The computer is on the dock, it's raining, and you have to pay $100 [bribe] to get it picked up.
WM. C. NORRIS, CONTROL DATA CORP.
Globalization has multiplied the ethical problems facing organizations. Yet business ethics have not yet globalized. While domestic American companies may use general guidelines for appropriate behavior based on federal law and the value structure rooted in the nation's Judeo-Christian heritage, such guidelines are not consistently applicable overseas. Attitudes toward ethics are rooted in culture and business practices. American businesses have a high degree of institutionalized ethics, such as codes of ethics and tax breaks for socially responsible behavior. Swee Hoon Ang found, for example, that, while East Asians tended to be less ethical than their expatriate counterparts from the United States and Britain, it was because they considered deception as amoral and acceptable if it had a positive effect on larger issues such as the company, the extended family, or the state. For an MNC, it is very difficult to jeconcile consistent and acceptable behavior around the world with home-country standards. One question, in fact, is whether they even should be reconciled; it seems that the United States is the driving force to legislate moral business conduct overseas.
The term international business ethics refers to the business conduct or morals of MNCs in their relationships with individuals and entities.23 Such behavior is based largely on the cultural value system and the generally accepted ways of doing business in each country or society, as we have discussed throughout this book. Those norms, in turn, are based on broadly accepted guidelines from religion, philosophy, the professions, and the legal system. Should managers of MNC subsidiaries, then, base their ethical standards on those of the host country or those of the home country-or can the two be reconciled? What is the moral responsibility of expatriates regarding ethical behavior, and how do these issues affect business objectives? How do expatriates simultaneously balance their responsibility to various stakeholders: owners, creditors, consumers, employees, suppliers, governments, and societies? The often conflicting-objectives of host and home governments and societies also must be balanced.
The approach to these dilemmas varies among MNCs from different countries. While the American approach is to treat everyone the same by making moral judgments based on general rules, managers in Japan and Europe tend to make such decisions based on shared values, social ties, and their perception of their obligations.25 According to many U.S. executives, there is little difference in ethical practices among the United States, Canada, and Northern Europe. In fact according to Bruce Smart, former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for Interna-. tional Trade, the highest ethical standards seem to be practiced by the Canadians, British, Australians, and Germans. He says, a kind of noblesse oblige still exists among the business classes in those countries compared with the prevailing attitude among many American managers which condones making it whatever way you can. Another who experienced few problems with ethical practices in Europe is Donald Petersen, former CEO of Ford Motor Compan but he warns us about underdeveloped countries, in particular those under a dictatorship. is-here bribery is generally accepted practice. And in Japan, says Petersen. the idea behind give me the business and I'll give you a gift is simply an accepted part of Japanese culture.
The biggest single problem for MNCs in their attempt to define a corporatewide ethical posture is the great variation of ethical standards around the world. Many practices that are considered unethical or even ifiegal in some countries are accepted ways of doing business in others. More recenth this dilemma has taken on new forms because of the varied understandings of the ethical use of technology around the world, as illustrated in the accompanying E-Biz Box.
U.S. companies are often caught between being placed at a disadvantage by refusing to go along with a country's accepted practices, such as bribery, or being subject to criticism at home for using unethical tactics to get the job done. Large companies that have refused to participate have led the way in taking a moral stand because of their visibility, their potential impact on the local economy, and, after all, their ability to afford such a stance.
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