© Copyright Acquisition International 2025 - All Rights Reserved.

Article Image - Executive Management and Corruption – How to Protect Yourself and Your Business
Posted 30th August 2022

Executive Management and Corruption – How to Protect Yourself and Your Business

Executive management is a challenging and highly skilled field, that requires a high calibre of candidates whatever the industry. The ascent to executive management is a difficult one, but one rewarded with trust, responsibility, and longevity in a lucrative and engaging career path.

Mouse Scroll AnimationScroll to keep reading

Let us help promote your business to a wider following.

Executive Management and Corruption – How to Protect Yourself and Your Business
Executive meeting

Executive management is a challenging and highly skilled field, that requires a high calibre of candidates whatever the industry. The ascent to executive management is a difficult one, but one rewarded with trust, responsibility, and longevity in a lucrative and engaging career path.

Executive management is a role with unique pressures, both internal and external; managers must effectively chart a course through unpredictable economic landscapes and ever-shifting business needs. But there is one internal pressure that can be a major cause of stress and anxiety – especially for managers new to the position. That pressure is corruption.

The Prevalence of Corruption

Corruption is a catch-all term for the various ways in which leaders and management figures can act against the wider interests of their industry, business or even staff. Corruption is largely defined in terms of the tangible, material costs it can inflict upon businesses and larger industries.

According to leading anti-corruption organisation Transparency International, over £1.2 billion is lost to corruption and corruption-adjacent behaviour in UK markets. Further to that, over £100 billion of corrupt money flows through the UK economy each year.

But the costs aren’t merely financial. Corruption can have direct implications on the health and longevity of businesses, threatening the employment status of their staff members. The effects of corruption can also serve to undermine progressive endeavours and policy, leading to regressive business development with dramatic consequences for local communities and global initiatives – from environmental concerns to hyper-local socio-economic factors.

Corruption is a wide-ranging practice with wide-ranging consequences. But how exactly can it develop within a business, and by what mechanisms can corruption occur?

Signs and Symptoms

Typically, corruption describes the illegal efforts of individuals to impact a business for personal gain. One of the most common forms of corruption is bribery, in which high-ranking leaders and authority figures are paid money by third parties for special treatment, favours, or inside information.

Leadership figures can also use their position of influence and authority to install third parties in other positions of influence, for personal gain or wider industry influence with the same effect. The term ‘nepotism’ describes when authority figures create opportunities for family members, irrespective of experience or aptitude for a role.

There is also a more naked form of corruption, in the form of embezzlement. Embezzlement is, in essence, the misappropriation of business assets for personal gain. This may be the theft of assets, or the naked taking of company money, followed by attempts to cover tracks with business decisions and accounting ‘tricks’.

Protecting Yourself and Your Business

Corruption is a real and present concern for businesses of any size, and management should remain open to the possibility that corruption could develop within their team at any one time. You should ensure your business’ legal standing is airtight and comprehensive when it comes to in-house corruption, in both ways – not only may you need legal leverage to oust corrupt leaders within your business, but you may also need legal counsel to defend against corruption accusations from other businesses.

An open, transparent approach to anti-corruption policy should be held at all times. Not only can this be reassuring to the staff at all levels, but it can also make it harder for individuals to obscure their methods. A whistleblowing policy should also be instituted to protect staff from coming out about potential corruption.

Categories: Corporate Social Responsibility, Leadership, News


You Might Also Like
Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Blackstone Acquire Office Building in London for $400m
Finance
01/04/2015Blackstone Acquire Office Building in London for $400m

Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest private-equity investor in real estate, agreed to buy an office building in the City of London financial district for $400 million from Land Securities Group Plc.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
The Future of Salon Management: Embracing Technology for Better Results
Innovation
03/03/2023The Future of Salon Management: Embracing Technology for Better Results

Salon management has changed drastically in the past few decades. From the adoption of modern technologies to more efficient operational systems, salons have made significant strides in improving their services.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Creating Space for Modern Business
Innovation
08/10/2021Creating Space for Modern Business

Kofisi’s work in flexible and highly tailorable office spaces has made it a household name across Africa. It has pulled far ahead of its competition through bespoke interior design, empathic understanding of contemporary work life, and keeping itself flexibl

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Does Your Business Need a Criminal Lawyer? 4 Ways Criminal Lawyers Work With the Corporate World
Leadership
04/11/2022Does Your Business Need a Criminal Lawyer? 4 Ways Criminal Lawyers Work With the Corporate World

If you run a business, you might assume that your legal requirements will be met by a corporate lawyer, with this type of expert helping to oversee things like contracts, employee disputes, compliance and so forth.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
What works best: HTML email marketing or plain text?
News
15/06/2022What works best: HTML email marketing or plain text?

Email marketing is a powerful tool to reach more people, increase engagement, and generate more leads. There are two ways to send an email to your marketing list, one is to spruce it up using HTML and the other is to keep is simple with plain text. Which one w

Read IssueRead - Eye Icon
Issue 9 2023
Issues
04/09/2023Issue 9 2023

September has come back around, where our children are going back to school and summer draws to a close. I hope you have all had a great summer and are feeling rejuvenated and ready to take on the final quarter of the year. We’re excited about what the remai

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Distinguished in Dispute Resolution 2016 – Australia
Legal
31/07/2016Distinguished in Dispute Resolution 2016 – Australia

I am a barrister, mediator and arbitrator. As a barrister, I appear in courts and tribunals in Australia and elsewhere. I am qualified to appear in Australia, England and Wales and New York.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Tesco Mobile Reveals New Brand Identity
Strategy
07/09/2020Tesco Mobile Reveals New Brand Identity

Tesco Mobile has revealed today a brand redesign to revitalise the brand expression and to align it more closely with the wider Tesco family. The UK mobile network’s new brand look and feel includes a refreshed logo and the use of bold brand colours and ener

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Anne Boden is Ready to Shake Up Retail Banking in the UK
Finance
14/04/2015Anne Boden is Ready to Shake Up Retail Banking in the UK

Having worked in the banking world since the 1980s, Anne Boden has seen a lot of changes - but also a lot that has stayed the same.



Our Trusted Brands

Acquisition International is a flagship brand of AI Global Media. AI Global Media is a B2B enterprise and are committed to creating engaging content allowing businesses to market their services to a larger global audience. We have 14 unique brands, each of which serves a specific industry or region. Each brand covers the latest news in its sector and publishes a digital magazine and newsletter which is read by a global audience.

Arrow