...For this assignment our learning team discussed the Bribery Scandal at Siemens AG. As a group we analyzed the case and conducted additional research to answer critical questions in each key section. Supported by the course material and supplemental articles, the team compiled the research that discussed Internet technologies, affective technologies in management development strategies, global alliances and provided recommendations on cross border operations. Key issues Analysis of the Siemens case resulted in several key issues which explained the bribery scandal. Lack of leadership is the primary cause for the Siemens representatives convicted of bribery in 2007. The intention of the bribery was to ensure that Siemens obtained needed global contracts. The methodology offered supported no personal gain from this bribery and the organization gained contracts which negated a cause for an illegal act. In addition, Siemens was operated in countries where these acts were considered legal. There were no other documented strategies to obtain the contracts that did not include illegal activity (Deresky, 2011). Although managers were able to offer defenses against the allegations, the underlying issue in this case is poor leadership will result in multiple scandals. The leadership team within this organization took no responsibility from an international perspective to create an ethical environment and standards for their employees. There was no acknowledgement of illegal activity...
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...Bribery Scandal Case Summary This case covers the scandal at Siemens AG in 2006, 2007 which consisted of employees bribing foreign officials. Siemens employees made slush funds specifically for the purpose of gaining an unfair advantage to win contracts. They also were accused of bribing officials of the labor board in return they would give support for Siemen’s policies. Siemens office in Germany was raided and an official investigation was started. In other countries they were investigated subsequently following the raid in Germany. The CEO resigned regardless of not being found responsible though the scandal was under his watch. This scandal set off a chain reaction to questioning the other companies in competition and the laws in Germany made to deter this behavior. Labor representatives who had been possibly bribed held the board, which governed the laws. This created an element of people responsible of making sure this type of thing did not happen, by letting it happen for personal gain. All along critics of this type of management feared this to be a potential issue. This shed light upon the challenges that the new management would encounter after the scandal occurred. In your opinion, is “bribing” unethical & illegal or just a cost of doing business? Discuss this in light of Siemens’ bribery scandal. Bribing is unethical and it takes the level playing arena away from business and all that compete within it. Oligopolies and monopolies arise from this type...
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...Case Study: Siemens Bribery Scandal 1. Corruption was deeply embedded in Siemen’s business culture. They rationalized this corruption by stating that it was not illegal to initiate bribes to government officials. This was true, however not anymore, the law changed in 1999 prohibiting such acts of corruption. 2. If a manager at Siemens would have stood up and took a stand against corruption, I think that he/she would have most likely been fired for being insubordinate. The higher executives that were promoting such bribery would have wanted these managers to go along with what they were doing. The manager could have also been demoted possibly, or just plain and simple reamed out by the higher executives. 3. Siemens spent extra money to secure future business investments. This in, in turn, means that other companies, even ones that might have an advantage, lose business opportunities. The entire concept of such corruption completely disregards competition, because it simply removes it, unless other companies also engage in bribery. 4. Some economists argue that doing such practices such as bribery is the price that must be paid to perform a greater good. They support this claim by stating that it can promote efficiency and growth in countries that have pervasive and cumbersome regulations, and may also enhance welfare in countries that have preexisting political structures that distort the workings of the market mechanism. On the other hand other economists...
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...1. • In your opinion, is “bribing” unethical & illegal or just a cost of doing business? Discuss this in light of Siemens’ bribery scandal. We believe that bribing is unethical because it takes away the fairness of a business transaction between bidders of a contract. Bribing also has a negative impact on competition because it allows for oligopolies and monopolies to emerge in an industry due to smaller competitors being unable to financially compete with the amount of the bribes. This in turn creates a barrier for entry for prospective companies and promotes the oligopoly or monopoly in place. The lack of competition affects consumer choice by reducing their options which then stifles innovation within the industry as there is no need to generate a competitive advantage to attain customers. The legality of bribing depends on the laws of the home country that the business is based from. For example, Siemens is a German based business and German law states that bribing officials of another country to win business contracts is illegal. So, under German law, Siemens was guilty of bribing an official when it bribed employees of the Italian company Enel to gain a contract as Enel was 68% owned by the Italian government. The counter-argument is that bribing is the cost of doing business. We disagree with this because the economic benefits gained from bribing are not outweighing the cost to a company’s reputation. As we see in this case, Siemens paid a 6 million...
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...Presentation Question 2 Introduction Klaus Kleinfeld took over as CEO of Siemens in 2005 from Heinrich von Pierer and was at the helm of the company until his resignation on the 25th April 2007. During his time he was seen as an enigmatic premier who transformed the company. The stock had grown by 39% since he took over (Global Business 07/05/2007). He streamlined the organisation by cutting costs, boosting innovation and expanding abroad. He even maintained a rise in the company’s share price during the bribery scandals publicity. Was the board right to accept his resignation? This was a highly sensitive decision at the time because the bribery scandals came to light whilst Kleinfeld was CEO but he had worked magic at Siemens in a very short amount of time, in only two years he had transformed Siemens and their share price had grown exponentially as a result. Based upon his track record at the company he did not deserve to be released in that manner. The bribery came to light during Klienfeld’s tenure but most of payments were made during von Pierer’s time as CEO. Kleinfeld pushed Siemens employees to make faster decisions and put as much emphasis on the customers as on the technology. He sold off the unprofitable mobile phone production to BenQ and fostered a JV between Nokia and Siemens to merge their mobile and fixed line phone equipment businesses to create one of the world’s biggest network firms. In addition he invested $6 billion in 2006 on acquiring positions...
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...This case discusses the bribery scandals that were unearthed at Siemens AG (Siemens) in 2006 and 2007. There were a series of scandals that involved some of the company's employees bribing foreign officials to gain contracts and creating slush funds for this purpose. More so, in this case, the company was accused of bribing labor representatives on the supervisory board in order to gain their support for its policies. After the German authorities conducted raids on Siemens' offices in Germany, investigations were initiated on Siemens in several other countries like the US, Greece, Italy and Switzerland for possible misconduct. As fallout of this scandal, the CEO of the company, Klaus Kleinfeld and the chairman of the supervisory board, Heinrich von Pierer; had to resign even though they were not directly implicated (Durgaaus, 2008). With bribery scandals surfacing in Siemens and many other German companies like Volkswagen, questions were also raised about the effectiveness of the Co-determination law in Germany, which advocated a system in which a supervisory board governed the management board and at least half the supervisory board seats had to be filled by labor representatives. In such a system, critics contended that the management always needed the labor representatives' support to be in job and gain support for company policies, which led to a suspicious alliance between them. The case also highlights the opinions of several analysts on the issues related to bribing...
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...The Bribery Scandal at Siemens AG Analysis Lvao Guo Arkansas State University The Bribery Scandal at Siemens AG Analysis This case discusses the bribery scandals that happened in Siemens AG in 2006 and 2007. There are a series of scandals involve that some of the company's employees establish slush funds to obtain contracts. In another case, they were accused by IG Metall of bribing a union. It bribes the labor representatives of supervisory board to enlist their support of policy. Since then, the company managers' bribery at the Italian energy company employees was convicted by German officials. After the raid on Siemens offices in Germany, they continued to investigate the possible misconduct on Siemens in several other countries like the US, Greece, Italy and Switzerland. Due to the aftermath of the scandal, the company's Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld and Supervisory Board Chairman Heinrich von Peeler had to resign, even if they did not directly implicate. With the Siemens bribery scandal surfaced, Volkswagen AG, Duetusche Telecom AG, Duetsche Bahn AG, and Deutche Post AG unethical business practices exposed at the same time in Germany. Those corruption scandals make a query for the German Co-determination law and Mitbestimmug—wondering if they were flawed. From the viewpoint of a Siemens employee who is willing to break the law in order to gain large profits, it was definitely worth it. However, in my opinion, enterprises have to face the legal environment...
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...Siemens AG Bribery Scandal This paper will focus on the analysis of the well-known and popular bribery scandal in the world, such as Siemens AG Bribery Scandal which occurred in November, 2006. Siemens AG is one of the largest and most popular electrical engineering companies operated in the world. The present company was founded in 1847 in Berlin and is now headquartered in Munich, Germany. The discussion and the proper analysis of this bribery scandal will help to learn many effective lessons from this situation helping organizations and individuals to avoid such cases and experiences in the future. Siemens was considered one of the most powerful and productive companies in the field of electronics and that bribery scandal surely affected its business and popularity in the world greatly. It was difficult to understand the underlying causes of this bribery scandal, especially on the part of such large, successful and popular company known not only in Germany but also all over the world. In fact, several employees and even executive board members were charged guilty in this scandal and imposed huge monetary fines for illegal and unethical behavior harming the business of the company greatly. Brooks and Dunn stated that the company developed a corrupt organizational culture “in which hundreds of millions of Euros were put into slush funds that were then used to pay bribes in order to obtain lucrative contracts” (Brooks and Dunn 290-291). There were several cases of such bribery...
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...Bribery Scandal at Siemens AG This case discusses a bribery scandal in which the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical company, Siemens AG, was exposed during 2006 and 2007. Siemens AG is a multinational company based in Munich, Germany. In fact, there wasn’t just one bribery scandal. They were responsible for a series of scandals that involved a few of the company’s employees. They were accused of bribing officials to get contracts and creating slush funds. Siemens was also accused of trying to bribe labor representatives of a labor union called the AUB. Siemens was also being investigated in other countries such as Switzerland, Italy, Greece, The United States, Venezuela, Argentina, and Bangladesh for possible misconduct and other scandals. Siemens agreed to pay the fines of up to 1 billion Euros to settle for the corruption charges that the company was convicted since 2006. They also had to pay fines for back taxes and interest charges by 2007. Discussion Question 1) In your opinion is “bribing unethical and illegal or just a cost of doing business? Discuss this in the light of Siemens’’ bribery scandal. What options do companies have to win business contracts without bribing, especially in foreign counties? In my opinion, bribery is unethical because bribery is illegal. Bribery is the act of giving a gift or implying money that can change the behavior of the one at the receiving end of the bribe. Not only is it a crime but it is morally wrong to influence...
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...It’s seemingly that Walmart de Mexico bribery scandal is far from over. Many investigations has been carried out to fully answer what acctually happened in the past, what system failed, and who was responsible for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which bars bribery of foreign officials, but questions of accountability recently remain unanswered. It also means that Walmart leaders have succeeded in hiding all the important clues to avoid sanctions. The whole thing began when Walmart de Mexico was alleged orchestrating bribes to obtain building permits, zoning variances, and environmental clearances at Mrs. Pineda’s alfalfa field in 2003. As Walmart started digging the ground at Mrs. Pineda’s field months later, it provoked fierce opposition coming from strong protests, nearby residents, and archaeologists. By offering donations, personal gifts and other bribe payments, they could get approvals from each level of authorities, records and interviews from the New York Time (NYT) report. The secret held even after a former Wal-Mart de Mexico lawyer, Martiza Munich, contacted Wal-Mart executives in Bentonville, Ark. She had former Sergio Cicero’s, Walmart de Mexico executive’s information about “irregularities authorized by the highest levels” in 2005 and hoped to meet soon. Then immediately Mike Duke, Vice chairman, WalMart International in 2005, sends detailed memos outlining Cicero’s allegations to Walmart senior management (– including Lee Stucky...
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...Corruption and Bribery April 29, 2015 Abstract In this paper, I will be writing about corruption and bribery. I will define the terms and go on to explain the regulations that have been put in place to stop corruption and bribery. I will then go on to give examples of major corruption and bribery scandals that companies have recently been in and what has been done to punish said companies for their crime. Intro Corruption is defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “dishonest or illegal behavior especially by powerful people (such as government officials or police officers), the act of corrupting someone or something, and something that has been changed from its original form”. (Merriam-Webster) Bribery is defined as “something valuable (such as money) that is given in order to get someone to do something”. (Merriam-Webster). A bribe can be from person to person, company to company, or even country to country and it is considered a crime in most parts of the world. Many would agree that there is a lot of bribery and corruption in modern day politics as well as International companies, but I will not be going into that for it is another huge topic. “Bribery and corruption are major obstacles to socio-economic development and distort national and international economic relations.” (IBE) This corruption is seen as an unfair advantage for companies with a lot of money to throw away to get what they want and is considered very unethical in the eyes...
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...ethical obligations: Bribery: Smith tried to bribe his way into the election campaign. According to Preet Bharara, US Attorney, "Smith drew up the game plan and Councilman Halloran essentially quarterbacked that drive by finding party chairmen who were wide open to receiving bribes." Using unlawful means, being on a leadership positions in something that is never acceptable and creates long lasting conflicts. The same happened in the case of Smith & Halloran. They tried to set up whole scenario through the pay-to-play scheme. The US government is already into investigating the public corruption matters which are proceeded through the pay-to-play plans. As per a cooperating witness and an undercover FBI agent posing as a wealthy real estate developer, Smith tried to bribe leaders of Republican Party county committees around New York City to run for mayor as a Republican. According to a news article in WNYC by Hamilton (2013), “…Vincent Tabone, the head of the GOP in the Bronx, and Joseph Savino, the vice chair in Queens, were allegedly set to receive $40,000 in bribes to help Smith get on the GOP ballot. Halloran himself was reported to be looking for $20,500 in bribes to act as the go-between.” Both Halloran and Smith should have not done that pay-to-play scheme. If they wanted to shift the party, they could have done it through proper channel. But the greed and may be the consciousness regarding being not fair to party took over them and they planned the bribery set up. Unlawful...
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...has been increasing in the last few decades and how new laws have had to been drawn up in order to try and control the irresponsible actions of many companies: “ The focus on ethics in corporate operating procedures is a trend that has grown over the last few decades. This growth has largely been driven by the passage of and amendments to three major pieces of legislation: the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (FSG), and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX Act). The FCPA, passed by Congress in 1977, marked the beginning of prosecuting unethical corporate conduct. It was passed in response to Congress’s realization that a massive number of American companies were engaged in the unethical practice of bribery overseas. It criminalized illegal and questionable payments to foreign government officials, and required publicly traded companies to maintain records that accurately and fairly represent the company’s transactions. ” The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was enacted in 1977 and is a United...
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...may be defined as an act of bribery or misuse of public position or power for the fulfillment of selfish motives or to gain personal gratifications. It has also been defined as "Misuse of authority as a result of consideration of personal gain which need not be monetary". In recent Centuries India has earned a place among the THREE most corrupt countries in the world. Corruption in India is a consequence of the nexus between Bureaucracy, politics and criminals. India is now no longer considered a soft state. It has now become a consideration state where everything can be had for a consideration. Today, the number of ministers with an honest image can be counted on fingers. At one time, bribe was paid for getting wrong things done but now bribe is paid for getting right things done at right time. It is well established that politicians are extremely corrupt the world over. In fact, people are surprised to find an honest politician. These corrupt politicians go scot-free, unharmed and unpunished. Leaders like Lal Bahadur Shastri or Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel are a rare breed now who had very little bank balance at the time of death. The list of scams and scandals in the country is endless. Now Recently Before Start 2010 Commen Wealth Games Corruption is playing major role with commen wealth games. The Bofors payoff scandal of 1986 involved a total amount of Rs 1750 crore in purchase of guns from a Swedish firm for the Army. The Cement scandal of 1982 involved the Chief...
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...understanding on how Germany conduct business and also to make sure the company is ethical. A few international countries believe in corruption. Corruption can consist of bribery and nepotism. Bribery is more common in underdeveloped countries that are looking for additional income to bring in. Bribes are expected in many countries, the United States’ 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits payments made to foreign government officials with the aim of gaining or maintaining business (Here Comes the Bribe). The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was updated in 1998 after bribery was banned from Germany. Now the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act applies to foreign firms and persons who cause an act in making such a corrupt payment within the United States territory (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act). Bribery is another way of saying extorting money from someone. Bribery is when money or something value is promised to, given to, or taken form an individual or company in attempt to sway someone decisions. Nepotism is more of a government corruption. Government will use their powers for dishonest gains or illegal means. German engineering conglomerate Siemens, rocked by the worst bribery scandal in the country’s history, they won a court ruling reversing a $56 million fine against the Munich-based company (In Germany, Bribery Doesn’t Always Mean Corruption, and Siemens Finds). Former manager pleaded guilty to paying bribes to win the contract from Italian Enel Group. A small court ordered...
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