Is Lobbying a Legitimate Aspect of Corporate Behavior - Essay Example

Is Lobbying a Legitimate Aspect of Corporate Behaviour and Section # of Lobbying is a practice of influencing policy makers by lobbyists so that the policies made are favourable to them or allows them access to areas which will help them in this influence. Lobbying can have a variety of ethical perspectives, whether it is related to employee terms and contracts or related to the conflicts that can take place between various parties. The two ethical perspectives discussed are of 1) lobbyist-client relationship and, 2) lobbyist-policy maker relationship. INTRODUCTION TO LOBBYING Lobbying is a term in which a legislator or organized groups use many types of ways to make a positive influence on other legislators or higher up officials. It is a deliberate attempt on part of the lobbyists with the motive of influencing political decisions using various forms of advocacy and it is directed at the ones who form up these policies on behalf of another person, organization and/or group(s). There are clients who are either individual beings or organized interests such as businesses organizations, labour unions, organizations who work as not-for-profit and trade associations who hire lobbyists who do their work for them. In the organization, the lobbyist is hired in the Government Relations function or they can even be outside individuals or firms (Wood, 2002). The main purpose of the lobbyist is to develop various strategies and tactics so as to gain access, inform, influence and pressurize. These methods and strategies can be developed by designing a lobbying campaign. Lastly, it should be known that these lobbying campaigns are directed towards policy makers whose job is to make policies which affect the well being of the client, the European Union public, all sorts of communities which exist on local, national and international levels plus the president and the future generations to come. Since their decisions affect a whole variety of people, lobbying is playing a very important role in this process. There can be many methods in which lobbyists do this. For example, they can do this by using their personal reputation, out of professional obligation or the rapport that they have cultivated overtime. These means are used to achieve political goals such as gaining the trust of the authorities so as to gain access so that the lobbyists can share his opinions and viewpoints which will influence their decisions in the making of the public policy (Wood, 2002). There can be other types of influences as well such as positional influence which depends on the place that a lobbyist has in the public realm in which he is expressing his viewpoint. (Karen, 1978) Moreover, it is a term which is highly controversial and is always regulated by the Government and specifically defined so that organized group lobbying does not take a negative aspect and misuse this term. The term lobbying has originated from the concept of everyone sitting in the lobbies and having a discussion before and after parliamentary debates in the Houses of Parliament. These discussions usually gave way to the fact that certain legislators could manipulate or influence others without even them knowing that they are getting influenced by the discussion. Lobbying is a very subliminal process. Clever and ethical lobbying results in winning a lot of thing for the organization, such as better strategies, efficient resources, fruitful recommendations for the company and helps in the compliance which is ongoing. Lobbying has always been a controversial term in the sense that people tend to think it leads to corruption and this is not false. Lobbying can change the mind set of an individual to a mind set that the individual himself does not want to adapt to. Therefore, many jurisdictions have been created which require that men who are playing the role of lobbyists get themselves formally registered with the authorities before they come in contact with the Government representations that they mean to start the "lobbying contact" with. (Judy, 2006) In the United States of America, there have always been supporters and opponents of the lobbying activities. Opponents say that greater restrictions should be imposed on the lobbyists and what kind of activities they indulge in. whereas, the supporters say that it is a right granted to them by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The opponents say that if such restrictions are made, the lobbyist loose the right to petition all those Government officials. There was even a bill passed by the name of "Executive Branch Reform Act" which required many legislators, officials, and government people to report if they have been ever contacted by a private party and if there have been made any attempts of "lobbying contact" with them. This bill was meant to regulate the activities of lobbyists and they were labeled as "private party", which was defined as any person who is not part of the Federal, state or local government or an official related to the above mentioned offices. Unless and until, the person who contacts the government official is himself not a government official, he will be deemed to be a lobbyist. A lobbyist can communicate with the officials in many different ways, namely through spoken words or written materials, which will also includes all means of electronic communication. Lobbyists feel it is harming their right to contact government officials on issue they find controversial and express their viewpoints freely because they would never like their names and expressions being entered in a formal registered government database. (Wood, 2002) VARIETY OF ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES Lobbying is such a controversial issue that the question often arises whether it is a legitimate corporate behaviour. There can be a number of ethical issues which get raised when lobbying takes place. They can be in terms of business solicitation, employment terms and fees, conflicts, confidentiality, disclosures, loyalty and best efforts, possible lobbying actions or best practices and lastly, general personal conduct. When it comes to business solicitation, the lobbyist should understand the boundary between overstating and misrepresenting his capabilities and experience. He should always be truthful about that. Moreover, there can be many kinds of ethical issues related to the employment terms and fees. Should there be a written contract which would state and describe what the job requires out of him and what will be his duties Should there be overcharges for extra work performed or deductions in charges for less work performed Can the lobbyists accept valuable gifts from another party What about charging particular contingent fees to the lobbyists What about the conflicts that arise between various parties What about the personal beliefs and interests of the lobbyists Should not he take them into account when they are advocating special interests What about the ethical issue that relates to the public interest Who gets to even decide what the public interest is and whether it is being taken care of What about the confidentiality of information, of strategy and tactics and of personal contacts What about the various kinds of disclosures that can or cannot be made at all, in terms of material changes, work status and major developments, personal status or relationships ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE # 1: LOBBYIST-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP It is very important that the lobbyist - client relationship is ethically correct and its foundation is laid on mutual trust and confidence of each party within each other (Wood, 2002). The lobbyist should take care of the fact that he only accepts work or starts job for a client whose senior management is reputed for and known to conduct their business practices in an ethical manner. The lobbyist should also consider informing his client that lobbying is a job which can lead to various damaging results at times and it does not always end in a positive note for the client. The lobbyist's strategies and tactics may backfire at any stage. Moreover, the lobbyist should also inform the client about his objectives and the objectives of any other lobbyists for that matter, just in case the client is not clear about them. The above mentioned tasks must be done not just for the purpose of saving the client's public reputation and for the accomplishment of his explicit interest. They are also done for the common good of the whole society in general and to facilitate the poor and those who are under-represented. The concerns of other groups such as these must be as legitimate as that of the company to the lobbyist. (Wright, n.d.) In terms of the client's side, the client should critically examine and evaluate the history of the lobbyist in terms of whether they have been ethically doing the job or misusing its powers to negatively influence or pressure. A client should not hire a lobbyist just on the basis of personal relationships or just because the client merely knows the lobbyist from before. Moreover, the client should not also hire a lobbyist whose records somehow show that he has acted unethically in the past. The records should be discussed between the lobbyist and the client and the client should study the response that the lobbyist gives during the discussion to evaluate the validity of the records. This leads us to another issue that the lobbyist should not anyhow try to mould his experience, political skills in front of a specific client just so that he becomes an attractive hire for the client. The lobbyist should also not exaggerate the access that he might be able to get for the purposes of lobbying in a particular policy. If the lobbyist or the firm of the lobbyist lacks the contacts, resources and influences to represent the client effectively on that particular matter, then the lobbyist should inform the client about that so that he is not misled into thinking that the job is done. (Wood, 2002) The issue which was earlier discussed about the client examining the lobbyists past records also applies to the lobbyists. The lobbyist should also examine the client's past records. Moreover, the lobbyist should always keep the client in touch with whatever he is doing. The client should be made aware of all the ethically accepted lobbying options and the strategies that have been designed in the lobbying campaign by the lobbyist. (Wood, 2002) Furthermore, whenever a lobbyist gives an advice to the client, he should make sure that he does not limit it to political and legal criteria. But he should also widen the scope of his advice and talk in terms of moral, social, civic and fiscal factors which affect the client's situation and objective as much as any other factor. The lobbyist should make sure that he keeps all information that the client has provided him absolutely confidential. Moreover, the lobbyist should inform the client of all the actions that he is taking on the client's behalf. This may include all the coalitions that he has formed with others plus what sort of political contacts has he pursued in the process. Lastly, the lobbyist should avoid taking credit for any sort of accomplishments in which he has no contribution. ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE # 2: POLICY MAKER - LOBBYIST RELATIONSHIP When it comes to the relationship between the policy maker and the lobbyist, a number of ethical issues spur out. The policy maker deserves and has the right to ask the lobbyist to disclose himself candidly, without informing about it first. The lobbyist is also deemed to provide the policy maker with the true identity of the client which he is serving and representing. Moreover, the policy maker should also be aware of the kind of issues on which the lobbyist is hoping to make an impact. (Judy, 2006) Lobbying is a practice which should serve an educational purpose. It should be used to inform and persuade the policy makers with logical, authentic and reasonable arguments so that it has a positive bearing on matters of public interest. Such a relationship should never be ethically exploited. Firstly, if the lobbyist is giving any sort of presentation to the client for expressing his opinion or such, he should make sure that all data and information is factual, relevant and absolutely correct. No exaggeration of any kind must be done or the data should not be molded so as to favour the interests of the clients. The lobbyist should not intentionally try to mislead or misinform the policy maker about any aspect of the issue. Even hiding certain points is unethical. Secondly, to make sure he does all the above mentioned things, he must make advanced inquiry and research into every piece of information he is saying. For example, if he is quoting a specific statistic about a certain issue, he should make sure that it is genuine and if possible, remember the source so that he might even quote that and come out as an authentic lobbyist to the policy maker. Thirdly, the lobbyist should make sure that any changes in the information that he has provided to the policy maker should also be duly conveyed to him. It is necessary that such alterations are communicated or else the information provided will later be proved out to be inaccurate which will be a bad thing for the reputation of the lobbyist. This is because whatever information is provided by the lobbyist, the policy maker is often relying on it to make the policies. Therefore, any changes are very necessary to be told. Fourthly, if the lobbyist finds any such information which may be risky to the policy maker in terms of the policy he makes, and if no other individual is informing the policy maker about that information, then the lobbyist should inform him about that. This will increase the amount of good standing that the lobbyist has with the policy maker, leading him to a place of positional influence. Moreover, the strategies and tactics (the lobbying campaign) that the lobbyists are using to influence the policy makers should not lead to their compromising on their independence, whether it is real or perceived. This factor can occur in a number of ways, such as when the contributions to the campaign or the efforts needed in raising funds or the threats received that negative publicity will be done are made to link with a particular objective of a given policy. Lastly, the lobbyist should make sure that he never even tries to hide the true identity of his client from the policy maker. Often, lobbyist use a "front organization" factor and easily hide the true identity of their client, by posing to represent some other company. This is not ethical at all. True identities should be revealed because the ultimate policy that a policy maker makes does not only depend on the arguments posed by the lobbyists but they also depend on who the client is. CONCLUSION In conclusion, it can be said that lobbying is a practice which is supposed to benefit the policy maker in designing his policies and ultimately present policies which benefit the common good as well as all sorts of communities and the client in particular. It is meant to do no harm. Yet people misuse its aspects by wrongly influencing the policy makers, or by hiding information or even providing them with incorrect data. If lobbying is constructively used, it will benefit everybody as it is meant to make sure that policy makers do not make the important policies in isolation. Works Cited 1. Sagstetter, Karen (1978) Lobbying 2. Stock, Wood (2002) the Ethics of Lobbying: Organized Interests, Political Power and the Common 3. Nadler, Judy (2006) Lobbying Ethics. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics [Internet]. Available from < http://www.scu.edu/ethics/> [Accessed 12 March 2008] 4. Andrews, Wright. Lobbying Ethics Discussion Issues & Considerations. Federal Government Relations & Litigation [Internet]. Available from [Accessed 12 March 2008] Read More