Individual Class Assessment- 02

International Business (BUS301)

Submitted To
Ms. Fabiha Enam
Senior Lecturer and Assistant Proctor
BRAC Business School

Submitted By
Afrida Hossain
ID-16204083
Sec- 03

Submission Date- 23/07/2020

 ▪ Summarize your take on Ethics and International Business under 250 words.
5marks
Ethics determines standards of right or wrong that leads the conduct of a person, the members of
a profession, or the actions of an organization. On the other hand, business ethics refers to the
principles of right or wrong leading the conduct of businesspeople, and an ethical strategy is one
that does not violate these accepted principles. The most common ethical issues in international
business includes employment practices, human rights, environmental regulations, corruption,
and the moral obligation of multinational corporations. Ethical dilemmas are situations in which
more than one available alternative seems right. Besides, unethical behavior does not conform to
generally accepted social norms. Moral philosophers discuss approaches to business ethics such
as the friedman doctrine, cultural relativism, the righteous moralist, and the naive immoralist.
The Friedman doctrine says that the only responsibility of business is to increase profits staying
within law. Moreover, cultural relativism says one should adopt the ethics of the culture in which
one is doing business. The righteous moralist tells that multinational’s home country ethical
standards are appropriate for foreign countries, while the naive immoralist believes that if a
manager of a multinational sees that firms from host nations are not following ethical norms, that
manager should not either. In addition, utilitarian approaches judge whether an act is good or bad
by its consequences. Furthermore, Kantian ethics asserts that people should be treated based on
the consequences of their actions. Lastly, rights theories recognize that actions are right when
they respect the fundamental rights of individuals. For Ensuring ethical practices worldwide,
there are clearly things that an international business should do, and there are things that an
international business should not do.

▪ After graduation you got into a lucrative Management Trainee program of a

Tobacco brand. How will you justify your actions to your teacher who taught you
Business Ethics? 5 marks
In order to justify my action, the major issue I should express is the concept of choice. Tobacco
smoking can cause serious health risks to a person. However, smoking is a matter of choice.
There are people who have addicted to smoking and have various reasons why they do so. These
are people that would still find ways to smoke even if tobacco smoking were illegal or banned. If
a company is not promoting the smoking but rather providing a product to those that have chosen
to smoke, it is not wrong to venture into that business more especially in a country or nation
where tobacco smoking is not illegal. So, it can be related to cultural relativism which determines
that ethics are culturally determined and that firms should accept the ethics of the cultures in
which they function.
What I could consider wrong is if the company through its marketing campaigns is portraying
tobacco smoking as a good thing to attract new smokers. Utilitarian approaches to ethics assert
that the moral worth of actions or practices is determined by their consequences. Actions are
justifiable if they lead to the best possible balance of good consequences over bad consequences.
Accordingly, I think it is not wrong to work for a tobacco firm that has taken necessary measures
to ensure that they provide innovative and quality product to existing smokers. It is important to
highlight the highly regulated market in which the company works for and how it has not only
complied to the laws but invested in corporate social responsibility in informing the public about
dangers of tobacco smoking.

year x y Tt St Ft

2012 1 2700 2700

2013 2 2650 0 2700 2700

2014 3 3300 0 2675 2675

2015 4 3100 -17.50 2987.50 2970.00

2016 5 3950 201.25 3035.00 3236.25

2017 6 3550 246.75 3593.13 3839.88

2018 7 4500 496.56 3694.94 4191.50

2019 8 4200 395.11 4345.75 4740.86

2020 9 4850 503.08 4470.43 4973.51

2021 10 313.78 4911.75 5225.54