Sustainable Management Futures
Read the following extract from Business Ethics and Values by Fisher, Lovell, and Valero-Silva (2013:414):
Societies and countries may differ in their business ethics and values. Any differences may be internal to societies or countries or between them. Different countries may have, in high ethics established within their religion, philosophical traditions an literature, different ideals about the conduct of business and organisational life. Cultural tradition in one place might see business growth and profitability as an end in itself; in other place economic ends might be seen as subordinate to other goals. Within a country or society there may be competing sets of values concerning business and management. Within Muslim countries, for example, there may be differences between modernizers, who want to work to the values of global business, and traditionalists, who may wish to apply Islamic values to business practices. Even if countries and societies share the same values they may vary in the degree with which they practise them. While two countries might, at a formal level, regard bribery as immoral, one country might conduct its business in line with this standard but the second country might not.
There may be differences with a country and society between the values embodies in its high traditions and those values adopted in everyday life.
Task:
Using the business and managerial values in different countries and societies outlined in Fisher, Lovell, and Valero-Silva (2013:417- 428) evaluate using appropriate examples, how the ethics and values in different countries can be reconciled when doing business with each other.