Recognizing and Justifying Private Corruption

While public (or government) corruption has attracted a lot of attention, private (or business) corruption has been relatively under-addressed. A specific form of corruption, namely, paying a bribe to a public official, is easily identifiable as unethical and possibly illegal, but this is not clear in a private business context. Yet private bribery also has serious organizational consequences. This exploratory study suggests that individuals have difficulty in recognizing the ethical connotations of potential bribery, and draws attention to the need to build skills in this regard. C. Gopinath is a professor in the Management Department, Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University and is a visiting professor at the Institut D’Administration des Entreprises, Aix en Provence. His research, teaching and consulting interests span strategic management and international business. His current work is titled ‹Globalization: A multidisciplinary system’ (Sage, forthcoming).