Nowadays business is one of the most important spheres of our life. Many people are involved in this field of our life, and they all belong to different nations. Each nation has its own traditions and culture. Therefore, there exist many differences among representatives of different countries. That is not a secret that in business there are some ethical rules and norms, which should be followed by everyone, who deals in the business sphere. However, because of cultural differences there is some contradiction of these rules and norms. That is why sometimes there occur conflict situation in connection with such a contradiction. Such situations are especially very frequent nowadays, as in our life we can observe such a thing as globalization. Concerning the sphere of business, it can be stated that in this field we can observe globalization in forming of international markets and multinational corporations. Many companies provide special policies in order to avoid conflicts among representatives of different nations. However, sometimes that is very difficult to take a certain decision, and in such cases there occur different dilemmas. Such a situation was observed after the Second World War, when there was taken a try to create a new international market.
In trying to create the international market, there should have been connected different worlds: capitalist, socialist and traditional ones (Hoffman et al. 46). All these worlds had different traditions, and were represented by different countries. The USA and the Western Europe countries were representatives of the capitalist world, at the same time, when the USSR was a representative of the socialist world, and Japan was a representative of the world of traditions. All these countries suggested their own systems, and all these systems were different. There were some issues that became a drawback for reaching an agreement and that created dilemmas. For example, the representatives of the socialist world hade an idea, that the capitalism was based on egoism, competition, and the lack of a conscious coordination mechanism (Hoffman et al. 46). Such a situation serves as an evidence of the fact that ethical norms of capitalism were not acceptable for representatives of the socialist world. They also had a point of view that the capitalist world would not exist for a long period of time (Hoffman et al. 46). Such a point of view was even strengthened during the economic crisis of 1970’s (Hoffman et al. 46). At the same time, the representatives of Japan had their own opinion concerning the attitude to the workers, the form of management and concerning many other issues (Befu et al. 43). The Japanese also had their own point of view concerning a way of interaction of different nations, as they thought, that multinational corporations were the best way to interact with the whole world (Befu et al. 43). So as we can see, there existed a dilemma concerning the way how to manage the business. Nevertheless, the representatives of capitalist world thought that the Japanese would change their traditions and would make them more global. After the crash of the socialist world, a market economy system became the only possible alternative for economic organization (Hoffman et al. 46). Taking into consideration such a state of affairs that is possible to say that in the process of globalization almost each country tries to save its own ethical norms, however, almost each country tries to create some general and common business ethics rules and norms. Such a situation brings us to the global business ethics dilemma.
Except some general business differences, there exist some intercultural differences among representatives of different nations. Such differences influence the way of perception very much. That is not a secret that for successful international co-operation that is very important to reach full understanding. For such a purpose, representatives of different nations try to create some general rules of behaviour. Nevertheless, that is very difficult to forget about own national and cultural peculiarities. For example, there are different traditions of holding meeting in Japan and the USA. Some elements of behaviour can be offensive for representatives of other nations. Americans are free in communication, and the Japanese are not so free. Therefore, sometimes there occur different difficult situations concerning the rules: who should be the first, who enters a meeting room, who should shake hands and who should not, who should talk and who should wait, how agreements should be taken. However, there are no such great differences in behaviour and culture of holding meeting among Americans and representatives of Europe. In order to avoid difficult situations we should try to came to know as much information concerning representatives of different nations, their attitude to the business, traditions, way of life and, of course, their way of perception, as possible. Representatives of all the nations should remember that while communication with representatives of other nations they should try to use only international rules of behaviour. There are many situations when misunderstanding brought representatives of different nations to great conflicts. We should not try to make people of other countries respect our own traditions – we should try to respect traditions of other nations, their ethical rules. Doing that, we can be sure, that representatives of other countries will try to respect our traditions and culture. With the development of globalization there is a possibility of creating real international and acceptable ethical rules and norms. However, we should not forget about our own ethical norms. We should follow them and make them a great and integral part of our life. For example, the Japanese managed to create their “economical miracle” because they followed their strict ethical rules and in this way they were able to show their creative economic initiatives (Johnson 3). All the people on Earth have different perception of the world. Such a perception depends upon our traditions and culture. Each culture has its own peculiarities. Nevertheless, almost all the companies of the world, irrespective to the countries where they are placed, have one aim to get good benefits.
Globalization can be observed in the whole world. Of course, there can be observed some leading countries in this process. However, the success of such a process is important for all the countries of the world. While this process of globalization, there occur some international ethic dilemmas. That is very difficult to solve them because of great cultural differences among some nations. Nevertheless, that is possible to do that. We should remember that sometimes even small ethic dilemmas can become the reasons for great misunderstanding and even conflicts. We should not take a risk but try to settle all disputable questions and situations. Globalization can help us to deal with all the members of our big world.
Reference List
Johnson, C. (1982). Miti and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925-1975. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Hoffman, W. M., Kamm, J. B., Frederick, R. E., & Petry, E. S. (Eds.). (1994). Emerging Global Business Ethics. Westport, CT: Quorum Books.
Befu, H. & Guichard-Anguis, S. (Eds.). (2001). Globalizing Japan: Ethnography of the Japanese Presence in Asia, Europe, and America. London: Routledge.