Ethical Issues in International Business In the present scenario, due to the international nature and exposure of every business concerned, companies are nowadays deputing a lot of employees for the purpose of performing overseas assignments. Due to diversity in relation to beliefs, traditions and cultural values and practices from the country of their origin, sometimes the employees may have to experience culture shock and have problems of coping in the country where they are sent for fulfilling foreign assignments. And at times, the attitudes with regard to the professionals in the particular country are such to the extent that it tends to harm the employee to a considerable amount.

Career advancement of employees is affected in such a situation and the employee's morale goes down. The Bank has the responsibility to make sure that its personnel are not harmed limiting their career advancement chances by the social customs of the host nation. Certain practices of the host country might be demeaning to the employee in which case he might feel embarrassed to put in the best. The Bank as the employment giver bears special responsibility towards its employees as regards professional advancement of the employees so that as per the individual merit and competence the employees are promoted to higher grades in the value chain. Since the industry rolls into the stream of knowledge management, defining concepts, sharing and imparting of industry and role specific important information, the HR professionals are dealing with knowledge and empowered associates in the present era. (Chapter by Rajesh B. Iyer)

This requires the HR professional to be proficient on the personal and professional spheres needing to possess proper business knowledge, practicality and being innovative. Managing change and diversity have come to be first priority in the function of HR practices. The cross cultural and team which is coming to be more evident and common, HR often assumes a consulting role inside the organization facilitating to create an employee oriented culture and climate. Fighting with the severe attrition widespread inside the knowledge industry, the HR professionals are enforced to contemplate something new to get the success of their attrition prevention strategies. As the responsibility of building an employee branding facilitating the corporation to draw the potential talents, the HR functions reinforces a value proposal of the corporation. (Chapter by Rajesh B. Iyer)

Question: 2

There is a moral common sense or a thumb rule which states as such (a) Avoid harming others (b) Respecting the rights of others (c) Not to lie or cheat (d) Sticking to promises and contracts (e) Obeying the law (f) Preventing harm to others (g) Helping the people in need (h) Showing fairness (i) Strengthening these essential things in others. (Leisinger, 1994)

The Bank has of course violated when William Vitam started projecting his female colleague as a showpiece by referring her as 'my cute assistant' and 'our lady banker' much to the opposition of Sara Strong. Her complains were not at all heeded by Vitam, and he went ahead in offering an explanation that he was only acting as per the customs of the host country -- Mexico where they do not acknowledge the competence of a women. Vitam defended his actions saying that since it is next to impossible to change that attitude of the Mexican bankers, it is just a game plan going on and asked Sara to toe the line and not object in the interest of the company. Vitam even went on to the extent of asking Sara to shun her professional image and try to be more 'flexible' & 'feminine' much against the personal wishes of Sara. (Taken from the Case Study)

Here the bank has acted in an audacious manner and has tried to tamper with the personal freedom of a lady employee. This amounts to making use of the female colleague indecently in front of other clients which does not amount to good...

Besides, dressing the Receptionist girls provocatively to garner more business also is not in the best ethical principles. Sara was quick to point out that it was not on consonance with the policies of the Bank and that it was demeaning to the wearer of the uniform. Besides, with the passage of time the patronizing actions of William Vitam increased the patronizing actions of Sara as it started to show results. She complaints to the Vice President Tom Fried also failed to evoke any response as the entire hierarchical chain were focused on patronizing Sara and projecting them as showpiece to garner business mileage from their them. This is immoral as well as unethical because Sara has all along protested this behavior of his senior bosses William Vitam and Tom Fried. (Taken from the Case Study)
Question: 3

The Company will serve itself better it prepares a model rule for adhering to them. Tom in his capacity as the Vice President could not come to any help of Sara Strong who as a last resort had approached her looking for solution. This is a clear case where a woman is disadvantaged in the workplace through discrimination. Discrimination could be an awkward position for the women who are involved in this. It is considered that there are mainly two types of discrimination. These are direct and indirect discrimination wherein each of the discrimination affects the women in a different type of manner. Indirect discrimination might be a considered as a situation whereby a woman is not being considered for promotion because of her sex, or an employee makes unsuitable sexual advances in the workplace. Direct discrimination might comprise a situation wherein when a woman is discharged from her job since she is a pregnant state or not included in after work group events or activities. Although there are several methods of legal provisions which could tackle direct discrimination, nevertheless people always look for chances involving discrimination which makes it greatly difficult to prove. There is a form of sexual harassment, which could be by men in relation to expressing their anger and attempting to reassert their control while they see women from a point-of-view as economic competitors.

Sexual harassment is intimately linked in relation to sexual discrimination. In Mexico, due to some cultural predisposition, Sara was disallowed to show her managerial prowess although she had plenty of them and Mexico was a preferred location for new executives. The company would have done better if it had projected that Sara was competent enough and ready to accept any responsibility and the Mexican bankers should look upon her on equal footing as a male officer. Since, this was the introductory assignment for Sara, and since she protested about the state of affairs, she was rated as an 'Average' employee and it was recorded that she is having negative attitude about the Bank and its policies. Without any genuine fault, she was punished as she raised her voice against certain bad practices of the Bank. If the Bank did not stop this type of attitude, another woman might be victimized in another country which would be even bad in the larger interest of the company. (Taken from Case Study)

Part 2

I oppose the statement that offering a tip to get a better table in a food joint should be viewed in the same vein as offering bribe to secure a business contract. In case of paying a tip to get a better table, I am ensuring my benefit and not the greater good of other people. Utilitarianism has been criticized by many pointing out that it suffers from a number of problems. This is because utilitarianism cannot be proved by science or logic to be considered as the correct ethical system. However, another problem with utilitarianism is that comparison of happiness is difficult among different people as it is not a measurable quantity. (Utilitarianism: Criticism of Utilitarianism)

When I am paying a bribe…