Contemporary Business Ethics - Essay Example

The survey intends to provide a descriptive study to show whether offering gifts to government officials to facilitate the approval process for a holding company establishment should be adopted by the company or not. Additionally, the paper would provide a comparative study between Chen’s views and the German team’s views and offer justification regarding whether offering gifts to government officials for facilitating the new plan is unlawful and immoral.

Concerning the case, i.e. NES China: Business Ethics (A) by Xin Zhang, it can be viewed that though offering gifts to government officials for facilitating the approval process of any established plan is considered to be against the law. However, it has also been observed in the past that the process of providing gifts for establishing an interpersonal relationship is based tacitly on establishing mutual interests and benefits. Similarly, offering gifts is considered to be mandatory as it helps in establishing a more open relationship between the business organization and the government of the country, i.e. China. China is considered to be amongst those countries that provide enormous complexity and difficulty for any foreign companies to cope with the Chinese bureaucratic hurdles, therefore providing gifts is ascertained to be an easy way of mitigating those issues (Zhang, 401-408). Thus, considering the above-mentioned facts, it can be stated that offering gifts to simplify the process of the establishment of a holding company in a country such as China would be profitable for the organization.

It has been viewed that though providing gifts for establishing an interpersonal relationship between the organization and the government officials of China is considered vital in the Chinese business context. However, there exists a regulation that restricts the government bureaucrats from accepting gifts concerning any foreign public service which may result in being sentenced for punishment by Articles 382 and 383 of China Criminal Law. Additionally, it has also been observed that the process of approval for establishing a holding company in China is difficult as the concept is relatively new in comparison with other forms of foreign investment in China. Hence, the process of considering a proposal for establishing a holding company requires a minimum period of 90 days, which gets approval only when the application seems to be perfect and complete (Zhang, 401-408). Consequently, in this context, if the organization tries to involve all the vital aspects, it would not only help mitigate the financial issues of the country and its local companies but would also be beneficial for NES.

In terms of both Chen’s and German team’s views on whether gifts should be provided to government officials for a quick approval process regarding the establishment of a holding company in Beijing by NES AG, it has been viewed that both the parties offered certain suggestions that would aid in mitigating the issue, resulting in the establishment of the business plan in China. Irrespective of the fact that providing gifts for the facilitation of approving any foreign public service is considered to be illegal in China and would result in sentencing imprisonment nonetheless offering gifts to a person is reflected to be a formal way of establishing an interpersonal relationship with a person and has been in practice in China since ages. Concerning the above-mentioned discussion, it can be viewed that according to the China Criminal Law offering gifts is considered to be an illegal practice and can be stated as unlawful (Zhang, 401-408).

It has been observed that today’s business organizations mainly focus on establishing themselves in different parts of the world as it not only aids them to spread brand awareness but also helps them in establishing strong financial support for the association. However, it has been observed that there exist vast differences in business practices between western countries and emerging countries such as China. In this context, it has been viewed that though offering gifts to government officials is deemed to be against the law since it is considered to be a cultural way of establishing a mutual relationship between two personnel in China it cannot be deliberated as immoral (Zhang, 401-408).