Ethics and International Management
Abstract
To keep up with the ever-changing and fast-paced competitive market, firms undertake international ventures in order to increase competitive advantage. Thus, multinational managers are used to carry out the company’s business objectives overseas. Therefore, a multinational manager will have different tasks and handle different situations that a local manager would not have to tackle.
For multinational managers, the main factors that determine their management objectives and procedures are culture and social institutions. Culture is important as every country has a distinctly different beliefs, values and attitudes. Social Institutions play an equally important role in influencing behaviour as it performs the role of moderator in the business environment.
Ethical behaviour, thus, has become an integral issue in international management today. As seen in the behaviour of Nike in Southeast Asia, they came under negative criticism by several international regulatory bodies for being oppurtunistic. Thus, ethical behaviour is an important issue, which is greatly influenced by culture and social institutions, which multinational managers consider always at present times.
Introduction
In today’s ever-changing and fast-paced business environment, companies have started focusing their organizational efforts and resources overseas in order to gain competitive advantage over rival firms. These firms are aptly called Multinational Corporations or MNCs. Examples of which are MNCs such as Dell Computer, IBM and BP Amoco PLC to name but a few (Hodgetts and Luthans, 2003). To illustrate the tremendous growth of MNCs, a recent study showed that of the 100 “largest economies” in the world, 53 are MNCs, whilst remaining 47 are nation states (Carroll, 2004).
As the focus of the company shifts to the global environment, managers would have to play a vital and immensely important role in the facilitation of its core values and business objectives
To keep up with the ever-changing and fast-paced competitive market, firms undertake international ventures in order to increase competitive advantage. Thus, multinational managers are used to carry out the company’s business objectives overseas. Therefore, a multinational manager will have different tasks and handle different situations that a local manager would not have to tackle.
For multinational managers, the main factors that determine their management objectives and procedures are culture and social institutions. Culture is important as every country has a distinctly different beliefs, values and attitudes. Social Institutions play an equally important role in influencing behaviour as it performs the role of moderator in the business environment.
Ethical behaviour, thus, has become an integral issue in international management today. As seen in the behaviour of Nike in Southeast Asia, they came under negative criticism by several international regulatory bodies for being oppurtunistic. Thus, ethical behaviour is an important issue, which is greatly influenced by culture and social institutions, which multinational managers consider always at present times.
Introduction
In today’s ever-changing and fast-paced business environment, companies have started focusing their organizational efforts and resources overseas in order to gain competitive advantage over rival firms. These firms are aptly called Multinational Corporations or MNCs. Examples of which are MNCs such as Dell Computer, IBM and BP Amoco PLC to name but a few (Hodgetts and Luthans, 2003). To illustrate the tremendous growth of MNCs, a recent study showed that of the 100 “largest economies” in the world, 53 are MNCs, whilst remaining 47 are nation states (Carroll, 2004).
As the focus of the company shifts to the global environment, managers would have to play a vital and immensely important role in the facilitation of its core values and business objectives