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Ethical Standards and Shape Business Behavior

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In what ways can culture affect ethical standards and shape business behavior?

High ethical standards require both businesses and individuals to conform to sound moral principles. Business ethics comprises the principles and standards that guide behavior in the world of business. Culture does affect ethical standards and shape business behavior. For example, in America unethical standards in a business cause one in four to witness it in the last six months (LRN, 2009). This is because the Western world is very individualistic in their thought processes, so they become competitive, and will hurt anyone in the process to get to the top.

Is it ethical to take part in corrupt international business transactions? Legal? Explain.
Yes, culture can affect the ethical standards and shape business behavior in many ways. One of the ways are bribes, many business in other countries uses bribes to get what they want. This is how many of the countries get things done. On the other hand there are still many companies that don’t believe in bribes and think that it is unethical in business, and then they find it very difficult to continue their business in those countries. The reasons why many companies use bribes are because their government officials have very low salaries (Shaw, 2010). Lucrative positions are "sold “Further, “at different rates, it depends on the bribe.

When companies take part in corrupt international business transactions, it does mean that it is ethical. It is up to the manager to do business without paying for bribes from the deontological ethical perspective. From the perspective of virtue ethics it would not be a good character to pay off bribes. From the consequential ethics perspective, the manager needs to refrain himself from taking bribes, so that he can root out the problem of corruptions (Shaw, 2010).

According to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, it is illegal to take bribes from a foreign country. Throughout the years, the governments have made it the law for officials to take bribes. One basic provision of the FCPA is that it prohibits U.S. It is against the law for companies, partnerships or organizations to take bribes or to offer bribes to the foreign officials, encouraging any business relationships (Shaw, 2010). References:

Cassin , R. (2008) Bribery Abroad: Lessons from the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Lulu.com,

Shaw, W. (2010) Business Ethics: A Textbook with Cases, e7, Cengage Learning, 2010

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