Business Ethics and Sustainability in Samsung Company

Business Ethics and Sustainability 1
BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
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Business Ethics and Sustainability 2
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Case Description..................................................................................................................4
Analysis of Ethical and Sustainability Issues......................................................................8
Recommendations..............................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
Source Data References.................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
Ethics refers to virtues of likable values and character that help people in doing the right
things. Business ethics helps the management in an organization to run profitable and sustainable
business practices with an aim of either meeting the ethical legal requirements set by the
government regulatory bodies or due to the management commitment to sustainable
organization’s goals and objectives (Wang, 2014). The use of unfair and illegal means to acquire
an undue advantage over other people at individual capacity or at the organizational level is
ethically wrong. The organizational business code of conduct supplemented by the government
regulation seeks to seal loopholes where unethical leaders show intent to take undue advantage
of the other people in organizations (Fisher & Lovell, 2012).
The Samsung Company top leadership was in the year 2017 involved in a bribery case
scandal that touched on its acting chief head Lee Jae-Yong, its corporate strategy office top four
executives and the South Korean President Park Geun-Hye through her close secretive confidant
Choi Soon-Sil. Lee was indicted for giving out a bribe in the form of cash donations to Ms. Park
through Ms. Choi’s foundations. The president was impeached on November by the South
Korean parliament with possible charges of abuse of office awaiting her after a determination by
the constitutional court on whether she should be allowed to complete her term in office or be
ousted and tried(Sang-Hun, Kwaak & Mozur, 2017).
Lee offered the bribe in exchange for government favors in the voting process of
Samsung Company affiliates merger. The government through the National Pensions Service
was to support Lee in the voting exercise for the merger. This was to help Lee and his family to
maintain the imperial control of the Samsung conglomerate. The office of the special prosecutor

Business Ethics and Sustainability 4
found Lee, the four senior executives from the corporate strategy office and Ms. Choi culpable of
criminal charges and they were all indicted on bribery charges and embezzlement of the
company’s funds (Sang-Hun, Kwaak & Mozur, 2017).
Lee and the company top leadership sought to unfairly and unlawfully gain some
advantage in the process of deciding the 2015 Samsung affiliates merger. The merger would
make Lee the chief corporate head of the Samsung Company thereby inheriting the position from
his father. This contravened the ethical virtues of doing good through legal and just means. The
company lost a big amount of cash in the form of donations to Ms. Choi’s foundations thereby
bringing into question the utilitarian ethical value of the top leadership decisions and actions.
The company chief head and four other senior executives were indicted on bribery charges which
meant they had contravened the government regulated business practice code of conduct. Ms.
Park acted in total disregard of the presidential office when she accepted the bribe through her
cross confidant and accomplice.
The Samsung Company should design and adopt organizational cultural beliefs and
norms that are just and fair to all stakeholders, legally within the confines of the law and
ethically beyond a reasonable doubt. Both the company leadership and the president should
weigh the consequential benefits versus the costs of the actions they take and the discourse they
choose on behalf of the company and the country respectively.
Case Description
In the year 2017, Samsung Company was rocked with a case of bribery one year after it
was hit by a case of exploding Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone batteries. The company’s top
leadership was grossly dragged in a corruption scandal pitying the South Korean president Park