The Ethics of International Business

by Thomas Donaldson

Book Overview

When standards for pollution, discrimination, and salary schedules are lower in an offshore host country than they are in the home country, should multinational corporations insist on home country standards? Or does using home standards imply a failure to respect cultural diversity and national integrity? What obligations, if any, do multinationals have to the people they affect indirectly? In this study, business ethicist Thomas Donaldson offers three concepts for interpreting international business ethics: a social contract between productive organizations and society, the notion of a fundamental international right, promulgated by ten specific international rights, and a moral "algorithm" to help multinational managers make tradeoffs between conflicting norms in home and host countries. He then employs these concepts in the analysis of specific problems such as the distribution of hazardous technology and South African divestment.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195058747
• ISBN13: 9780195058741
• Release Date: December 1989
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Difficult, but rewarding

I use this book in a graduate class in international business. MBA students struggle with it, and I have to teach pretty actively in order to identify the core argument for them. But they eventually understand it, and many find it the most rewarding book they read in the class. The structure of Donaldson's reasoning is beautiful, and the algorithm gives useful guidance toward RESOLVING ethical dilemmas in international business. Donaldson believes businesses have ethical responsibilities in international settings, but what they are isn't always obvious. The context matters, for this author; neither transporting American ethics abroad nor "doing what the Romans do while in Rome" works properly.Besides his ethical algorithm (specific guidance for resolving ethical dilemmas), Donaldson contributes a list of 10 "fundamental international rights" and the duties they imply for multinational corporations. An important book in the field, and very satisfying.