ADM 3318 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Cultural Relativism, Morality, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Administration
• Course: ADM 3318
• Professor: Ado Abdoulkadre

Document Summary

Business ethics: the accepted principles of right or wrong governing the conduct of businesspeople. Ethical strategy: a course of action, that does not violate ethical principles. What is legal may not be ethical. A strong argument can be made that it is not okay for a multinational firm to tolerate poor working conditions in its foreign operations, or those of subcontractors. Some people argue that investing in problematic countries stimulate economic growth and raise living standards: however, some regimes are so repressive that investment cannot be justified on ethical ground. In the 90s, it was concluded that those principles were not sufficient to break down the apartheid, and that it was unethical for companies to keep doing business with. Foreign companies tend to pollute the developed country they are doing business with more than their own, due to the laxness of the law.