ABSTRACT:Increasingly, global businesses are confronted with the question of complicity in human rights violations committed by abusive host governments. This contribution specifically looks at silent complicity and the way it challenges conventional interpretations of corporate responsibility. Silent complicity implies that corporations have moral obligations that reach beyond the negative realm of doing no harm. Essentially, it implies that corporations have a moral responsibility to help protect human rights by putting pressure on perpetrating host governments involved in human rights abuses. This (...) is a controversial claim, which this contribution proposes to analyze with a view to understanding and determining the underlying conditions that need to be met in order for moral agents to be said to have such responsibilities in the category of the duty to protect human rights. (shrink)

With the expansion of multinational corporations (MNCs), the alarming upsurge in widely publicized and notable corporate scandals involving MNCs in emerging markets has begun to draw both academic and managerial attention to look beyond home market practices to the pressing concern of CSR in emerging markets. Previous studies on CSR have focused primarily on Western markets, reserving limited discussions in addressing the issue of MNC attitudes and CSR practices in their emerging host markets abroad. Despite this incongruity in academic response (...) to CSR in emerging markets, managers of multinational companies continue to face mounting and most often conflicting pressures to weigh among multiple strategic CSR responses in emerging markets. Such a task is often further complicated by the complexity of varying business norms and standards, regulatory environments, and stakeholder demands for CSR across national boundaries. With such a challenge in mind, I attempt to examine the explanatory factors in leading MNCs, otherwise recognized for accountability and integrity in their home markets, to employ inconsistent or negligent practices under CSR pressure in Chinese emerging economy. Preliminary findings reveal that discrepancies exist in how MNCs perform in CSR in home countries versus in host countries. While MNCs do have much to improve, the institutional environment in the emerging market, including the legal framework and the ethical culture, also needs to be improved by the host country governments, the industry associations, and local firms. Meanwhile, media interest and journalists, NGOs, third party monitors, industry stakeholders as well as consumer advocacy groups can raise the visibility of MNC's contradictory practices between their origin nations and countries with emerging economies and offer the pressures and incentives for MNCs to amend their ethical short-comings. This article also suggests implications for both theory and practice. (shrink)

The article identifies the challenges that multinational corporations (MNCs) from the developed world face in sub-Saharan Africa and examines the direct foreign-investment and development interests of the region. In light of these challenges and interests, it also explores answers to the question What is to be done?The occurrence of MNCs' operations in culturally pluralistic societies suggest that they use, as the basis for a corporation-formulated regional code of conduct, a value-based corporate social policy process. That process should embody utilitarian and (...) situation ethics in the exercise of MNCs' prima facie operations and of their responsibilities to society. For the African normative environment, the appeal of this approach is substantiated by the notion that both utilitarian and situation ethics are at once consistent with the region's investment codes, development interests, and value systems. But more than that, utilitarian and situation ethics are consistent with corporate social policy process and can assist MNCs to meet effectively their social responsibilities by helping them reverse the economic stagnation of most of the continent. (shrink)

This article examines the ethical characteristics of MNEs employee relations in developing countries. Specifically, it addresses various ethical issues relating to labour relations and trade unions in extractive industries in Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia. Data collected in these countries indicate that criticisms aginst MNEs relating to labour issues and labour practices in developing countries are not lessening. The discussion is lent focus and direction through the analysis of critical incidents from the perspectives of various stakeholders: government, oil and mining (...) companies, and leaders of trade unions. Tensions over pay, expatriate employments as against the locals, negotiation rights and employees well-being are evident. The argument advanced is that the MNEs operating in the extractive industries of Africa will have to improve their relations with local employees in order to bridge the legitimacy gaps that exist. An improved mutual understanding between the MNEs and trade unions is required for both actors to have a smooth working relationship. (shrink)