Intercultural communication

The post has two assignments

1. Intercultural communication

2000-word essay. Identify an issue (refer to lecture notes) you are interested in in the areas of
language, culture and communication and examine it using intercultural communication theories covered in the
lectures. Your literature review should focus on the issue you have identified. You are encouraged to collect
empirical data, e.g. a short chunk of conversational (e.g. requests and apologies) or written (e.g. words and
expressions for politeness or purposes vs. those for humorous or assertive purposes) texts or a short video (e.g.
advertising with culture-loaded contents, including verbal and nonverbal messages). You may need to provide
transcripts or brief descriptions. You are expected to critically analyse the issue from the point of view of
intercultural communication.

2 Ethical Business Management

?According The Fall of Anglo Irish Bank , describes an ethical issue from this source.
?Analyse/critique this case by applying virtue ethics theories arguing both the claims and the criticisms of your chosen theory in relation to the case.
The report needs to contain an introduction that identifies the problem of the case and introduces the ethical theory you will use. It also needs a conclusion explaining what you have achieved in the report.

Assessment 1 – Individual Essay (2000 words, 40%)
? According The Fall of Anglo Irish Bank , describes an ethical issue from this source.
? Analyse/critique this case by applying virtue ethics theories arguing both the claims and the criticisms of your chosen theory in relation to the case.
? Your report needs to contain an introduction that identifies the problem of the case and introduces the ethical theory you will use. It also needs a conclusion explaining what you have achieved in the report.
? 2000 words .
? Students are required to provide secondary support and analysis in their discussion. Students must refer, in text, to a minimum of 10 academic articles apart from the prescribed text.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to demonstrate, in the appropriate context, the ability to:
a. Formulate a practical framework for ethical decision making
b. Critically reflect on and communicate the ethical issues inherent in changing business environments
c. Apply ethical principles to particular cases or practices in business
d. Evaluate and communicate the major approaches and issues relating to business ethics, corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability
e. Analyse and express the presuppositions of business from a moral point of view
f. Appraise and apply the techniques of moral reasoning and argumentation that are needed to analyse moral issues in business and thus encourage and maintain ethical corporate climates.
LEARNING RESOURCES
To successfully complete assessment tasks students will need to read widely and actively engage with available resources – the evidence of both must be in written and oral work.
Prescribed text: (Students are expected to have access the text as required)
Shaw, W.H., Barry, V., Issa, T. and Catley, T. 2013. Moral Issues in Business. 2nd Asia Pacific edition. Melbourne: Cengage
Students are expected to review readings on SharePoint associated with the lectures.
Recommended Reading
• Ciulla, J.B., Martin, C., Solomon, R.C. (2007), Honest Work : A Business Ethics Reader, New York, Oxford University Press
• Clegg, S.R., and Rhodes, C. (2006), Management Ethics: Contemporary Contexts, London, New York, Routledge
• Beauchamp, T.L., and Bowie, N.E. (2005), Ethical Theory and Business 7th Edition; USA, Prentice Hall
Other Reference Texts
• Goree, K. (2007, Ethics in the Workplace, Mason, Ohio, Thomson/South-Western
• Boatright, J.R. (2007), Ethics and the Conduct of Business, Upper Saddle River NJ, USA, Pearson Prentice Hall
• Shaw. W.H., Barry, V. (2007), Moral Issues in Business, Belmont CA, Thomson/Wadsworth
• Pratley, Peter (1995) The essence of business ethics tourism, Prentice Hall, UK
• Cleek, M. A. and Leonard, S. L. (1998) Can corporate codes of ethics influence behaviour? Journal of Business Ethics, Vol.17 6, 619.
• Longstaff, Simon. (2000) Hard Cases, Tough Choices – Exploring the Ethical Landscape of Business, St James Ethics Centre in Sydney.
• McMillan, J. H. (2003) Educational research: Fundamentals for the consumer. 4th Edition, New York, Harper Collins.
• Vallen, G. and Casado, M. (2000) Ethical Principles for the Hospitality Curriculum, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol.41 (2) 44 – 57.

The virtue ethics case:
The Fall of Anglo Irish Bank
December 11th, 2014 by Kara in Case Studies
By: Will Chu

In 1986, Sean FitzPatrick became chief executive of a small Irish commercial lender known as the City of Dublin Bank. Over the course of the next 18 years, FitzPatrick oversaw the growth of the City of Dublin bank into the 3rd largest bank in Ireland. By May 2007 the bank, now known as the Anglo Irish Bank, reached a peak value of €13 billion with a share price of €17.60.
Little over a year later, in December 2008, FitzPatrick stunned the financial world by announcing his resignation as chairman of the Anglo Irish Bank. The revelation that FitzPatrick had hidden over €87 million in loans he had made to himself capped off a tumultuous series of months that had seen the Bank’s value drop from a high of €13 billion to a low of €242 million. In the coming days, several more directors resigned over loan irregularities that threatened the financial integrity of the bank.
On 15 January 2009, the Irish government announced that it would nationalize the beleaguered bank. What went wrong? This case study will attempt to examine the ethical failings by senior executives that led to the collapse of the Anglo Irish Bank and continue to plague it to this day.

The Players
• Anglo Irish Bank: An Irish bank headquartered in Dublin, the Anglo Irish bank was involved mainly in business and commercial banking. The bank was heavily exposed to property lending and was severely affected by global downturn in housing markets in 2007-2008.
• Sean FitzPatrick: Was chief executive of the Anglo Irish Bank from 1986-2005 and oversaw its growth from a small city bank to national force. In 2005 he appointed a new chief executive, David Drumm, and became chairman of the Anglo Irish.
• Irish Nationwide Building Society: A prominent Irish financial services company. It was later revealed that Sean FitzPatrick and other Anglo Irish board directors were hiding loans by temporarily transferring them to Irish Nationwide Building Society.
• John Bowe: A senior Anglo Irish executive. Bowe was a part of the negotiating team that worked on the terms of a bailout deal before it was determined that the Anglo Irish bank was to be nationalized.

Background
From 1995 to 2006 the Celtic Tiger economy of Ireland experienced substantial growth. Weak regulations and lax supervision allowed Irish banks to borrow heavily in the international money market. Most of these borrowings were in turn loaned to Irish property developers, creating a boom in the Irish property market. Consequently, Ireland was heavily impacted by the global financial crisis of 2007. The freezing up of international money markets made it impossible for Irish banks to continue borrowing at the luxurious rates they had enjoyed before. Without the ability to borrow money, Irish banks were unable to continue making property loans, causing a collapse of the property market. Falling prices in the property market meant the assets of Irish banks were now considerably lower than their liabilities, creating a banking crisis.
With the solvency of the Irish banking system threatened, the Irish government moved quickly to inject capital in the banks to keep them afloat. In September 2008, the Irish government made guarantees to several of the largest Irish banks, Anglo Irish included. Indeed, recapitalization would be carried out at the two largest Irish banks: the Allied Irish Bank and the Bank of Ireland. But at the Anglo Irish Bank, the revelation of a major loan scandal meant that would throw a wrench into the government’s recapitalization plan.
Like the other major Irish banks, Anglo Irish was hard hit by the downturn in the property market. But the problems at Anglo Irish were much more complicated. From 2000 to 2008, Sean FitzPatrick used Anglo Irish funds to make massive loans to himself. These personal loans were hidden from the public and from regulators by moving the loans temporarily to another bank to avoid an end of year audit.
The Irish banking crisis unexpectedly revealed FitzPatrick’s scheme. Faced with increased scrutiny, FitzPatrick was forced to admit he had personally hidden €87 million in loans. After further investigation, it was revealed that although directors were recorded as having €41 million in personal loans from Anglo Irish, the true figure was €150 million.
Ethical Failings of FitzPatrick
Immediately after FitzPatrick’s resignation, the legality of his actions was called into question. FitzPatrick and Anglo Irish continue to state that the loans were legal and did not represent a violation of Irish banking regulations. Still even if FitzPatrick did not violate the law, he clearly failed to act in a virtuous and ethical manner.
Virtue ethics focuses on the character of the moral actor. A person is considered ethical if his actions reflect positive character traits and moral motivations. By examining the character traits of integrity, trust, fairness, self-control, and humility, clearly, FitzPatrick did not act virtuously while heading the Anglo Irish:
Integrity: The act of loaning himself €87 million seems a questionable moral act, but FitzPatrick’s decision to hide the loans shows a lack of integrity. Instead he purposefully misled the public and his own employees of the Anglo Irish bank.
Trust: FitzPatrick broke the trust of investors and other Anglo Irish directors continuously from 2000 to 2008 by hiding the loans. Although he never denied the existence of the loans once they were uncovered, his failure to properly disclose the loans showed the he acted in less than truthful manner. Consequently, he deceived the general public into thinking Anglo Irish was more financially sound than it really was.
Fairness: FitzPatrick’s actions were not fair to the investors of Anglo Irish. If investors had known the chairman of Anglo Irish was making massive and risky loans to himself, they could have acted on the information. By faking Anglo Irish loan records, FitzPatrick created market distortions that affected the bank’s share price.
Self Control: FitzPatrick failed to exercise proper self-control. The large loans he made to himself show he was motivated by greed and perhaps had grossly over estimated his own financial prowess. If FitzPatrick had proper self-control he would not have made these massive loans or at least would have properly reported them.
Humility: Even after FitzPatrick’s loans were revealed, he failed to act with humility. Instead he continued to insist Anglo Irish’s problems were the result of global circumstances out of his control and refused to apologize to the Irish public who in the coming days would be forced to foot the bill for his mistakes.
Fallout
After Sean FitzPatrick’s resignation, several more Anglo Irish directors would resign over controversial personal loans. These included:
Chief Executive David Drumm to whom the Anglo Irish made an €8m loan
Chief Risk Officer Willie McAteer to whom the the bank also made an €8m loan
Managing Director Pat Whelan who was discovered to owe the Anglo Irish €5.8m in personal loans.
The resignations and the revelation of additional hidden loans sparked outrage among the Irish public. Despite accusations of fraud, the lax nature of the Irish regulatory state made it unclear whether any crime was committed and consequently, no arrests were immediately made.
Meanwhile it was revealed Sean FitzPatrick and the other directors of the Anglo Irish had used these personal loans to

Business Management