Is Bribery Acceptable under Certain Circumstances - Essay Example

IS BRIBERY ACCEPTABLE UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES? Name Professor Institution Course Date Is Bribery Acceptable Under Certain Circumstances? Introduction From an operational perspective, corruption refers to the misuse or exploitation of entrusted power with the intention of gaining private benefits. Facilitation payments, involving the payment or receivership of bribes for preferential treatment for something that the receiver of the bribe ought to do by law, constitute ‘according to rule’ corruption. On the other hand, corruption ‘against the rule’ relates to the bribe paid with the intention of obtaining services, which the receiver of the bribe experience diverse prohibitions in the course of providing. It is essential to note that the phenomenon of corruption tends to have complex reasons in relation to the flaws within the legal system, lack of democratic traditions, social and economic difficulties, and low pay for the public officials. Furthermore, corruption has the tendency of affecting the lives of people in multiple ways. In the extreme cases, corruption has the tendency of costing peoples’ lives. In other incidents, corruption leads to loss of freedom, health, or financial resources. According to Transparency International (TI), the largest organisation charged with fighting corruption on the global context, keeping corruption in check is only feasible if the government, business, and civil society decide to work together in accordance with the set of standards and procedures they tend to support. The purpose of this assessment is to assess whether bribe is acceptable in certain circumstances with reference to the corporate transactions. Description, Application, and Discussion Bribery refers to the persuading someone to act in one’s favour by a gift of financial resources, as well as other inducement. From a legal perspective, bribery relates to act of offering, giving, receiving, and soliciting items of value with the intention of influencing the actions of an official or other practitioner in charge of the public or legal duty. The purpose of bribery is to induce an individual to perform their job improperly through breaking their contract, as well as code of conduct (Sioussiouras & Vavouras, 2012). From this perspective, it is never appropriate to consider bribery a normal or acceptable aspect of doing business. In the first instance, it is essential to note that bribery is against the principle of transparency in the business and company activities (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2014). From an ethical perspective, bribery has the tendency of eradicating the openness, as well as communication the audience expect in the course of transacting with the companies. In addition, bribery does not facilitate realisation of equal playing field for the execution of the corporate business activities. Most importantly, bribery inherently takes away any accountability of the people committing the offence because of the inconspicuous nature of the bribery payments (Jason & Scott, 2013). Receiving and offering bribes are criminal offences. In this context, there is no incentive for either party (receiver and the provider) to reveal any wrongdoing. It is essential to demonstrate the fact that bribery comes out as a socially unacceptable behaviour because of the tendency to keep bribery out of the public domain (Hoffman et al., 2014). According to this argument, it is essential to demonstrate the fact that for bribery to be acceptable there is need for it to emerge in the daily activities. It is the obligation of the government to integrate regulatory practices with the intention of enhancing effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency in the transaction of the business entities and companies (Svensson & Wood, 2008). Deregulation activities such as bribery in the corporate context might contribute to the generation or creation of a culture of the private entities being above the law in the course of addressing the demands and expectations of the target audiences. This indicates that bribery might damage the essence of business ethics inclusive of non-compliance of the laws protecting the employers’ rights (Berrios, 2010). In addition, it is essential to ensure that bribery is not acceptable under all circumstances because of the need to prevent the spread of the dangers of pro-bribery attitude into the social life. This is evident in the evolution of the tipping, which was an emergence in the 1700s as an expression of gratuity to the server of a drink in the bar. In the current society, tipping is a common aspect in relation to diverse services inclusive of the taxi services. There is high potentiality for the bribery mentality to grow in the same manner. This indicates that bribery might affect the potentiality of people to acquire the services and products they deserve in accordance to the law. Integration of the bribery regulations is essential in ensuring that business entities and companies focus on the provision of quality services, as well as products in moral or ethical manner (Rafael and Robert, 2009). In most cases, international companies have the tendency of confronting diverse decisions, which create dilemmas for the relevant decision-makers. These situations relate to ‘right-wrong’ or ‘just-unjust’, which have the tendency of deriving their meaning, as well as true value from the attitudes relating to particular cultures. International business entities might face difficult situations relating to corruption even in the absence of their knowledge. In certain cultures, it is appropriate or acceptable to offer or receive bribes with the intention of obtaining certain or particular business benefits (Rose-Ackerman, 2002). In this context, such entities focus on the usage of bribery in diverse forms inclusive of money, flowers, gifts, entertainment and favour. In the case of the United States and the United Kingdom, the tendency of offering or giving any sort of bribe is illegal, as well as unethical. Nevertheless, in certain nations, there is no other way of getting any business other than integration of bribes. For instance, it is a bribe to offer a gift in appreciation, but this is a normal act in the case of Romania. In addition, these aspects constitute expense, which can be written off in German and Japan. On the other hand, it is essential to note that bribery is an illegal in accordance to the Romanian law. It is critical to demonstrate the fact that bribery goes by diverse names in nations. For instance, people refer to bribery as mordida in Mexico, as well as dash in the case of South Africa (Frank & Bsjsifon, 2010). There are diverse issues or context, which business entities might focus on utilising in order to engage in the bribery act. In the first instance, business corporations have the tendency of engaging in bribery whenever they feel that the competitors are offering bribes in the course of obtaining business resources. In addition, business entities might focus on the utilisation of the pressure for higher levels of performance by top management shareholders. Similarly, it is possible for the business corporations to engage in the bribery activities whenever such actions are acceptable in the host nation. Furthermore, the tendency of the government entities to have substantive control over business activities might prompt the business entities to consider engaging in the bribery acts. On the other hand, government entities might concentrate on the provision of poor pay for their officials, thus the need to use or utilise the bribes with the intention of supplementing the wages or salaries. Bureaucratic delays might be costly for the transactions of the business entity, thus the need for the companies to engage in the bribery actions to enhance effectiveness and efficiency in the midst of the bureaucratic issues. Besides, certain business corporations might consider engaging in the bribery activities because of the pressure from the politicians to make substantive contributions to the political parties, as well as causes. One of the most recent aspects of corruption or bribery relates to the case of SWECO, which is an international corporation. In the midst of such actions, the World Bank has focused on debarring SWECO environment for three years following the acknowledgement of misconduct of the two senior employees (Collier & Wanderley, 2005). These employees did engage on paying for the trip for the head of project management, as well as his family during the amendments of two World Bank financed contracts in order to gain the confidential information (Zekos, 2004). From this perspective, the notable recent case of bribery, as well as the outcome of the investigation provides substantive evidence on why bribery is unacceptable in the international or global context. On the international context, the common practice of bribery in numerous nations had the tendency of preventing or limiting honest, as well as governed international trade. This is because of lack of willingness by such companies to contemplate illegal incentives to conduct the business activities in accordance with the demands and expectations of the target audiences within the industry and market of transaction. These aspects have the tendency of reducing international competitiveness of the corporations seeking to address the needs and demands of the consumers in global context. Gifts and bribes have the tendency of creating the perception of undue influence in spite of their nominal value. In spite of the above discussion relating the negative influences of the bribes in accordance with the decision-making, it is becoming more difficult to decide where to draw the line between acceptable (permissible) and unacceptable (impressible) bribery actions in the contemporary society or the international context. For instance, in certain circumstances, acceptance of such bribes and gifts, as well as amenities might be a proper aspect of the corporate or business relationship. In diverse situations, however, acceptance of such bribery aspects might relate to a serious breach of business and professional ethics, thus the eventual violation of the law of the host nation. Furthermore, policies, as well as practices for handling bribes and invitations to special events have the tendency of varying from one organisation to another. For example, in certain entities, the potential harm to the credibility of the organisation might not worth the risk, thus the need to integrate bans for all gifts and bribes to employees exclusive of the personal gifts from friends and family. On the other hand, there are certain corporations demanding declaration and documentation of the gifts. Similarly, certain organisations focus on sharing unsolicited gifts among all employees with the intention of expressing acceptability of the actions in pursuit of competitive advantage and efficiency in the execution of the demands and expectations of the target audiences. From this perspective, the potentiality of each employee to benefit from the bribe or gift equally might contribute towards lessening the perception that the action did focus on influencing the action of a single employee. Categorically, it is critical to note unethical and illegal aspect of bribery in the course of expressing the intent to buy favour from diverse entities, thus the need to manoeuvre the legal system. The act of giving and receiving bribes has the tendency of influencing the outcomes. In the absence of transparency of the intent of the parties engaging in the bribery, there is high potentiality of ultimate undermining of the trust in the business relationships within and outside the corporation in the industry and market of transaction (McKinney & Moore, 2008). Conclusion The purpose of this assessment was to assess whether bribe is acceptable in certain circumstances with reference to the corporate transactions. From a legal perspective, bribery relates to act of offering, giving, receiving, and soliciting items of value with the intention of influencing the actions of an official or other practitioner in charge of the public or legal duty. It is essential to note that the phenomenon of corruption tends to have complex reasons in relation to the flaws within the legal system, lack of democratic traditions, social and economic difficulties, and low pay for the public officials. From the above discussion, it is never appropriate to consider bribery a normal or acceptable aspect of doing business. Bribery has the tendency of eradicating the openness, as well as communication the audience expect in the course of transacting with the companies. List of References Carroll, A., & Buchholtz, A. (2014). Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Cengage Learning. Collier, J., & Wanderley, L. (2005). Thinking for the future: global corporate responsibility in the twenty-first century. Futures, 37(2), 169-182. Frank J.Bsjsifon G, (2010), ‘baksheesh or bribe: payments to government officials and the foreign corrupt practices Act, vol.2, pp. 83-105. Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch, (2009), "Why Doesn't Capitalism Flow to Poor Countries?" Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 2009, no. 1: 285-321. Jason Miklian. & Scott Carney, (2013), "Corruption, Justice and Violence in Democratic India." 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