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.In some cases ethical standards may be the consequence of religious laws.It is for religious as well as ethicalreasons that practicing Muslims neither borrow nor lend money with interest.This means that special Islamicbanks have been set up to ensure that both their customers religious and business requirements are met.Butreligion is far from being the only influence on business ethics.Values, the core beliefs that guide or motivateattitudes or actions, may be quite different in cultures that share the same religion but will nevertheless have akey role in shaping attitudes about right and wrong.You cannot run a business without considering what is right and fair, whatever your position within a companyand whatever your nationality.Ethics and business go together.That s why it can cause a national scandalwhen a CEO (whether in the U.S., the U.K., or anywhere else) is awarded a fat bonus by his colleagues on theboard when the company is doing so badly it has to lay people off.At the other end of the spectrum, anti-capitalist protests at the G7 and G8 trade summit meetings have beenabout ethical considerations.Protesters at these meetings of the world s richest nations believe strongly thatthe actions of global corporations, whether moving their production facilities around the world to find thecheapest source of labor, or outsourcing production as a convenient way of avoiding responsibility for pay orworking conditions, amount to the strong exploiting the weak.And interestingly, what seems to unite thisprotest movement is not the nationalities of the protesters, but their age.It is ironic that the global corporations that have created a generation of young consumers who wear the same clothes, eat at the same hamburgerrestaurants, listen to the same music, and wear the same sneakers, whether in Moscow or Miami, will findthese same internationally minded young people throwing bricks at them and condemning their businesspractices as unethical.This is something global corporations are taking seriously, and has resulted in companies cultivating ethical profiles, working to become environmentally friendly, or giving donations to organizations like Greenpeace orAmnesty International.Even ethics is big business now.LETTERS 158 159When personal loyalty clashes with our loyalty to a system of values, we are likely to feel veryuncomfortable.Is this fair? Letter 158FROM THE U.K.ABOUT SOUTH KOREAI work for a company that has a subsidiary in Korea, so I go there quite frequently on business.I have agood relationship with a highly esteemed Korean manager who has worked for us for many years.Wenow need to find a local firm to supply a component, and this manager has strongly recommended hisbrother s company.I am rather wary about this and feel that this manager has put me in an awkwardposition.I don t want to lay myself open to accusations of favoritism or even corruption.Anyway, I amgoing to put the job out to bid, but feel that by doing so I am risking creating ill feeling within my owncompany.In South Korea loyalty to one s family is a duty, and your manager would be failing in his duty if he did not tryto help his brother win the order.On the other hand, he appears to be a loyal member of your company too,and may genuinely feel that his brother s company is likely to be your best supplier.Certainly personalrelationships can facilitate business wherever in the world you find yourself, and in Eastern Asia knowledge ofsomeone s background and family is seen as providing a form of guarantee of their personal commitment toyour business.Naturally you should listen to what other companies have to offer, but be prepared to spendtime in discussions with the company your manager recommended.It would be silly to exclude the bestcontender because of an exaggerated sense of fairness, and certainly most Indians, East Asians, and LatinAmericans would find such a decision totally incomprehensible.Outright dishonesty Letter 159FROM THE U.K.ABOUT TURKEYI have Turkish parents but was brought up and educated in the U.K.Now after college I am living andworking in Turkey in a small company owned by a cousin.My relatives are extremely kind andsupportive and the business is flourishing.However, I noticed that when we send out invoices to certaincustomers they are regularly wrong and the error is always in our favor.I ve raised this with my uncle,but he just laughs and shrugs
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