Business_Ethics

Business Ethics In Donaldson’s Values in Tension: Ethics Away From Home, he describes a policy that was standard at home, but unsuccessful elsewhere. In one example, the manager of a U.S. company in China caught one of the employees stealing. By following the company’s practice and turning the employee over to the authorities, which was the right thing to do according to our values. The employee was executed because he was judged based on China’s political, legal, and ethical codes, while to us (Americans) the punishment did not fit the crime. While many cultures believe in some variation of “The Golden Rule”, there really is no detailed international standard of business conduct. U.S. firms should, at the very least establish company policies that take into consideration the principles of different cultures. There is clearly a balancing act to develop policies that define the ethics of the corporation, while understanding that codes of conduct vary greatly around the world. Firms like Levi Strauss and Motorola, not only define their policies, they understand that their managers must be able to adapt to a great deal of moral uncertainty in international assignments. Many business practices are neither black nor white but exist in a gray culture, right, wrong, relativist, moral, ethical, cultures, one, relativism, must, managers, different, codes, because, actions, problems, principles, practices, policies, morality, cultural, conduct, company, companies, cannot, business, belief, argues, approach, another, action, absolute, while, vary, values