Business ethics is a well-institutionalized academic field, which deals with the moral dimension of business activity. In the context of international business, it means the treating of moral questions of international cultures and countries. International business should be sensitive to the environment and not just selfish for its own profits. Ethically, safety comes first and the profit comes last. The various issues that ethics target are diverse environmental concerns, animal welfare issues, labor practices, fair trade, health concerns, genetic modification, patenting of genes, cloning etc. International business is both more exposed to a variety of ethical conditions as well as in a position to exploit business ethics due to the sheer size an international company has. The end result of an ethical judgment entails its authenticity from being morally correct. But moral correction itself is a relative concept and is based upon the cultural perceptions as well as traditions. The Continue reading
Business Ethics
Case Study: Bre-X Scandal – The $6 Billion Gold Fraud
The Bre-X scandal is the perfect example of a true fraud that results from dishonest and deceitful business ethics, morals, and principles. The Bre-X scandal is considered to be the biggest mining and gold scandal of all time, and one of the biggest stock scandals in Canadian history. The Bre-X scandal significantly damaged the Canadian Financial Markets and caused substantial reductions in consumer buying and trading confidence, which caused a considerable amount of damage to the Canadian economy. Subsequent to the collapse of Bre-X in 1997, its stocks and shares became worthless and left investors with significant losses. The Bre-X scandal began in March 1993, subsequent to the company purchasing a large mining site in Busang, Indonesia (on Borneo). Subsequent to Bre-X purchasing the mining site in Busang, it boasted that it was sitting on the largest known gold deposit in the world. In October 1995, Bre-X announced that it Continue reading
Ethical issues in Accounting and Finance
Ethics (maintaining true and fair statements) is a key part of financial reporting. For shareholders to trust a company with money, they must feel confident in the company’s financial reporting. Financial reporting presents all data relating to the entity’s current, historical and projected health meaning investors and shareholders rely upon the available financial data for making informed and educated decisions. To help entities comply with business regulations and maintain financial reporting, shareholders can trust the existing organizations designed to watchdog different aspects of the accounting world. Primary among the organizations are the Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC), Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). These three bodies together ensure financial reporting is fair, reliable, and available to all investors. The specific importance of ethics in business and in financial reporting is to inspire and ensure public and investor confidence in companies. Without a strong Continue reading
Case Study on Business Ethics: The Parmalat Scandal
Evolving from a small dairy shop into an international concern, Parmalat appeared to be a gigantic and stable dairy producer. At some point in time, it may well have been gigantic and stable, but in December 2003, shocking news was broken to Parma, Italy, and the world at large. Parmalat was no longer a success as it once may have been, and it was bankrupt, and had been bankrupt for several years without this ugly truth being exposed. The truth had apparently been concealed due to a number of people being at least somewhat aware that something was amiss with transactions on the books, but had not spoken out. Through the years that Parmalat was going bankrupt, there were several events that took place before Parmalat’s condition was finally exposed. To begin with, as early as 1990, there were signs that Parmalat was in debt. In accordance with what has Continue reading
Case Study: WorldCom Accounting Scandal
Founded initially as a small company named Long Distance Discount Services in 1983, it merged with Advantage Companies Inc to eventually become WorldCom Inc, naming its CEO as Bernard Ebbers.WorldCom achieved its position as a significant player in the telecommunications industry through the successful completion of 65 acquisitions spending almost $60 billion between 1991 and 1997, whilst also accumulating $41 billion in debt. During the Internet boom WorldCom’s stock rose from pennies per share to over $60 a share as ‘Wall Street investment banks, analysts and brokers began to discover WorldCom’s value and made “strong buy recommendations” to investors.’ During the 1990’s WorldCom evolved into the ‘second-largest long distance phone company in the US’ mainly due to its aggressive acquisition strategy. A cycle became apparent in the marketplace where an acquisition was seen as a positive move by the analysts leading to higher stock prices of WorldCom. Consequently this allowed Continue reading
Why Businesses Fail to Manage Ethics in the Workplace?
The majority of the company including international and local organizations starts to alert and concentrate on the importance of business ethics between managements and employees. One of the major challenges in business ethics is creating a safe environment where all employees or workers can raise their concerns about possible misconduct and wrongdoing. Business ethics has been an essential but difficult subject to handle. Many business organizations recognize the importance of business ethics but do not give it due attention. One the contrary, some organizations have simply provided the fundamental business ethic course which involves learning what is right or wrong and doing the right thing. In the reality, some of the organizations have failed to manage the business ethics in the workplace. The major elements which affect the business failure mainly identified and divided into six different types of categories including gender diversity, sexual harassment, lack of communication, age discrimination, Continue reading