The problem of business ethics is infinitely more complex in the international marketplace because value judgments differ widely among culturally diverse group. Franks choice to use bribery in Latino is ethical, being ethical or unethical is in the eyes of the country. If the country does not view it as unethical, why should Frank. In the US, bribery is considered unethical. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) prohibits U.S. businesses from paying bribes openly or using intermediaries as conduits for a bribe when the U.S. manager knows that part of the intermediary’s payment will be used as a bribe. The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 focusing on assisting businesses to be more competitive in world markets as well as on correcting perceived injustice in trade practices. Although it permits lubrication payment if universal in the culture. Frank is a businessman from the US just working in Latino, he still has to obey the rules of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ultimately, Frank is making illegal bribes to the jefe but not the dock boss. The two different payments Frank made, money paid to the dock boss and the money paid to the jefe, have legal differences. The first payment to the jefe is illegal under the Foreign Corrupt Act and the bribe to the dock boss is consider legal under the FCPA. However there are no ethical differences, since Latino does not consider bribery a moral issue.
Lubrication involves a relatively small sum of cash, a gift, or a service given to a low ranking official in a country where such offerings are not prohibited by law. Subornation on the other hand generally involves giving large sums of money designed to tempt an official to commit an illegal act on behalf of the one offering the bribe. Extortion is if payments are extracted under force by someone in authority from a person seeking only what he or she is lawfully entitled to. The money given to jefe was extortion. The jefe clearly did not use the money to “fix” the defect in the machines. The second bribe was lubrication, when Frank gave the dock boss a handful of pesos hurry the process of transferring the machines to the Latino trucks.
Frank implies that in the US big dinners, drinks, and other
