Business concepts and applications

Business

There are a number of different scenarios that could emerge that would result in an ethical dilemma for International Industries. For example, the company is engaged in the financial services industry in a number of different international countries. Consumer protections in nations like China and Russia are much weaker than in the west, which could create the opportunity for predatory lending, usury and other practices that are illegal here but may not be overseas. The company's orientation is to profit, which would be enhanced by such practices. The company could take advantage of lax local laws and the lack of financial savvy on the part of citizens of nations unaccustomed to personal retail banking. The company may have the legal right to engage in such practices, but ethical principles would indicate that it is wrong to do so.

Another potential ethical dilemma could come from the company's cruise ship business. Because the ships are flagged by Liberia and the Bahamas and operate in international waters, they may be subject to weak laws on issues of gambling controls, drinking controls and pollution discharge. The dumping of garbage and other pollutants in the oceans by cruise ships is a serious environmental issue (EPA, 2009), but the lack of jurisdiction applied to ships flagged in places like Liberia means that the company could dump waste in order to save on disposal costs. The company may be allowed to dump wastes in international waters, but there is an ethical standard that holds that such pollution, conducted simply because the company can get away with it, is unethical.

Oil exploration represents another major ethical issue. While oil exploration is not unethical on its own, it may be unethical depending on how it is conducted. The BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico could have been averted with a $500,000 sonic shut-off valve. This valve is required in most countries for offshore oil rigs, but not in the U.S. International Industries could face a situation like this. The existing legislation does not require safety equipment in one country that is standard in most countries. The company then needs to decide on a choice between using the safety equipment anyway or squeezing that last $500,000 in profit out of the well.

Ethical dilemmas occur frequently in business. They arise out of the conflict between two reasonable but mutually exclusive objectives. In each of these situations, the laws act as the source of ethical guidance, but that is not always the case. The ethical standards of one region do not always apply in other regions. This can be seen in international business with bribery, nepotism and the cultivating of political influence. For International Investments, such issues are going to occur constantly, given the businesses in which the company operates. It will be necessary for the company to develop an ethical imperative in order for its managers and employees to successfully make sound decisions with respect to the ethical dilemmas that they face in the course of their business.