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Portfolio II.G: International Business
ASSIGNMENT:
Considering the class presentation on this issue and the information you have read in the links above, write a one page response to this issue. The following questions may give you some things to think about as you write your response:
Who are the major players?
What are their concerns and motivations of each?
What are the justifications for the actions of each side?
Summarize the ethical concerns of this issue?
Whose individual rights or what community rights are being violated, if anyone's?
What harm is coming to individuals or the community?
Who is gaining at the expense of others?
What considerations were made (if any) when this (un)ethical action was taken?
Is the cost worth the benefits?
Evaluate the situation ethically:
Discuss your opinion of this situation ethically and each person/community in it, discuss reasons for your conclusions, then discuss solutions and corrective approaches to this in light of your evaluation.
AS A CONSUMER: In light of the above information, should (will) you buy diamonds? Should (will) you buy Nike shoes or products? Why or why not? What other actions might be taken?
AS A BUSINESS: In light of the above information, how should or would your business operate in foreign countries? What considerations need to be made for an ethical yet successful and productive business? (See example below.)
CASE FOR DISCUSSION: WHOSE CUSTOMS ARE ETHICAL?
Management of international chains of hotels must decide whose ethics they will follow in operating their businesses. An executive in one such chain put it this way.
“We try to interject our own ethical ideas into the nationals who work for us. I don’t know that U.S. standards are more objectively right than theirs. But we are an international organization and we want the same standards in our properties all over the world. If the hotel were only for the local population, I think that we might run it by their ethical standards. But we have people from all over the world staying at our hotels, and we want them to know what they can expect. As a result, I think we have upgraded standards in some lands.
To illustrate, we built a hotel in Localia. The government cooperated fully. At first there were the usual attempts to extort bribes from us, but when we resisted, things went ahead without a hitch. It looked like a profitable venture for the first year since our net profit was about fifteen percent above even our best-run hotels elsewhere. Then the government changed hands, and a corrupt, left-of-center group took over. Shortly after this, we found that the general manager of the hotel was providing government officials with free rooms and sending food and liquor to their homes. He was an American who was married to a national, and was trying to get an ‘in’ with the new government. Profits were still high, but we decided to fire him. Government officials intervened and told us to keep him or they would confiscate the hotel.
We must operate according to our ethics, not theirs, so we stuck to our decision and let him go. This action caused us to lose the hotel. Later the government changed hands again, and the new administration has promised to provide us with some indemnity. Our losses as of now are about $80,000 cash and $240,000 on our legitimate claims and inventories. We have been able to write off most of the loss, but some of our stockholders have complained. Perhaps one should follow local customs even in these matters, but we do not think so.”
1) How are Richard DeGeorge’s list of 7 moral guidelines relevant to the practice of business within a free-market economy?
2) How are DeGeorge’s Stakeholder Guidelines for Ethical Decision-Making relevant?
3) What are the responsibilities a MNC has to its stakeholders when ethical issues come into play internationally? If the duties of an MNC to one stakeholder group are in conflict to their duties to another stakeholder group, how should this conflict be resolved?
4) What are the responsibilities consumers when ethical issues come into play internationally? Specifically, what duties do consumers have to insure they are not contributing to the exploitation of workers in the third world?
5) Who has the ultimate moral responsibility when ethical issues come into play within U.S. companies manufacturing abroad? Who has the ultimate legal responsibility?
6) How should managers reconcile differences between the home country's social contract and the host country's social contract?
7) To what extent do you agree with free market economists who argue that low wages and sweatshop conditions are the price a country has to pay for development? In answering this question, relate your position to Ursula Le Guin's `The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas'
8) How do you define exploitation? What differences are there, if any, are there when applying this term to laborers in developed countries as opposed to those in developing nations?
9) What is bribery? When, if ever, is bribery morally permitted? How does the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act inform our answer to this question?
From: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/dunnweb/mgt722.disc-06.19.2002.html
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