Business Ethics

Business Ethics Essay Ethics in Business From a business perspective, working under government contracts can be a very lucrative proposition. In general, a stream of orders keep coming in, revenue increases and the company grows in the aggregate. The obvious downfalls to working in this manner is both higher quality expected as well as the extensive research and documentation required for government contracts. If a part fails to perform correctly it can cause minor glitches as well as problems that can carry serious repercussions, such as in the National Semiconductor case. When both the culpable component and company are found, the question arises of how extensive these repercussions should be. Is the company as an entity liable or do you look into individual employees within that company? From an ethical perspective one would have to look at the mitigating factors of both the employees and their superiors along with the role of others in the failure of these components. Next you would have to analyze the final ruling from a corporate perspective and then we must examine the macro issue of corporate responsibility in order to attempt to find a resolution for cases like these. The first mitigating factor involved in the National Semiconductor case is the uncertainty, on the part of the employees, on the duties that they were assigned. It is plausible that during the testing procedure, an employee couldnt distinguish which parts they were to test under government standards and commercial standards. In some cases they might have even been misinformed on the final consumers of the products that they tested. In fact, ignorance on the part of the employees would fully excuse them from any moral responsibility for any damage that may result from their work. Whether it is decided that an employees is fully excused, or is given some moral responsibility, would have to be looked at on an individual basis. The second mitigating factor is the duress or threats that an employee might suffer if they do not follow through with their assignment. After the bogus testing was completed in the National Semiconductor labs, the documentation department also had to falsify documents stating that the parts had surpassed the governmental testing standards. From a legal and ethical standpoint, both the testers and the writers of the reports were merely acting as agents on direct orders from a superior. This was also the case when the plant in Singapore refused to falsify the documents and were later falsified by the employees at the have California plant before being submitted to the approval committees (Velazquez, 53). The writers of the reports were well aware of the situation yet they acted in this manner on the instruction of a supervisor. Acting in an ethical manner becomes a secondary priority in this type of environment. As stated by Alan Reder, . . . if they the employees feel they will suffer retribution, if they report a problem, they arent too likely to open their mouths. (113). The workers knew that if the reports were not falsified they would come under questioning and perhaps their employment would go into jeopardy. Although working under these conditions does not fully excuse an employees from moral fault, it does start the divulging process for determining the order of the chain of command of superiors and it helps to narrow down the person or department that issued the original request for the unethical acts. The third mitigating factor is one that perhaps encompasses the majority of the employees in the National Semiconductor case. We have to balance the direct involvement that each employee had with the defective parts. Thus, it has to be made clear that many of the employees did not have a direct duty with the testing departments or with the parts that eventually failed. Even employees, or sub-contractors, that were directly involved with the production were not aware of the incompetence on the part of the testing department. READ: Comparison Of The Piano Lesson And Sonnys Blues Essay For example, the electrical engineer that designed the defective computer chip could act in good faith that it would be tested to ensure that it did indeed meet the required government endurance tests. Also, for the employees that handled the part after the testing process, .

Limited Liabilty Partnership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Limited Liabilty Partnership - Essay Example These businesses are the most common and simplest ones since they just have one owner who runs the business by himself and is self employed. These types of businesses are east to start since they do not require much, if not any, legal obligations, and paperwork. It is important to note that the sole trader assumes the â€Å"all† the responsibility of the business. This includes looking after all the operations, issues, debts, loans and others. The problem with this business is that the sole trader has unlimited liability for the business and in case of bankruptcy, the sole trader would have to pay off the debts and claims from his pocket or by selling off the company’s assets and the sole trader’s assets as well (Hicks & Goo, pp. 13-18). Important here to note that the law does not provide the sole trader’s company, the status of a â€Å"separate legal entity† which other forms of business enjoy having. These businesses do not have the option of equity financing or in simple words issuing bonds and stocks for raising capital. Moreover, if the sole trader goes for debt financing, even then, the loan would be on his name and not on the company’s name and he, not the company, would be liable for paying off the loan (Mancuso, pp. 65-69). The second type of business would be of partnerships where two or more partners jointly start their business and share the responsibilities and ownership of the business. Unlike sole proprietor where only one person is responsible for everything, in partnerships, all the partners share the responsibility of running the business. However, their liability remains unlimited. This is because of the fact that partners are liable for any decision whether taken by him or any other partner. Moreover, if one partner runs away than the rest would have to pay his or her debts liabilities from their pockets (Martin, pp. 41-49). These types of businesses are easy to form and easy to dissolve as

The Geopolitics of Oil Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Geopolitics of Oil - Assignment Example Hence, it got imperative for the West to dominate the politics and economy in the Middle East, a resolve that only strengthened with time. As the world began to reap the benefits of industrialization signified by mechanization and automation of most of the salient aspects of social, industrial and economic existence, oil and natural gas emerged to be the primary drivers of industrial growth, economic progress and social mobility in the developed world. The developing nations were still marred by colonial suppression, conventional economies, poverty, political marginalization and scientific backwardness. Thereby, the expected outcome of this scenario was that if on the one side the industrialized West became the primary consumer of the world oil and gas resources, the concentration of the world petroleum reserves in the Middle East made it a strategic imperative to tighten the Western grip over the region. The following decades only saw a continuation and expansion of this planned Western hegemony. The meddlesome mentality adopted by the political class in Europe and the US was conveniently followed by the Western corpo rations, once they realized that petro resources surpassed any other sector, when it came to maximizing returns on investment. In a post World War II scenario, the victorious powers that are the UK, France, and the US did assure that the nations they had artificially carved out of their erstwhile fiefdoms were governed by autocratic rulers, who relied on their military and political backing to hold on to power. In contrast, the common populace in the region deeply resented these West backed dictators. Consequently in many Middle Eastern nations, this popular aversion for the meddlesome, oil hungry West led to the rise of nationalist, Islamic or socialist political forces, the most salient examples being Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Egypt. This didn’t change the Western mentality or the urge to control petroleum wealth in the