Business Ethics Across the World

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Business Ethics across the World

Have you ever measured that how different countries become closer to one another and it has produced alike views for countries that do business together due to globalization?

Through the growth of globalization several ethical issues are getting exposure according to management teams. You can imagine if ethic is dilemma within the country then how about the issues that occur due to foreign language, diverse cultures and number of people involved grows to a global scale. This paper will identify ethical perspectives of two countries, India and China, and how these two articles contribute to understanding global ethics. It will also explain how china’s and India’s business ethics compare to the United States.

In journal of business ethics (2009), article “A Chinese perspective: Business Ethics in China Now and in the Future”, describes that China has been at the forefront of growing concern, not only about its products and enterprises, but also about its business ethics. This article analyzes the state of ethics in business in China. China now manufactures or assembles over 50% of the world’s products. However, the world has been reeling from daily accounts of defective “Made in China” products. China has been at the forefront of growing concern, not only about its products and enterprises, but also about its business ethics. This article analyzes recent events connected with the Made in China label from the perspective of evolving Chinese business ethics. The emergence and development of business ethics in China can be divided into two periods relative to China’s entry into the WTO. Unlike the rise of business ethics in the USA, the emergence of business ethics in China was never seen as an oxymoron. Chinese traditional ethics, Marxist ethics, and business ethics from the West, alike emphasize the moral dimension of economic activity. Although business ethics in China has expanded from being nothing to being a discipline, from the domain of scholars to that of market agents, the field still faces many challenges and must develop if it has to satisfy the public. In addition to food safety concerns, some additional incidents also reflect problems of quality. Apart from product and service quality problems, China has more serious issues connected with corruption, labor rights, distributive justice, and so on. The government is trying to solve these issues through institutional and administrative means, issuing anti corruption rules and the new Labor Contract Law, strengthening the inspection and surveillance of safety and quality, and so on. I think, though, that these problems should be considered at a deeper level. Business ethics in China has the responsibility to meet challenges in their new form and to offer insights into how to address them.

The other article written by Margret Steen, “ Business Ethics in a Global World: India’s Changing Ethics”. This article reviews an address to the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics by Jagdish Sheth who is the executive director of the Indian, China, and America Institute and professor of marketing at Emory University” (Steen, 2007). He explained that India’s business practices are very different and unique.

He believed that these exclusive business tactics can encourage the ethical behavior of the popular western viewpoint. Some of these exclusive business tactics consist of corporate societal accountability, favoritism, clanship, and friendship. (Steen, 2007)

Sheth thought that the collapse of Communism was a main issue in the shift from the earlier 20th century business ethics to the current 21st business model. He argues that some countries that used to be communistic countries are now some of the greatest run capitalistic countries, like India and China. An additional driving factor is the wealthy nations that are aging and traditional industries do not produce as many jobs today as they did in the past. “The next issue in shifting nations is that people in positions of authority have exposed that economics plays a very important role in elections. The last major factor that has assisted shift business ethics into the 21st century is that the revolution of information technology has really leveled the playing field for all economies” (Steen, 2007).

Sheth discussed in this article about China and India that they are on the edge of innovative economies and not just about the locations of low end jobs. He believes that if this ------take place, the shift will eventually redefine business procedures. India’s business methods are exclusive and might even be compatible with western business tactics someday, but because India believes that favoritism, clanship and friendship are significant in business, western business ethics consider this to be a conflict of interests. Friendships, which can be school, personal, or even multigenerational family friendships, are all highly valued in India. (Steen, 2007)

As we have observed from a analysis of the two articles, the business ethics of India and China are much different than that of the business ethics of The United States. China understands now that economics are a important part of elections and in the second article, Sheth defined that the motive that George Bush Sr. lost his re-election bid was due to the irresolute economy. Sheth also explained that the reason that he believes the 20th century will be measured the “Asian century” is because the Asian culture puts a “premium” on friendship, clanship, and favors where in American ethics, this would be a big conflict of interests. (Steen, 2007) He stated that Western business has their own version such as “Procurement departments in U.S. companies are more likely to buy from the company’s customers.” (Steen, 2007)

Sheth believed that nations are shifting to focusing on stakeholders rather than focusing on shareholders. In the future, Sheth believes that “ethics will be anchored to the idea of business as a profession, similar to the way the field of medicine is now. And he said there will be global standards of governance, but their application will be adapted to local conditions.” (Steen, 2007)

India and China are at the top in the 20th century for globalization.

Some believe that the 19th “American Century” has finally come to an end. Through globalization, China and India have discovered that business ethics are an ever changing environment and management teams within these countries have developed an ethical program that allows them the ability to work ethical together. Even though there are major boundaries such as foreign languages, diverse cultures, and a growing number of people involved, they have been able to overcome them all in order to work together. In this paper we talked about two articles from Santa Clara University that discussed the business ethics of India and China and how their business ethics compare to that of the United States of America.

References

Schulman, M. (2006, March). Business Ethics in China. Retrieved from Santa Clara University: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/ethicalperspectives/business-china.html

Steen, M. (2007, March). Business Ethics in a Global World: India's Changing Ethics. Retrieved from Santa Clara University: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/conference/2007/presentations/sheth.html