商务风险管理指南：组织中的伦理困境.pdf

19 The Ethical Dilemma for Organizations ‘Everyone does it. It’s standard practice,’ says Liam. He wants to run a sales promotion that involves giving holiday vouchers to retailers who buy sufficient product during the month. ‘Yes,’ you say. ‘But it’s basically bribery.’ ‘Oh, grow up,’ says Liam. ‘It’s not illegal. There is no rule saying we can’t do that’. You try to reason with him: ‘But we’re encouraging people to get a benefit for themselves rather than for the good of their company.’ ‘You should be in social work,’ says Liam, witheringly. ‘I’ll talk to Frank. He’ll agree this promotion. Your views don’t count.’ And with that he’s off. The Tug Between Profit and Ethics Every organization wants to minimize its costs and maximize its income. If taken to extremes, this means providing the cheapest product or service for the highest price. The enticements are greater where competition is imperfect or absent, or where the customer is weak or lacking in knowledge. ‘Cost-plus’ defence contracts have resulted in poor value for money (because the contractor makes more profit by increasing the costs of the project), and pharmaceutical companies have overcharged for drugs. Schering-Plough agreed to pay $346 million in fines and damages to settle charges that it overcharged for drugs sold through the US Medicaid, the US Government’s health programme for the poor. Other factors encourage companies to neglect ethics. The need to win contracts can make businesses bend the rules. A feeling of ‘us against the world’ can lead managers to believe that ‘the end justifies the means’, with a resulting loss of honesty. According to a survey in Le Monde (LeMonde.fr), 64 per cent of French company CEOs believe that corruption is endemic in business. But ethics is increasingly recognized as a major business risk. Damaging newspaper reports and court cases involving bribery and other forms of dishonesty have serious consequences for the corpor