Ethics Around the Globe

1. Global Ethical Value Systems

Organizations operating on a global basis often face particularly tough ethical challenges because of various cultural, political, economic, technological, and market factors. The greater the complexity of the environment, the greater the potential for ethical problems and misunderstandings for global organizations (Daft, 2016). Recent and reoccurring global ethical problems and risks that organizations face include cybersecurity and political threats, international conflict and warfare, income inequality, planetary climate and environmental pollution and instability, corruption, and human and diversity rights violations.

The diagram below illustrates the wide range of stakeholders and issues related to several of the risks in this figure that MNEs (multinational enterprises) must either prevent from occurring or manage when doing business across and within different country borders.

Following laws related to doing business abroad is an added challenge for global firms. For example, the FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) prohibits American firms from accepting or offering bribes to foreign government officials. U.S. individuals who cannot defend their actions with regard to the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions can face harsh penalties. “U.S. companies can be fined up to $2 million while U.S. individuals (including officers and directors of companies that have willfully violated the FCPA) can be fined up to $100,000 and imprisoned for up to five years, or both. In addition, civil penalties may be imposed” (Weiss, 2014).

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Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have been more aggressive in enforcing and prosecuting the bribery section of the FCPA. Halliburton Company in 2017 paid the SEC $29.2 million for bribing a friend of an official in Angola to negotiate seven oil field services contracts. The result was a disgorgement fine (i.e., a repayment of illegal gains with penalties imposed on wrongdoers by the courts) for violating the FCPA’s records and internal accounting controls provisions (Cassin, 2017).

U.S.-based firms are also expected to not engage in unethical or illegal activities such as discriminating against local populations, violating local laws and norms, and disrespecting property and the environment. MNEs can also assist and add value to local countries. For example, the following practices are encouraged:

• Hiring local labor
• Creating new jobs
• Co-venturing with local entrepreneurs and companies
• Attracting local capital to projects
• Providing for and enhancing technology transfer
• Developing particular industry sectors
• Providing business learning and skills
• Increasing industrial output and productivity
• Helping decrease the country’s debt and improve its balance of payments and standard of living

2. Globalization

The increasing phenomenon of globalization (an integrated global economy consisting of free trade, capital flows, and cheaper foreign labor markets) also pressures global firms facing international risks to rely on governments, NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), the UN (United Nations), and other business and stakeholder alliances and relationships to help meet non-market threats (Dutton, 1999). For example, the ten principles of the UN Global Compact serve as guidelines for international firms doing business in LDCs (least developed countries), and abroad, businesses should:

1. support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights,
2. ensure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses,
3. uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining,
4. eliminate of all forms of forced and compulsory labor and abolish child labor,
5. eliminate the discrimination of employment and occupation,
6. support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges,
7. promote greater environmental responsibility through initiatives,
8. encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies, and
9. work against corruption, including extortion and bribery.

While these principles may seem so universal as to be unattainable, they do stand as ethical milestones that protect human life, dignity, and personal welfare and values. However, when companies operate in LDCs and other cultures, it often is necessary to negotiate a balance between fairness, equality, and different local values and standards. U.S. and Western values may differ with local cultural norms, such as child labor and employee rights, in many countries. Donaldson and Dunfee offer methods for such negotiations (Donaldson & Dunfee, 2000).

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A classic example was Levi Strauss doing business in Bangladesh several years ago. Children in that country under the age of 14 were working in two of Levi’s local suppliers. This employment practice violated Levi’s norms but not the local cultural norms. Firing the children would have prevented the children from being able to get an education and would have placed hardships on their families, who depended on the children’s wages. A negotiated agreement (between Levi’s universal values and local country norms) involved the suppliers agreeing to pay the children regular wages while they went to school and then hiring them when they turned 15 years old. Levi’s agrees to provide for the children’s tuition, books, and uniforms.

3. MNEs Corporate Cultures

MNEs must also create inclusive, ethical corporate cultures while managing both external and internal complexities such as hiring and training a diverse workforce, adapting to local culture norms while balancing home country ethics and values, and ensuring a multicultural approach to doing business across countries. Hanna identified five strategic questions that relate to organizational cultural sensitivities when doing business abroad as well as in a home country (Hanna, 2016):

1. “What do customers and stakeholders in our market expect from our organization? (Will their standard of living be raised? Will their cultural expectations be violated?)
2. What is our strategy to be successful in this competitive marketplace? (What can we realistically hope to achieve? What results are we willing to commit to?)
3. What are our governing values that define how we will work with stakeholders and with each other?
4. What organizational capabilities do we need in order to achieve these results?
5. What do our work processes, roles, and systems need to do so that we are consistent with all of the above?”

reflect

1. What ways can and do some MNEs demonstrate social responsibility in foreign countries?
2. What are some specific ethical business practices other countries (besides the United States) and regional governing bodies (such as the European Union) practice and demonstrate with regard to the environment and competition?

REFERENCES

Cassin, R. L. (2017). Halliburton pays $29 million to settle Angola FCPA offenses. The FCPA Blog. www.fcpablog.com/blog/2017/7/27/halliburton-pays-29-million-to-settle-angola-fcpa-offenses.html

Daft, R. (2016). Organizational theory & design, 12th ed. Cengage Learning.

Donaldson, T., & Dunfee, T. W. (2000). A Review of Donaldson and Dunfee's Ties That Bind: A Social Contracts Approach to Business Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 28(4), 383-387. doi.org/10.1023/A:1006297614984

Dutton, G. (1999). Building a global brain. Management Review, 88(5), 34-38. www.proquest.com/openview/e286807675cdb68f149459b53957d794/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41493

Hanna, D. (2016, April 11). Where can corporate culture and national cultures meet? Inside HR. www.insidehr.com.au/where-can-corporate-culture-and-national-cultures-meet/

United Nations Global Compact. The ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact. www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/mission/principles

Weiss, J.W. (2014). Business ethics, a stakeholder and issues management approach, 6th ed. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.