The Culture of Gift and Bribe in Business - Research Paper Example

BUSINESS ETHICS Introduction In the recent past there has been more concern with business ethic. It has become one of the most important topics in business in the recent past. This has been due to the changes that have been taking place in the business world. In the last two decades, the re has been increased call for the need to practice business ethics in all business as pertains to their operation. There has been increased call for the business world to have more ethics in their operation and not just look at the profit that they are likely to make from their operation but rather take a deeper approach to the issues that have been affecting all stakeholders in the business. There has also been increasing call for managers to ensure that they keep to the code of ethics in their work. As the leader of the organizations, managers are given special duty of looking at the needs of the organization in the sense that they have to take care of all the activities of the organization. Therefore they are expected to lead by example and show other where they are supposed to take the organization. The duties of a manager have been increasing in the recent past to include the factor of ensuring that there is fairness in business practice. One of the most recent ethical controversies that have engulfed the business world has been the issue of culture giving of gift and bribes. It has been shown that the culture of giving bribes and gifts has become one of the most commonly practiced business practice. The debate on whether gifts and bribes in business are justified or not is been centered on several issues. This has been dictated by the cultural practices of different communities in the world. Let us look close at the concept of giving of bribes and gifts in business. (Iniobong 2007, p. 4) Gifts and bribes in business In the operation of the business, a manager is likely to come into contact with many people. These people are of diverse cultural practice and have different values that are attached to the culture practices. This has become a dilemma in the modern market which has been dictated by the increasing rate of globalization which has been marked by increased movement of people and increased interaction as well. The culture of gifts and bribes is taken differently according to different society. For example the culture of giving gifts is very common in the China and from time to time people will give different gifts in different occasion. This is also extended to the business world and is not limited in the social life of the people. Reeling from a socialist economy, Chinese have not being fully embraced by the capitalist world and there is still a sense of community or togetherness that usually characterizes these regimes. On the other hand the culture of giving gifts in America is very rare. In the western world gift are only given in special occasion. Therefore they are limited to the social life of the people and in the business world they are only limited to the end year party and usually meant to raise the morale of the employees. Therefore when the Chinese businesses come to America, they come with their gift giving culture. On the other hand when the American business goes to china they take with them limited gift giving culture. This has been a source of conflict for along time now for businesses operating under the above mentioned condition. (Scott 2005, p.2) But in the business world it is the intention of giving that gift that matter. Though you may give someone a gift with good intention they may receive the gift with another intention rather than that one that you meant. Therefore there has been a notion that these gifts are meat to bribe the one receiving them in order to grant some favor. In the business context this has become a major issue that has brought about a ranging debate. It has been seen that there has been increased gift giving especial between the public official who are in power and the business manger who seek to have favor in the business process. This has turned to be an ethical issue not only in the public business but also in the private business area as well. But some have argued that gift giving is a matter of the culture of the people and there is has been seen as subject to cultural relativism. But at the same time it has been shown that there has been has been a fine line between the aspect of cultural practice and the issue of giving bribes in the business context. The main argument has been the aspect of acceptance of the bribe as a part cultural practice and the act acceptance of the gifts as a bribe which may not be accepted by other culture. (Roy 2008, p. 32) Against the culture of gift and bribe Let us look at the follow case which has been expressed by one of my fellow student. During her internship at a certain company, she had an opportunity to get out on client visit in accompaniment of one the salespeople. When the salesperson met with the client, he handed and envelop to the client. She later asked what was in envelop and she was told that the client had few friend in town and they were interest ne din going to Disneyland and therefore the salesperson provided some tickets. Is this an ethical case In this case the salesperson true intention was person to have favor to favor or a tit for tat approach. In this case the intention was bribing. In this case it was something of value that has been giving or promised in a corrupt way to another person with an aim of influencing behavior which is inconsistent with their duties. The ethical question here remains whether it is a bribe to given a gift to someone with an aim of sealing a business deal or with an aim of securing favors in the deal. Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate the difference between gift and bribe in the business context. When entrenched into cultural beliefs, it becomes more difficult to understand the difference between the two concepts and to differential between the two. This is because there are sometime when giving of gifts will help to raise the performance of get good result while there are sometime when it will produce bad results. But it is the condition that the gift will be given and the nature of the gift coupled with the intention that will determine the ethical applicability of the practice. There as companies that give out gifts as a matter of cementing the relationship between the two players while there are other which will give gifts as a matter of seeking favors. Therefore the intention of giving gifts really matter in determining the moral applicability of the practices. (Ball 2006, p. 3) But there is a high probability of misuse of the practice in the places where it can be cultural accepted. It has been shown that there has been increased gift giving in the recent times in the business world especially on the area of issuing tenders. The misuse of the practice has been the main factor that has eroded the moral applicability of the practice. Since there is probability of misuse of the practice it is better if it was banned all together. This is because there will always be deviation of the correct intent of the practice and will be misused in order to gain favors in the process. (Steidlmeier 1999, p. 43) Conclusion In the recent past there has been increased practice of giving gift in the business world. This has been tied to the practice to issue of cultural acceptability of the concept. But there has been gross misuse of the practice which has made it difficult for it to meet the earlier intention. Therefore there is need to ban the practice of giving of gift in the business context as it has been turned to a form of bribe in order to seek favors. References Balla, J 2006, The ethics of gift-giving: not all bribes are bad, Harvard Business Review, June 2006 Iniobong, U 2007, Tips in Business: A moral Issue, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 6, Issue 2 Roy, A 2008, Bribe vs. Gifts, Cambridge University Press Scott, T 2005, What wrong with bribery Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 5, Issue 2 Steidlmeier, P 1999, Gift giving, briber and corruption: Ethical management of business relationship in china, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 3, Issue1 Read More