Compass Group was alleged by the UN in 2005, and all investigations about its bribery case were done by the US. A company sponsored by Compass Subsidiary Eurest Support Services (ESS) was involved in supplying food items to UN peacekeepers and tried to get information about UN tenders and contracts. According to The House of Representatives’ international relations committee’s report, Subsidiary Eurest Support Services (ESS) had been a co-worker of HIS services, having more than one contract and tenders of the United Nations. It is illegal in the context of business ethics and the structural framework of any firm to leak out details about secret business deals like tender notices. In 2005, US investigators suspended the registration of Compass, ESS, and IHC as UN vendors or suppliers.
Compass Group was alleged for fraud and bribery, involving in the UN contracts scandal, and supporting UN peacekeepers in countries like Eritrea and Liberia. There is a need to learn lessons from such corruption of the big enterprises, facing now collapse of businesses due to the allegation of bribery and fraud. It is unsuitable and unethical on behalf of the corporation which is involved in some unfair means to amass wealth.
In 2006, its competitor, Monaco, had claimed $369 million (£213 million) in a New York district court against the corporate governance to have UN peacekeeping contracts. It was the second time when Compass was scandalized for corruption and bribery in order to get more tenders and contracts from UN institutions. Supreme Foodservice reported a case of fraud and bribery against ESS with the claim of $125 million. Compass tried to settle all lawsuits to escape from the prolonged legal tussle of the competitors. There is a need to learn lessons from such recession of a big enterpriser, and there should be a set of frameworks to ensure the fair dealings of the corporation on ethical grounds.
The global standard of the company had been collapsed down due to such allegations of fraud, corruption and bribery, and malnutrition on behalf of the company’s delivery services. There is a need for mutual coordination of all food service competitors to take contracts from well-known institutions.
This is an ethical outlook of a businessman to follow the rules of giving and taking to promote the marketing and business strategies for greater returns. If there is any corruption and unethical attitude of the entrepreneurs to run business by using unfair means, there would be no permanent progress or growth of the business. You would have to enhance the marketing scope of the corporate by widening its range from local sectors to global sectors via effective marketing techniques. In this way, the company would get a massive amount of profits by investing in different sectors and taking contracts. Never use unfair means to make progress quickly as if you ascend to high skies at once, you have to slip down!
Business ethics govern ethical rules applied in business settings, commercially for those who are engaged in business dealings. Business ethics can be divided into normative and descriptive types. Social responsibility is an organization’s responsibility to conduct ethical values either by benefiting it or protecting it from threats and negative outcomes.
Ethics, by definition, is simply knowing what is right and doing the right thing, says McNamara. It is started from moral values such as honesty, respect, fairness, responsibility, accountability, etc. These values guide how one should behave in society. In his review of the book The Ethics of Development written by Miguel A. Martinez Saenz, Des Gasper describes that the three stages of developing ethics involve:
- The variations between sets of beliefs and ideas about moral development;
- The ways in which ethics enables persons to propose and justify certain sets of beliefs;
- The study of the sets of beliefs and the issues associated with these beliefs.
These include belief, social responsibility, morality, and ethics is irrelevant. Many managers or leaders believe that ethics have to do with religion, and for that reason, it is irrelevant. They believe that ethics take away the real-to-life complexities in the way they lead the organization. Ethics is simply doing the right things that may cause cynicism, righteousness, paranoia, and laughter. It involves too much preaching, says McDonald & Zepp in their article “What Should be Done? A Practical Approach to Business Ethics.” Some even consider ethics as too religious. For example, Should Bob steal from Jane? Or Should Jane lie to her boss?
There are several levels of development corporate culture to support business ethics, they are, according to McNamara, for example:
- Cultivate strong teamwork and productivity. This program “aligns employee behaviors with those top priority ethical values preferred by leaders of the organization.” Through ongoing communication, employees and employers can align their values.
- Support employees’ self-growth and meaning. In the workplace, sometimes ethics can be both good and evil as employees are competing over jobs and resources. However, when employees are given security, they have more confidence and loyalty to serve their employers.
- Insurance policy. There has been an increasing problem of insurance fraud in organizations. According to McNamara, “It’s far better to incur the cost of mechanisms to ensure ethical practices now than to incur costs of litigation,” for example, in the case of hiring new employees, evaluating, firing, etc.
- Manage values associated with quality management, strategic planning, and diversity management. This program ensures that employees uphold their values, avoid criminal acts, develop policies and procedures to ensure that employees’ behaviors are according to their values, and provide employees’ training to enforce both individual and organizational values.