Topic: Bribery, side deals, and preferential treatment.
Research Paper Instructions
You will write a Research Paper on a topic relating to business ethics. You will research what
is being said in the academic literature about the issue and what the secular worldview
suggests is relevant in the comtemporary business environment. You will then research the
Bible for information related to the topic and identify what a Christian or follower of God
should consider important related to the topic under consideration. Compare and contrast
what agrees between Scripture and the secular thoughts and what may differ between the
two.
Your paper must be 8–10 pages and double spaced, not including the title page, abstract,
and references pages. You must include 8–10 scholarly references in addition to the course
textbooks and the Bible. You must use your textbooks as sources; other acceptable sources
are journal articles from peer-reviewed journals, theoretical texts, and the Bible. Citations
must be in current APA format. As this is a Research Paper, it must be written in third
person.
BUSI 472
RESEARCH PAPER INSTRUCTIONS
You will write a Research Paper on a topic relating to business ethics. You will research what is
being said in the academic literature about the issue and what the secular worldview suggests is
relevant in the comtemporary business environment. You will then research the Bible for
information related to the topic and identify what a Christian or follower of God should consider
important related to the topic under consideration. Compare and contrast what agrees between
Scripture and the secular thoughts and what may differ between the two.
Your paper must be 8–10 pages and double spaced, not including the title page, abstract, and
references pages. You must include 8–10 scholarly references in addition to the course textbooks
and the Bible. You must use your textbooks as sources; other acceptable sources are journal
articles from peer-reviewed journals, theoretical texts, and the Bible. Citations must be in current
APA format. As this is a Research Paper, it must be written in third person.
You will choose a topic and write a rationale for that topic. Final approval must be received from
your instructor.
Topic choice:
Topic: Bribery, side deals, and preferential treatment.
Running Head: BRIBERY, SIDE DEAL AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT 1
Bribery, side deals and preferential treatment
Name
Institution
BRIBERY, SIDE DEAL AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT 2
Bribery, side deals and preferential treatment
Bribery in involves the act of issuing or receiving money or other valuable items with the
aim of dishonestly influencing an action or decision of the recipient. In business environment,
bribery involves giving or receiving money and valuable items in order to influence the action of
the top level business management or company representatives (Akerstrom, 2014). Bribery in
business environment is illegal and considered as unethical business practice. Several bribery
scandals have been unearthed in the recent past involving corporate representatives. For
example, Honda executives and management officials in the United States of America were
charged and found guilty of receiving bribes from motor vehicle dealers in order to give timely
access to the most profitable automobiles in the market.
In many countries, bribery is considered as an act that goes against the principle and
philosophy of free business and enterprise system. A free enterprise system ensures that
companies remain competitive in the market by offering the best products, services, lower prices
and best business and management practices. The system does not allow companies to gain
competitive advantage through bribery. Under the free enterprise system, there are several types
of bribery such as kickbacks where a certain company income is shared among the people who
helped the organization earn the income (Jondle & Ardichvili, 2017). Another common type of
bribery in business environment is reciprocity. This type of bribery of follows the strategy where
the companies involved scratch each other’s back. Reciprocity bribery involves exchange of
money and valuable items between companies’ representatives with the aim of dishonestly
influencing the decisions of the organizations and benefit all the parties involved.
The act of bribery and other methods of corruption from business corporations are very
common in developing countries due to the lax in the rule of law and weak judicial systems. In
BRIBERY, SIDE DEAL AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT 3
these countries companies have many opportunities for making huge profit and are sometime
tempted to bribe corrupt government officials in the countries. Some of the companies sees bribe
as the easiest way of acquiring contracts in developing countries where the rate of corruption is
rampant. The issue of bribery and corruption in business environment especially in developing
countries has largely been attributed poor leadership, weak democracy and the stiff competition
among the companies to acquire the lucrative contracts in these nations (Trevino & Nelson,
2011). Bribery and corruption in developing countries business environment create an
unfavorable environment for clean companies that gain competitive advantage based on their
merits and quality of products or services they offer to their clients. This is unethical since
corrupt companies and their representatives use bribes to acquire lucrative contracts in the
expense of the qualified companies based on their merits. Bribery and corruption creates an
unfair competitive advantage to companies that give or receive bribe at the expense of other
organizations that ethically conduct their business activities.
There issue of bribery differs from one nation to another. In most developing countries in
Asia bribery is seen a traditional norm of giving and receiving gifts from friends, family and
business associates. In most of the first world countries, bribery is considered as illegal and
unethical and those culpable of the offense face hefty fines and jail terms. The issue of bribery in
business environment and practice has evolved over time with actions that were previously
considered as normal business practice past becoming illegal now. For example, in the 1970s,
American companies and corporations used to pay officials from foreign countries acquiring
contracts or expediting legal procedures in the respective nations. The issues of payment to
foreign officials came the spotlight due to the 1973 Watergate scandal that exposed corporate
bribery by major United States corporations (Haptic E-pub, 2015). The bribery scandal resulted
BRIBERY, SIDE DEAL AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT 4
in the resignation of American president Richard Nixon and the enactment of the Foreign
Corrupt Practice Act to prohibit United States corporations and foreign organizations from
giving bribes to legislators and other officials in order to curry favors. Some of the companies
implicated by bribery claims in violation to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act include Kellogg
Brown & Root, Inc. In 2009, the company was charged by the Justice Department of the United
States for payments of millions of dollars. The corporation and its CEO Jack Stanley pleaded
guilty to bribery claims resulting in fines of $402 million and two and half years in prison for
Stanley. Other companies implicated in bribery scandals include the BAE Systems, Alcatel-
Lucent SA and Siemens AG.
Christians view bribery as evil and unacceptable practice that is forbidden by God in the
Bible. They view both the act receiving and giving bribe as evil as it not only blinds the
perceptive buts also corrupts the words of a Christian. In the Bible, God gave Moses laws to
govern the people of Israel and the law forbade bribery. In the book of Exodus and Deuteronomy
in the holy bible the act of taking bribe is forbidden as it perverts justice, blinds the receiver and
twist the righteous word ( King James Version., 2009). According to the bible, bribery hinders
justice and the truth. In Christian view bribing is against the law and breaking it result in
disastrous effects as attribute in the book of 1 Kings where an innocent man was killed as a result
of a testimony from bribed men. According to the bible, bribing brings evil to the society as it
corrupt the society when high officials receive bribes. For example, Judas was bribed with 30
pieces of silver to betray Jesus and later realized it was evil when the chief priest and elders
refused to accept the money.
Both Christian and secular thought agrees that bribery is wrong and unethical. In secular
thoughts laws have been enacted to prohibit bribery. The in the holy bible the act of bribery is
BRIBERY, SIDE DEAL AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT 5
forbidden by the laws of Israel that God gave to Moses. Both thoughts view bribery as the act of
giving or receiving money or valuable items in order to influence something. Both views agrees
that bribery is meant pervert justice as the bribes alters the judgment of the receiver. In business
context, the bribe alters the judgment officials issuing tenders and contracts. Christian and
secular thoughts differs on the environment that the bribe is given. Secular thoughts believes
bribes are given to influence business decisions while Christian view believe bribes are given to
alter the righteous word.
Side deals are transactions that involve two or more parties for their private benefit after
successfully negotiating a contract on behalf of the companies they represent. The transaction
between the parties is a subsidiary of the contract that was under negotiation. Side deals are used
by organizations to ensure success negotiation of contract and tenders. Companies come up with
arrangements that are not supposed to be include in the official agreement of the contract once
it’s done (Fehr, 2014). Side deals are often meant to only benefit the parties involved and are not
part of the official deal or functional requirement for an organization. Side deals often falls
outside of an organization’s basic policies and this make it difficult for an organization to
scrutinize them. Side deals are considered to be less effective compared to an organization’s core
principles and are more often likely to be violated by the parties involved.
Side deals are ethically acceptable in the business environment as well as international
negotiations that involves two or countries. Side deals are often made outside of the official
organizational functional requirements. The agreement reached in the side deal does not hold an
organization responsible for outcomes of the deal if one party exits the deal without meeting the
obligations agreed upon in the side deal (Rousseau, 2015). Side deals are more often reliant on
the good will of the individuals involved hence making it difficult for an organization to enforce.
BRIBERY, SIDE DEAL AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT 6
Side deals in business environment may result in many ethical issues and concerns. Side
deals are not part of an organization’s basic functional requirements thus making their
implementation process difficult. Side deals greatly involves the good will of the parties involved
rather than a process or procedure governed by an organization’s core principles and policies.
The side deals gives the parties involved the freedom to act at their will rather than by the
organization’s core principles and governing policies (Trevino & Nelson, 2011). This gives the
individuals or parties involved a chance to advance their own interests at the expense of the
organization. Side deals enables individuals to seek better terms outside of the organization
framework which may open up the chances for activities that represent conflict of interests. Side
deals gives corrupt individual the chance advance their illicit activities through side deals that an
organization cannot account for. Side deals also raise ethical concern as they are likely to lead to
fraudulent activities by the parties involved (Trevino & Nelson, 2011). For example, in 2004,
Andrew Fastow, the former CFO of Enron was charged of defrauding the company shareholders
through undisclosed side deals and sham transactions.
Christian thoughts believe in taking the side that is holy at all times without compromise
whatsoever. Christian thoughts believes in taking side with the oppressed and poor people in the
society. According to Christian thoughts Jesus was against the oppression of the poor in the
society always sided with them. He pursued a humble living and often interacted with the poor
while those in position of power and influence like Herod were after him for helping other
people ( King James Version., 2009). According to Christian thought, a person has to either take
the side of the righteous or the evil. Both Christian and secular thoughts believes in taking sides.
In Christian thought one either take the side of Jesus Christ or the path of evil. In secular thought,
one takes the side that is more beneficial.
BRIBERY, SIDE DEAL AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT 7
Preferential treatment involves treating certain individuals or group of people better than
the rest. Preferential treatment makes individuals or group of people feel more important than
others. Preferential treatment in business environment occurs when individuals are not treated
equally or where there is favoritism in treatment of both employees and customers. Preferential
treatment in business environment is attributed to discrimination against certain groups of people
by organizations or the top level management of business enterprises (Meiners, Ringleb, &
Edwards, 2011). Preferential treatment is common in business environment and is often
attributed to factors such as gender, race, color, age, education level, sexual orientation and
preference among other factors. Preferential treatment in business environment also involves
discrimination of certain companies, suppliers, retailers and other companies in a business
environment in preference the favored ones. For example, in 2005, the Pentagon was accused of
preferential treatment in procuring weapons for the United States Air force. Darleen Druyun, the
former United States of America Air force procurement officer pleaded guilty of preferential
treatment in awarding Boeing a government contract worth $23.5 billion to supply equipment to
the air force.
Every business entity has an obligation to establish and maintain a business environment
that ensures fair relationship between employees and its customers. The top level management of
every business organization is entitled to make corporate policies that ensure fairness in all the
organization’s activities, decisions and services. The management is ethical responsible for
developing policies that promote equality and fairness in the organization regardless of factors
such as gender, race, education level, sexual orientation and preference among other factors that
lead to discrimination and preferential treatment. The top level management are obligated to
thoroughly solving the issues of preferential treatment in their organizations as they pose the
BRIBERY, SIDE DEAL AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT 8
risks serious issues such as lawsuits, fines, low performance and potential damage to the
company’s good will and public perception.
Preferential treatment is unethical in business environment as it discriminates certain
individuals, group of people or companies in business environment. Preferential treatment is
meant at treating some people better than the others in the same environment. It leads to feeling
that some people are better or superior than the others. It lead to negative feeling and reaction to
the group that is discriminated hence creating tension in the business environment (Alam &
Ahmed, 2014). Preferential treatment in business environment is considered as favoritism
practice that create conflict of interest in violation organization conflict of interest policy.
The Christian thought does not believe in preferential treatment. The will of God
according to the holy bible does not show favoritism in a Christian live. All the people regardless
of their gender, age, nationality or any other factor are equal before God. According to the books
of Romans, Ephesians and Colossians every human being is equal in the Eye of God. Every
human is judged according to his wrong with no favoritism whatsoever ( King James Version.,
2009). The teachings of the Bible teaches Christians against preferential treatment and
favoritism. According the book of James one should not be discriminated based on his or her
financial status.
Both the Christian and secular thoughts are against preferential treatment and
discrimination whatsoever. Both thought advocate for people to be treated equally without
favoritism based on the social status. The Christian and secular thought differs from the fact that
it is difficult avoid showing preferential treatment. The Christian thought argue that even Jesus
Christ followers struggled with bias against the people they considered different from them.
BRIBERY, SIDE DEAL AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT 9
References
King James Version. (2009). The Holy Bible : King James Version. Peabody: Hendrickson Pub.
Akerstrom, M. (2014). Suspicious Gifts: Bribery, Morality, and Professional Ethics. Boston :
Transaction Publishers.
Alam, F., & Ahmed, A. (2014). Business Environment : indian and global perspectives. New
Delhi: PRENTICE-HALL.
Fehr, G. P. (2014). The Unwritten Rules: Leadership in the Work Place. London: AuthorHouse.
Haptic E-pub. (2015). Business Ethics - IPCC: Business Ethics - I.P.C.C. (C.A. Students). Boston
: Haptic Publication.
Jondle, D., & Ardichvili, A. (2017). Ethical Business Cultures in Emerging Markets. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Meiners, R. E., Ringleb, A. H., & Edwards, F. L. (2011). The Legal Environment of Business.
New York: Cengage Learning.
Rousseau, D. (2015). Idiosyncratic Deals Employees Bargain for Themselves. New York:
Routledge.
Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2011). Managing business ethics : straight talk about how to do
it right. New York: Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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