N1082 Assignment: Discuss Corruption and Human Rights in Vietnam

CORRUPTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN VIETNAM
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Corruption and Human Rights in Vietnam
Introduction
Ethics characterize significantly the operations of many businesses today. It has become a norm for businesses to engage in ethical practices to boost their reputations. Many organizations have in place values and ethics code that guide their operations. With customers being increasingly aware of the business practices due to increased access to information, firms have to stand by their values in their operations. It becomes challenging to observe such values when expanding to foreign countries with different ethical levels. This is a challenge in that expansion through entering new countries is a major way for achieving growth. Firms are therefore faced with the dilemma of keeping up with its values or adopting those in the markets they enter. Such dilemma can affect the decision to enter certain markets. As firms carry out market analysis, a major factor that is highly considered is ethics. Companies have to assess the human rights practices, corruption, employment practices, and the pollution prevalence in the target market.
Vietnam is a market that is targeted by many multinational corporations. The country is targeted mainly because of its low cost of production. One way through which companies seek to cut production costs is setting up plants in low-cost countries. Vietnam is one of such countries. It is one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia (BBC, 2016). It has become a key manufacturing center, particularly for foreign countries. As the cost of production in China rises, foreign companies are considering other alternatives in Asia. According to an article in the Financial Times by Bland (2012), although the rising wages in China were a headache for firms in the country, they were good news for countries like Vietnam. This is because the wages in the country are cheaper and it has made the country an alternative to China. Samsung is one of the firms that have set up operations in the country. According to Kelion (2014), the company selected Vietnam as a favorable location for its $3billion smartphone factory. This was in addition to another $2billion plant that was already in operation in the country. As seen, the company had been operating in the country prior to the new investment. As Samsung operates in the country, it faces ethical challenges that affect its operations significantly. Two of the major ethical issues that affect the operations of the firm are corruption and human rights. According to a study by Giang et al. (2016), corruption is a common practice especially in administrative processes, and therefore is a major risk for businesses. Human rights is also a major ethical concern. According to the Human Rights Watch (2017), many bloggers and activists face arrests and convictions in the country. Therefore, human rights and corruption are key ethical issues that Samsung faces as it operates in the country.
Ethical Concerns
Corruption
Companies operating in today’s business environment are expected to observe high levels of integrity in operations. A company like Samsung faces stiff compa...