Schaefer, Anja and Patel, Taran (2009) Making sense of the diversity of ethical decision making in business: an illustration of the Indian context. Journal of Business Ethics, 90 (2). pp. 171-186. ISSN 0167-4544

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Abstract

In this conceptual article, we look at the impact of culture on ethical decision making from a Douglasian Cultural Theory (CT) perspective. We aim to show how CT can be used to explain the diversity and dynamicity of ethical beliefs and behaviours found in every social system, be it a corporation, a nation or even an individual. We introduce CT in the context of ethical decision making and then use it to discuss examples of business ethics in the Indian business context. We argue that the use of CT allows for a theoretically more sophisticated treatment of culture in ethical decision making and thus the avoidance of some common problems with existing cross-cultural studies of business ethics. In our discussion, we raise questions about the compatibility between management systems and processes created in one context and ethical behaviours in another.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Solidarity; Ethical behavior; Social ethics; Business ethics; Morality; Corporate responsibility; Ethical codes; Indian culture; Moral relativism; Moral judgment;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Business
Item ID:	9246
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0034-z
Depositing User:	Anja Schaefer
Date Deposited:	13 Feb 2018 17:31
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Business Ethics
Publisher:	Springer Verlag
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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