Costa Rica Project example essay topic

748 words
Ethics is a topic in which many people or groups of people tend to disregard. There can be many reasons supporting the decisions that business firms or individuals make. In many cases, money or monetary gain can influence people to do unethical things either in the workplace or in everyday life. Ethics can be defined as beliefs that distinguish right from wrong.

These beliefs are normally passed down from family so you make the right decisions in the future. Morals are also on the same line as ethics when talking about doing the right thing. People's morals can be totally different but should follow the same overall pattern in determining right from wrong. The presenter gave a speech about how a business firm he was very involved with bribed a government in Costa Rica to allow for the production of a computer chip that would make multiple millions of dollars in the United States. A lot of money, time, effort and planning went into the production of this product because the leaders of the business knew that it would be worth their time in the long run. According to the speaker, what happened with the Costa Rica project started out very innocent.

It consisted of a group of individuals working to achieve a common goal, which was the launch of a particular product. They took all appropriate measures and did everything the way they were supposed to according to their business plan. Where they ran into problems was when they were hiring people to make sure their facility and product would meet with the appropriate code in their area. They went about this by hiring specialists from America to come to Costa Rica and evaluate the set up that they had running. This cost them a half a million dollars or so to even have the task force come and do this procedure. After the project was approved by them, the government of the country denied the launch for the product.

The reason being was because they wanted the people from their own country to make the money, not some Americans. Eventually, they hired some natives from the country to do the inspection and of course it was approved with the right dollar amount. The problem was that there was an act formed by the United States government saying that doing things that they were doing was unethical and not allowed in the states. It just so happened that the speaker as well as three other top executives running the Costa Rica project were asked questions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation concerning the laws they had broken. When he talked to his lawyer, he decided that he had been in the wrong even if it was unintentionally and he was willing to face the consequences for his actions. He could have faced many months or even years in jail, however because of all the other bigger scandals like the one concerning the major Enron Corporation he was sentenced 1,000 hours community service.

He has been performing this community service by speaking to colleges around the nation about ethics and the business deal he was very much involved with. In my opinion, the speaker handled his situation extremely well. Even though what he did may have been wrong in accordance with the specific act, he was very honest with his mistake and was willing to suffer the consequences he faced. I think that his honesty is what saved him from doing hard time in jail. He seemed like an extremely intelligent individual who offered a lot to different companies for them to grow and for him to as well. There must be some sort of mishap or bad business associated with the act that was formed because the way the speaker made it sound, it should not have got federal charges.

I feel like the principle of ethics in this case was about the way he handled himself. After he realized that he did create a crime, he did not pay a lot of money to get him out of trouble, possibly because he did not have that kind of money to dish out. On the other hand you can think about the mans morals and ethics and say that he appears to be a very loyal man.