A recent article from the International Business Times talks about how a big pharmaceutical and health-care company, Glaxosmithkline, participated in an act of bribery to entice others to buy their drugs, and not their competitors’. The article then describes that companies should set firm ethical standards for their employees to follow because integrity plays an important part of a good business.
While it is the social responsibility of a business to try to increase their profits, Glaxosmithkline tried to do this in an unfair way through deception and fraud. It is certainly not right for a business to illegally try to get ahead of the competition through bribery. The repercussions of this incident are that it will most likely send a negative ripple effect throughout the whole company.
Business ethics are an important part of a company but in this case, Glaxosmithkline has ignored their ethics and become shortsighted in an effort to maximize profits. Unfortunately, Glaxosmithkline has let down its stakeholders by using their money in an illegal manner and it will take a long time for them to build up their reputation again.
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