Bus 447

Lockheed Corporation: Judgment of Unethical Conduct Lockheed Corporation was set up in the year1912 to take advantage of the growing demand for aircrafts. The company specialized in aerospace across America and beyond. The aircraft market was characterized by huge demand for aircrafts up to the period just after the World War II. After this period, business was not as usual as low and low demands for aircrafts hit the market. At one point, the business aspect worsened, leading to closure, reopening and merging at different times in a bid to survive the underlying market difficulties. The judgment of unethical conduct varies from one company to another. Unethical conduct is basically evaluated on the right, wrongs and expected behavior of a company in the light of the country it operates in. For instance, buyer-seller interactions may call for bribery activities. This is to say that buyers can require to be paid in order to make purchases. If this is done, then high quality and best value products are likely to be driven out of the market. On the same note, if consumers evaluated a product for quality and preference and then they get bribed to purchase, then they may actually get less than their money is worth. Producers will initiate bribes under profit motives; meaning that the producers will actually profit in the process. In that case, coffers in the country in question benefit, rather than the individual participants. Therefore, bribes are characterized by unfairness and deception and they are in most cases covered up. In this regard, bribes become unethical. In the case of Lockheed, payments were made public and the company further suffered a tarnished reputation due to the fact that it was charged with record falsification and tax violations (Boyne 48). In the context under which Lockheed payments were made, it was supposedly argued that the business was conducted within accepted specifics in Japan. The consequent events did not depict any aspect of an accepted practice. Criminal charges were filed against responsible individuals, and one of them actually took his life. Government operations came to a halt and scandals characterized the Japanese economy. An accepted business practice would have hardly led to the observed scenario in Japan. The acceptance factor in the Lockheed dealings is lacking and inadequate. It seems to be more of secret ways of doing business that are highly practiced as long as they remain a secret to the stakeholders. The Lockheed practice in the view of the entire public appears unacceptable and the ethics therein are not justifiable. Judgment of unethical conduct cannot be based on the opinions and perspectives of just a few individuals. Judgment of unethical conduct, therefore, changes in the context that payoffs are an accepted way of doing business. It becomes fundamental that publicity be integral to judging ethical and unethical conducts. Rules that pertain to ethical and unethical matters can, therefore, be effectively enforced in the light of the views and opinions of the public. For the U. S for example, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was passed (Boyne 59). Works CitedBoyne, Walter. Beyond the Horizons – The Lockheed Story. New York: St. Martins Press, 1998.