Civilization, National Culture And Ethical Work Climates: A Comparative Study Of CPA Firms In China And Taiwan

Abstract

The emergence of China as an economic power has prompted the question, what impact if any has globalization and market liberalization had on the ethical climate of organizations within China and its neighbor Taiwan? Cross-strait tensions have eased over the past few years due to closer economic integration. Although both countries differ in political, as well as organizational design, they share core cultural values embedded within civilization; Confucianism. This study attempts to understand how the correlation established between ethical climates and National culture by Parboteeah, Cullen, Victor, and Sakano are played out against the backdrop of a shared civilization. Will the ethical climates retain or deviate from the core civilization cultural values theorized by Samuel P. Huntington? To answer that question, we collected data from C.P.A. firms in China and Taiwan using the 36-item revised version of the Ethical Climate Questionnaire developed by John B. Cullen, Bart Victor (1988), and James W. Bronson (1993). The results indicated a significant difference in four areas: 1) principal-individual, 2) principle-cosmopolitan, 3) benevolence-individual, and 4) egoism-individual. When correlated with national culture and their core civilizational cultural value of Confucianism, deviations showed that Taiwan moved away from Confucian values by scoring higher in Egoism while retaining Confucianism with a more particularistic culture. China demonstrated a shift away from Confucian values by scoring higher in principle while retaining Confucian values through its score in benevolence.