The invisible line

Assumption:
-Partnership between sectors and organisations are good. eg. government and business collaborating on new laws that businesses could abide by and benefit from or companies in the same sector creating a voluntary code that they will agree to (such as not advertising chocolate to shildren)
-Corruption is bad. eg. business paying government to make, or not make, a certain law or businesses working together as cartels to create artificial price fixes

You'll see what I am leading to... where is the line between partnership and corruption? That the line can be greay and not black/white means it is harder to define the boundary, but more importantly, it is harder to interpret. So a company may quite happily have 2 principles: 1 of partnering to achieve more and 1 of refusing to be involved in corruption. It may strive to work closely with its suppliers and customers so it can better service them, it may give preferential treatment to preferred suppliers. But when does this preferential treatment become bribery?

Consider the case of treating a customer to dinner, or the case of a business partner also being a friend. When does the dinner become a bibe and when does a social conversation about their sector end up as a tacit agreement to collude or lead to sepcial favours? When recruiting someone, it is sensible to take into account personal experience or recommendations, but how valid is this, and does this not lead to discrimination against those who you did not know before?

Thinking about this more and more show that there are so many more examples -how do you draw the line? Presuming you do not intend to break the law then the line is very subjective. It is defined in reference to the 'norm' (ie. the normal circumstances that you think everyone does all of the time as part and parcel of the job). This creates a problem if there is no established 'norm' or if you do not know what the 'norm' is. In the case of China, where everything changes so fast (including the legal framework) and where most foreigners enter the market without understanding the culture or even being able to communicate effectively these issues might become especially valid.

On a slight tangent, this question leads me to think of the separate role of government and business. Is there a separate role? In every country the role is different. In some cases governments provide training, healthcare, utilities, salaries (pensions, unemployment benefit) etc etc. In others it is different. On a micro level in China you will find the British Embassy offering some free advice to British companies wishing to set up here, since the government wants to encourage business success, yet the company could also pay a special consultant for more in-depth advice. In fact often the government might subsidise this kind of advice directly.


What do companies do? Provide services in return for money? well governments do the same: you pay in your taxes and receive benefits. Governments tend to then themselves pay another company to do some of those services (outsourcing) and then it can all get complicated and confusing. I think the concept of CSR is struggling somewhat since it is trying to establish the rold of business in society: in reducing poverty, in creating a successful, sustainable society and so on. But this is also the role of national, local or international governments. Then there are NGOs: many bigger and with more influence than business or governments. Many performing services that are effectively government services outsourced.. but to an NGO not to a company. No difference, except in name.

All types of organisations have the ability to accrue debt or make profit. It could be possible to argue that governments are elected, other organisations are not: but this has nothing related to role of the organisation itself: maybe in the future, since stakeholders are becoming so important in business, that business will not just hold itself accountable to its stakeholders, but will go even further and hold itself electable to stakeholders. It will certainly gain legitimacy and trust! Though this may seem pointless since many countries struggle to have high turn-out in their governmental elections anyway!

So, the invisible line: macro and micro level discussions. Impact on individual level? How the individual defines their own lines, in the context of how the individual believes others see the line, and how the individual thinks others expect the individual to draw the line. Its all to subjective... no wonder corruption is a problem!