Intro of The Ethical Issues in International Business
As
someone who comes from Dubai, I have used to become nearly insensitive to the
speedy acceleration of the city since there would always be a new development
in every single week. Dubai has turned out to become a well-known country with
its ongoing development of the economy. In Dubai, leadership is considered as a
core to ethics in business. The reason is due to the people in Dubai believe
that leadership has the capability to modify the culture of organization for
better or worse. In value, the entire economic activities in Dubai are
tolerable in Islamic ethics which aligned with justice and profit-making.
Ethical Issues of The Ethical Issues in International Business
There are many ethical
issues in international business that are ingrained within the fact that
culture, law, political structure, and economic development are significantly
different from one country to another. As a consequence, some activities that
might be considered to be a normal business practice in a country might be
considered to be unethical business practices in other countries. For this
reason, the managers who work in a multinational company have to be
specifically sensitive to these variations and able to decide the ethical
business activities which suitable in the societies in which the company
performs its business, so that there would be no occurrence of potential
ethical business issues (Kolk, 2016).
Issue 1 - Employment Practice of The Ethical Issues in International Business
An ethical issue might be
associated with employment practices in number of countries. The situations
within a host country might be much mediocre to the multinational companies
that employed their workers from other countries. Even though there are many
suggestions came to advise that both payment and work conditions should be same
across the countries, but up till now, there is no clear solution on this
matter. For instance, some countries might have been performing 12-hour
workdays along with the low payment. But it does not mean that any multinational
company could also tolerate and working in the same practice.
In this context, the
companies need to respond to the employees as one of its stakeholders. The
companies should view these stakeholders and provide the best employment
practice for them. By doing this, the companies would encourage the employees’
self-value, which would increase the performance of employees and thus, the
productivity of the company itself (Park & Ghauri, 2015).
Employees are the primary stakeholders of any company and
their well-being is definitely able to affect the performance of the company.
In fact, employees have common or broad concerns regarding their employment
practices. For this reason, the management should create proper decisions that
would impact these types of concerns by highlighting the employees as their
primary stakeholders. Whether the management would decide to provide some
benefits and further compensation packages to the employees will also
definitely affect the performance of employees. Thus, it is fair to say that
the consistency of economic health of the company is of greatest importance to
the employees (Rezaee, 2019).
Issue 2 – Environmental Pollution of The Ethical
Issues in International Business
An ethical issue might
also arise if the environmental regulation in the host country is weaker than
the home country. Various countries have strong rules regarding the secretion
of pollutants, the use, and waste of toxic materials and many more. On the
other hand, some developing countries might not too strict in these matters. For
this, the multinational companies need to adjust their business activities with
the rules in the country that they are doing the business.
In this term, the
multinational companies are responsible to society as one of its stakeholders. The
multinational companies need to protect the environment, in order to give
protection to the society of the country that they are doing the business
activities (Kolk, 2016). Furthermore, every single business
activity made by a company will always be measured by society, by the
reputation of the company itself. If a company would be able to put the focus
in not to create or reducing the environment pollution which derived from its
business activities, then society as one of its stakeholders will surely
appreciate and make a good image for the company’s reputation as well. This is
actually aligned with the context of Corporate Social Responsibility that
needed to perform by the company (Žukauskas, Vveinhardt, &
Andriukaitienė, 2018).
Issue 3 – Moral Obligations of The Ethical Issues in International Business
Moral obligations refer
to the social responsibility that the multinational companies need to perform
for the societies that allow these companies to grow and develop. In these
modern days, most of the companies already realized the importance to get the
customers’ satisfaction. For this reason, the customers as one of the
companies’ stakeholders are the people that the companies need to serve.
Therefore, the multinational companies should able to deliver what they have
promised to the customers, be open and honest regarding the products or
services provided (McDonald, 2014).
For instance, the company should provide the best quality
of products as they have promised in their advertisement campaign. The reason
is due to the customers as one of the stakeholders of the company can make a
great influence in the context of the company’s brand, reputation, and thus,
will lead the profits for the company as well. For this reason, every single
company needs to always make proper decisions regarding the quality of products
or services provided for the customers (Mayabi, 2018).
Consequences
of Decision to Internal and External Stakeholder
As concerned with the
stakeholders, there are customers and suppliers who have been affected by the
business working on the international level. Customers want to deal with the
products which are not easily accessible for everyone, therefore, they deal
with the business which is performing the services globally. International
business affects the customers in respect of ethical values as all the
countries have differentiation in the ethical values. Globalization also
affects the suppliers who are assisting the businesses to make the production. The
government performed the role of supplier in international business as they
concerned with the tax and subsidies related to international trade. In the
last, there are stakeholders like competitors, who keep on eye at the policies
of the business you are doing (Morrison, 2015).
Process
and logical Planning from Identification to Decision Making
Understanding the issues
which are related to the process of how international business would survive on
international basis according to the ethical values which are accepted by the
people on international level. It is important to signify that the ethical
values and culture are different in all countries and on international level it
should be taken into consideration that how it could affect the business. The
ethical issues are related to the business are easy to know by using the model
of recognizing the ethical values and cultural differences of the country (Morrison,
2015).
Conclusion of The Ethical Issues in International Business
The businesses which are
expanded at the international level need to understand that there are some
ethical issues that needed to be considered in the international business. The
ethical issues such as employment practices, environmental regulation, and also
moral obligations are only some of the main ethical issues that the companies
might have to face. Thus, multinational companies need to adjust and manage
their business activities so that there would be no potential ethical issues
appear.
References of
The Ethical Issues in International Business
Kolk, A. (2016). The social responsibility of
international business: From ethics and the environment to CSR and
sustainable development. Journal of World Business, 23-34.
Mayabi, B. (2018). Satisfying
the Customer. Quality Management and Service Provision. GRIN Verlag.
McDonald, G. (2014). Business
Ethics: A Contemporary Approach. Cambridge University Press.
Morrison, J. (2015). Business
Ethics: New Challenges in a Globalised World. Macmillan International
Higher Education.
Park, B. I., & Ghauri, P. N.
(2015). Determinants influencing CSR practices in small and medium sized MNE
subsidiaries: A stakeholder perspective. Journal of World Business,
192-204.
Rezaee, Z. (2019). Business
Sustainability, Corporate Governance, and Organizational Ethics. John
Wiley & Sons.
Žukauskas, P., Vveinhardt, J.,
& Andriukaitienė, R. (2018). Management Culture and Corporate Social
Responsibility. BoD – Books on Demand.