What's Wrong with Bribery? An Example Utilizing Access to Safe Drinking Water

• Author: Lucien J. Dhooge*
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1722.2013.01116.x
• Date: 01 March 2013
• Published date: 01 March 2013

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 30, Issue 1, 131–177, Winter/Spring 2013

What’s Wrong with Bribery? An

Example Utilizing Access to Safe

Drinking Water

Lucien J. Dhooge*

Too poor to bribe, and too proud to importune, He had not the method of

making a fortune.1

Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.2

I. Introduction

This case study examines the role of bribery in the global marketplace

through an example involving access to safe drinking water in the developing

world. Parts II and III set out the objectives and methods of classroom deliv-

ery for the case study. Part IV is the background reading relating to bribery

with particular emphasis on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the

United States. This background information is followed by a discussion of

the problem of lack of access to safe drinking water in the developing world,

a hypothetical state in which a water treatment facility is to be constructed

to address this problem, and background information regarding four po-

tential bidders for construction of the facility. These four bidders represent

a wide range of companies from publicly traded corporations with strong

antibribery cultures and protections to privately and governmentally owned

enterprises with weaker anticorruption measures. These factual sections are

followed in Part VI by questions addressing stakeholders and the application

of ethical theories to the bidding process for the construction of the facility.

∗Sue and John Staton Professor of Law, Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of

Technology.

1Thomas Gray, Sketch of His Own Character, ll. 1–2 (1761).

2Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, pt. II, ll. 35–36 (1798).

C2013 The Author

Journal of Legal Studies Education C2013 Academy of Legal Studies in Business

131

132 Vol. 30 / The Journal of Legal Studies Education

II. Course and Teaching Objectives

The case study was designed for students in Global Business Ethics, an elective

course in the undergraduate curriculum at the Scheller College of Business

at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Global Business Ethics is a full fifteen-

week course for three credit units. This course is taught in a seminar fashion.

The course focuses on three primary topics: theories of ethical analysis and

their application in a global context, corporate citizenship, and stakeholder

analysis. The case study may be utilized in either the stakeholder or ethical

theories analyses portions of the course.

The case study is also utilized in the college’s executive education pro-

gram, specifically, the master of business administration degree in global

business. The executive education version of the course is taught in four

sessions spanning fourteen hours and is delivered in one week. The course

is taught in a similar seminar and discussion format. The case study may

also be adapted for utilization in graduate and undergraduate courses in

international business law in a module emphasizing ethical considerations in

international business.

The case study has four primary objectives. Initially, the case study

provides students with the opportunity to identify parties affected by business

decisions in the global marketplace and their respective interests. Second, the

case study enhances student awareness of ethical issues and the application of

multiple theories of ethical analysis to the resolution of such issues. Third, the

case study provides an opportunity for students to examine their core values

and those of the organizations for which they work, for which they aspire to

work, or are studying. The final objective is increasing student involvement in

the learning process through in-class discussions. The sessions are successful

when students question their preconceived notions and realize that answers

to ethical questions even concerning conduct as pernicious as bribery are not

as easily obtained as they seem on their face.

III. Utilization of the Case Study in Class

A. Presentation

The sessions are taught primarily in a seminar format with discussions

based upon the fact pattern and questions set forth in Parts V and

VI. The author has adopted the case method for presentation of these

2013 / What’s Wrong with Bribery? 133

materials.3There are many pedagogical advantages associated with the use

of the case method in the business school classroom.4

The sessions start with a review of bribery and the FCPA. This review

is based upon the materials set forth in Part IV and Appendix A. Students

are expected to have read these materials before class. The readings seek

to further student understanding in six areas: (1) the prevalence of bribery

in the global economy. (2) the history of the FCPA. (3) the elements of an

FCPA violation and defenses. (4) recent FCPA enforcement efforts and their

efficacy. (5) proposed amendments to the FCPA, and (6) the relationship

between perceived corruption and development. The instructor may divide

the class into groups and assign each group the task of summarizing a sec-

tion of the readings for their classmates. Alternatively, these topics may be

addressed through lecture or other instructor-led discussion.

The sessions then focus on the fact pattern and questions set forth in

Parts V and VI. Students work in groups and act as members of the boards of

directors of the potential providers identified in Section V.C. The instructor

assigns a specific bidder to each group. Each group does not know the iden-

tity of the bidders assigned to the other groups in order that no group feels

constrained in deciding the appropriate course of action. In larger classes,

the instructor may assign the same bidder to two different groups of students.

Each group must determine its company’s course of action and justifications

3One definition of the case method is as follows:

A case is a partial, historical clinical study of a situation which has confronted a practicing

administrator or managerial group. Presented in a narrative form to encourage student

involvement, it provides data. .. essential to an analysis of a specific situation, for the framing

of alternative action programs, and for their implementation recognizing the complexity

and ambiguity of the practical world.

Louis B. Barnes et al., Teaching and the Case Method 44 (1994).

4Id.at 41–48. These benefits may be summarized as follows: (1) facilitating situational analysis

including conflicts of objectives and the imbalance between needs and resources; (2) relating

analysis and action, specifically, the need to know and the need to act; (3) necessitating student

involvement in class discussions; (4) transforming the role of professors from the making of sum-

mary statements and teaching the status quo to guiding the discussion process and encouraging

innovative thinking; (5) improving students’ problem-solving, analysis, and synthesis skills, and

encouraging collaborative work; (6) practicing student self-expression and persuasion skills; (7)

meeting faculty research needs by linking the professoriate to current problems and issues; and

(8) efficiency in the use of limited classroom time. Id. See also Sean P. Melvin, Case Study of a

Coffee War: Using the Starbucks v. Charbucks Dispute to TeachTrademark Dilution, Business Ethics, and

the Strategic Value of Legal Acumen, 29 J. Legal. Stud. Educ. 27, 33–34 (2012) (discussing the

benefits of the case method).