Siemens Bribery Scandal

1) The high level of corruption could be from the lack of reputation and competiveness Siemens contributed to. As being part of the telecommunications industry there is not much room for an already existing company to work on rebranding their image. Many of the firms are already established and very competitive within the industry. Brands such as Nokia, Samsung, HTC, Blackberry, Apple and etc have built a name for themselves by establishing numerous products from mobile phones and tablets to televisions and refrigerators. Siemens became corrupt due to trying to keep up with the other companies. They took an “any means necessary” approach to the situation and the result was not positive. In order to keep up with the other firms, they made illegal business deals. Siemens routinely used bribes to win business because bribes were referred to as “useful money”.

2) I believe that if a manager had taken a stand at Siemens regarding the corrupt practices, they would have been pushed out of the company. Most firms, when committing illegal acts, try to cover themselves and their tracks. Meaning they find ways to secretly get things done while covering the fact that it is illegal. I have seen in some firms where the employees of the firm retaliate against the person that was taking a stand. The ending result is a combination of being both positive and negative. Positive because you are doing the right thing but negative because everyone eliminates contact with the person that stands up and treats them as if they don’t exist. They basically shun the employee, avoid them deliberately because they don’t want to be categorized as being part of the action the employee committed.

3) The kind of corruption Siemens engaged in distorted competition by bringing out the scandal that many other companies could be participating in. It makes people think that if one telecommunication company did it, the other companies could be doing the same thing as well. The corruption made...