Google's Dilemma in China

Abstract

This case explores whether we should use one set of universal ethics that is applicable to all cultures or multiple ethical standards situated in the diverse legal, cultural, and social contexts of various nation states. In an era of globalization, it raises questions about how global companies should deal with conflifring ethical views from divergent stakeholders around the world. The case also seeks to examine the dilemmas of aligning organizational values and practices in other parts of the world that may not share such ethics. ,Tl I he process of globalization is fundamentally changing the ways corporations do business today (Castells, 1996). While there is a lack of consensus on the causes, conceptualization, and effects of globalization, Held, McCrew, Goldblatt, and Perraton (1999) identified rhe following four aspects as its defining characteristics: (1) the extensity of the networks that connect different countries, people, and organizations in the world; (2) the intensity of the interaction in these networks; (3) the speed with which information, capital, people, and products move around the globe, and (4) the impact of these trends on different communities. Within the or$anizational realm, scholars have been examining two concurrent trends by which globalization has affected today's organizations: convergence and divergence (Stohl,2O01). The convergence approach emphasizes how the social, economic, and technological infrastructures of the global market lead organizations to operate and communicate similarly in the global context. On the other hand, the divergence perspective focuses on the heterogeneity of organizational practices that are brou$ht about because of different cultures around the world. At the center of this tension is the dialectical relationship between globalization and localization. Great attention has been paid to examining how today's organizations $lobalize or localize their practices and communication to be successful in this new era of globalization. As corporations are increasingly integrated into the global marketplace, stakeholders such as governments, international non$overnmental organizations, errployees, and customers have scrutinized the ethics applied to their practices. The concept of ethics is problematized by globalization as different cultures bring different concepts of ethics (Scherer