Ethics at work across borders
An American businessman was transferred to Italy from the home office in Connecticut. On his first assignment, on a worm July day, he accompanied a shipment of several trucks loaded with butter from Switzerland to the company’s plant in Milan. When the trucks reached the Italian border, they were waived to the side of the road. There they stood as the customs inspectors passed other vehicles through. It soon became apparent to the businessman that the absence of a small payment to the customs officials was delaying his shipment. But as a proper American he refused to offer such payment. Several hours later he noticed melted butter beginning to seep out a crack below the rear door of one of the trucks.
It’s a fact that world trade barriers and borders have been drastically reduced since the days of the cold war. Business abroad is no longer considered international, but global, and corporations of this kind do not owe primary allegiance to any particular nation, per se. American workers have no special claim on the jobs that U.S global companies make available, and their owners are as likely to be non-Americans as Americans. In that case American laws and regulations become less and less restrictive. When we talk about business beyond national borders, we cannot escape the apparent obstacles by which the ways of doing business with other nations, cultures, governments, and social norms arise as a consequence. The clash of cultural backgrounds precipitates to differences in work ethics, integrity, and morality perception. Ethics is a concept with many different interpretations and has the quality properties of many outlooks across nations. There are also many different definitions on ethics but one I accept th ...