Morality and International Business

Table of Contents

Morality and International Business1

Introduction3

Discussion4

Overview of Business Ethics4

Role of Ethics in Business5

Significance of Business Ethics and Morality6

Moral Standing of Business Organization9

Ethics in International Business12

Conclusion14

References15

Morality and International Business

Introduction

The process of globalization and subsequent large scale expansion of international business has brought the increased importance of morality in international business. The society needs answers to numerous questions concerning the conduct of business in general and the international business in particular in which commercial activities would be undertaken according to the justified and well established moral standards. This code of ethics would answer some of the questions concerning the fact that how and when transnational and international business corporations exploit the workers in developing nations, what type of commercial products are not suitable for shipping across the national borders to the external border, and when offering cash and other gifts amounted to bribery (Enderle & Murphy, 2009).

The code also guides the managers of international business corporations about the principles to be followed when transferring prices, using child labor and attempting to economically and socially develop the populations living in tribal settings. It also provided ethical guidance for the managers and owners of business organizations, which are considering the development of electrical power generation plants, large industrial plants and dams in developing and third world countries. Ethics refers to well founded standards of right and wrong, reasonable obligations to refrain from committing crimes either minor or larger, which include honesty, compassion, and loyalty, also can be referred to as standards relating to rights.

Business ethics and moral values are the relevance and functions of ethical values in business behavior. These values apply to all elements of business conduct. It is how the individual and organization behaves, and reflected in finance, human resource management, sales and marketing. Ethics should be a major influence along with philosophy, morality and leadership behavior.

The competition in international business arena is brutal, but that does not mean business organizations should forget the international business ethics. Today, international business ethics means to conduct business and to deal with in stakeholders in an ethical manner. Stakeholders for a typical business organization include employees, partners, customers, shareholders, suppliers, communities and natural environment (Tran, 2010). The concept of business morality, therefore, also include, along with ethics, the corporate social responsibility and sustainable development of enterprise. This papers attempts to explore the different aspects of business morality, ethical values and their implication for international business. It is pertinent to mention here that the words morality and ethics are used interchangeably in this paper.

Discussion

Overview of Business Ethics

In order to better understand the concept of morality and ethics in business operation, it is necessary to have an understating of the two concepts. In general, ethics and morality can be seen as synonyms, and basically the meaning is said to be the same. Ethics refers to ways people get along with the ethics and codes of conduct to be observed. There are scholars who consider the term ethics in relation to the cultural customs, habits ...