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7 Mar 2008
Is what you consider a bribe what your international partners consider a necessary investment? Do your international managers follow consistent standards of ethical behavior across national borders or do they follow the maxim: “When in Rome, do as the Romans”?
Consider the implications of “When Does National Identity Matter? --Convergence and Divergence in International Business Ethics” by Wendy Bailey and Andrew Spicer in the Academy of Management Journal (www.aom.pace.edu/amjnew/). The two academics’ dense but award-winning earlier work with Tom Dunfee about how location and culture affect what U.S. and Russian business executives working domestically and in Russia will do when faced with different ethical dilemmas is underscored by this survey of business students. Their newest findings contain a cautionary tale for multi-national corporations and all doing business in the emerging global economy. (See,“Does National Context Matter in Ethical Decision Making?: An Empirical Test of Integrative Social Contracts Theory.” http://aom.pace.edu/amjnew/unassigned/spicer.pdf)