Does National Culture Affect Willingness to Justify Ethically Suspect Behaviors?

Abstract

In this article, we examine the relationship of the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness national culture dimensions with the willingness of 27,459 individuals located in 21 nations to justify ethically suspect behaviors. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM), a technique well suited for cross-level studies, is employed to test the hypothesized relationships from data made available by the World Values Survey. Results support our hypotheses with regard to performance orientation, assertiveness, institutional collectivism and humane orientation. However, results surprisingly reject our hypotheses on power distance and uncertainty avoidance. We discuss these counterintuitive findings and elaborate on the study’s implications for both research and practice.

Do Auditing and Reporting Standards Affect Firms’ Ethical Behaviours? The Moderating Role of National Culture

“…A small number of studies have examined the relationship between human orientation and ethical behaviour. Parboteeah et al (2005) found that human orientation is negatively associated with a willingness to justify ethically suspect behaviours, probably due to the nurturing and cooperative nature of this type of society. Moreover, Alas (2006) includes human orientation as one of the characteristics of societies which have low needs for well-established standards for ethics.…”

“…Compared to Hofstede's study (2001), GLOBE is considered to be both more recent and comprehensive (Shi and Wang 2011). Moreover, its methodology is found to have greater validity and reliability (Parboteeah et al 2005).…”

“…In assertive societies, people tend to think of others as being opportunistic, and are concerned to protect their own interest (House et al 2004). They are, therefore, more likely to try to justify ethically suspect behaviours (Parboteeah et al 2005). Also, the tendency to be cooperative and to consider the well being of others is relatively weak in those societies.…”

“…In some aspects, assertiveness has commonalities with performance orientation. However, performance orientation concerns results, while assertiveness mainly concerns social relationships (Parboteeah et al 2005). In assertive societies, people tend to think of others as being opportunistic, and are concerned to protect their own interest (House et al 2004).…”

Gender ratio, societal culture, and male and female leadership

“…Brodbeck et al, 2000;Javidan & Dale, 2005;Parboteeah, Bronson, & Cullen, 2005) or, conversely, have focused on organizational characteristics and leadership behaviours. For instance, the relationships between organizational culture and leadership behaviours have received considerable attention within specific countries (e.g.…”