Questions on Business Ethics

Question 1:

Do you think it is appropriate for businesses, when operating in foreign countries, to adjust their code of ethics in order to fall in line with the ethical norms of the host country?

Many businesses and corporations now operate on a global scale, not only offering their goods and services to countries throughout the world but setting up operations in those countries as well. These companies quickly find that the day to day operations and the ethics within the business community vary greatly from those that are established in America. As such the temptation exists to modify their business practices and code of ethics to mirror the other businesses within the country, which leaves the question is it ethical to do so?

It is an interesting question, should a business seek to retain the business practices and ethical standards of the USA or should they seek to embrace the culture and the expectations of their new business partners? There may be some benefits to following the old adage “When in Rome do as the Romans do.” It has been taught almost as a virtue in America to try to learn about and participate in other cultures while we are abroad, that we may have a deeper respect and better understanding the members of the other cultures. So in a way assimilating to the local business practices and ethics for operations at the location may seem like a wise action to take. However the very act of changing business practices of codes of ethics based off of the location of the office could signal to investors and customers a lack of consistency at best and a lack of organizational control at worst both of which open the door to unethical behavior by the organization.

It is true that different business procedures and...

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...scope and very specific and the company were to attempt to bury the evidence in unrequested useless materials then not only does the action become unethical but it may also bring obstruction charges and the accusation of obstruction of justice because they were attempting to conceal the evidence in files that weren’t requested. So unless large amounts of vague data are requested by the prosecution during the discovery phase, it would not be wise to try to bury evidence in trivial or routine documents.

Doyle, C. (2010, November 5). Obstruction of Justice: An Overview of Some of the Federal

Statutes That Prohibit Interference with Judicial, Executive, or Legislative Activities .

Retrieved February 9, 2014, from https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34303.pdf

Reynolds, G. W. (2012). Ethics in Information Technology (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage

Learning.