Cultural Perspectives on Business Ethics

Success or failure in international business depends on your ability to shift your mindset from ethnocentrism towards multiculturalism. Awareness and monitoring of this process can help you remain open to information about your host culture and facilitate your adaptation, either as a company or as an individual.

In addition to observing how behaviors between your culture and theirs compare and contrast, you need to understand the reasons behind their behaviors. When you do, you become less judgmental, more appreciative and more equipped to do business overseas.

Some behavior is obvious, for example, the value your host culture places on punctuality. Some behavior is less obvious, for example, differences in perspectives on business ethics. This, however, although the least obvious, is one of the most important aspects of your host culture that you must understand.

Let me tell you a story. I once worked for an international publisher based in London. Like many multinationals, strict regulations regarding giving and accepting gifts were in place. Any gifts received were to be turned over to the company and used as door prizes for company events, such as dinners and family gatherings.

The manager of the company’s Taiwan branch had received an expensive Rolex watch as a gift from a major buyer. Rather than turning it over, however, she kept it. When confronted by management in London, she explained, “If I were to show up at this buyer’s office not wearing that watch, he’d never buy from me again.” She violated company policy, but was she being ethical?

Business practices can be evaluated based on ethics and legality. Accepting the watch was illegal under company policy, but a necessary part of doing business in Taiwan. As a result, keeping the watch and pleasing the buyer was, in the manager’s eyes, the right thing to do.

What about other practices? Take, for example, gender issues and sexual harassment. How does your culture view the role of women in your workplace? What about your host culture? Consider hiring relatives to occupy key positions. Is this nepotism or is this looking after your primary responsibility – your family?

What’s most important for you to understand is that another culture’s perspectives on business ethics are neither right nor wrong, they are simply different. With a multicultural mindset, you understand that ethics are relative. Conflict over business ethics, therefore, can be managed through thorough understanding of your host culture’s business practices and clear communication in solving your differences.