even actually use. Second, it can harm people by encouraging them to buy things that are actually bad for them.

The classic example of this would be marketing for cigarettes. Of course, it is a major exaggeration to compare marketing and nuclear weapons. Marketing is not lethal in the same way that nuclear weapons are. It can also, at times, be beneficial and does to necessarily hurt anyone. Nuclear weapons cannot be used without killing people. Marketing can be used without doing people any harm at all even if it can at times do some degree of harm.

  • What are “Creative bookkeeping techniques”? Provide three examples.

Creative accounting, also known as competitive book keeping, is the adjustment of economical statistics, usually within the law and bookkeeping requirements, but very much against their soul and certainly not offering the “true and fair” perspective of a company that records are expected to. A common aim of creative bookkeeping will be to fill revenue outcomes. Some organizations may also decrease revealed income in excellent years to sleek outcomes. Dilatation Ana resources may also De controlled, letter to stay Walton boundaries such as debt covenants, or to cover up problems.

Typical creative bookkeeping techniques consist of off balance sheet funding, over-optimistic income recognition and the use of overstated non-recurring products. The phrase “window dressing” has identical significance when used to records, but is a wider phrase that can be used to other places. In the US it is often used to explain the adjustment of financial commitment collection efficiency statistics. In the perspective of records, “window dressing” is more likely than “creative accounting” to suggest unlawful or bogus methods, but it need to do so. The methods of creative bookkeeping modify eventually.

As bookkeeping requirements modify, the methods that will work modify. Many changes in bookkeeping requirements are used to prevent particular methods of adjusting records, which indicates those purpose on creative bookkeeping need to find new methods of doing things. Simultaneously, other, well intentioned, changes in bookkeeping requirements start up new possibilities for creative bookkeeping (the SE of reasonable value is an excellent example of this). Many (but not all) creative bookkeeping methods modify the main statistics proven in the fiscal reports, but make themselves obvious elsewhere, most often in the notices to the records.

The market has been amazed before by bad information invisible in the notices, so a persistent strategy can give you a side. One of the most important aspects of creative accounting is “Earnings management”. It occurs when professionals use verdict in economical confirming and in constructing dealings to alter economical statements to either deceive some stakeholders about the actual economic performance of an organization or impact contract results that rely on revealed bookkeeping statistics.

Earnings control usually includes the synthetic increase (or decrease) of earnings, profits, or income per share results through competitive bookkeeping techniques. Aggressive income control is a form of scams and varies from confirming mistake. Management wanting to show income at a certain level or following a certain design seek problems in economical confirming requirements that allow them to modify the tactics as far as is possible to achieve their preferred aim or to fulfill forecasts by economical experts.

These improvements amount to bogus economical confirming when they fall ‘outside the range of suitable bookkeeping practice’. Individuals for such behavior include industry objectives, individual realization of an extra, and maintenance of position within a industry. In most cases conformance to suitable bookkeeping methods is a matter of individual reliability. Aggressive income control becomes more potential when an organization is affected by a recession in company. Earnings control is seen as a pushing issue in current bookkeeping exercise.

Part of the difficulty can be found in the approved acknowledgement that there is no such thing as a single ‘right’ income figure and that it is possible for genuine company methods to develop into undesirable economical confirming. It is relatively easy for an auditor to identify mistake, but income control can include innovative scams that is concealed. The requirement for control to claim that the accounts have been prepared properly offers no protection where those professionals have already joined into conscious deception and scams. Auditors need to tell apart scams from mistake by determining the use of objective.

  • Would you leave your position within a company if you saw evidence of unethical business practices? Why or why not?

Yes, I will leave my position within a company if I see evidence of unethical business practices being followed. I will follow the steps below while making that decision:

  1. Determine whether the matter truly involves ethics.
  2. Strive to discover all the available facts before proceeding.
  3. Consult existing guidelines that might apply as a possible mechanism for resolution.
  4. Pause to consider, as best as possible, all factors that might influence the decision you will make.
  5. Consult with a trusted colleague. Because ethical decision-making involves a complicated process influenced by our own perceptions and values, we can usually benefit by seeking input from others.
  6. Evaluate the rights, responsibilities, and vulnerability of all affected parties. These evaluations should include, if relevant, any involved institution and perhaps even the general public.
  7. Generate alternative decisions.
  8. Enumerate the consequences of making each decision
  9. Make the decision.
  10. Implement the decision.
  11. Explain the potential ethical challenges presented by generally accepted accounting principles (GAP).

Accountants always make Judgments about how to record business transactions. They often base their decisions on the financial objectives of the companies for which they work while using accepted accounting principles (GAP) to steer their decisions. GAP are not a fixed set of rules. They are guidelines or, more precisely, a group of objectives and conventions that have evolved over time to govern how financial statements are prepared and presented.

And it’s this lack of a clearly laid out rule that presents the ethical challenged around GAP. The most difficult ethical problems (frequency reported) are: Client requests to alter tax returns and commit tax fraud, conflict of interest and independence Client requests to alter financial statements, personal-professional problems, and fee problems. Spas perceive that opportunities exist in the accounting profession to engage in unethical behavior When top management (partners) reprimands unethical behavior, the ethical problems perceived by Spas seem to be reduced.

Visit the U. S. Government recall Web site www. Recalls. Ova, select a product recall event from the past three years, and answer the following questions:

  1. What information would you consider to be evidence of an ethical transgression in this product recall?
  2. Other than recalling the product, what other actions did the company take to address the situation?
  3. What steps would you suggest that the company should have taken to restore that reputation?
  4. Locate the Web sites for the American Marketing Association (AMA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CPA). One has a “Professional Code of Conduct,” and the other has a “Statement of Ethics. Does the terminology make a difference? Why or why not?
  5. Compare Ana contrast ten components AT can approach.
  6. Since the AMA offers certification as a “Professional Certified Marketer,” would the organization benefit from promoting a professional code of conduct like the CPA? Why or why not?

Child Safety Seat Recalls

The defect involves difficulty in unlatching the harness buckle. In some cases, the buckle becomes stuck in a latched condition so that it cannot be opened by depressing the buckle’s release button.

Consequence: It may be difficult to remove the child from the restraint, increasing the risk of injury in the event of a vehicle crash, fire, or other emergency, in which a prompt exit from the vehicle is required.

Remedy

Grace is offering to replace the buckle with a new design, free of charge.

Registered owners will be notified beginning around early April 2014, and offered the free replacement buckle.

  • A Child safety seat is intended to provide safety to the child. But the consequence of this recall says: It may be difficult to remove the child from the restraint, increasing the risk of injury in the event of a vehicle crash, fire, or other emergency, in which a prompt exit from the vehicle is required. That is an ethical transgression.
  • Grace is offering to replace the buckle with a new design, free of charge. Registered owners will be notified beginning around early April 2014, and offered the free replacement buckle.
  • Other than recalling and replacing the existing faulty products, Grace should publicly demonstrate that they have put better process and intros in place to avoid similar defects in their products in the future. That would have helped them to restore their reputation.
  • They do not have much of practical difference.
  • The purpose of both of them is to enforce ethical professional practices form their members
  • Code of conduct depicts the standard procedures to be followed to do a work within professional boundaries. Statement of ethics outlines the ethical behaviors related to a particular organization or profession.
  • No. In marketing profession, ethical challenges are much more evident than a lack of standards. So statement of ethics makes more sense.

Setting the Tone

Legal developments in recent like Serbians-Solely Act, with its emphasis on “tone at the top” and its requirement that publicly traded companies disclose whether they have a code of ethics to deter wrongdoing. The Federal Acquisition Regulation and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines also have a significant impact on organizations’ ethics policies and practices by requiring or providing incentives to encourage businesses of all kinds and sizes to adopt codes of conduct, train their employees on these codes, and create effective audit and reporting mechanisms.

HRS plays a crucial role in shaping corporate ethical codes, policies and procedures and then communicating and teaching that information to the workforce. In many companies, the top HRS manager either serves as the De facto chief ethics and compliance officer or works with the person in that role to manage ethics and compliance programs. Apart from the chief executive officer, there may be no more important ethical role model in the organization than an HRS manager. Employees watch HRS and they should.

HRS managers, we essentially need to serve as the poster children for ethical behavior. HRS managers who thrive as ethical role models almost always play central roles in conducting ethics-related audits, notes Marjorie Doyle, principal of ethics consulting firm Marjorie Doyle & Associates in Lundeberg, Pa. , and a member of the Advisory Board of Directors for the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics. As a former chief corporate ethics and compliance officer, “l spent a lot of time with HRS,” she says. HRS managers are “trying to get people to do the right thing.

They also tend to manage the annual performance review process and operate the communications outwork within the company, both of which are crucial to ethics audits,” Doyle says. “They have a feel for whether certain behaviors are as ethical as they need to be. ” Laying the Groundwork Ethics audits ensure that behaviors an organization espouses in its code of conduct and policies and procedures exist in practice and that behavior forbidden in these documents does not occur. The risk of neglecting ethics audits can be severe.

After its ethics-related implosion, Enron became well-known for the fact that the framed values statements in conference rooms were at odds with employees’ behavior on trading floors. And, more-immediate problems potentially exist for companies that do not conduct ethics audits. The danger can spread to other stakeholders, including customers, suppliers and community members. “If word gets out that you are not an ethical organization, you run the risk of losing business,” Crane notes. Conducting an ethics audit requires a team effort as well as a clear definition of ethical behavior.

While many larger companies staff a chief ethics and compliance officer position, that individual is not solely responsible for each employee’s behavior. For this reason, Conway, Ark. As an ethics committee consisting of top legal, finance, HRS and operational executives. “We want to have diverse skills on the committee and to make sure all of our geographies are represented,” says Andrea Woods, SPAR, vice president and corporate counsel for the private company with about 850 employees. Anabolic Construction’s ethics committee takes responsibility for monitoring and investigating ethics hotlist calls and e-mails.

The hotlist system is managed by a third-party provider, an arrangement that Woods says strengthens adjectively Ana Independence. En committee conducts tenets audits as part of an annual internal audit process. In addition, a divisional controller, an HRS employee and Woods conduct spot ethics audits on the recommendation of the committee.

Depending on company size and auditing resources, Crane notes, some companies may audit their entire ethics programs only once every two years. However, the occurrence of a major organizational realignment may necessitate more frequent ethics audits in its wake. Whether or not corporate leaders seek outside help on ethics audits depends on the nature and magnitude of the issues. “If the issue involves something very important to the company, it helps to get an outside perspective and the impartial Judgment that a third party provides,” Crane says. If the company conducts the audit internally and outside stakeholders are paying close attention to the issue, it can be more difficult to say, Yes, we audited our ethics internally and everything is Just fine. ‘ That may be received as a matter of the fox guarding the heinous”.

Making It Tangible

Regardless of whether ethics audits are woven into internal audit processes, performed internally in response to changing risk profiles or conducted by an external auditor, the question is “What are you auditing against? Says Mark Snyder, senior knowledge leader at learn, a company that helps businesses develop ethical corporate cultures. The answer requires a distinction between two disciplines frequently lumped together in corporate America: ethics and compliance. Ethics refers to the amorphous area of behavior. Compliance refers to adherence to legal regulations. A company may be fully compliant yet still engage in unethical raciest. While that may seem like a clear distinction on paper, it becomes muddled in a global business environment.

Compliance audits compare internal behaviors to external regulations. Ethics audits compare internal behaviors to internal guidelines on behavior? guidelines that exist in corporate codes of conduct and ethics-related policies and procedures. Of course, some compliance problems may stem from ethical lapses; others may arise from process or operational bugs. That’s why many business leaders conduct ethical audits in tandem with financial or operational audits. The code should be translated into specific guidance within policies and procedures. You don’t need to start out with the 10 commandments and 500 related rules, but you do need to have something specific to audit against,” Doyle says. For example, what does an ethical violation related to bribery or conflict of interest look like? “Be very descriptive in your policies and procedures about what these things mean,” she recommends. Also, have managers and employees establish performance goals related to ethics and compliance so employees can be evaluated against those objectives.

Doyle says greater specificity in ethics-related policies and procedures paves the way for ethics-related performance objectives and metrics. These metrics help enable more tangible ethics audits.

References

  1. Andrew Chillier (2011). Business Ethics Now. McGraw-Hill/Larkin, 3 edition Lisa Newton, Elaine Engendered, Michael Pritchard (2011).
  2. Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Business Tenets Ana society . McGraw-HIll/Dustbin,12
  3. Alton. M. R. Vickers “Business Ethics and the HRS Role: Past, Present, and Future,” Human Resource Planning ARC, “Creating a Workable Company Code of Ethics,” www. Ethics. Org, 2003.

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Jim Teague in Tanzania

Jim Outage, an MBA associate with a diploma in engineering, is hired for a summer internship in rural Africa to be an officer of a U. S- based social investment firm that is looking for an important agribusiness project in Africa. A small successful company in Tanzania “Cigarillo” is in the run for being financed by Agrarian. Upon his arrival in Tanzania, he is faced upon two issues: Cigarillo faces some major health-safety issues with the risks of spreading E-coli among the population.

Another problem Jim Outage is facing is the fact that he does not know exactly whether the company that identified the potential contamination of E-coli found a real problem or is Just looking for a payoff as Baby is stipulating. The quandary Jims employer is subjecting too is either to withdraw their investment or Just ignore the allegations against the local company. This paper will identify the issues in the case, explain the legal issues and give some recommendations on how Jim Outage can resolve these issues to save his company’s reputation.

Identify the major cultural differences and the resulting ethical, or legal challenges Jim Outage faced working at Cigarillo in Tanzania. Jim Outage faces some cultural differences when he went to Tanzania. The major cultural difference he encountered is the fact that people in Tanzania are easily variable. In the video “Spotlight on India and Mexico” both countries are attractive markets with low cost manufacturing bases, but they have high risks business environment. This is the case for Tanzania, the difference in culture makes it hard for foreign people to do business.

First, when he first got to Tanzania, to find his apartment he had to give some money to the person who helped him find his apartment because he had some issues finding direction. That was the first cultural shock he encountered. Second, he was facing himself with some major ethical, or legal challenges in Tanzania different from what he encountered in the United States. When he was first arrested by the police officer he had no choice that to bribe a police officer who stopped him illegally without no Justifying reasons.

Facing with making the decision of either spending the night in a Tanzania Jail or giving something to the police officer so he can leave in peace he offered the police officer the Cad’s of Jim Reeves that belonged to Baby. When Baby mentioned that the Tanzania Certification Agency (TCL) had discovered traces of E-coli in Sourpuss’s most popular product, Baby immediately assumed that it is a case of bribery because that is the legal environment in Tanzania. People are faced with constant bribery so it pertains on their ability to make a good Judgment of any situation they enter.

The cultural differences Jim Outage encountered since his arrival in Tanzania blurred his ability to think critically. Jim Outage was sort of bribed by Baby and his wife. Since his arrival they treated him as a king and Baby even went head and offered him a car, and they invited him all the time for a meal. In Tanzania, they treat business partners as family members. As the case with Jim Outage, Baby and mama treated him as he was their son and even took the liberty to ask Jim to marry a woman from “Tanzania” called “shaggy woman” (p. 3). How did Jim Outage get into the difficulty in which he finds himself?

Does he bear some responsibility for his predicament? There are many reasons why Jim Outage found was supposed to. He was blurred by everything Baby and Mama offered him. By doing that, Baby was making sure Jim Outage was closed to him. So when he explained him the situation about the company that discovered E. Coli, Jim Tease’s opinion was already biased because he was forced to think as a local citizen will think. He put himself in this situation because he felt for what Baby and Mama did for him. They were only business partners, he should have kept some boundaries and do his Job the way he was supposed to.

He believed what Baby told him about the TCL without making his own research first. In addition, when they went to the farm, he decided not to talk about his impressions and findings to Baby knowing the risk the farmers where taking by using cow manure. The fact that Jim Outage is inexperienced also played some responsibility for this difficulty he encountered. He was not prepared enough for the problems facing the society in Tanzania. What encouraged Jim to pay off the police? Do Stagehand’s “five rules” suggest methods Jim could have used to avoid paying bribes?

Jim a couple of days after coming to Tanzania found himself in a complicated situation with a police officer who arrested him illegally. He decided to pay off the police officer with the Cad’s of Jim Reeves belonging to Baby. Jim was encourages to pay off the police officer because he did not want to go to Jail. It was either paying off the officer or go into the pain of being locked up for something he did not do. He did not think about it twice while he was giving the CD because his decision was the most rational decision at the time. He could have avoided bribery by using Stagehand’s “five rules” to avoid bribery.

The first rule according to Eastland is to never assume that you have to give bribe. In Jims case, he did not try to negotiate with the office; he directly assumed that the police officer wanted something in return of his freedom that is why he gave him the Cad’s. The second rule is to “Just say no. According to the author even if asked people have to resist the urge to bribe by Just saying no. Jim could have explained to the officer that he was new in the city and he did not intend to violate rules while driving and assume the consequences of his act.

The third rule is to look for legal and ethical ways to meet the person needs without bribing. Eastland gives three examples of ways to do that: offer an expense paid visit to the home country or offer training course in home country, make an accommodate donation, and finally do something personal for the person. In Jims case knowing that the officer arrested him illegally thou no reason he could have done him a favor by doing something personal for the officer such as invite him to the restaurant if he let him go or offer him a pass for an event.

The fourth rule is to find some creative ways to attend your goals without jeopardizing your integrity. Jim Outage could have found some ways not to bribe the officer by using his head. The fifth rule is to know the culture of the country in question. By knowing exactly how the Tanzania culture works, he could have avoided to give away Abs’s CD and still get away without any problem. What action should Jim recommend to his U. S. Oppressor, Allen?

In proposing a responsible solution, consider international standards for business practices, the varying impacts, determine the economic outcomes, consider the legal requirements, and evaluate ethical obligations. How would you communicate your decision to Baby? Business practices, the impacts his decisions will have, determine the economic outcomes, consider the legal requirements, and evaluate ethical obligations. Jim should tell the truth no matter what to his U. S. Supervisor. He should make a decision based on the facts and those facts state that Cigarillo flour is contaminate.

In addition, he saw some additional proofs even though that could explain the E. Coli contamination by the use of cow manure. He needs to weigh both situations and decide which one will make the most arm. He has the choice of letting go of the situation and act as if the Tanzania company Just want a bribe or say “no” which will make a big impact on the population in Tanzania. DRY states companies should take into account the micro-risks they will face in a given company such as systemic, procedural, distributive, and catastrophic (p. 107). In this case, the procedural political risk is the one related to Tanzania.

Countries transactions or authorizations to do something important in a given country could be stopped by political actions, public fraud or a partisan Judicial system. Jim should take into considerations the micro issues while talking with his supervisor. That will help him elucidate the problem because he is the one in the country; he understands better the culture now that he lives there. The video “the new global challengers” explains that internationally active firms create Jobs thereby create increasing the living standards of the population concerned. Tanzania is considered as an emerging market.

According to the video, merging markets are characterized by inadequate infrastructures, underdeveloped legal system, and high risks business environments. This is exactly what Tanzania is going through. Knowing those issues will help Jim determine the best solution. In this case, a negative answer will be more beneficial and more economic because the company will save money by not investing on a business that is doomed to failure in the long run. Even if they decide to ignore the allegations against Cigarillo, they will still pay the price if people find that such a reputable company such as Agrarian was implicated in such allegations.

This will completely mess up their reputation. Jim should recommend not toggle the loan to Cigarillo no matter what will happen to his relationships with Baby. This is for his best interest. The ethical obligations force him to tell exactly what is going on by being neutral without taken any side. That meaner explaining the use of cow manure while making the flour and take into account the content of the report even though Baby thinks the company is Just looking to be bribed. Jim should communicate his decision to Baby by explaining him the danger that E. Coli will have on the customers.

Baby should understand that ensuing the loan ill have a big impact and endanger the health of thousands of people and put Agrarian at risk. Henequen He should also explain that he has his hands tight and that he might get fired if he does not make the right decision. This technique might alleviate the anger Baby will have against Jim after telling him. Where would you go for guidance, either within or outside your company and organization. In the absence of guidance, what would you do? For guidance within the company I will ask my follow coworkers what they think of the situation, and what they think I should do.

It’s always good to know what other people think before acting. In Jims case, his friend’s remark helped me realized that if he was in the United States he would have acted differently. In the absence of guidance, I will Just follow my instinct and do what is the loan will deprive hundreds of farmers their income. The right thing is this case seems to be going a “no” decision because it will have less effect than going with a “yes. ” Briefly outline the key components of an ethics or compliance program for a small-sized foreign company that would provide guidance on the types of issues Jim faced at Cigarillo.

Effective compliance programs fits exactly the specific business ND the risks associated with the business in question. 1. Develop open lines of communication. For a compliance program to be effective, the most important element is that employees feel comfortable asking questions and reporting possible violations. * Establish an open-door policy for the compliance official or committee and the highest level of on-site management to receive employee reports. * Guarantee that there will be no retaliation against employees who make good-faith reports of misconduct. Provide an anonymous suggestion box, which may induce some employees to report problems. 2. Identify the risks. Management must first ferret out risks that the company faces, so the right factors can be monitored, audited and evaluated. A wide range of potential risks should be considered, including: Environmental risks (clean air and water, hazardous waste disposal, transportation of hazardous materials, etc. ) * Health and safety * Money laundering, especially when involved with foreign entities 3. Establish standards and procedures.

Some fundamental standards and procedures should be included in any organization’s compliance program. For example, every business should: * Adhere to a record retention policy. Perform background screening of potential employees. * Develop forms to address recurring issues, so that incidents are recorded fully and consistently. 4. Designate a compliance official or committee. Every compliance program must be overseen by an individual or committee that has ultimate accountability. These duties might include: * Overseeing and monitoring the implementation of the compliance program. Establishing methods to improve quality of service and reduce vulnerability to fraud and abuse.

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Social implications of business ethics

Throughout this report I will cover the social implications of ethics on a business. I will use examples from a range of different businesses showing my understanding and considering which of these issues affect society as a whole and those which only affect a small group or organisation.

The main areas I will be highlighting are Ethics in Finance (bribery, executive pay, insider trading, lobbying), Ethics in human resource management, Ethics in production, Ethics in sales and marketing, Ethics in intellectual property, Environmental implications and finally a conclusion assessing all of the implications the above have on a business giving reasons and evidence for my answers. Ethics in financial dealing and payments, there are several kinds of unethical behaviour.

All regulations and codes try to make sure that ethical practices are observed and followed through. Businesses in the financial sector, which offers loans which are expensive to repay, are increasingly subject to the scrutiny of the general public and authorities. The credit crisis was a result of too many business lending large amounts of money and letting customers and consumers have a much larger time scale to pay it back, which led to the business not having the money to pay back their providers and so on with the business.

Free enterprise is to generate profit mainly and anything which prevents this goal from happening can be a realistic target for financial malpractice. Malpractice is improper, illegal, or negligent professional activity. Bribery is another form of corruption. This is the straightforward use of financial muscle to gain unfair advantage over others. ‘IBM has received a slap on the wrist from the U. S. regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission in the form of a $10 million fine.

The fine addresses the SEC’s belief that IBM used bribes in its business dealings in South Korea and China. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, IBM employees in South Korea paid 16 government officials a total of $207,000 in cash bribes from 1998 to 2003 to secure the sale of mainframes and personal computers. The cash was supposedly stuffed into shopping bags and IBM envelopes and then handed over in secret meetings in parking lots. ‘ (Source: http://www. tomshardware. com/news/bribery-ibm-south-korea-china,12426.

html) This is just one of the examples I found about bribery within a business or organisation and how being found guilty for such dealings can lead to a terrible deficit in business revenue for the company and an overall bad reputation for future dealings and their expansion of customer base. In this case IBM was hit with a large fine for their wrongdoings, they paid the fine and took the consequences as they wanted to prevent the media getting hold of the information. Executive pay is something that has been at the front of all the top newspapers in the past twelve months.

This is a problem that will not go away the astonishing pay to the top executives within a business. An improvement in the United State is that they now have to include in their annual reports a single figure for the total pay of their executives. This reaction was a response to public concern over pay raises which were not based on their work done or effort given towards the business. This option at least gives shareholders within a company the ability to know exactly what their money is going towards and how much the top executives are earning.

‘For the average C. E. O. , however, the good times have returned. The median pay for top executives at 200 major companies was $9. 6 million last year. That was a 12 percent increase over 2009, according to a study conducted for The New York Times by Equilar, a compensation consulting firm based in Redwood City, Calif. ‘ (Source: http://www. nytimes. com/2011/04/10/business/10comp. html? pagewanted=all) This is a paragraph which I took from the New York Times on a special report about executive pay.

This article just highlights the extent of the bonuses and payments top businessman and woman are receiving compared to previous years. The quote above also mentions that the information is taken from 200 major companies so it is not just one or two within the sector whom are paying out these extortionate bonuses. Insider trading links directly to illegal use of important confidential information whilst dealing on a stock exchange. It isn’t that insiders trade stock, but that they have access to information which most people don’t have, and that the information gives them an unfair advantage.

After all, insider trading has been illegal since the Great Depression, and nobody seems to be too enthusiastic about giving corporate executives an unfair advantage when trading their own stock. The problem is that insider trading continues, despite vigorous enforcement of the existing laws, because the temptation to use inside information to make a quick profit is so great. ‘Raj Rajaratnam, a one-time billionaire hedge fund founder who was convicted on insider trading charges earlier this year. Prosecutors say he made more than $50 million through illegal trades and are seeking a prison term of more than 24 years.

‘ (Source: http://news. yahoo. com/2-ny-insider-trading-cases-pack-stern-punishment-002354977. html) This shows how serious the courts are taking insider trading and putting a stamp down on the consequences of using it to a business’s advantage. Lobbying is The act of attempting to influence business and government leaders to create legislation or conduct an activity that will help a particular organization. People who do lobbying are called lobbyists. This is an example of how lobbying can be carried out within the business world.

‘Aeneas Enterprises, judging by its bank records, the small consulting company with no listed telephone number was an instant success. Within a month, its records show, Aeneas had taken in $2. 3 million from a single client. Its founder, Robert Abramoff, a lawyer is the brother of Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist at the center of a Washington influence-peddling scandal involving several members of Congress. The company’s records show that the $2. 3 million was received from another consulting firm, GrassRoots, which was established by Jack Abramoff and where he directed some of his huge lobbying fees.

‘ (Source: http://www. democraticunderground. com/discuss/duboard. php? az=view_all;address=102×2216093) This reiterates how money can be made in a business then directly lobbied across to another business through the links of directors or friendship bonds. It is morally wrong because it gives a company an unfair advantage within their market area to progress and develop. A company would put money aside towards employing a lobbyist, this is because if they could gain any advantage over other competitors it would mean they have the upper hand to develop and capture the customer base to increase sales and business.

Ethics in human resource management is used within a business to prevent any discrimination when jobs roles are advertised. Applicants are entitled to feel that the position is based on ability rather than on the basis of race, gender, nationality, religion or any other unfair grounds. This is why businesses have trained human resource professionals to avoid discrimination of all types. Laws are used to make sure all businesses abide by this such as the disability and equality act 2010.

Within a company worker surveillance can be a base for a lot of conflict and disagreement, it is down to what extent is it ok for a member of staff to be watched and monitored. In many businesses employees don’t feel comfortable or safe when the management are looking at all their calls, texts and emails. Whistleblowing is the act of informing directors or other authorities about any unethical activities going on within a business or organisation. ‘The public interest disclosures act 1998 made it an offence to discipline anyone who made a disclosure about something believed to be in the public interest.

‘ (Source: Business Book 2 Level 3) This is classified as whistleblowing, alerting a person of something that is wrong. ‘Employment tribunal statistics show that the total number of people using whistleblowing legislation, which aims to protect workers from victimisation if they have exposed wrongdoing, increased from 157 cases in 1999 to 1,791 10 years later. Whistleblowers are being deliberately undermined or removed from their workplace, despite repeated promises to protect them. ‘ (Source: http://www. guardian. co.uk/money/2010/mar/22/tenfold-rise-whistleblower-cases-tribunal)

This newspaper article just shows how within the workplace over the last few years it has become increasingly tense and confusing what can be said to each other and what information can be shared with other employees. When someone may be just mentioning something they think is suitable and appropriate for all ears they later find out they are being laid off by the business for as they know it ‘whistleblowing’. Ethics in production of goods can lead to ethical problems for a company and their overall reputation and outlook.

British law requires that any drug which is being introduced to the market has been tested on at least two different species of living mammal. One has to be a large non-rodent. The Animals Act 1986 insists that no animal experiments should be conducted if there is a realistic and viable alternative. The ethical question which revolves around animal testing is whether or not the general value of human life is more important in relation to animals. Another question raised is the extent of the pain which animals suffer throughout the procedures.

People’s opinions on animal testing differs, some are ok with it if it is for valid medical reasons and tests are done ethically, others refuse to accept animal testing altogether. In many cases when animal testing is done it is done when it is unnecessary, for example done when they know a certain ingredient will cause harm, when they know a certain ingredient will kill or harm the animal being tested upon, when the product is nowhere near being released, on large numbers of animals when it is not a necessary product, or when it is simply not required.

There are also cases when animals are unfairly or cruelly treated, Huntington Life Science is a good example of this, the animal testing was not only unethical but it was found those in the labs were badly treating the animals, such as beating and under feeding them. A lot of the products we use such as shampoo, make-up and shower gel contain chemicals that are bad for human health. In many cases chemicals are tested in greater amounts to what is put into a product.

Here is a quote from a website which is against all animal testing ‘They languish in pain, ache with loneliness, and long to roam free and use their minds. Instead, all they can do is sit and wait in fear of the next terrifying and painful procedure that will be performed on them. ‘ (Source: http://www. peta. org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/default. aspx) This highlights a strong viewpoint on how valuable the animal’s lives are and they should have the freedom to do what they want to do not what someone else is making them do, just for scientific gain and progression.

Ethics within sales and marketing of a business can be brought under a large amount of scrutiny this is because sometimes businesses will employ unethical stances to generate sales which will lead directly to profits. They can do this in a variety of different ways; Spamming is a major problem which can occur for a business this refers to email chains which can be directly sent to thousands of users or members. Email spamming and spoofing can be linked directly which makes it very hard to find out the source or sender of such emails.

Some email accounts have the ability to block specific addresses. However, with spamming emails they quite often change the email address being used meaning they will get through your blocking system and reach your inbox. Spoofing is another major problem this is where an email appears to come from a single source when it is actually sent from another. People sending these spam emails want the email to appear as if it is from a real address. This way the email cannot be traced back to the originator.

I believe this is against regulations of the internet and it is being used inappropriately because when someone is receiving information to their private address they have the right to know who sent the information and how to respond if need be. ‘A district court in Atlanta has awarded EarthLink $16 million in damages against a New York state man that it alleged used illegal means to send out more than 825 million unsolicited e-mail messages, commonly referred to as spam. ‘ (Source: http://www. pcworld. com/article/110627/earthlink_wins_16_million_in_spam_case.

html) This is just one of many cases where someone has been caught for sending on spam linked emails to in this case millions of innocent people. The business that were the victim of these emails were paid a huge amount of money in damages because of what the spam had caused to their sales, reputation and overall standing in the business market. Companies are always finding ways of raising their own status within the business sector. This can happen when businesses place false comments, recommendations or blogs onto a website.

These can come from paid individuals whom are paid by marketing companies or are employees from the business or organisation pretending to be satisfied customers. People who are engaged in this profession are called ‘shills’. Online consumers are frequently being made to believe that the comments are from a trustworthy source recommending the product or service given. ‘But now the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has launched an investigation into the popular review website, following growing criticism of its apparent failure to monitor fake comments posted online.

The formal inquiry was opened after a complaint that ‘abuse, flaws and distortion’ on the Trip Advisor website had reached ‘epidemic levels’. ‘ (Source: http://www. dailymail. co. uk/travel/article-2032997/TripAdvisor-investigated-ASA-fake-reviews. html#ixzz1eiflRv00) This article from the Daily Mail emphasis’s how often such sites are being used to create positive reputations for a business and also work against another business giving those negative reviews. The ASA have now realised what is going on and are putting together an in depth review on the procedure and trying to find the culprits and punish them.

Marketing is scoped around a huge amount of public relations via the media and many other sources this is a way of getting the attention of future clients. However, with the climate being as difficult and tight as it is in today’s world many businesses approach this in the wrong way by lying and trying to con consumers. Intellectual property law allows people to own their creative ideas on work in the same way which they can own physical property. The owner of intellectual property can be rewarded for the use of it.

This encourages more creativity and innovation to the benefit of everyone. There are four main types of Intellectual property; Patents for inventions, Designs for product appearance, Trade marks for brand identity and Copyright for material. -Patents are a grant made by the government that lets the creator of an invention the sole right to make, use, and sell that invention for a set period of time. -Trademarks are a symbol, word, or words legally registered or established for representing a company or product.

-Designs for product appearance is designed by someone with special skills, this is something which can then be covered by copyright. -Copyright of material is used for artistic, music, sounds, film, software, multimedia and broadcasts All of the above types of intellectual property means that the people or businesses that have invested money and time into creating an idea, have the right to protect is from being stolen or reproduced by others. ‘A court in Sweden has jailed four men behind The Pirate Bay (TPB), the world’s most high-profile file-sharing website, in a landmark case.

Found guilty of breaking copyright law and were sentenced to a year in jail. They were also ordered to pay $4. 5m (i?? 3m) in damages. ‘ (Source: http://news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/8003799. stm) This is a sign of how serious the consequences of copyright can be and the severity of doing such acts. These men who were jailed for the creation of pirate bay distributed millions of film and music files to users worldwide without paying for any of them. Environmental implications have a huge influence on a business these days.

The most serious threat facing us comes from climate changes caused by human activity. One of the most major problems today is that economic activity is growing quickly in different areas spreads across the world. When a business is putting together new ideas and ways of developing already existing products they have to make sure that they are following all of the future aims for sustainability and reducing the use of greenhouse gases used in today’s climate.

The factory creating the product to the final sale stage to the consumer has to be viable and correct for future environmental expansion. This can also be directly linked to the suppliers and employees used such as how they are getting to work and transferring the products around the country or world. Many consumers and businesses will only work with people who have these aims and objectives set out clearly with a good positive direction for the overall reputation on the world and affect it can have.

‘The software drinks giant has come up with a technology to use plant material in plastic bottles. But it is not an easy task. ‘ (Source: http://www. guardian. co. uk/sustainable-business/coca-cola-green-plant-bottles) This shows how major companies are trying to create new initiative for being more green and helping towards using less harmful products for the environment. This type of movement means that many pressure groups that are out to harm businesses get on their side which is always good for consumer base and media attention.

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Islamic Business Ethics

Ethics has always been a part of business. The article of Islamic Business Ethics & Finance: An Exploratory Study of Islamic Banks in Malaysia written by Muhammad Adli Musa studied about how Islamic finance which claims to offer global financial stability and high ethical standards should reflect Islamic values in all facets of behaviour to bring about collective morality and spirituality, which when integrated with the production of goods and services advance the Islamic way of life.

This paper also attempts to investigate the consistencies or, if any, inconsistencies and explore the relationship between the Islamic business ethical norms and the practices of Islamic banks in Malaysia. In doing so it tries to address the current imbalance of emphasis and the lack of a comprehensive discussion on business ethics from a wider cultural and religious perspective with reference to Islam, particularly focussing on selected Islamic banks in Malaysia. The main research question of this study is how do the current practices in Malaysian IFIs mirror the Islamic ethical norms in business?

The findings in this paper would potentially assist in the improvement of practices among IFIs to conform to the ethical norms established by Islam, which are in fact the core of their existence. For Muslims, Islam is considered as a way of life and not merely a religion. Hence, business ethics cannot be separated from ethics in other aspects of a Muslim’s daily life. It is claimed that in the climate of Islamic philosophy, it is ethics that dominate economics and not vice versa, and that Islamic economics is characterized as being ethical besides being Godly, humane and balanced.

The concept of Taw? id has been identified as the core of Islamic ethics, along with trusteeship or stewardship, justice or equilibrium, free will or freedom, responsibility and generosity. On a more practical level, the manner for proper Islamic ethical conduct in business is based on leniency, which encompasses good manners, forgiveness, removal of hardship and compensation; service motive, where businesses provide needed services to the community; and consciousness of Allah, which requires Muslim businessmen to be mindful of Allah in their conduct of business.

In the financial services sector, ethics has become increasingly important on the basis that the purpose of business activities in general and financial services in particular is the creation of value for the consumer. The financial services environment should not be an environment where there is a dichotomy between the personal ethical attitudes and the attitudes governing one’s business life. Moreover, it is suggested that an ethical environment will coincidentally pave the way to improved performance as in the case of the British Cooperative Bank’s ethical policy, and provides essential support for maximizing long-term owner value.

The recent global financial crisis might have been averted if ethics played a larger role in the financial services sector. Islamic finance has been recognized as a rapidly increasing integrated compartment of global finance with assets worldwide estimated to be worth $700 billion as a result of growth at a rate of more than 10% annually during the past decade. With respect to ethics, IFIs are considered to be ethical since the foundation of their business philosophy is grounded in the shariah, often referred to as ethics in action, which is concerned with promoting justice and welfare n society and seeking God’s blessing.

The difference between Islamic and conventional financial systems is that the former has to preserve certain social objectives and is based on equity rather than debt. Malaysia’s Financial Sector Master-Plan explicitly mentions that it would like to symbolize Malaysia as a regional Islamic financial centre. A distinguishing feature of the Malaysian economy is that Islamic finance has been fully integrated into its existing financial system, which demonstrates the sector’s inventiveness and capacity for innovation.

It is also worth highlighting that the Malaysian Islamic finance market is considered to be well developed with a huge future potential. The first IFI established in Malaysia was the Malayan Muslims Pilgrims Savings Corporation which began operations in 1963. Twenty years later in 1983, the first Islamic bank, Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad, started operations after continuous pressure on the Malaysian government to assist in establishing an Islamic bank.

The seriousness of the Malaysian government in furthering the cause of Islamic finance can be seen in the Financial Sector Master-Plan’s vision to see Islamic banking evolve in parallel with conventional banking to achieve 20% of the banking market share, represented by a number of strong and highly capitalized Islamic banking institutions, offering financial products and services which are underpinned by a comprehensive and conducive shariah and regulatory framework.

To sum up, from the study presented, it can be fairly assumed that the practices of the Islamic banks in Malaysia under study do conform to the Islamic ethical norm in business based on the perception of executives working in the banks concerned. Individual positive and negative statements are areas where the Islamic banks concerned must strive to improve. Particularly, the perception of the management among employees of the banks must improve as it is the management who determines the issue of business conduct and principles in a business organisation.

Issues surrounding the treatment of employees such as equality and fair wages must also be addressed in line with business ethical norms established by Islam. A preliminary look into the qualitative data of the Ph. D. research of the author, which is not presented in this paper, suggests that the senior management, Shariah heads and Shariah Supervisory Board members of the Islamic banks under study are aware of the importance of incorporating Islamic ethics in the operations of their respective banks.

However, the climate in which the banks operate does not necessarily support such notions. Furthermore, Islamic banks might not feel compelled to abide by Islamic ethical norms in business if the consumers of their products and services do not strongly demand so. The emphasis on shariah compliancy of products and services has arguably resulted in the ethical dimension of Islamic finance to be somehow sidelined.

Shariah compliancy is indeed the essence of Islamic finance but beyond that, Islamic banks should be at the forefront of ethical banking, whereby they take into consideration the impact of their activities on the society at large. Islamic banks must also strive to adopt the recommendations by the IFSB and AAOIFI in their published Guiding Principles and Conduct of Business for Institutions offering Islamic Financial Services and the Code of Ethics for the Employees of IFIs respectively as best practices in the industry.

Research needs to be conducted using various techniques to answer the research question at hand. Realising that, the author in his Ph. D. study has interviewed the senior management, Shariah heads and Shariah Supervisory Board members of the banks concerned to obtain their views on Islamic business ethics in relation to Islamic banking practices in Malaysia. The author also included in his Ph. D. research the ethical identities of the banks concerned based on their annual reports and other materials accessible to the public such as the banks’ websites and other publications.

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Business Ethics: Odds of Disability are Themselves Odd

Nowadays two contradicting notions – business and ethics – are closely interwoven. People use morality and ethical issues as the main power for achieving business success. Hence, many companies manipulate moral principles and human feelings to raise their incomes and to set a stable position in the market. Sometimes this slight infringement is not available for the law so that managers often break the balance between human relationships and the human environment. The following case considers the ethical dilemma within business domain that requires a legal interference. The case with ‘injury odds’ in “The Odds of a Disability Are Themselves Odd” (Lieber 2010) shows the way the insurance company overuses human trust and feeling for gaining more profits.

The main ethical bias of the case lies in the fact that many American people do not have enough guarantees for their losses to be reimbursed. However, those workers who are not insured are threatened by the security companies by ‘veritable’ numbers of injuries that occurred during the working day. No doubt, the insurance industry takes advantage of the ambiguity of numbers bringing the enormous revenues every day. People who feel anxious about those injury odds follow blindly the statistics made by disability insurance companies.

The main problem consists in misperception of the information delivered by the National Safety Council and its general definition of the term “disability”, which does not necessarily mean a serious injury. Despite serious moral biases, the statistic still has a positive side for people and for social security, as those ‘injury odds’ statistic considerably decreases the injury rates.

Misconceptions arising in the insurance realm are explained by the absence of veritable information about numbers. The problem of inaccurate data lies in the neglected attitude to disability problems and the working ethics. According to the statistic, white-collar professionals complain of injuries more often than ‘assembly line workers’ do. The results of false complain turn into a false statistics, which is rather preferable for disability insurance companies.

Considering the problem from the legal point of view, the policy of insurance companies is pure and lawful, as they use official statistics for their insurance strategies. Besides, the suffered part played last but not the least role in this situation thus spreading false information about the seriousness of injuries. However, there exist several stumbling blocks that make the situation morally and ethically unacceptable. On the one hand, the explicit intention of the company is to enhance the security of working conditions and to improve their productivity. However, this nice picture is distorted by the implicit purposes of the company striving to gain profit based on a human fear.

Another misconception of the case lies in disinformation of the customers frightened by the incredible statistic. Here the insurance company should have carried out a more profound research and define veritable injury accidents at plants and factories. Being aware of the inaccuracy of the data, the Council neglects the truth and resorts to a false data proliferation on the purpose. Therefore, the case with ‘injury odds’ is odd in terms of moral infringement and negligence of human needs for the sake of high income. The case cannot be subjected to the lawsuit as it has ethical biases only, which can be perceived in a different way. Still, the moral dilemma can be solved if people pay more attention to the validity of the information.

Reference

Lieber, R. (2010). Your Money: The Odds of a Disability Are Themselves Odd. New York Times. Web. 

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