Ethics: #10 Relativism and Bribery

[samvara]

Final Test \o/. 36 / 40 respectively and the one I got wrong was a classic dyslexia one where pairs of words make no sense - I am OK with this. The readings were all to do with cultural and ethical relativism with a chunk devoted to bribery. It might be that health and energy is low but I'm not feeling it, I'm a bit disconnected from the material

• Cultural Relativism - different cultures have different beliefs (statement of fact)
• Ethical Relativism - moral diversity, what is considered right or wrong is relative to the ethical / cultural framework

We had a massive, inconclusive discussion about bribery. It sort of meandered around blatant bribery where you get your licence / ticket etc a lot faster (or at all) if you offer a bribe and more subtle embedded forms where if you pay a fee to get your process 'expedited' like getting your academic transcript fast through the university - or your passport ready in a shorter time. We talked a bit about how some cultures pay very low wages and the bribes make up the difference and how that impacts on efficiency. After the class that led to a discussion of tipping - linking reward to performance has some obvious benefits but does it outweigh the benefits of having a wage you can live on?

The rest of the class was a monster case study covering working out a strategy for dealing with being a manager in a firm that deals with factories using child labour.

Incoherent notes below.

1. Values (issues) - child labour, working conditions in developing nation, profitability and efficiency, health and safety in Chinese village / factory, viable alternatives for employees, current position in company,
2. Define his purpose - find some way to make things better while not compromising profitability and get promoted! Get company to recognise issue ... address issue. Work out a way to sell it - convince company to do it. Small changes - big impact (quick wins).
3. Stakeholders - who are they and what is at stake? Employees in China (health, income, future lives, job satisfaction, safety, human rights), company (CSR, profits, reputation, product quality, legal implications), factory manager (bonus, job, efficiency, additional work, authority, standing), customers (price, quality, consumer integrity-shopping-fluffiness), families of workers (income, quality of life, health), shareholders (dividends, growth, CSR), investors (dividends, growth, CSR), distributors (works, profits), immediate boss (more work, credibility, compromise job security, efficiency, {thinking}), himself (job satisfaction, morality, integrity, credibility, credibility)
4. Choosing to act - what can you do in the short term? Start with the magnifying glasses, masks, talk to other customers of factory, talk to the industry group, find out what other people are doing in similar circumstances, find out about other factory policies, develop a plan! Develop a script. Look at Chinese policies on factory conditions and labour conditions. Leverage charitable fund in India - company is already doing charitable works. What can you do in the medium to long term? Demonstrate long terms benefits, Develop training, guidelines and expectations.
5. Reasons and rationalizations - we've always done it this way (time to change), Chinese goods are quality (no they aren't), it's not our problem (who's problem is it then?), we will lose profits (we could lose a lot more if we are exposed), what can we do (see my handy list), people are using the same factory (and they need to change), don't even go there, they like it like that, the alternative is worse, don't impose your values on them, let's do it later, we can't afford it.

Then we ran away...