Ethics in International Business

Class ID: 8110308

Course: Ethics in International Business

Course Description: Role of ethics in International Business and the ethical issues that confront today’s corporate leaders, managers, and employees; advancing ethical awareness, critical reasoning skills, core principles of ethical behavior to provide students with the basic tools to address and resolve complex, critical and at times; conflicting interests and opportunities, role of ethics in relation to corporate social responsibility; managerial decision-making, executive leadership, and corporate governance through diverse perspectives; business operation in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business

Sample exam questions:

1. What is Business Ethics? Also please explain types of ethical issues (5 Marks)
2. Define and explain types of conflict of interest? (5 Marks) 
3. Define Workplace Discrimination, identify the circumstances or conditions under which it most commonly occurs, and provide a detailed, illustrative example. (10 mark)

Key Answer:

1. Broadly, ethics is the discipline that examines one’s moral standards or the moral standards of a society to evaluate their reasonableness and their implications for one’s life.

Business ethics is a specialized study of moral right and wrong that concentrates on moral standards as they apply to business institutions, organizations, and behavior.

Business ethics is about relationships, values, justice, and identity (personal, professional, corporate, national, and global)the intersection between business and ethics is fundamental to the relationships between business and society at large.

Types of business ethics

• Systemic — ethical questions about the social, political, legal, or economic systems within which companies operate. 
• Corporate — ethical questions about a particular corporation and its policies, culture, climate, impact, or actions.
• Individual — ethical questions about a particular individual’s decisions, behavior, or character.

2. A conflict of interest  can be said to be “a situation in which a person, such as a public official,  an employee, or a professional, has a private or personal interest sufficient to appear to influence the objective exercise of his or her official duties.”

There are three key elements in this definition.

1. 1.  There is a private or personal interest.
   2. An “official duty” is literally the duty you have because you have an office or act in an official capacity.
   3. Conflicts of interest interfere with professional responsibilities by interfering with objective professional judgment

3. Workplace discrimination occurs when
– Employers make decisions that affect the economic interest of employees 
– Their decisions are based on a person’s non job related characteristics
Employment discrimination could occur in any number of situations, including:

• Stating or suggesting preferred candidates in a job advertisement
• Excluding potential employees during recruitment
• Denying certain employee’s compensation or benefits
• Paying equally-qualified employees in the same position different salaries
• Discriminating when assigning disability leave, or retirement options
• Denying or disrupting the use of company facilities
• Discrimination when issuing promotions or lay-offs