Analysis of Unethical Practices in the Vietnam Business Environment

This essay examines unethical practices in the Vietnamese business environment, focusing on corruption and employee exploitation. It defines unethical practices as behaviors that violate minimum standards, specifically highlighting corruption, tax evasion, and bribery, which negatively impact Vietnam's economic growth. The essay also addresses employee exploitation, including low wages, poor working conditions, and excessive working hours. It then discusses the government's efforts to combat these issues, such as anti-corruption and labor laws. However, it notes that the enforcement of these laws remains a challenge, leading to continued unethical practices and adverse effects on the workforce and the economy. The essay emphasizes the need for stricter enforcement to improve living standards and promote sustainable economic development.

Running head: UNETHICAL PRACTICES IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT 1
Unethical practices in business environment
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Unethical practices in business environment 2
Unethical practices are defined as behaviors that do not comply to the minimum standards of
operating a business in a particular environment. People do activities that are contrary to the
accepted standards and their behaviors has negative effects to the government and its citizens. In
Vietnam, various unethical practices have been reported to take place in the business
environment. These practices include corruption and workers’ exploitation among other
practices. Corruption is among the leading unethical business practice in Vietnam business
environment (Gueorguiev & Malesky, 2012). Corruption is a term that refers to inadequate
transparency and accountability in business operations where by people with authority take
advantage of their positions to benefit themselves from powerless individuals while in their line
of duty. In Vietnam, corruption accompanies activities relating to tax evasion, bribing and
negative political influences (Seagon et al., 2018). All these practices affect the economic growth
of Vietnam negatively. Through corruption, organizations are evading tax payment under the
influence of political leaders so that these leaders can receive the money that was meant for
paying taxes. This practice limits the ability of the government of Vietnam to carry out its role of
providing goods and services to its citizens.
The other unethical practice in Vietnam business environment is employee exploitation.
Workforce exploitation involves unfair treatment of workers for the benefit of their employers.
Employees are exploited in terms of low wage payment for the labor provided, poor working
environment where workers are exposed to poor working conditions including poor sanitation
and required working equipment and employees working for long hours without overtime
compensation. These practices do not conform to the labor laws that are put in place by Vietnam
government thus making employees to suffer at the expense of their employers.
Strategies for controlling unethical practices in Vietnam
In order to curb unethical practices relating to corruption, Vietnam government has put in place
anti-corruption laws that are meant to ban unethical practices in all sectors of the economy
(Fritzen, 2007). All person found guilty in corruption practices are subjected to payment of
fines. Fines for violating anti-corruption laws significantly varies depending on seriousness of
the committed offence by the people in authority. To ensure the effectiveness of anti-corruption
laws, Vietnam has signed various agreements with other countries like Malaysia in the year 2010
(Cooperation Agreement on Anti-Corruption Measures).

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According to (Artus et al., 2016), Vietnam has put in place labor laws that are meant to protect
both employees form Vietnam origin and expatriates. They have put in place contractual laws
that state the rules and regulations of the offered contract to prevent employers form breaching
contracts as agreed by their workers. These laws have provided rights for employees who work
in different environments (normal and hazardous). Vietnam labor laws have also outlined
different rights that are applied to both female and male gender. Although these laws are put in
place, the rate of applying them in business environment is very low thus increased unethical
practices in Vietnam. Employers are greatly benefiting as their employees suffer and languish in
poverty. Unless the required laws are enforced seriously, Vietnam economy will continue to
decline thus promoting low living standards amongst its citizens.

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References
Artus, I., Holland, J., & Blien, U. (2016). Labor market and industrial relations in Vietnam.
Bloomsbury Publishing, (pp. 19-54).
Fritzen, S. (2007). The ‘Misery’of implementation: Governance, institutions, and anti-corruption
in Vietnam. In Corruption and good governance in Asia (pp. 112-134). Routledge.
Gueorguiev, D., & Malesky, E. (2012). Foreign investment and bribery: a firm-level analysis of
corruption in Vietnam. Journal of Asian Economics, 23(2), 111-129.
Seagon, M., Booth, C., & Pearce, J. (2018). Ethics, bribery, corruption and management in
Vietnam. Journal of Business Ethics, (pp. 215-223)