Gift Giving, Bribery and Corruption: Ethical Management of Business Relationships in China

definition of bribery as a type of action? This is further complicated when, in addition to grasping all the details of a situation, one tries to understand the moral agent him/herself: subjective factors of conscience, intention and degrees of freedom are factored in. In actions of reciprocity, where resources are exchanged between parties, the level of development of each party's conscience may enter in to mitigate cir cumstances. Bribery in the face of intractably corrupt officials and the certain closing of a plant due to a lost contract, differs from bribery to enrich oneself so as to build a third villa estate. Indeed, officials involved in the Lockheed case, argued the former case and that, in the end, they chose the lesser of two evils. In such cases one may arrive at different judgments of the agents being praiseworthy or blameworthy. Attention must be paid to the social situation and context. I am not at this point arguing a situational ethics where a type of action is right or wrong according to the particular circum stances. Rather, the very concrete definition of the action taking place (i.e. of what is actually happening) derives from the socio-historical context in the first place. That is, the question is not whether "bribery" is all right in Shanghai but not in Kansas City. Rather, is this manner of reciprocity and resource transfer in Shanghai a bribe? This point is crucial to understanding the social purpose and consequences of the transaction and to judging whether this instance is good or bad and whether and to what degree the agents are morally blameworthy or praise worthy. In many parts of the developing world what a Western observer would call a bribe is, in fact, closer to a tip or the socially expected form of the tippee's remuneration (Tsalakis, 1991; Tsalakis and LaTour, 1995). That does not mean that "anything goes." The former Lockheed scandal and the recent "Recruit scandal" in Japan as well as many instances of corruption cited in the Chinese press have clearly exceeded such bounds (Rosett, 1989; Weisman, 1990). Even if the end or purpose of the transaction is good the firm is engaged in selling a product very good for the people the analyst must also ask whether the means adopted are suitable and whether the intentions of the parties are honor able. Phenomenologically, it is difficult to dis tinguish a bribe from a tip or a commission or consulting fee. In the end, moral judgment depends upon the social understanding of the meaning of the action as derived from analysis of ends and means, consequences and intentions. Provided the end or purpose is good, the key difference seems to reside not in the phenome nology of the transaction itself in terms of means and consequences, but in the intention of those who are involved, conditioned by conscience and effec tive freedom. The essence of bribery is conflict of interest between self and one's publicly accepted fiduciary duties. Secondly, it affects the means a person employs to fulfill his or her fiduciary duty. The appropriateness of the resource transfer in a particular case and the praiseworthiness or blame worthiness of the parties depends upon the overall social consequences of the action and the intentions of the agents. What if the intentions of the briber are actually good with reference to the project and fulfilling his or her fiduciary This content downloaded from 207.46.13.11 on Wed, 10 Aug 2016 06:43:31 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms