CROSS CULTURE ETHICS

Ethics
Morality
Moral Behavior
Rational justification

Ethics: The disciplined study of the rational

justification of moral principle and moral behavior

Components of ethics

Morality

Criteria of judging right and

wrong, good and evil

Moral
behavior

Human behavior towards

any situation and its moral
judgment

Rational
Justification

Justification of a matter from

different point of view in a
deliberate way

Culture: The set of society and custom

Set of custom, belief, ideology that is followed by a

group of people
Traditional point of view that is followed by a
community

Elements of culture

Value

Criteria for judging right and wrong

Norm

Rule of guideline that says how to

behave in a particular situation

Symbol
Language
Knowledge

Gesture and different sign that

express a particular meaning
Verbal and written symbols that can be
used for communication with
Body facts and practical skills that
people accumulate over time

Cultural diversity: The combination of culture

Right and
wrong

Different
Rituals

Different type
of people

Different
Understanding

Different
society

Different
customs

Different
Beliefs
Different
Religion

IMPORTANCE
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INTERNATIONAL SPORTS OLYMPICS
WORLD WIDE WEB SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
SENSTIVITY TO TIME
Germans are well known for punctuality.
Africans, South Americans and India treat scheduled
appointments as general guidelines.
Americans consider time as money so they make
deals quickly.
Japanese invest time in negotiations for relationship
building so make deals at a slow pace.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
For example, in one case that received significant media
attention in the mid-1990s, a long-term electricity supply
contract between an ENRON subsidiary, the Dabhol
Power Company, and the Maharashtra state government
in India, was subject to significant challenge and was
ultimately cancelled. Indian public automatically assumed
that the government had failed to protect the public
interest because the negotiations were so quick. In the
companys defence, Rebecca Mark, chairman and CEO of
Enron International, pointed out to the press: We were
extremely concerned with time, because time is money for
us.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
COMMUNICATION DIRECT OR INDIRECT
Forms of speech, facial expressions, gestures and body
language.
Americans and Israelis values directness.
Japanese and Africans rely on indirect
communication.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
For Example, In the Camp David negotiations that led
to a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, the Israeli
preference for direct forms of communication and the
Egyptian tendency to favour indirect forms sometimes
exacerbated relations between the two sides. The
Egyptians
interpreted
Israeli
directness
as
aggressiveness and, therefore, an insult. The Israelis
viewed Egyptian indirectness with impatience and
suspected them of insincerity, of not saying what they
meant.

RISK TAKING: HIGH OR LOW?

Japanese are risk averse .
Japanese are known to be requiring large amount of
information and their intricate group decision-making
process.
Americans, French, British, Indians are risk takers.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
PERSONAL STYLE: INFORMAL OR FORMAL?
Formal Style
addressing counterparts by their title.
refrain from touching private or family life.
Informal Style
Starts discussion on first name basis.
Quickly develops personal, friendly relationship.
May take of jacket and roll up sleeves.
Germans are known to be more formal than Americans.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
BUILDING AGREEMENT: INDUCTIVE OR
DEDUCTIVE?
Inductive (Top Down)
Starts from an agreement on general principles and
proceed to specific items.
Deductive (Bottom Up)
Begins with an agreement on specifics, such as price,
delivery date, and product quality, the sum total of
which becomes the contract.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
French prefer to begin with agreement on general

principles (Inductive Process).

Americans tend to seek agreement first on specifics
(Deductive Process).
French, Argentineans and Indians agree on basic
principles that will guide and determine the
negotiation process afterward (Inductive Process).

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
TEAM ORGANIZATION: ONE LEADER OR
GROUP CONSENSUS?
Americans tend to negotiate with a supreme leader
who has complete authority to decide all matters.
French, Japanese and the Chinese, stress team
negotiation and consensus decision making.

SOME MORE CULTURAL ASPECTS

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