The first country I chose to research was Germany. I chose them because the world already knows about their personal morals and ethics in history, and how they could be swayed by one individual. They systematically set their morals aside and allowed one man to dictate the country’s ethical stand. They were subsequently able to recover and even improve what had been so easily given away. When it comes to current ethics in German businesses, they are becoming more and more influenced by American business and international trade.
While Germany had, in the past, been recognized as a model for personal and business ethics, it was a little more than fifteen years ago that their clean image began to show signs of wear. It is hard to know for sure, though, if it is a case of new issues with ethics, or if globalization is simply shedding a new light on an age old problem. It seems feasible, to me, that businesses have been dealing with their own issues without allowing the public to have knowledge of what is going on. Even with their clean image they have been allowed to practice behaviors that other countries see as illegal. “For example, insider stock trading became illegal only this year, as the Government and investment community tried to respond to pressure from international investors” (Nash, 1995, para. 15).
Even with all of the ethical issues that have come to light in recent years, German companies are still allowed to pay off bribes to win contracts, and the government allows them to claim these payoffs as a business expense. This differs greatly from the way businesses are allowed to operate in the U.S. Here we have legislature prohibiting this type of behavior, in order to keep things fair and honest. I believe that this...
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...oo quick to point out others in order to take the spotlight off of ourselves. While countries like China have been exposed for selling bad products to other countries, American companies have sold bad products to their own country. So therefore I ask, whose ethics are worse? I say someone who would sell to their own people needs more work on their ethical standards.
REFERENCES:
Darsow, I. (2005). Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Retrieved from http://www.upf.edu/iuslabor/032005/art11.htm
Nash, N. C. (1995, July 20). International Business; German business ethics loses some luster. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/20/business/international-business-german-business-ethics-loses-some-luster.html
Schulman, M. (2006). Santa Clara University. Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/ethicalperspectives/business-china.html
Are businesses in corporate America making it harder for the American public to trust them with all the recent scandals going on? Corruptions are everywhere and especially in businesses, but are these legal or are they ethical problems corporate America has? Bruce Frohnen, Leo Clarke, and Jeffrey L. Seglin believe it may just be a little bit of both. Frohnen and Clarke represent their belief that the scandals in corporate America are ethical problems. On the other hand, Jeffrey L. Seglin argues that the problems in American businesses are a combination of ethical and legal problems. The ideas of ethical problems in corporate America are illustrated differently in both Frohnen and Clarke’s essay and Seglin’s essay.
Germany and its Economy Known as the "fair" capital, Germany lies in the center of Europe and in the center of the European home market. Approximately two thirds of the top international fairs take place in Germany. Germany is successful. A leader in world trade, Germany is the third largest economy in the world and the biggest market in Europe. It wasn't always this way though; European power struggles wounded the country in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century and left the country dominated by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945.
1993): 55-65. In Beachamp, Tom L., and Norman Bowie (eds). Ethical Theory and Business. 7th edition.
Wee, Heesun. “Corporate Ethics: Right Makes Might.” Business Week Online. Ed. Douglas Harbrecht. 11 Apr. 2002. 3 Mar. 2005.
Gallagher, S. A. 2005. Strategic response to Friedman’s critique of business ethics. Journal of Business Strategy, 26(6), 55-60.
Apple Corporation - a name known around the world. No other company has helped revolutionize the U.S. consumer electronics market like Apple. With its launch in January 1977, and almost unstoppable growth since the iPod release in 2001, could Apple’s good reputation be tarnished by the ethics and social responsibilities violations made by its suppliers in China?
Business ethics simply can be defined as the application of business values in the business practice of a company (Seawell 2010, p. 2). For a multinational company, business ethics is one of the critical aspects need to be taken into account in business decision-making processes. Failure to give attention on ethics may bring consequences on company’s reputation (Meyer & Jebe 2010, p. 159). The company is expected not only to pursue its own profits but also contributing to the environmental and social welfare of the community where it operates (Svensson & Wood 2008, p. 308).
The pressure of the American economy on German companies has always been a great issue, but especially today, where the world’s countries are economically closer connected than ever before, the American influence has a great effect. The economic policy of the United States is controlling businesses throughout the entire world and therefore has a great impact on every country and company: the world’s business language is English for instance, and the company structures are changing into American structures (Wikipedia: “Types of companies”).
Svensson, G., & Wood, G. (2003). The dynamics of business ethics: a function of time and culture-cases and models. Management Decision, 41(4),
Landgguth, Gerd; Germany in the Age of Globalization; Washington Quarterly v22 no3 p91-108; Summer 1999
Kidder, R, M., (2010), Center for corporate Ethics, Institute for Global Ethics, retrieved on August 08,2010 from www.globalethics.org/ reserve reading from ethics news line
The GMC case study is a convincing argument that reliable services build prestige. In cutting the offending companies from their list of contacts, GMC earned a reputation of honesty and loyalty. Such a reputation rewards a business with future financial profits and commercial morality. With Enron in the rear-view mirror, companies need to learn that merely looking like an ethical company is not enough. There must be physical proof of commercial morality. This can only be gained slowly, through many business decisions and years of dealings. As China continues it's rise towards modernization and commercialization, it's companies rely on pure business ethics to build a solid foundation for the future. If these ethical procedures are not practiced, the rapidly growing giant that is China could stall in the mud.
In conclusion, companies that seek to integrate into global markets usually encounter several problems because of the effect of globalization on business practices. The challenges originating from such integration is attributed to the differences in cultures in various societies across the globe. As evident in Google’s dilemma in China, there is no single set of universal ethics that are applicable to all settings and societies across the globe. Companies such as Google need to develop varying ethical standards that are relevant and appropriate to various nations and cultures in the world. This would enable the companies that are integrating into global markets to avoid ethical issues while maintaining effective business practices.
Bribery is wrong, and it would be almost instinctive to point at the benefits of impartially functioning public servants and incorrupt corporations to our democratic society as justification. However, in this imperfect world where bribery is rife in varying degrees, is it possible to express this notion convincingly? Certainly 'because the UK Bribery Act says so' is far less persuasive to a council planning office in Shanghai than in London, and indeed in compliance with section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010 which relates to commercial offences, it is essential that this question is engaged with on a corporate scale and without assertion through dogma. Accordingly, this essay will argue that elements wrong with bribery are inclusive of both moral and economic considerations. Moreover, in conjunction with international mandates, advent of aggressive legislation such as that of the UK Bribery Act 2010 is representative of global efforts to eliminate bribery. Hence, it follows that bribery can never be considered a normal part of business because it is economically unsustainable in the long term.
In this research, our aim is to compare the business ethics in both Germany and Japan. We will be discussing Germany’s culture and how the definition of business ethics changed over time, then we will move to the comparison.