When is it ethically wrong to accept a business gift?

The gift is something that is given voluntarily and without compensation. It is often given in appreciation, in gratitude, or in response to a favor. Many gifts are given free of charge and without conditions, but in most cases, gifts are given with the expectation of receiving something in return. This makes it difficult for some people to accept gifts regardless of the sincerity of the donor, so accepting gifts frequently or carelessly can lead to abuse and an ethical dilemma.

To discover when a business gift is ethically correct to be accepted, it is important that we critically analyze the word “ethics.” It is no longer news that there is a general crisis of confidence in global corporate culture. In fact, what is in the news today is that as a result of this crisis, trust, which is at the basis of all relationships, has been broken between many organizations and their constituencies. This loss of trust has led to loss of reputation and, ultimately, loss of business. Additionally, ethical failures can have substantial financial consequences for corporations with very costly litigation and government fines.

Developing an effective ethics program to help foster an ethical culture throughout the organization will be productive when clear and effective means of communication are employed to convey to stakeholders, such as employees, the community and government, the values ​​and the organization’s commitment to ethics. behaviour. This is necessary because developing an ethical culture within an organization can not only prevent wrongdoing from occurring, but can also increase morale, loyalty, and productivity.

Ethics, which has to do with one’s feelings, helps to tell you what is right and what is wrong. To be ethical is to do what the law says or requires, although ethics has nothing to do essentially with the law. Ethics work best on behavioral attributes that are not covered by law and that are detrimental to the well-being of an organization. It is difficult to pin down the meaning of “ethics”, even with the diverse views that people have on it, yet it consists of the standards of behavior that society accepts.

Therefore, to answer the question of when it is ethically correct to accept a business gift, we must consider ethics in two ways: as a well-founded standard of right and wrong that prescribes what humans should do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits for society, equity or specific virtues, and the study and development of the ethical standards themselves.

As a well-founded standard of good and evil, we speak of those standards that impose reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. There are also those who, in addition to imposing virtues of honesty, compassion and loyalty, emphasize rights, such as the right to life, the right not to be injured and the right to privacy.

On the part of the study and development of the ethical norms themselves, we are concerned with the examination of conscience to discover those grounded and reasonable norms, since laws, feelings and social norms can deviate from the ethical. Hence, the continuing effort to study one’s own moral beliefs and moral conduct, and strive to ensure that one, and the institutions he helps to form, are up to reasonable and soundly based standards.

In other words, since no human being can completely shy away from gifts, especially in the performance of their duties, there are periods when business gifts are ethically permissible. These may include, among other things, benefits for excellent performance, which must not be commensurate with the size of the job, otherwise it becomes a bribe. Social features can also take the guise of a gift if there is no promotional value associated with the event. Such events may include the celebration of holidays such as Christmas, Eid-kabir, or New Years, etc., but accepting gifts with attached conditions (Greek gifts) is an indication that the recipient is behaving unethically.