Transition Ethics: A Comparison of Ukrainian and United States Business Professionals

Abstract

This article compares the ethical attitudes of Ukrainian business professionals with those of United States business professionals. A widely used survey instrument consisting of 16 hypothetical situations involving ethical dilemmas was employed to gather information on ethical attitudes in the two countries. On 13 of 16 vignettes, Ukrainian respondents demonstrated less stringent ethical attitudes than did their United States counterparts. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed, with primary emphasis on the transition from one economic system to another that is underway in Ukraine. Comments from Ukrainian respondents are presented so as to give an indication of the thought processes behind the questionnaire responses.

Testing a Model of Behavioral Intentions in the Republic of Macedonia: Differences Between the Private and the Public Sectors

“…As mentioned, in Ukraine, bribery accounted for at least 20 percent of the total wage compensation in the public sector, which was equivalent to US$460-580 million, or 0.9-1.2 percent of its GDP in 2003. Our results offer indirect support for people in the public sector and in low GDP groups (Campbell, 2007;Gorodnichenko and Peter, 2007;McCarthy and Puffer, 2008;Treisman, 2007;Vynoslavaska et al, 2005).…”

“…In underdeveloped geopolitical entities or transition economies, the solid economic, legal, political, and social infrastructures may not exist (McCarthy and Puffer, 2008;Vynoslavaska et al, 2005). Most people in these societies are poor and jobless and have significantly fewer resources and opportunities to make money than those in the high or median GDP groups.…”

“…High income is positively related to love of money for underpaid people because those with financial hardship are obsessed with money; high income may reduce their love of money for highly paid professionals (Lim and Teo, 1997;Tang and Chiu, 2003;Tang et al, 2005). Researchers have found serious corruption and unethical behavior intentions in transition economies, e.g., Russia and Ukraine (McCarthy and Puffer, 2008;Vynoslavaska et al, 2005). In Ukraine, for example, public sector employees received 24 to 32 percent less wages than their private sector counterparts, but both sectors had an essentially identical level of consumer expenditures (Gorodnichenko and Peter, 2007).…”

The relation between the CSR and the accounting information system data in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries – the evidence of the Polish financial institutions

“…Furthermore, some studies prove also that less developed and more turbulent business regulatory and legal systems in CEE countries lead to the situation that financial considerations take higher precedence over social and environmental responsibility activities of organizations (Filatotchev et al 2000, Vynoslavska et al 2005. The research of Inglehart and Welzel (2005) indicates that in richer and more stable countries such as those in Western Europe, individuals are more likely to have adapted to their current material level with the result that they focus more on such issues as social welfare and environmental sustainability.…”

Socio-Cultural Change and Business Ethics in Post-Soviet Countries: The Cases of Belarus and Estonia

“…However, this body of research is mainly limited to the exploration of business culture in Russia (Deshpande et al, 2000;Hisrich and Gratchev, 2001;Sommer et al, 2000;Taylor et al, 1997) or Ukraine (Kennedy and Lawton, 1996;Vynoslavska, 2005), while other post-soviet countries have tended to be neglected. As a result, the conceptualisation and research of business ethics in post-soviet countries often assumes either a relative stability or universality of ethical norms of business conduct, despite the warnings of writers such as Robertson (2002) who have drawn attention to the dynamic nature of business ethics in the context of growing international interdependence.…”