Business Ethics And Cross Cultural Management Commerce Essay

Business Ethics And Cross Cultural Management Commerce Essay Ethics, or more accurately, the lack of ethics, on the part of business and government leaders has lately received significant attention in the mass media and has been a topic of discussion among the public, as well as the different organizations in the world (Peppas 2002). Business ethics has gained the attention of many scholars and executives in both private and public sectors because of many unethical practices that are being reported. This includes the cases of large multinational organizations including Enron (Rashid & Ibrahim 2007). This is the reason why many studies about cultural differences and business ethics have been implemented in the past years. This literature review is conducted in order to analyze and evaluate the arguments regarding the different aspects that are related with business ethics and differences in cultures. Implications of Business Ethics The concept about ethics is considered as a complex matter because it is predicated on an interchange of views re garding the belief systems of individual among the citizens of any culture (Svensson & Wood 2003). The study of business ethics and its connection for the stakeholders of organizations have experienced fast growth in the past few decades. The literature about business ethics is divided on its views regarding the motivation and the cause for organizations to have their ethical dimension. The study of Harrison (2001) showed that there are two main schools of thoughts – first are those who suggest that firms are operating in order to generate profit, therefore, business ethics is considered as another means of attracting the customers, while the second are those who supported some corporate conscience as well as inherent motivation for the implementation of business ethics. On the other hand, Paul (2001) considered business ethics are very subjective in nature because it is a function of time and culture – therefore, the business ethics have changed, together with the cul tural values and norms motivated the business ethics in the national and regional boundaries. The study of Hofstede (1983) is considered as one of the most important studies which show the differences of countries or nations in terms of cultures and values. The study showed that there are 4 vital indicators which include individualism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity which shows great differences in the culture among different nations. The study of Vinten (1991) divided the issues of business ethics in different degree, which include international business, domestic business and professional ethics. Each level constitute for different level of some unethical activities perform by organizations and businesses. Even though, there are many studies which show importance of ethics, and even though it is being followed by different organizations, there are still many reasons and disapproval of adoption of ethics in the world of business. This is connected to the stud y of Stemberg (1994) which focuses on the case of rejected relativism. It stated that ethics is seen as excessively theoretical, at the same time, contradict the primary reason of any business and it is also lacking of direction in terms of harmony across the different cultures. Â   Business Ethics and Cultural Differences