Business Ethics & Management in a Global Context

The obligation of corporate decisions to be legal sometimes confronts with the fairness of the outcome. The law, therefore, is not the only paradigm against which corporate decisions have to measure their justice. The corporate culture, the overall context and the set of values in which facts and decisions appear strongly influence the fairness of the final outcome.

In today's global environment, the appreciation of ethical behaviors embraces a multiplicity of variables fostering different and often contradictory values. Evaluation of what is and what might not be ethical will thus take into account cultural values of the people and the affected territories, degree of wanted or expected interventionism on the situation affected by the business ethics problem and the perceived dominant position by any of the parties involved in the process.

North American and European perspectives on different matters will illustrate how companies will also export value models often conflicting with those values shaping ethical accepted behaviors in non first world nations.

Approximation of perspectives requires a thorough understanding of the key variables explaining primary behaviors. Religion and its approach to wealth, cultural models and development trends and stages are tools to shrink ethical conflicts by virtue of a mutual acknowledgement of values. In that regard, a mutually beneficial business relationship will also be used as one of the main ways to encourage a broader understanding of what is and what is not ethical in a business situation.