Business Ethics: Contracts with Foreign Businesses

Business Ethics: Contracts with Foreign Businesses

Currently, limited international laws exist in areas such as copyright/patent protection and confidentiality of information. Labor and environmental laws may vary significantly between the United States and many developing countries. In addition, although all countries have laws against bribery, there are some countries where corruption is quite common.

In this Discussion topic, you are the owner of a manufacturing company, and you are considering a contract with a clothing manufacturer in Bangladesh. (Please keep in mind that you will use some of this information in your ethics policy in the Final Project.)

Please address the following in your response:

In reflecting on the limited international laws and regulations and the differences between the U.S. and other countries, briefly discuss some guidelines (principles and concepts) that you would have in your code of conduct (ethical/social responsibility policies).

Describe the ethical decision-making framework (What will shape your code?).

What are expected behaviors and how will you address poor behavior?

Given the existence of regulations and laws by the United States, international governing bodies, and global organizations, list the major concerns and issues that you will need to be mindful of in developing a code of conduct for working with a foreign business.