ProductsLogo
LogoStudy Documents
LogoAI Grader
LogoAI Answer
LogoAI Code Checker
LogoPlagiarism Checker
LogoAI Paraphraser
LogoAI Quiz
LogoAI Detector
PricingBlogAbout Us
logo

Literature Review: Bribery in Contemporary Business - Australian Mining and Construction

Verified

Added on  2024/07/02

|14
|2906
|246
AI Summary
This literature review examines the prevalence of bribery in contemporary business, focusing on the mining and construction industries in Australia. It analyzes Australia's ranking in corruption indices, explores the attitudes and behaviors of Australians towards bribery, and investigates specific bribery cases. The review also examines government actions and regulatory amendments aimed at combating bribery in Australia. The paper concludes by highlighting the detrimental effects of bribery on businesses and the importance of ethical practices.

Contribute Materials

Your contribution can guide someone’s learning journey. Share your documents today.
Document Page

Secure Best Marks with AI Grader

Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
Document Page
ABSTRACT
According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, it is essential to

curb the bribery in international business in order to reduce the poverty, strengthen

development and also bolster confidence in the market. The purpose of this assignment is

to review the literature on the topic “Bribery is a practice in contemporary business” while

focusing on the mining and construction industry in Australia. A total of 10 literature and

papers were reviewed in this assignment. It includes the international ranking of Australia in

corruption index alongside attitudes and behaviour of Australians towards the bribery in

Australia. Certain cases related to bribery in Australia were studied and also actions or

amendment in regulation done by the Australian government to combat bribery. A list of

references was added at the end.

1
Document Page
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT
.................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION
........................................................................................................................ 3
LITERATURE REVIEW
................................................................................................................ 4
Bribery in Australia
............................................................................................................... 4
Bribery cases in Australian business
.....................................................................................6
Actions to combat bribery
.................................................................................................... 9
CONCLUSION
.......................................................................................................................... 11
REFERENCES
........................................................................................................................... 12
2
Document Page
INTRODUCTION
Bribery is a form of corruption which typically occurs in the business when the

representative or the company offers monetary or financial consideration against any favour

or for manipulating the decisions of suppliers, partners and buyers. Australia ranks at 13
th
position in the corruption perception study conducted by Transparency International. The

index showed the corruption score slipped 8 points that are 77 in 2017 as compared to 85 in

2012 (Ryan, 2018).

The Australian government have actively participated by introducing draft legislation that is

Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Corporate Crime) Bill 2017 to reduce corporate

bribery and corruption of foreign public officials. There will be a number of key changes in

the existing regulatory framework of anti-bribery after it is passed by the Australian

government (Nahlous, et al. 2018). This assignment represents a literature review on the

topic” Bribery is a practice in contemporary business”.

3

Paraphrase This Document

Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
Document Page
LITERATURE REVIEW
Bribery in Australia

A critical assessment is presented on the topic of corruption in international business along

with the suggestions for future research (Cuervo-Cazurra, 2016). The studies of the

international business are expanded by the corruption due to its illegal nature, perception

differences regarding illegality and variation in law enforcement against bribery through the

countries. It includes the suggestions to analyse the types, causes, measures and

consequences and control of corruption.

Corruption is used as workshop or laboratory in order to challenge the certain assumptions

of the theories such as extending agency theories to analyse the presence of unethical

agency relationships, extending the dependency of resources by evaluating the escape of

ethical power, extending view on the bases of resources by studying the capability of

corporate social responsibility and also extending neo theory by studying the illegal

legitimacy (Cuervo-Cazurra, 2016).

The study was conducted by Brown & Loosemore (2015) to explore the perceived

behavioural factors that influence the corruption actions in the construction industry in

Australia. The model of corrupt actions by Rabl and Kühlmann was drawn in this paper along

with conducting face-to-face interviews with 23 employees who work in the construction

industry in Australia. It was suggested through the result that the definition of the

corruption is ambiguous though it is commonly perceived and chiefly connected with the

personal gain instead of breaking the law.

Fraud, kickbacks and bribery are the main forms of corruption. The perception towards the

behaviour is driven by the promising attitudes, high goal feasibility alongside subjective

4
Document Page
norms support. The global construction industry was rated to be the most bribery-prone of
all the 19 industries rated by Transparency International (Brown & Loosemore, 2015). The

unprecedented three Royal commissions are the results for the concern regarding the

corruption in Construction Company in Australia thereby arguing for the culture of

encouraging, accepting and rewarding this kind of behaviour.

Data were collected from the World Values survey in order to examine the attitudes of

Australians toward the bribe-taking. More than 1300 participants were selected that

includes the wide range of Australian population concerning age and other demographics.

The difference by category in certain responses was determined by examining the 19

demographic variables such as age, marital status, and gender and so on (Hernandez &

McGee, 2014). It was found that there was a high level of significance in responses due to a

certain demographic variable.

Younger people were less averse to taking a bribe as compared to older people. Women

were hostile towards bribery than men. English-speaking Australia group was the most

ethnic group that opposed bribery as compared to East Asians who were least opposed

(Hernandez & McGee, 2014).

Jews and Buddhist were less averse to bribery while Hindus were most opposed. Single

people were least opposed than married and widowed people. Part-time, full-time and

unemployed were the group that least hostile to bribery than the retired people. Members

of other classes were strongly averse to bribery than lower class people (Hernandez &

McGee, 2014).

Taxpayers with middle income were most opposed to bribery than the people placed in a

lower income group. People who were from happiness group were most averse to bribery

than those who were least happy. The other variables that were not important are an

5
Document Page
institution of employment, health, education, size of the town, the confidence level in
government and position on the left-right spectrum in politics (Hernandez & McGee, 2014).

Bribery cases in Australian business

In Australia and New Zealand, there are facilitation payments to foreign official sources that

are legal as well as tax-deductible within certain parameters. This study highlights the

increase in corruption in both countries and aimed to identify that practicality to allow a tax

deduction for facilitation payment which is considered as bribery by various international

bodies (Marriott, 2016). Allowing the tax deduction due to facilitation payments to foreign

public official gave rise to multiple issues.

In case of value, benefits need to be “minor” or “small” as required by the legislation, the

major argument that is to support the retention of the status of tax deduction becomes

questionable. The competitiveness of the business can be significantly impacted by denying

the tax deduction for minor payments (Marriott, 2016). The second issue, it the inclusion of

words and phrases that are wholly or mainly or ensure or expedite that allows a broad

interpretation of legislation resulting in lack of clarity regarding the permission in making

the facilitation payment.

Third, there is no connection between the expenditure and income earning process for

claiming the deduction for facilitation payment. There is no valid reason for the policy that

reflects that it is not required by this expenditure to attain the general test for a tax

deduction (Marriott, 2016).

The Rolls-Royce bribery case is the most significant deferred prosecution agreement of the

UK where more than
£500 million will be paid by the Rolls Royce Company for settling
charges of foreign bribery (Nicolson, 2017). The expectations and approaches of Australian

6

Secure Best Marks with AI Grader

Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
Document Page
government and law enforcement agencies are likely to be influenced by this case that is to
consider the measure suite aiming to facilitate more effective responses such as

encouraging foreign bribery self-reporting to corporate crime (O’Connell, 2015).

The decision of Rolls-Royce Company highlights the change equation for Australian

companies due to the level of deferred prosecution agreements availability, considering the

cooperation level and self-reporting to be provided to prosecuting agencies (Nicolson,

2017).

The case studies of international corporate bribery as well as corruption are illustrated

through the examples from the 6 countries which are the UK, Russia, Germany, Australia,

South Africa and Pakistan. The white mainstream culture in Australia is ranked low in power

distance (Kakabadse, et al. 2015). It is suggested that Australian tends to resent the

autocratic relations and fell comparatively equal as well as close to one another in their

work relationships. The low rating to the Australian culture suggests that Australians have

equality in interaction and are comparatively informal while the focus on the present as well

as future. The rank of Australia in individualism is high.

It was noted that the corruption perspectives in the public sector of Australia had fallen 4

points between 2012 and 2013. A survey on over 800 employees in public sector was

commissioned by the Australian national university regarding the corruption perceptive and

found that 1 in 5 senior public sector employees is not aware of the place to report their

observation as well as suspicions of corruption (Kakabadse, et al. 2015).

The economic prosperity and living standards of the Australia and China highly depends on

the Australia–China business relationship. Both the countries differ in their business culture

as China is one of the fast-developing economy, largest nation by economy scale as well as

the population in the Far East as compared to the Anglo-Imperial business traditions and

7
Document Page
practices in Australia from Global South (O’Shannassy, 2017). Crackdown on corruption was
being experienced by China started in 2012, due to certain business relationship

management issues such as Guanxi that is significant relationships, gift giving, corruption

and bribery between both the countries.

There is a distinction between Proper Guanxi and gift giving from bribery and corruption.

After the review of the literature and institutional settings, a framework within whole

governance regime for a corporation is provided by developing a series of research

propositions in order to manage the challenges related to bribery and corruption for the

corporations (O’Shannassy, 2017). The companies that have legal systems parented in the

UK and are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Stock Exchange can use

this framework. Some of the model elements can be useful in the business settings of

China.

8
Document Page
Actions to combat bribery
The association among the concerns of the global community regarding the bribery activities

as well as disclosure practices of anti-bribery by two telecommunication companies of China

that are China Mobile and ZTE operating at international level is investigated in this paper

(Islam, et al. 2015). The findings is derived on the basis of content analysis of the annual

reports as well as articles of global news media over the time period of 16 years starting

from 1995 to 2010 and suggests that there is a close relationship between the changes in

the disclosure level by the two major telecommunication companies in China and

international concern level over the practice of bribery within the telecommunication

industry in China.

It was indicated that anti-bribery disclosure practices are adopted by the companies so as to

reduce the trust gap that is social capital among the companies as well as global

stakeholders (Islam, et al. 2015). It is also argued that the social capital such as Guanxi that

is constructed culturally for domestic companies in China develops trust level among the

managers and their stakeholders thereby avoiding the requirement for the managers to

disclose the information related to anti-bribery performance (Islam, et al. 2015). However

the social capital is inadequate from the companies operating at international level, so the

managers disclose the information related to anti-bribery performance as a medium to

bridge the trust gap between global stakeholders as well as managers.

According to Latimer (2017), this paper aimed at examining the range of legal responses to

bribery specifically foreign bribery in the global setting. The corrosive impact of bribery

along with its negative effect on the economy of Australia is identified before focusing on

the mixed responses to the foreign bribery.

9

Paraphrase This Document

Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
Document Page
Policy and literature review are the methods used to theoretically analyse this paper. A
comparative approach was used to compare Australia, the UK and the USA, due to

increasing global as well as the organised nature of foreign bribery. It was found that the

response to foreign bribery was recognised by the (OECD) Organisation for Economic

Cooperation and Development to improve from a low base. Strong government leadership

and coordination among the authorities of law enforcement that includes corporate

regulators, police, state-level and territory-level, and corruption authorities at

commonwealth and so on increase the expectations for further improvement (Latimer,

2017).

The amendments are proposed to the foreign bribery offence (FPD) in the Criminal Code Act

1995 thereby proposing the introduce Deferred Prosecution agreement scheme and

adequate procedures defence (APD) and eliminating FPD. These are the certain steps taken

by Australia to strengthen its corruption as well as anti-bribery regime (Fields, 2016). These

are the proposed changes that were welcomed by the business community. Clear guidance

can be provided by Australia regarding the responsibilities of MNC to prevent internal

corruption and comply with the law. Although the major focus of Australia is to reform their

anti-corruption law, the recommended adjustments can be beneficial to every country.

10
Document Page
CONCLUSION
Thus it can be concluded that though corruption such as bribery has highly practised in the

contemporary business such as mining. The bribery in business may lead to financial losses,

damaged business image, increase business insufficiency, along with discouraging the

shareholders and investors (Latimer, 2017). This results in the weak development of the

organization shattering the morale and culture of the company.

11
Document Page
REFERENCES
1.
Brown, J., & Loosemore, M. (2015). Behavioural factors influencing corrupt action in
the Australian construction industry. Engineering, Construction and Architectural

Management, 22(4), 372-389.

2.
Cuervo-Cazurra, A. (2016). Corruption in international business. Journal of World
Business, 51(1), 35-49.

3.
Fields, S. R. (2016). Statutory Tools for Enhancing Multinational Corporation
Compliance with Anti-Bribery Laws: Recommended Changes to Australia's Foreign

Bribery Offense. Geo. Wash. Int'l L. Rev., 49, 441.

4.
Hernandez, T., & McGee, R. (2014). Attitudes toward bribery in Australia: A
demographic study.

5.
Islam, M. A., Haque, S., Dissanayake, T., Leung, P., & Handley, K. (2015). Corporate
disclosure in relation to combating corporate bribery: A case study of two Chinese

telecommunications companies. Australian Accounting Review, 25(3), 309-326.

6.
Kakabadse, A., Korac-Kakabadse, N., & Khan, N. (2015). Cases of Official and
Unofficial Business Practices: Examples from Australia, Germany, UK, South Africa,

Russia and Pakistan. In International Management and Intercultural Communication

(pp. 127-148). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

7.
Latimer, P. (2017). Anti-bribery laws–compliance issues in Australia. Journal of
Financial Crime, 24(1), 4-16.

8.
Marriott, L. (2016). Taxing corruption in Australia and New Zealand. Austl. Tax F., 31,
37.

9.
Nahlous, H., Tink, D., & Taylor, B. (2018). Compliance check: Anti-Bribery extends its
reach in Australia [Online available at

12

Secure Best Marks with AI Grader

Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
Document Page
https://home.kpmg.com/au/en/home/insights/2018/04/anti-bribery-compliance-
check-18-april-2018.html] [Last accessed on 5-09-2018]

10.
Nicolson, R. (2017). The Rolls-Royce bribery case and its implications in Australia.
Governance Directions, 69(2), 117.

11.
O’Connell, D. (2015). The UK Bribery Act: Challenges and opportunities for Australian
business. Governance Directions, 67(5), 311.

12.
O’Shannassy, T. F. (2017). Gift Giving, Guanxi, Bribery and Corruption Challenges in
Australia–China Business: an Ethical Tension Between the Global South and the East.

In Ethics in the Global South (pp. 131-151). Emerald Publishing Limited.

13.
Ryan, P. (2018). Australia slips in corruption index, ranks as 13th least-corrupt nation
[Online available at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-22/australia-slips-in-

global-corruption-rank/9472114] [Last accessed on 5-09-2018]

13
1 out of 14
[object Object]

Your All-in-One AI-Powered Toolkit for Academic Success.

Available 24*7 on WhatsApp / Email

[object Object]