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Combating Corruption: The 21st-Century Ethical Challenge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Leo V. Ryan
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Abstract:

Combating and overcoming corruption in business and in political affairs is one of the most important issues facing business and professional ethics in the 21st century. That corruption exists is a fact. That corruption is widespread and spreading is a common perception. Many believe that corruption is culturally induced. Some believe corruption to be so much a part of the fabric of some societies as to be unquestioned and unassailable. Or, is it simply a myth that corruption is a matter of culture?

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 2000 , pp. 331 - 338
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2000

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References

1 Kantor, Michael, “Remarks prepared for delivery to the Emergency Committee for American Trade,” <[email protected]> (March 6, 1996).

2 John T. Noonan, Jr., Bribes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), p. xx.

3 Ibid.

4 Transparency International, “Introducing TI,” January 1996, p. 2. Also cf. Transparency International’s home page <http://www.transparency.de> for 1998 data.

5 Noonan, Bribes, pp. xii and xiv. For examples of journalists stories see: Paul Adams and Joseph Contreras, “People Can Get Away with Anything” (Nigeria) Newsweek, November 14, 1994, p. 14; Hugh Dellios, “In Nigeria, the Art of the Steal,” Chicago Tribune, July 7, 1998, Sec. 1, pp.1, 7; Hugh Dellios, “Bribery Is Rule of the Road in Zaire,” Chicago Tribune, March 27, 1997, Sec. 1, p. 8; Tom Hundley, “Poles Make an Art of Cheating,” Chicago Tribune, December 6, 1998, Sec. 1, p. 2.

6 Noonan, Bribes, p. xiv.

7 Getz, Kathleen A., “International Instruments on Bribery and Corruption,” Presentation, Conference on Global Codes of Conduct: An Idea Whose Time Has Come, University of Notre Dame, October 6–8, 1997, p. 3.

8 Ronald M. Green, The Ethical Manager (New York: Macmillan College Publishing Company, 1994), p. 290. For his ten categories cf. pp. 291–292. Also, cf. his chapter 8, “Business Ethics in a Global Context,” pp. 291–329, esp. “Coping with Bribery and Extortion,” pp. 301–312. Also cf. Richard DeGeorge, Competing with Integrity in International Business (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), esp. chap. 7 for his ten “Strategies for Competing with Corruption,” pp. 113–138. Noonan notes that bribes come in all shapes as sex, commodities, appointments, and, most often, cash” (Bribes, p. xxi).

9 Bruce Lloyd, “Bribery, Corruption and Accountability,” Insights on Global Ethics, September 1994, p. 5.

10 DeGeorge, Competing with Integrity, p. 142.

11 “The Politics of Corruption,” (China) Economist, May 20, 1995, pp. 33–34; Andrew Schwartz, “Market Failure and Corruption in the Czech Republic,” Transition 8, no. 6 (1997): 4–5; Francis Harris, “Honest Men? Czech government appears determined to root out corruption,” Business Central Europe 5, no. 55 (1998): 53; Mary Rothschild and Edward Schau, “Aftermath of Corruption: Old Habits Die Hard,” (Poland) Commonweal 117, no. 13, 13 July 1990; Piotr Golik, “Corruption: Cutting Grey Corners,” (Poland) Warsaw Voice 547, no. 15, April 18, 1999, pp. 16–17; and (only one of many possibilities) Vladimir I. Suprun, “Business Ethics in Russia: The Clash of Morality and a Market Economy,” Insights on Global Ethics 4, no. 8 (1994): 1, 4, 8.

12 Lewis Anthony Dexter and David Braybrooke, “Corruption,” in Encyclopedia of Ethics, ed. Lawrence C. Becker and Charlotte B. Becker (New York: Garland Publishing, 1992), vol. I, pp. 218–220. The authors cite Carl J. Friedrich (Pathology of Politics: Betrayal, Corruption, Secrecy and Propaganda [New York: Harper and Row, 1972]), whose thesis is that corruption is unavoidable and within limits functional. Patricia H. Werhane and R. Edward Freeman (eds.) include “Bribery” in their Encyclopedic Dictionary of Business Ethics, but there is no entry for “Corruption.”

13 Cf. Michael Elliott, “Money Talks,” Newsweek, November 14, 1994, pp. 10–15. Also see the sidebar, “Sometimes a Little Corruption Helps,” p. 13.

14 Getz, “International Instruments,” pp. 5–6. Getz cites Andrew Goodie and David Stasavage (Corruption: The Issues, [Paris: OECD Development Center, 1997]) extensively in her presentation.

15 For the text of the Round Table Principles see Georges Enderle, ed., International Business Ethics: Challenges and Approaches, (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999), pp. 143–145. Also Cf. Henri-Claude de Bettignies, Kenneth E. Goodpaster, and Toshio Matsuoka, “The Caux Round Table Principles for Business: Presentation and Discussion,” in ibid., pp. 131–142.

16 Extortion and Bribery in International Business Transactions, 1966 Revisions to the ICC Rules of Conduct (Paris: ICC, 1966). Also cf. Antonio Argandona, “The 1996 ICC Report on Extortion and Bribery in International Business Transactions,” Business Ethics—A European Review 6, no. 3 (1997): 134–146.

17 Getz, “International Instruments,” pp. 8–11. Also Cf. Kathleen Getz, “Trans-ideological Business Values in International Codes of Conduct,” International Journal of Value Based Management 8, no. 2 (1995): 117–134.

18 “A Global War Against Bribery,” Economist 350, no. 8102 (1999): 22.

19 “Stop the Rot,” editorial, Economist 350, no. 8102 (1999): 19.

20 Kantor, “Remarks.”