Jim Hine’s Dilemma
Jim is presented with an ethical dilemma where he is offered to pay a bride of $100,000 to secure a large contract from a smaller government for his company SDSL. The long-term future of SDSL depends on the contract, and Jim’s future with the company is dependant on his securing the deal. The advantages of paying a bride seem relatively clear, to both SDSL and personally to Jim Hine. SDSL will be financially secure with if the deal goes through, and this could be a leading deal to guarantee future work with this developing nation. While Jim’s promotion within SDSL will be secure with the bridebribe paid and the deal done - but at what cost. There are several moral, ethical and financial disadvantages and advantages to paying off the government to win the business for SDSL. We can explore these levels of business ethics from Micro (actions of individual) Meso (relationships between organizationorganizations) and Macro (impact of society).
There can be various factors that push businesses to pay bribes:
Competitors are giving bribes to obtain business (which can cause the misuse of the country’s resources)
The pressure for higher levels of performance by top management and shareholders
This is an accepted practice in the host country.
Tax laws of the country encourage bribery. It can be written off as a business expense.
Government control over business activities.
Government officials are poorly paid and use bribery to supplement salaries.
Bureaucratic delays can be costly for business.
Pressure from politicians to make contributions to political parties or causes.
Ethical issues and Political affairs
In many countries, political officials are deeply involved in commercial businesses. You may not even be able to work there without knowing someone in the government. In a country where the government is heavily corrupted, the officials expect to be befriended and bribed. International businesses could gain advantages by offering bribes to government officials. However, it puts other companies at a disadvantage and is an unfair practice of business.
What we must realize is that what may be deemed ethical in our own country is not necessarily deemed as ethical in another country. This often makes conducting global business quite hard.
There are several moral, ethical and financial disadvantages and advantages for Jim Hines to paying off the government to win the business for SDSL. We can explore these from both an individual and corporate level. From a moral and ethical standpoint, Jim’s values will be challenged if he goes ahead with the bridebribe. Jim knows that the government official is seeking to profit from the SDSL contract, even though the contract offered is already the best deal for the customers within the country. Jim may also be putting himself in a situation where he could be criminally charged if payment of the bribe breaks the law in the developing nation and the company has no knowledge of the transaction. If the SDSL company’s perspective regarding the bribery is negative and the company find out, he might lose his job. However, the only personal incentive for paying the bribe is that he would get the promotion to senior level.
The Meso ethic level in this case is the effect in corporation relationship. A further disadvantage is that Jim needs to make an ethical decision on behalf of SDSL, which may be out of line with the ethical position of SDSL as a company. There may be direct financial disadvantages to SDSL if Jim pays the bridebribe. Should the bridebribe become public, other
