r 10 E TH (Cc Ss ( Marker Kear) Syeeviewy) OVERVIEWYW ] veer | CU enesty and dishonesty Discussion Deine the ih thing Reading | Cy retin comuption [a istening ‘+4 Acode of ethics Language review Native tenses [ Skills Protlen-sohng [case study Prof pci? re eae ee ae BEET) Discuss these questions. 4. What is the purpose of a business, in your opinion? Is it just to make money? 2. What do you understand by these phrases? a) business ethics b) acode of goad practice) a mission statement 3. Should mission statements include statements about ethics? 4 Rank the professions below according to how ethical you think they are. accountant cwilservant. lawyer police officer | banker estate agent nurse teacher | “carsales executive journalist dentist taxidriver | © Discuss this list of unethical act Are any common in your country? ities. In your opinion, which are the worst? 4. Avoiding paying tax 6 Using your influence to get jobs for relatives 2 Claiming extra expenses (nepotism) 3. Using work facilities for private purposes 7 Ringing in sick when you are not il (for example, personal phone calls) 8 Taking extended lunch breaks 4 Accepting praise for someone else’s ideas 9 Giving good references to people you want to or work get rid of 5 Selling a defective product (for example, a 40 Employing people illegally second-hand car)20 Ethics | RESELTTETSA) The sets of words and phrases below are related either to honesty or to 4 Honesty and dishonesty. Which word is different from the others in each set? Use a good dishonesty dictionary, such as the Longman Business English Dictionary, to help you. 4 trustworthy law-abiding crooked 3 insider trading industrial espionage disclosure 4 awhistleblower a swindler aconman 5 a bribe a bonus a commission 6 fraud deceit integrity © Complete these sentences with words and phrases from the sets above. Choose from the first set to complete sentence 1, from the second set to complete sentence 2, and so on. 1 Our company does nothing illegal. We are very... 2 We've got .... s+. Which is used in countries where itis difficult to do business without offering bribes. 3 Their car looked so much like our new model, We suspect ..........0.08 4 They fired him because he was He informed the press that the company was using under-age workers in the factory. 5 He denied accepting... ss When he gave the contract to the ‘most expensive supplier. 6 | admire our chairman. He’s a man of his word and is greatly respected for his. © Work in groups. Discuss the ethical questions below. | Doing the A different person should lead the discussion of each issue. right thing 4 You have a shortlist of peuple for the past of Sales Manager. One af the female candidates isctnaly the best qualified person tothe jab, However, you know that some of your best customers weld preter aman. I you appoint a woman you will prityalaly lea ete sas, Wh thou you do? 2 Your company, a large multinational, hay new dyes tiving campaign which stresses its honesty, fain and ethical huts helaviout. It has factories in several countries where wages ate vory ln. AL peoweat itis paying workers the local market rate, Should your inceesave their wages? 3 Acolleague in company whicl tests mnedie al equipment has been making bad mistakes recently af work, Hil fs because she has a serious illness, You are her friend anil the urily erin at work who knows this. She has asked you to keep it a were What ould you do? 4 You are directors of « potato sack manufacturing company. Research has shown that any price incre. causes an immediate dip in sales (although sales recover within six munths). I has been suggested that you could maximise your profits by simply reducing the weight of the product in the packets and maintaining the current price. What should you do? © do you agree with this statement? Give your reasons. “If we face a recession we should not lay off employe sacrifice a profit. I's management’ risk and manage Employees are not guilly; why should they suffer” . The company should ement’s responsibility. Akio Morita (:921-1999), co-founder of Sony lo.[10 Ethics Fighting corruption @ Discuss these questions. 1 Which is worse, in your opinion: to offer or to accept a bribe? Why? 2 Which do you think are the most corrupt countries in the world? Which do you think are the least corrupt? Give your reasons. © The chart in the article below is from a survey of 52 countries. Guess where the countries in the box are placed in the chart. Do not read the article yet. New Zealand Colombia Finland Bolivia Sweden Pakistan Denmark Germany Russia Nigeria Britain © Compare charts with a partner. Explain your choices, © Now read the article. Did you complete the chart correctly? Britain Moves Higher In Bribery League From Roger Boyes in Bonn, Britain is seen as more corrupt than seven other European including Germany, according to an authoritative annual league table Sreleased yesterday by the Berlin- based Transparency International group. Transparency International is a Private group, set up in 1993 to fight corruption, and bases its information Won seven international surveys of business people, political analysts sand the public, ‘The cleanest countries this. year were Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Iswhich moved New Zealand from the lop position, Britain came relatively low. in 14th position, its image appar: d by stories of sleaze, It was overtaken by Germany, although so the Germans still tolerate companies which hand out bribes to foreign con- cently dam Inactors Germany has been under pressure, especially Irom the United States, to 25plug legal loopholes which allow German businessmen ay write otf bribes abroad against tax. Yer bath Britain, and even the United States, which has strict leyal harriers apinst 30 international bribery, are behind the Germans. In part, this is probably because of the nature of the survey, which does not track such ares as company-to-company bribery 35 The most corrupt countries this year are regarded as Nigeria, fol lowed by Bolivia, Colombia and Russia. Pakistan has improved its position, earning only one out of ten 80} Ue nine LEAST CORRUPT (Marks out of ten) ie Ee cco 40 for honesty last year but 2.53 this ar. The chairman of Transparency 60 International, Peter Figen, issued a waming against focusing on ‘Third World corruption, 4% ‘Corruption is perceived w be greatest there, but [ urge the public t 65 recognise that a large share of the cv ruption is the product of multination al corporations, headquartered in 1 leading industrialised countries, using ussive bribery and kiekbacks to buy 70 contracts in the developing world and the countries in transition,’ The Third World, in other words, would be less sicortupt if developed states stopped offering bribes, 75 Indeed, the most revealing stand- ings are buried deep in the table. ieee MOST CORRUPT Belgium, for example, is now regard- ed as corrupt “than Mediterranean nations such as Portugal, Spain and Greece, ‘Every day that the poor scores in the Corruption Perception Index are not being dealt with means more impoverishment, less education and less healthcare,” said Dr Eigen. Money was diverted from develop- ment into over-priced contracts, A study by Harvard associate pro- fessor Shang-Fin Wei found that a rise in corruption levels had the same effect on foreign investments as raising the ‘marginal tax rate by more than 20 per- cent. ‘Awareness is 2 fist step to fight- ing or reducing corruption, he said, From The Times | | | | i__ 10 Ethies @ Answer these questions about the article. 4 Does Peter Eigen think the Third World is more corrupt than the developed countries? What reasons does he give for his opinion? 2 According to the article, what are the results of corruption? 3. Where does Transparency International get its information from? 4 According to Peter Eigen, what information is missing from the survey? @ Match these phrasal verbs from the article to a verb with a similar meaning. write off solve handout \ establish dealwith | offer setup \ cancel @ Make word partnerships with the verbs in Exercise F and the nouns in the box. For example, to hand out a bribe, abribe acompany adebt corruption aloss aproblem — abonus _an organisation @ Discuss these questions. a There is a proverb, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ What does the proverb mean? Do you agree with this advice? 2 Would you continue to do business with someone if you disapproved of their private tife? Explain why or why not. 3. Give examples of behaviour which would cause you to stop doing business with someone. iscuss the following questions. Acode of ethics 4 Is itimportant for companies to have a written code of ethics? 2 [sit more important for some industries than others to have a code of ethics? © (M102. iaire Bebbington is External Affairs Manager fora division of BP (British Petroleum). Listen to the first part ofthe Interview. Decide whether these statements are true or false, according to Claire. 4. The issue of ethics is simple. 2 Ifa company puls its code of ethics in writing, itis more likely to act on it, 3 Following up a code of ethies is difficult @ (710.41 Listen again to the first part of the interview. Complete the two extracts below. 1 ‘Firstly, it makes a... to certain good it’s a way of communicating the importance of ... -- toall of its employees and partners.” and so 2 ‘Ifyou express these things in .. held... oy especially, then you can be for them. © (102 Nowtistentothe second part ofthe interview. Complete the question that Claire asks. What examples does she give to illustrate the question? “When does a facilitation .- become a acy{10 Ethics (ete chen Narrative tenses 82} 10.3 The sentences below describe stages in an unsuccessful product launch. Put them in a logical order. Then listen to the conversation and check your answers. a) The newspapers asked questions.) The product was tested. b) The product was recalled. f) The number of complaints doubled. ©) The company lost alot of money. _g) People started to complain. d) The product was launched fh) The product sold well. © Answer these questions about the product launch. 4 What was the product? 2 What was the problem? We can use different tenses to narrate a story. Past simple The newspapers heard about it Past continuous It was going really well Past perfect We'd tested it for over six months, and there'd been no bad reaction toi Present perfect Since thet, we've Kept away from skin care products, Which tense is normally used for 1 Seuting the scene and providing background information? 2 Events which happen before the story begins? 3 Events in the story? 4 Soying what the present results of the story are? S page 98 @ (108 Listen again to the conversation. Note down examples of each of these tenses: a) past simple b) past continuous c) past perfect d) present perfect. © Complete the story below with the correct tenses of the verbs in brackets. ‘That reminds me of the problem we .......244.......' have) with our new milk carton. We... 22 (introduce) ita few months earlier and it » (become) popular with customers. PEOPLE ........-eeeesesee! (BUY) ieee (tall) about it and ceccsee (fecommend) it to their friends, and so on. Then We ......... (be) cheaper and we of complaints. People We were surprised about the problem because We .............seee- (test) ition some of our workers. They © (say) it was fine. Inthe end, we. (decide) to go back to our original supplier. « (look) really stupid. In the meantime, cesreesecesns® (lose) a lot of customers. We .cccsssesssennee'® (be) very careful about choosing suppliers for packaging # (change) to a new supplier who (start) to get lots, 2 (can not) open the cartons any more. ever since.10 Ethics J @ Tella story about any of these ideas. 1 A significant news event you remember well. 2 Anethical problem you know about. 3, Amemorable event in your life (good or bad). 4 Anunusual or memorable experience while you were travelling abroad. 5 Your first or last day in a job or organisation. EY ts one Problem-solving Stating options. Considering less obvious options We have a number of options. We could try There are several ways we could deal It might be worth with this. Discussing possible effects > Balancing arguments Let’s think about the consequences of Let's look at the pros and cons Ifwe do this then Let's discuss the advantages and disadvantages. Making a decision On the one hand ... On the other The solution then is to... hand... The best way forward is to Changing your approach Stating future action Let’s look at this another way. What we've got to do now is... Let’s look at this from a different angle. So the next thing to do is, © {110.4 Listen to two company directors discussing a problem concerning one of their managers. Tick the expressions in the Useful language box that you hear. © Role play this situation. You are senior managers at a hi-fi manufacturer. Your company is losing market share. You strongly suspect your main rival is using unfair methods to promote Its products. For example, you are almost sure that your rival has been: a) making cash payments to main dealers; | »b) offering expensive gifts to important customers. Hold a meeting to consider how to solve the problem. 83