Leadership and Ethics: Analyzing the Samsung Bribery Case

This case study examines the Samsung bribery charges case, focusing on ethical issues and leadership failures. The paper begins with an introduction to the case, detailing the charges against Lee Jay Young and the company's involvement in bribery and corruption. It then explores the effects on stakeholders, including the company's reputation, government, and the public. The analysis uses ethical frameworks such as individualism, Kantianism, and utilitarianism to evaluate the ethical implications of the case. Finally, the paper presents a personal ethical viewpoint on the situation and concludes with a summary of the ethical breaches and their impact. The assignment aims to provide a comprehensive ethical analysis of the Samsung bribery case, including the application of ethical theories and the impact on stakeholders.

Running head: ETHICAL ISSUES
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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
There has been countless issues across the world in which an organization was
involved in major ethical and moral issues that shook the world. Ethical issues arise when an
individual related to an organization or the organization itself has made a decision or been
involved in an action that is against the laws that are laid down for it or against the moral or
ethical code that governs it. These ethical issues tend to be harmful for the company and the
stakeholders involved, as these issues often gain enormous media publicity, it creates a
difficult situation that is not easy to handle andthe adverse repercussions of the same may
linger on, associated with the company for years, costing them money and resources, also
their goodwill earned over years of hard work. People are quick to forget victories but issues
like these remain in the limelight for too long. In this paper, the Samsung Bribery charges
case will be studied from an ethical perspective and analyzed using a personal ethical
standpoint.
The Samsung Bribery Charges Case
About the Company
Samsung is a technology and electronics company that has it’s headquarters in
Samsung, a town in Seoul in South Korea. The company was founded in 1938, and from that
time it has diversified into countless sectors that include, primarily electronics and sectors
like textile, food processing and even insurance.
The Case
Lee Jay Young was placed in control of Samsung after his father had to give up
control because of health issues due to a heart attack. However soon the sun was accused of
various corruption charges and bribery of which he was found guilty. It was a 90 day
investigation by a prosecutor was specially looking into one of the biggest corruption

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scandals. This case had led straight to the impeachment of a former president of South Korea
Park geun-hye. Lee voice unfortunately found guilty of providing dollar 38 million as brides
to choi soon sil who used to secretly work for the former President Park. These bribes hed
helped Samsung game enormous support of the government that in turn help the company
gain more on a merger that had taken place in between two Samsung affiliates. Lee had
argued that the brides that were paid to joy where actually donations from the company and
they were in reality coerced to give them. However Samsung was yet accused of initiating
and making the payments that had intern help them carefully secure a particular vote by the
national pension service that was controlled by the government and it supported the merger.
It is said that Park had ordered the service tool and all the support to Lee. This case had taken
a bigger form because a lot of criminal issues occurred along with embezzlement and a lot of
assets were hidden overseas. Lee was branded a type phone who had willingly done all of
these while being completely aware of what he was doing, else he would not have paid the
confidante if President Park in order to secure early gain the backup of the government when
it came to the merger (Janeckzo, 2017). It had in actuality cost a loss of dollar 123 million to
the pension fund because they had in your mistakes in both the affiliates. The mother had also
helped increase the stock on part Lee's family buy a minimum of at least dollar 758 million.
This case was an enormous blow to the reputation of the company and the company had to
work enormously hard to prove that this event was one time event and that something like
this would never happen in the future again.
Effect on the stakeholders
Stakeholders are the most important part of the company and de are to be given complete
transparency when it comes to the operations of the company. Naturally this case was not
transparent as the stakeholders would never have allowed this and it was done purely for the
benefit of the owner of Samsung. Naturally this case had brought Samsung into the Limelight

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negatively which had harm the company enormously and had taken down the stakeholders
along. This is a gross violation of ethics because stakeholders put a lot of trust within the
company before investing and hope for positive returns. Countless people were affected by
the scandal, and various major parties had lost their jobs because of the same. Not only did
they lose their jobs but they also lost their reputation. The government was also hurt because
the government was involved in the scandal as well and have lost at least dollar 123 million
and a lot of faith in countless employees they had. This had also code the trust of the people
of South Korea. This sort of scandal is not expected from one's own government. The
president was involved in the scandal was removed from office and a new President had
come in his place claiming that he is clean and did not indulge in such work and scandals
unworthy of the reputation of the nation. This was a major breach of trust and will continue to
require years to regain what had already been lost. A company like Samsung is more than just
a corporate with an exclusive range of products; it is also a company with leaf creative stocks
on the market which is preferred by countless people all around the world. Bringing back the
Goodwill lost was and still is not an easy task; however it will return if carefully placed back
into its place after years of struggle by the company.
The ethics
Individualism
The ethics that will be explored to understand this situation is the individual ethics
according to Friedman's theory of individualism which states that the first and foremost goal
of a business organization is to create and make profits without breaking any law or moral
code (Norton, 1997). It is a belief that it is difficult to play fair if a company wants to exceed
all expectations and limits previously set.

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Lee's individual stick tendencies to take the company forward by quite a mile is very
evident through the case as he was hell bent on ensuring that Samsung gets good amount of
support from the biggest organization in Korea to ensure that the companies demands are met
and materialistic needs are fulfilled. However this was done by breaking the law at various
degrees and places. The case that shook the country because it involve one of the biggest if
not the biggest company of South Korea and the very person responsible for the structure and
foundation of the country. If the theory of individualism is followed it is evident that this act
is completely unethical and the fact that the law was broken this act had turned even more
unethical although he was trying to gather funds and make money for the company. His
intentions were Nobel but the method he had utilized to get together. Is to be deemed as,
unnecessary and unlawful. It also, almost irreversibility damaged the trust is stakeholders and
people have put in the company and the government respectively.
Kantianism
The ethical perspective from Emmanuel Kant's point will also be taken. for that the
very four basic principles that helps define the theory is to be understood. It begins with the
need to act in a rational manner which will in turn allow and help other people when it comes
to making similar rational decisions followed by the need to respect people and the autonomy
they already have and finally to be extremely motivated by simple goodwill. It also states that
one individual should not be treating another individual as a means to an end because it
translates to someone taking advantage or someone else which is unethical (Kant, 2001).
Therefore from the Kantian perspective this case is completely unethical. The test of
humanity was filled by the sun because he failed to be motivated by the Goodwill previously
appointed act as a principal because he had bribed the secret support of the president of South
Korea and that very time. The test of humanity was also failed because a pension service fund
was used as a means of getting the merger done and dusted with and it shows that the service

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was taken advantage of. The autonomy of the workers for the government who were involved
in the scam was also not respected, 20 workers were involved with the pension service and
where crossed into this kind of scam as they were not allowed to take or make their own
decisions. Thus we see that all the principles where heavily ignored and thus the case is
proved extremely unethical.
Utilitarianism
This is get another ethical theory by John mills which has clearly stated that happiness
is a thing that has a very e core intrinsic value and does one must write maximize it in one's
own self as well as in others. Giving joy to oneself and 2 others is always appreciated because
in this world with so many problems already present happiness is a rare gift of love and
affection that everyone deserves to retain (Quinton 1973). One’s own happiness is connected
with the happiness of others because a happy person will always hope to make someone
happy as well and this will go on till everybody is happy. However if you look deeply into
this case but it started the world it is evident that in the end happiness was not maximized
because the people who were found involved with the scam loss the jobs and their positions
and also lost a lot of dignity in front of their peers. Lee in the end court convicted of such
genius ideas and this did not positively affect the stocks of Samsung either which meant that
the stakeholders were not even happy. They were even sadder invite the fact that the
company had cheated them by suppressing information about the same. The government was
not happy is there because a large sum of money was lost by them in relation to the case of
bribery.
Personal ethical viewpoint
From a personal ethical viewpoint, for me bribery is an acceptable method of getting things
done. And as a company who has such a huge set of stakeholders who have trusted the
company, it is unethical taking decisions that will harm both the company and stakeholders

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who are involved without you even knowing that such heinous operations are being carried
out behind their backs. Ethical issues like this need to be carefully handled and they need
strict judgment to ensure that things like these do not happen in the near future.
Conclusion
After carefully exploring the Samsung bribery charges case it is evident that it was
completely and unethical step taken by the company and it had respect the well being of the
stakeholders as well. This case had sad consequences and had caused a lot of pain to a lot of
people belonging to various organizations. it is important that a corporate who has such as
base of stakeholder remains true to itself and to others still it exists because of the amount of
lives connected with it. Correct ethical degrees must be attained by hook or crook by the
people within the company and the owner especially must ensure that it is done.

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References
Janeczko, S. (2017). Samsung Technical and Fundamental Analysis.
Kant, I. (2001). Lectures on ethics (Vol. 2). Cambridge University Press.
Norton, D. L. (1977). Personal destinies: A philosophy of ethical individualism (Vol. 404).
Princeton University Press.
Quinton, A. (1973). Utilitarian ethics. Springer.