Ethical Conduct in Business World - Research Paper Example

? Ethical Conduct in Business World Introduction The paper elaborates on three key concepts throughout the business world, ethical conduct in business world from American perspective and ethical conduct in business world from Chinese perspective. To begin with, we first need to understand the literal meaning of the term 'Business world'. Business world is the name given to the environment which includes numerous businesses operating in an economy, whether they be privately owned sole proprietor, partnership, private limited or public limited businesses or they be public owned businesses. Business world is a conglomerate of all kinds of businesses existing around the globe or a particular society. It displays how businesses interact with each other and how their operations are running while remaining in contact with other businesses. Different business functions are considered such as what marketing, finance, human resource and supply chain strategies do for the businesses development and how do individuals behave in this world for their personal and for the business' benefit (George). The business world is composed of numerous individual businesses each of which follows a set of policies and procedures, certain guidelines and particular ethical conducts. Every individual working in the business is required to adhere to these ethical conducts and values set forth by the management. Considering this particular concept, we will be discussing how the set ethical values lead to the individuals behaving in the business world both from the American and the Chinese perspective. From both the perspectives, professional behavior is one element that needs to be taken care of while working in the business world. For me to work in an American company or a Chinese company for that matter, I must act and behave responsibly, meet my deadlines at work, complete the tasks assigned to me with the best of my abilities and if I make a mistake, I should owe up to it and try to resolve it with the supervisors' assistance. Continuously remaining in contact with the boss and responding to works assigned are a few more essentials of working professionally in a business world (George; American Management Association, 3-12; Stratfor, 1-4). Coming to essentials of behavior on a personal level, for us to work in a business world, we must understand the job we are assigned and what exactly is it that we are doing. Moreover, it is always appreciated to expand ties with colleagues and supervisors, be friendly in the work environment, take supervisors' advice on everything work related, socialize with people belonging to other businesses outside the organization or other departments within the organization. Speaking our own mind, pitching in ideas to numerous projects, problems and other business particulars discussed, participating actively in business related parties and social networking occasions and being polite, yet straight forward are numerous other personal attributes that we should possess to function successfully in a business world. This socialization and polite, amiable attitude could help us develop numerous ties within the business world which could later be beneficial in our own business, since the business world is an epitome of structures dependent on each other for their successful functioning (George). These were certain basic behaviors which must be observed in the business world. Considering that America and China are two different societies, each with different kinds of traditions, it is crucial to understand what each of these different societies see as an ideal behavior to be displayed in the business world. Starting from the American business world, in American businesses, it is considered an ethical standard to place the organization/business' interests above the employees' personal interests. For employees it is an ethical obligation to honor the business interests over and above the employee's own personal interests. Furthermore, in this context, buying goods from a close friend at a higher price would thus be considered unethical. This is because the employee gave priority to his personal interest of benefiting his close friend by buying goods at higher price. While he did not give any thought to business interest of acquiring goods at lowest possible cost to keep its expenses low and profits high (Loyd). Also, in America, privacy is given immense importance by all individuals, Therefore, for us to work in an America's business world, it is important to understand that socializing and making friends is not easy since everyone is reserved and prefer to keep their personal life and matters with themselves only. So in an American business world, we cannot be too friendly too soon with our colleagues at a personal level. Integrity, honesty, loyalty are honored immensely in the American business world. Diplomacy is one policy that must be followed in the American business world, while communicating with the competitors. American businesses are inclined more towards being intensely competitive and expect their employees to be so too. Furthermore, American businesses value and evaluate the strength of their business relations entirely on the financial basis. Thus we would need to be more money oriented, and more logical while being in an American business world and contribute to the relationship evaluation based on financial performance of the businesses (Loyd; American Management Association, 3-12). Chinese business world on the other hand is quite opposite while considering the few behaviors discussed above. For Chinese, a friendly environment is an essential requirement for a business to work effectively. Every individual must be friendly and socializing and making friends quickly on a personal level is not objected. This is because Chinese are not as intensely independent as the Americans and they value friendship extremely. Likewise, giving priority to one's own personal interests over the business' interests is not objected to a certain extent. Thus purchasing products at a higher rate from a close friend will be appreciated as a favor to a friend if the friendship ties with him/her could be useful or beneficial for the business in future. Giving favors to friends is not considered unethical in China while Americans might consider it completely unacceptable and might even rate it as corruption (Williams; Stratfor, 1-4). Integrity, honesty and loyalty are values in the Chinese business world as well. Diplomacy is not strongly felt about in the Chinese business world. For them straightforward and outright behavior is best, no matter it could be an attitude displaying hostility towards competitors or any other negative emotion. For us to survive in this market, we must be receptive to constructive criticism from the competitors or other business entities. This has helped Chinese business world to develop and grow. The businesses are highly competitive but straight forward unlike Americans, which are thus two qualities we must possess to be in a Chinese business (Williams). Lastly, Chinese business world is not money oriented. We must value corporate social responsibility at a high level and take care of the society by being environmentally friendly and valuing recycling option. They value friendship and thus do not evaluate the strength of their business relations with the financial benefits gained from them. Yes of course the business ties they make are based on how beneficial could they be in future for business. But strength of business relations depends on their understanding of each other's businesses and thus we being part of such an environment must value friendship and understanding of other businesses. Being supportive, helpful and yet professional is the Chinese way of operating in the business world (Stratfor, 1-4). Observation According to the observations many people, American business world is more stringently professional compared to the Chinese. The reason behind this is the strictness in the US businesses and stringent application of the rules and policies which has been designed in accordance with the society's norms and values. Chinese business environment though successful is more lax compared to American businesses. This is due to their slightly easy going culture and values which are stringently applied in the businesses reflecting the country's culture and traditions. According to an observation, American business world may consider numerous rules of Chinese business world's practices as unethical and even corrupt, while the same practices are considered to be ethical and even preferred to be present in everyone working in their business world (George and Williams). American business world requires their professionals to be more innovative, creative, imaginative and highly participative, while Chinese businesses require their professionals to be sharp in observing worldwide the products of high popularity in order to produce a competitive product of the same nature at lower price, since the Chinese business world has low cost advantage. American business world would want us to value high quality, they would want us to be more punctual and more dedicated towards work whilst Chinese value low price, high punctuality and extreme dedication to work, even more than the American businesses. The Chinese business world is on the progress and development phase of corporate social responsibility. They value giving something out to the nature and being environmentally friendly, which is the exact values they would want us to honor. While American businesses mostly honor corporate social responsibility with profit motive and high publicity (American Management Association, 3-12; Stratfor, 1-4). From the observations, it has been concluded by many that Chinese practices have been objected to come under corruption when viewed by other nations according to their societal norms. Yet for Chinese, these practices are not unethical. Giving gifts to friends in terms of favors from business, asking for favors from friends belonging to other businesses are considered to be called a bribe and is in fact not expected from us to be promoted and even practiced in the American business word. But for Chinese business world, we are to value friendship and honor it by helping our friends in their business through business favors. Thus there are clashes in how a person should behave in an American business world and a Chinese business world. Analysis From the elaboration of the American Chinese society and its values above, we have identified numerous set of values, behaviors and attributes that are expected from us from both perspectives. Many are common values like socializing, valuing integrity and being honest and being professional. But there are differences in opinions in other areas of businesses between Chinese and American perspectives. Considering the Chinese perspective of how we should be in a business world, we have concluded that we should be extremely friendly and we must honor this friendship by giving priority to our personal interests over business' interests to a certain extent. We must be competitive yet straight forward, we must be sharp in observation and extremely professional. While from an American perspective, to operate in a business world, we must value professionalism, give priority to the company's interests over one's own interests, must be punctual, diplomatic and highly inventive. Each of the societies value different things thus leading to different perspectives based on their societal beliefs and values. By comparing an ideal behavior in the American business world and Chinese business world, we can see that Americans are more disciplined, more stringent about following rules, they are reserved, less friendly and more work oriented. While in the Chinese environment, ideals are supposed to be relaxed, more friendly though dedicated workers, discipline is followed but with a lesser intensity compared to the Americans and they are work-oriented as well as otherwise. Chinese ideals are more flexible, though innovation is a trait valued more by Americans. For me, working in a relaxed environment and being a Chinese ideal example of how an individual behaves in a business world would be preferable. The reason is that we can see that with such environment, the Chinese business world has flourished at a faster pace than the American business world. Though America is the world power right now, still Chinese business world is a huge threat to them owing to its more flexible nature and environment. So in a business world, we must honor the respective country's traditions and values by molding our behavior according to their societal values. Apart from the basic values which are followed by every society, for us to be successful in a business world, we must stringently stick to the company disciplines as laid down by them. We must be honest and true to our work and most important of all, we must be extremely professional, since professionalism is the core discipline of being successful in the business world. Works Cited American Management Association. The Ethical Enterprise: Doing the right things in the right ways, today or tomorrow-A Global Study of Business Ethics. Human Resources Institute (2011): 3-12. Print. George, Richard T. De. A History of Business Ethics. Santa Clara University. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, 2012. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. Loyd, Marcia. Business Ethics in America. Yahoo Voices. Yahoo Contributor Network, 8 Oct., 2010. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. Stratfor. China: The Dilemma of Business Ethics and Corruption. Protective Intelligence (2009): 1-4. Print. Williams, Oliver F. Business Ethics in China: A Moving Target. Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame, 15 Oct., 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. Read More