Siemens: Bribery and Manager

1) What explains the high level of corruption at Siemens was how it was legal at one point in time to offer bribes, but once the law changed, Siemens continued to do brides that was once legal but now illegal. Also, when the company continued bribery, Siemens transferred money into a hard-to-trace bank in Switzerland to protect their business and help them win contracts. Managers rationalized it as the bribes being useful money, but in a way they were still making profit, and bribes were used as a cost of doing business and keeping the business alive.

2) What I think would have happened to a manager at Siemens if he or she had taken a stand against corrupt practices is that the manager would most likely be fired by the executives of the company because the company is doing what is practical and worthy to them, which entails that the manager is going against their beliefs on how to run a business and make profits. I can be taking this a little bit further, but the manager could be killed because the company might not fully trust that person especially since that manager could run and tell the police.

3) The kind of corruption Siemens engaged in distorts competition by the way Siemens practices of corruption, competitors were shut out of contracts and they couldn’t compete because they weren’t paying bribes and they couldn’t obtain the right people that Siemens did. The way Siemens conducted business didn’t lead to fair competition.

4) The impact of corrupt behavior by Siemens on the countries where it does business is the local residents in poor countries had to pay too much for government services because of rigged deals and/or paying these officials for Siemens contracts, which leads to the local residents dealing with financial difficulties. Siemens helped maintain a culture of corruption in those certain countries where it made illegal payouts.

5) If I were a manager at Siemens and I became aware of these activities, I would most likely quit the job because my values and morals are more important than ruining people’s lives especially since corruption can harm a country’s economic development, and I wouldn’t want that for our country or any other country.