Business Culture's Influence on Negotiators' Ethical Ideologies and Judgment: An Eight-Country Study

As international business grows, focus on ethical business practices intensifies and insight into negotiators' attitudes towards unethical negotiating practices is essential. Using a sample of managers from eight countries, we find evidence that a country's business culture affects the distribution of ethical orientations/positions. Similar distributions are found among countries with similar business cultures versus national cultures (e.g., we find Japanese negotiators similar to U.S. negotiators and differing from Chinese negotiators). We then find ethical orientations and ethical positions drive perceptions of the appropriateness of using various unethical negotiating tactics-important insights for hiring and training negotiators and preparing for cross-cultural negotiations.