Ethics And Culture: Is There A Relationship?

Abstract

With the dramatic increase in international business, companies are faced with increased differences in business rules and behaviors between locations.  Location to location differences in business norms and practices leads to the question if there is a relationship between ethics and culture?  The emergence of Asian countries as economic forces and larger trading partners to the West has heightened the cultural differences.  This paper looks at the ethical attitudes of U.S. students relative to the ethical attitudes of students in India.  This paper found that Indian students and U.S. students exhibited very similar attitudes toward ethics and unethical acts, despite perceived ethical differences between the cultures.