Leading Management

Activity 4.1

When the company internationalizes, the company must understand and evaluate the culture of people with whom it wishes to do business and negotiation. The culture differences will influence decisions making by leaders. Sometimes, we have only got limited guidance on the culture so that we make unethical decisions. Gift giving in China is considered as respectful for the other side and is a signal that business relationship starts to build. On the contrary, in some countries this decision may be unethical. So the company has to review the cultural factors before making decisions; tries to spell out the cultural nature of foreign nations and make ethical decisions.

When the business operates internationally, the company must be faced with ethical complexities and challenges. Especially, the company pays a low price for the right to remove the natural resources, and then use them to produce products in order to gain profits. Another issue is that the company employs local labors with low labor costs to create great amount of profits while local labors only get lower wages than employees in its host country. Decisions of extending overseas markets made by the company are related to ethical issues which are debated by host countries.

In brief, ethics in the global corporate community will become an inherent part of business and management practices. Rather than standing as a preemptive barrier to the conduct of business activity, ethics will become part of the very context within which decisions are made and actions are taken. Ethics will be a key measure in economic, political, and social forecasting; it will inform critical corporate decisions and it will enhance complex problem solving. In addition, the global businessperson must not only understand the values, culture, and ethical standards of his or her own country but also be sensitive to those of other countries.

Activity