Ethics and Professional Standards - Essay Example

The modern business environment needs organizations with the elasticity to deal with the vast culture depth. According to Brenner (2009), international organizations employ a strategy that fits the culture the global environment provides. Cultural issues play a major role in determining the success or failure of a business venture. In most cases, these determinants are based on moral ethics or cultural beliefs and preferences. Many cultures have a different background from which they base their decisions. With increasing global resources, organizations have realized the need of respecting and appreciating different cultures. Additionally, international organizations have found ways to fit and to operate under the required ways when venturing into different cultures rather than theirs. In some cases, organizations hire employees from a set of cultures in order to know more about a particular culture.

             Others have activities that are aimed at giving back to the societies they venture their business into. In an argument by Aubry (2010) giving back to society is perceived as the best way to appreciate a population from a different culture. In project management, culture appreciation has been sensitized in most organizations. This case mainly applies to international companies. International companies usually indulge in projects which include explorations of resources in locations with vast cultures. For this reason, international companies have to incorporate culture appreciation techniques. Many projects carried out from different cultural settings have techniques that are in line with the host culture.

            Organizations are advised to do a prior survey to the cultural environment they tend to base their project on. Aubry (2010) argues that this kind of research is conducted the same way as market research the only difference being that market research is conducted on the targeted population while cultural research is done with regards to a whole community. Most issue researched on includes issues touching on religion and culture preferences. For example, for an organization to get proper reception in the Muslim culture, they have to be very cautious in the dressing code. In many projects undertaken by international companies, the communities involved have an important role in ensuring the success of a project.

            In an argument by Brenner (2009) communities in culturally rich locations need more than incentives to corporate in projects involving big organizations. These occurrences have seen many western countries employ native cultural ethics and professional standards to suit their investment locations. After the research on the culture of the location intended for investment, international organizations then should formulate and come up with both professional and ethical standards to help them in implementing successful projects.

            Coming up with professional and ethical standards is the key to any project's success. This is measured by how many corporations the project will have from the community or the target consumers. In an argument by the Project Management Institute Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (2010), many western companies invest in continents like Africa with great recognition of ten cultural tasks ahead of them. For instance in Africa project management should include a great piece of adherence to the new cultures involved. Communities need to feel comfortable before being part of a business venture. Ethical standards matter most. One of the most important ethical standards is religious preferences. Some cultures have a very strong opinion towards religion. This may include the specific days of worship. In this case, an organization should avoid any activities on this day in order to be in line with the cultural requirements. In other religious settings, women are not regarded as authority figures. As much it is viewed as a form of discrimination placing female figures to handle public affairs may provide shortcomings in carrying out a successful project. The division of labor in certain cultures may dictate the organization among the staff employed to foresee the success of a project. If an organization is having a project far from its central location, it is only logical that they find employees in the new location. In this way, the organization gains social support and saves the cost of the funds used in employing the required human resource. According to Aubry (2010), the location of employees from a nearby setting is usually used as an indirect social tool. 

            Professional standards differ from ethical standards in that they ate formulated according to the organization’s code of conduct. These standards should not be compromised. Project managers are trained in a way that they should incorporate both cultural and professional ethics. However, professional ethics should be flexible depending on the cultural differences in the global corporate environment.

            Before an international firm venture into a new market for any project, it is usually advisable to have a real picture of the new market in terms of the consumers and the standards required. In most cases, cultural issues hinder the success of any project. It is evident that the cultural requirements have a great impact in determining whether or not the project will be successful. It is for this reason that organizations tend to employ specific employees and personnel to come up with the required standards. These standards include both professional and ethical standards. These two standards operate depending on the cultural setting of the communities involved in the project.