Rolls – Royce Bribed Its Way Around the World

...

The fact that Rolls – Royce isn’t selling luxury cars anymore, implies that they cannot limit themselves to the stereotypical 60 year old men who retire after a long, making money life. They have to start seeking for new clients, who are willing to spend their money on things they don’t have. This means that developing countries who want to encourage the growth of their army, or those who want to promote and stimulate their local airlines, are potential clients for the new Rolls – Royce’s market.

On another motive, the fact that they are countries that are in process of development may motivate them to accept money from companies that are willing to close deals with them as it will help their economies grow faster, create employment for their citizens and bring a lot of money into their countries, even if the politicians are the ones who keep that money in the end.

- In order to improve their ethical performance, Rolls – Royce can carry out some guidance on strategies against corruption or bribery. They must create and reinforce a strong culture which influences their employees’ behavior towards these kind of issues.

Especially for Rolls – Royce, which is working with countries where the anti-corruption legislation is not developed enough and bribes are seen as normal things to do, they should train their employees to differentiate between advantage and entertainment.

As we learned in the past conference about the ICAC in Hong Kong, advantage consists of the acceptance of things such as gifts or money from the agent without the approval of the principal, the company for whom you work). On the other hand, she taught us that foods or drinks given with the purpose of them being consumed in the occasion, right away, are not considered advantage and therefore they can be accepted even without the principal’s approval. In conclusion, they must know what they can or not accept in terms of gifts and hospitality.

Although it may be difficult for them to apply this theory learnt into real life situations because there can be circumstances in which other factors play a more important role such as pressure to meet their objectives, ignorance or fear. Employees may choose to make less ethical decisions if they feel intimidated.

Good examples of what Rolls – Royce could do in order to assure a better practice is what in Spain we call a “face-wash”, a start over from zero in which managers and supervisors should give example to the employees on the zero-tolerance to bribery and corruption. Starting by releasing some pressure so that they don’t feel the need of offering bribes because of the belief that their jobs depend on certain deals in the short term.

They must favor openness inside the company so that problems originated by these issues can be easily discussed and resolved, leading to employees feeling motivated to do the right thing.

- Since it was created in 1974, the ICAC, Independent Commission Against Corruption, has fought corruption using three branches, law enforcement, prevention and education against corruption. It was established in order to stop the endemic corruption that could be found inside the Hongkonese government.

Mrs. Tang told us that the most important role they have right now is convincing the general public about corruption and kickbacks not being every-day situations.

These are carried out in the Operations Department, which is in charge of receiving and considering allegations of fraudulent practices and investigates these offences; the Corruption Prevention Department, which examines the governments and public people’s practices and procedures to make sure they don’t look corrupted and is also in charge of advising on how to prevent these dishonest practices; and the Community Relations Department, which educates the public on the consequences of corruption. Later on,

What I liked the most about the conference was learning what the personal consequences of bribing or being corrupt in Hong Kong were (up to 7 years of prison and up to 500000 dollars fine). It’s really similar to Spain, where there is a maximum imprisonment of 8 years for the same felony.

I also considered important learning how to identify a case of corruption just using four As (Act, Advantage, Agent and (no) Approval). The act must be in relation to the principal’s business where the employee, accepts an advantage in the form of money of gifts from an agent employed or working for another firm without the approval of his principal. In those cases, is when you can identify corruption and that I found really interesting.

Word count: 1531