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Becton Dickinson

In: Business and Management

Submitted By anbayston
Words 803
Pages 4
Strategic Management
Becton Dickinson Case
Tuesday January 28, 2014

In the case of Becton Dickinson (BD), employees are looking for more guidance from their top management on how to deal with ethical issues such as issues with bribery and corruption within the international markets. The problem for BD is that they are in stuck in a situation that they are feeling pressure to not follow their ethical conduct and participate in these social norms that consist of bribes and scandals in order to guarantee a contract. The US government outlawed any company that participates in international trade to offer gifts or money in order to make deals. This is definitely not the case in countries such as Europe, Asia, and Africa where it is a social norm to offer these gifts to influence a business deal. The problem for BD is that other companies within the international market are going to use such incentives to gain business. BD needs to decide if they are going to have a uniform policy on gifts, or make a region-by-region policy? My recommendations are that the company treats these ethical issues on a region-by-region policy. As we have discussed in prior cases, culture is a large part of how people do business and companies need to respect the culture and their norms when running international businesses. But at the same time, BD should not be chosen because of how great the gifts or bribes are but rather how good of a product they provide.
BD is trying to increase their attention onto ethics and ensure that employees are complying with their practices on an international basis. The problem is that in each country or region, social norms change. One must pay special attention to the cultural aspects when dealing with business ethics when determining what is right and wrong. In one country you could offend someone, and in another you might not. For example in American a

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