International Business Ethics - Assignment Example

International Business Ethics Number: Module Module Why is business ethics regarded as necessary? Answer: Business Ethics is a set of values that has an impact on the thinking process of the employees within an organization (Trevino and Brown, 2004). Researcher has found that most of the organizations try to maintain business ethics within the organization because it creates a good impression from the organizational perspective and the employees are devoted to serve for a longer time to the organization (Spence and Rutherfoord, 2003). The managers of the organizations need to be ethical in order to handle the management process of an organization. The organizations involve themselves in the corporate social responsibilities so that the organization can create a good reputation in the market (Conroy and Emerson, 2004). 2. Who is Jeremy Bentham and why is he a significant figure to philosophical ethics? Answer: Jeremy Bentham was considered as a well known philosopher and social reformer. He was known for his philosophy of Utilitarianism and concepts related to ethical aspects (Gupta, Pattillo and Wagh, 2009). He was known for his concepts related to ethical aspects. He defined a new term named consequentialism, which means that the quality of an event or an act depends on its impact. According to Bentham (2000), the impact of an event depends on several factors and one of the most important factors is the luck factor. The luck factor decides whether the act or event taking place shall work out well or not. Bentham proposed his own philosophy of utilitarianism where utility refers to the happiness gained from an event (Bicego, Rutstein and Johnson, 2003). It is a sense of satisfaction derived that makes individuals happy for some time. The utility is concerned with individual’s wellbeing. According to Bentham, an individual gains utility or satisfaction from an act that is as per the desire of the individual. He proves to be a significant figure because he has contributed his ideas in the field of utilitarianism that is also applicable to an organization’s business ethics. In an organization, the employees derive utility when their contribution to the organization has a favourable impact on the organization (Jenkins, 2005). 3. Why according to Joel Bakan do corporations have the personality of a psychopath? Answer: According to the researcher, the economic globalisation of WTO has indicated that corporations have started avoiding the authority of the government. The corporations have become extremely powerful and started dominating and posing threats to the government (Nissanke and Thorbecke, 2006). Researcher says that particularly the multinational companies consider themselves to be a strong authority and they have a tendency to avoid government rules and regulations (Lee and Vivarelli, 2006). They pretend to be less loyal to the government authority and try to frame their own rules and regulations. They have become so powerful that they tend to dominate more than the government actually does. Through this strong dominance, the corporations actually create a sense of nuisance which is disliked by the public. The corporations use branding of their product and it is used in such a way that it creates an unhealthy environment and invites public complaints (Wade, 2004). Thus the corporations lose their reputation in the market. Hence, it seemed that the corporations where behaving as psychopaths without any concern about the ethical aspects of the society. 4. For the economist Jeffrey Sachs, why does Sub-Saharan Africa still experience such high levels of extreme poverty? Answer: The portions of the Sub-Saharan Africa suffer from extreme poverty and the proportion is still rising further and the poor people are facing numerous challenges. The people of mainly rural areas suffer from deadly diseases like malaria. They face several crisis like lack of proper roads, massive droughts and lack of cooking gas (Jenkins, 2004). Economist has pointed out the fact that this situation has continued for decades and initiatives where not taken to improve the situation (Jenkins, 2004). The local people of those regions where illiterate and thus they did not have any knowledge about modern innovation. Economists indicated that even before industrialisation, Africa had a very low rate of urbanization and also had the lowest living standard compared to all other countries (Christensen, et al., 2007). The lack of financial resources and the local people suffering from the diseases like Aids and malaria have also contributed to the extreme poverty in these regions. Sub-Saharan Africa has got unstable and harsh climatic conditions, low food production and high transport costs that contributed to the underdevelopment in Africa (Christensen, et al., 2007). Malaria had a huge impact on the regions where people were suffering from this deadly disease and it affected around three million lives every year and most of them where children. It had a direct relationship with poverty because the poor people affected by the disease cannot afford to treat themselves and their family. 5. In what ways can global organised crime contribute to development and economic prosperity? Answer: There has been a massive innovation in the globalised world that has often been misused through economic activities. Due to the failure in appreciating the political consequences of the innovative products, it leads to non-function of both government and non-government organizations and they do not achieve their goals and run at a loss (Christensen, et al., 2007). This hampers the development of an economy. As a result, it leads to unplanned consequences which are not acceptable. The entrepreneurs of the organizations act as risk takers that conduct experiments using these innovations and try to earn huge profits by using illegal means. They often try to expand their business and they place their livelihood at risk. Deviant globalisation often leads to laundering of money into the Swiss bank accounts which indicates that the global rich suppress the poor people in the economy (Booysen, et al., 2008). This kind of globalization instead of providing a growth opportunity causes severe threats to the economy. People often engage themselves into illegal activities which lead to severe crimes that lead to selling of their organs in order to make money (Booysen, et al., 2008). Thus the illegal activities have a severe impact on the economic development and prosperity of the individuals living in the society. 6. Explain and demonstrate whether economic globalisation has been able to reduce global poverty in the poorest regions of the world. Answer: Economists have indicated that around eight million people die out of starvation who do not have the capability to fulfil their basic necessities (Booysen, et al., 2008). Majority of the poor people suffer from some deadly diseases like tuberculosis, malaria and Aids and thousands other die of respiratory diseases and Diarrhoea (Booysen, et al., 2008). Most of the poor people die because they cannot afford the costly treatments. There are various definitions of poverty with changing numbers and the economic conditions of the poor people. The economists consider three levels of poverty that are characterised as extreme, moderate and relative poverty (Booysen, et al., 2008). Extreme poverty refers to the situation when people are unable to fulfil their basic necessities in life for example food, house and clothing. However, extreme poverty is common in developing countries. Moderate poverty refers to the condition when the individuals are able to meet just their basic necessities and nothing more than that. The third criteria for poverty are expected to generally occur in developed countries where the individual is unable to fulfil his educational requirements and the quality health services. Greater proportion of the world’s extreme poor resides in various regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and East Asia (Booysen, et al., 2008). Although there was a decline in poverty level in South and East Asia but the poverty level further rose in Africa. Around half of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa are unable to meet their basic necessities in life and the level of poverty is expected to rise in future (Christensen, et al., 2007). The poverty is increasing mostly in rural areas of Africa where the proportion of illiteracy is very high. Ending poverty is considered to be a major challenge because poverty acts as a barrier to the economic growth. Poverty level can be reduced if the proportion of people under extreme poverty gets reduced. It is also needed to be ensured that the poor people are moving towards development that they are able to drive themselves above poverty line. In order to end poverty, the newer generation must take initiative to help the poor move above the poverty line. In order to end poverty, around 191 countries have signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration in 2002 and the countries had a set of goals known as the millennium development goals (Christensen, et al., 2007). The issues of poverty are expected to be reduced by 2015. It is mainly the aim of the rich countries to help the poor countries to bring them out of poverty. During the period of economic growth, there have been inequities among different regions and therefore the regions grew at different rates. Researcher has indicated that only one sixth of the population under extreme poverty grew at a consistent rate and another two- third moved to the next level of poverty (Christensen, et al., 2007). In order to raise the economic growth, it is necessary to understand the reason behind differing growth rates for a longer period of time. It is expected that the rich countries have partially exploited the poor as a result of which the poor countries suffer from problems of political unsteadiness. Technology has been considered as the main reason behind the growth of rich countries which is still unaffordable by the poor countries. Hence, the poor countries need to have some technological advancement in order grow its economy. Economic growth was induced by the industrial revolution in Great Britain. The workers shifted from rural areas to the urban areas and relocated themselves. They earned better livelihood by shifting from the agrarian economy to the industries which provided them with higher revenue. The economists pointed out another phenomenon known as the ‘Division of Labour’ which refers to the fact that the labourers have professional skills in one particular activity and they engage themselves in that activity (Christensen, et al., 2007). The industrialisation gave rise to the urbanization as majority of the population from rural areas shifted to the urban areas in order to earn their livelihood. The issue of poverty was mainly in the rural areas and this shift of population from rural to the urban areas led to the reduction in poverty. The technological advancement in some of the countries led to economic growth of those countries and the people who where efficient in utilising these technologies would find themselves in a better position. Due to the economic growth, there was a gap between the rich and the poor (Christensen, et al., 2007). As a result of the globalisation, the rich countries grew further, whereas in the poor countries there was no impact. The rich countries had no barriers to their growth. On the contrary, the poor countries have several barriers on their path of growth. The people living in poor countries often suffer from health issues and they are unable to undergo medical treatment. In case of the rich countries, the government offered a lot of insurance facilities for the employees of government organizations, for example, health and the unemployment insurance. However, the government in the poor countries are not financially stable enough to provide insurance facilities to the people. In case of Africa, it was seen that it had a very unstable government and hence there was no economic growth within the country (Christensen, et al., 2007). Further, the people below poverty line have very little money to save and therefore they are unable to plan for their future. One of the major problems faced by the poor countries is that of the poverty trap where the trapped individuals do not find ways to come out of the poverty issues (Christensen, et al., 2007). They do not have adequate livelihood to fulfil their basic necessities and hence they remain trapped for a longer period of time. Demographic trap has an impact on the poverty trap (Christensen, et al., 2007). Due to illiteracy, the poor families do not undergo any family planning measures and it is found that each family comprises of at least five to six children. Low income of the families hinders the parents from imparting basic education to their children. Low food intake leads to malnutrition among the children and they die at a very early age. This gives rise to further problems and the main cause for these problems is that of poverty and illiteracy in the less developed countries. Other reasons for poverty can be that many countries whose livelihood depends on the agriculture have got a very low agricultural productivity. Climatic conditions in several countries affect the agricultural productivity in those countries. Innovations play a key role in the development of various economies (Christensen, et al., 2007). It also depends on the market size. For example, the rich countries have huge market size compared to the poor countries, and the rich countries can afford new technology and thus further increases its productivity. Hence, the market for the rich countries expands and further innovations increases the market size even more and gives rise to economic growth in the developed countries. In case of the poor countries, the innovations are often not successful because the inventors are unable to bear the cost of innovation (Christensen, et al., 2007). Moreover, the government in the poor countries are unable to raise funds for these innovations and hence, it becomes difficult to afford new technologies in the poor countries and the market never expands. The rich countries accumulated heavy wealth from these innovations, whereas, the poor countries had very little opportunity to grow. However, the globalisation has been criticised in several aspects. The population growth has contributed to some extent to the issues of poverty. Globalisation has both positive as well as negative impacts on the economy. For example, the economic growth in China was based on the exports and hence, China was able to drive million of poor people out of the poverty trap. China could manage the globalisation in its economy carefully. Globalisation had a serious impact on the regions of Africa which was attacked by the rule of colonialism (Christensen, et al., 2007). Its resources were utilised by the other countries and it had a very little opportunity to get back its resources. The poor countries where suffering from insecurity problem. As a result of their lack of power compared to the developed economies, the poor people were unable to share their views and suffered under the dominating arms of the rich countries. There was a huge difference between the countries of Asia and Africa. Asia had a very high per capita food production, whereas, the African farmers where not efficient enough to produce that large amount of food crops (Christensen, et al., 2007). Further, the huge population in the Asian countries led to rise in size of their domestic market and they could attract the foreign investors to invest in their economy. Thus economists say that the impacts of globalisation are beneficial as well as harmful for different countries. Reference List Bicego, G., Rutstein, S. and Johnson, K., 2003. 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