Ethical Dilemmas Associated with Corporate Bribery

Ethical Dilemmas Associated With Corporate Bribery ABSTRACT In today’s business world, bribery has become an everyday problem. Some people consider it to be a fair business tactic, others consider it to be an unethical act. This paper focuses on a particular bribery case and uses three different ethical theories, Utilitarianism, Kant, and virtue ethics to determine whether or not bribery is an ethical or unethical act. The Case A former partner of a prominent New Jersey law firm has been indicted on bribery charges in exchange for legislation and other favors intended to benefit the attorney’s land-developer clients. Eric Wisler is charged with making regular payments to Democratic, New Jersey Senator Wayne Bryant totaling $192,000 from†¦show more content†¦However, when it is studied after the scandal is revealed, it is hard to find any hedons in the case. The harm done as a direct result of the bribery, provides many dolors and very few, if any, hedons. In addition, the dolors in this case are greatly affected. Wisler faces jail time, Senator Bryant is currently serving a jail sentence due to accepting bribes, and the land-developers who were not clients of Wisler had lost business as a result of the bribery. An alternative to the situation would have been for Wisler to never offer bribes to Senator Bryant. When utilitarian calculus is performed on this situation, many more hedons emerge. Wisler would not be facing criminal charges, Senator Bryant would not be serving jail time for the bribes accepted from Wisler, and the land-developers who were not clients of Wisler would not be put at a disadvantage and would not lose business. The land-developer clients of Wisler are the only group of people who may be considered dolors if the bribery had never taken place. As a direct result of the bribery, they had legislation passed in their favor and gained business over the competition. After looking at both situations, Wisler should have chosen not to offer Senator Bryant bribes. When the utilitarian calculus was done on the current situation, where bribes were offered and they were caught, the amount of dolors far outweigh the number of hedons. However, when looking at the availableShow MoreRelatedEthical And Ethical Models Of The Asian Mining Sector1559 Words   |  7 Pagescontract, as is accustomed in many Asian countries (Han Fan, Woodbine, Scully, 2012). This particu lar situation is classified by Australian law as bribery and as such poses both a legal and ethical dilemma to the manager in charge of making this decision (Pedigo, Marshall, 2009). 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