A cross-cultural study of the ethical standards of business students.

Abstract

This applied research paper attempts to approach the realm of business ethics from a cross-cultural and cross-gender perspective. A four country sample of business students from universities in Singapore, United States, South Korea and China was utilised in the survey. gender groups, and lastly specific scenarios are presented. Thus, the business implications of the findings can be arrived at and they are found to reside in three basic areas. First of all, the international business managers can obtain a better understanding of the cross-cultural differences in play in the various countries and be better positioned to make ethics-related business decisions. One main concern would be whether the business decisions they undertake are tailored to the particular ethical climate they are in. The second implication is on the relative competitivenesss of companies from different countries of origin, in a particular market place. In event of a difference in the ethical standard accepted in a country's home and host country, a decision has to be made as to the appropriate ethical standard to adopt for competitive advantage. Finally, there is an implication of the findings on the need for more ethics education in schools. This will help to make the future generations of business leaders more aware of the ethical variations prevalent in different cultures, and equip them with the tools to handle the uncertainties involved. The findings of the survey are as follows. First, a significant difference was found in the ethical standards of respondents from the four countries. A ranking of the means scores of respondents from the various countries shows that the respondents from Singapore and United States are relatively more ethical than those from South Korea and China. Second, female respondents as a whole are found to be more ethically-inclined than male respondents. Last, no significant difference was found in the ethical standards of the gender groups from the various countries. From the above findings, a discussion is carried out with respect to each country in the sample, followed by