ETHICAL ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

The international business environment, through its cultural and economic diversity, often puts international managers in great difficulty as it generates a large variety of ethical issues. On a short term, finding a solution and respecting the organizational principles of business ethics could generate an increase of the organizational costs and, thus, a decrease of efficiency. But, on a long term, even though there is the possibility that the ethical management practices are not related to the specific indicators of financial profitability, there is no inevitable risk between the ethical practices and the profit. This is demonstrated by the well-known corporations that are respected by the consistency with which they assume ethical responsibilities and obtain, at the same time, superior financial results. Consequently, the profit and the ethics can be considered two essential parts in the process of evaluating the organizational activity results as, while the profit reflects the organizational results from a quantitative point of view, the ethics reflect the quality of these results. International managers carry the heavy task of formulating organizational policies and standards by combining the law, the ethical business principles, the local cultural values and the organizational standards. The ethics fulfills, from this perspective, the managers’ catalyst role to take fair actions from a social point of view and it represents a guide in making and evaluating the business decisions, appreciated in most countries of the world.