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1Confidential. All trademarks appearing herein belong to their respective owners.

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of EthicalAttitudes of Business Managers: India

Korea and the United States(P. Maria Joseph Christie, Ik-Whan G. Kwon, Philipp A.

Stoeberl, Raymond Baumhart)Journal of Business Ethics (2003), Vol. 46, p263-287

Presented by:

Deepak A.

Pratyush B.

Ranajee

(Batch-II, 2008-11)

IIMT, Hyderabad


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Objective of the study

XAn empirical research to study the impact of culture on theethical attitudes of business managers in India, Korea and

the United States.


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Rationale for the study

XGlobalization of business

XDescriptive nature of past studies

XCulture as an independent variable


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Literature Review

XCulture: the shared ideas and meanings about what life is and what life

should be. It sets standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating and

acting. (Goodenough, 1970).

XValues

criteria for determining what is good and bad, for choosing between

available alternatives

XAttitudes Attitudes are learned predispositions and not inherited. (Manstead,

1995)


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Literature Review

XCulture and business-ethical attitudes: Business ethics is the application of ethical principles

XCross-cultural studies in business ethics:

XSeveral studies did not support the hypothesis.

(Abratt etal., 1992; Lysonskiand Gaidis, 1991; Preble and Reichel,

1988; Whipple and Swords, 1992)


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Hypothesis

XHypothesis 1: There are differences in the ethicalattitudesamongbusiness managers in the United States, Indiaand

Korea.

XHypothesis 2: There is arelationship between Hofstedesculturaldimensions and one's ethicalattitude.More

specifically,

2-A:The business managers in countries with a high individualism

score tend to lookatbusiness practices such as gift-giving,

nepotism, software piracy, sharing insiderinformation as moreunethical than the business managers in countries with a high

collectivism score.


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Hypothesis

XHypothesis 2(continued): 2-B:The business managers in countries with a high powerdistance

score take superiors orders, whetherethicalorunethical, more

seriously(that is, theyare less likely to challenge directives) than the

business managers in countries with alow powerdistance score.

2-C:The business managers in countries with a high score in

uncertaintyavoidance focus more on legality than ethicality of

actions.They tend to perceive business practices which are done'

legally', such as the export of harmfulproducts, marketing of

products thatare injurious to health, and firing of olderemployees,as less unethical than the business managers from countries with a

low score in uncertaintyavoidance.


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Hypothesis

XHypothesis 2(continued): 2-D:The business managers in countries with a high masculinity

score are less likely to perceive ethicalproblems in practices such

as firing olderemployees, dishonesty in advertising, damage to the

environment, andmarketing products thatare injurious to health

than the business managers in countries with high femininity scores.

2-E:The business managers in short-term oriented countries may

perceive practices such as profitingat the expense of damage to the

environmentas less unethical than the business managers in long-

term oriented countries. Gift-givingmaybe perceivedas lessunethicalbylong-term oriented countries than by short-term oriented

countries.


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Hypothesis

XHypothesis 3:There is arelationship between respondents ethical

attitudes and theirpersonal characteristics (culture, gender,

age, religion, and functionalareas of work) and

organiz

ation

aland industry f

actors (org

aniz

ation

alsize

and

levelof competition).


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Research Methodology

XUnit of analysis: Culture or nationXChoice of Nations:

Significant cultural differences between US, India, and South Korea

Parameter US India South Korea

Individualism

vs. CollectivismIndividualistic Collectivist Collectivist

Power Distance Relatively less Relatively less More

Masculinity Masculine Masculine Feminine

Long-term or

Short-term

Orientation

Short-term

oriented

Long-term

oriented

Long-term

oriented


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Independent variables

a) Personal characteristics and organizational Factors:Gender, Age, Religion, Functional Area of work, Organization size,

Nationality, and Level of competition.

b) Hofstede's cultural dimensions:

Individualism, Power distance, Masculinity, Uncertainty avoidance,

Long-term orientation


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Dependent variable

a) Respondents' attitudes toward twelve questionablebusiness practice:

opinion about each of the 12 questionable business practices

b) Respondents' attitudes toward business ethics in general:by asking their opinion on 7 statements

c) Factors influencing business managers to make unethical

decisions:

Nine important Factors


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Results

XH1 True: The ethical attitudes of business managers towardthe listed questionable business practices are not similar

across cultures.

XH2-A True: United States view these practices as more

unethical than the business managers in India and Korea.XH2-B True:Americans consider questionable business

practices to be significantly more unethical than Indians and

Koreans.

XH2-C True: India and Korea consider the practice of injury to

the environment to be more unethical than the United

States, which is a relatively more masculine country.

But, on the practice of export of unsafe products, it is

considered unethical among any of the countries.


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Results

XH3 True: There are significant differences in therespondents' general attitude toward business ethics across

two factors, culture and personal integrity; Gender has a

marginal effect on general attitude.

There are significant differences in the respondents'attitudes toward the listed questionable business practices

across these factors: culture, gender, the external

environment, and marginally, age, Functional work areas,

and personal integrity.


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Conclusions

XCulture has a strong influence on business managers'attitudes

XBusiness managers general attitudes toward business

ethics are related to their personal integrity; externalenvironment and gender.

XStrong relationship between cultural dimensions of

individualism and power distance and ethical attitudes ofbusiness managers toward certain questionable business

practices.


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Limitations

XMatched SamplesXSelf serving bias

XThe number of cultures surveyed is inadequate

XAnalysis of relationship could not be carried out on a few

dimensions (e.g., long-term orientation and uncertainty avoidance)because of a lack of notable differences in cultural indices

among countries surveyed


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Thank you

Presented by:

Deepak Agrawal

Pratyush Banerjee

Ranajee

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