International Organizational Behavior

Author: Anne Marie Francesco et al. (USA), Translated by: Gu Baoyan, Country of Origin:
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features:
· Discrimination In many societies, members of certain groups receive special favoritism. Race, ethnicity, age, gender, region, and religious beliefs are often the roots of discrimination. In some cultures, non-citizens may face discrimination in employment. Discrimination can be obvious or subtle, and may exist in hiring and promotion. It can also demotivate organizational members from seeking specific types of jobs and pursuing career development.
· Safety and Security In many countries, both developing and developed, the level of safety and security for workers is insufficient to fully protect them, and working conditions often threaten employees' physical health. Unsafe work environments, child labor, and the use of convicts as labor are often strategic components to gain competitive advantages. This is also partly a manifestation of people becoming numb to pain.
· Wages Wage disparities among workers worldwide are very large. In many countries, a worker's annual salary may be only a week's earnings in other countries for similar work. From a Western perspective, the wage levels in many developing countries are simply unbelievable. However, as Western companies have shifted their production bases to low-wage countries, they have also supported this practice of low wages. It is also worth noting that even in the United States, "sweatshops" still exist in some suburban immigrant communities.
· Child Labor Child labor is widely used in many underdeveloped countries. This, like the issue of using convict labor, has drawn more attention to the appropriate social responsibility of companies in establishing social welfare and educational institutions. In a society, these issues may not only involve ethical concerns but also legal issues. They only become ethical issues when conflicts arise between cultures with different values. An example of change brought about by ethical value conflicts is the formation of a coalition between European and American sports equipment manufacturers and child protection organizations to resist the sale of footballs stitched by Pakistani children. Due to poverty, parents in Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan, force their children to start stitching footballs from the age of 6. According to statistics, "nearly 10,000 Pakistani children under the age of 14 stitch footballs for 10 hours a day, earning $1.20 per day" (Greenhouse, 1997, p. A12). Selling such footballs in Europe and the United States is considered both illegal and unethical. To prevent children displaced by efforts to eliminate child labor from turning to other industries such as brick-making and prostitution, the coalition plans to educate children and provide employment opportunities for parents and older children, or offer small loans to help them become self-sufficient.
With the development of economic globalization, ethical issues are increasingly influencing cross-cultural interactions between organizations, primarily in the following aspects:
· Intellectual Property Theft Not all countries respect copyrights and patents, and many even encourage piracy. With the widespread use of computer software, music CDs, and other proprietary information that is difficult to protect, this issue has become prominent.
· Bribery and Corruption Two common forms of bribery are "whitemail" and "lubrication bribes." Whitemail refers to bribing those in power to secure favorable but illegal, or economically and effectively inappropriate, benefits. Lubrication bribes refer to bribes to facilitate, expedite, and initiate government approvals for permits and inspections that would normally require routine procedures.
· Deliberately Selling Dangerous Goods Sometimes, companies export goods that are considered dangerous in their home country or completely unsuitable for the cultural needs of the importing country. An example of the former is exporting cigarettes to developing countries, where public policies often discourage smoking, as in the United States. An example of the latter is exporting the formulas of early products to countries where they are likely to be used for inappropriate or harmful purposes.
· Environmental Pollution Not all countries give sufficient attention to environmental issues, especially when the cost of pollution control in production processes is very high. The deterioration of environmental conditions (such as the release of factory toxins, radiation from nuclear power plants, and the destruction of vast forests) are causes of global environmental problems.
· Deliberate Misinformation in Negotiations Threats, rumors, threats, and other forms of deception may be acceptable negotiation techniques in some cultures but considered unethical or even illegal in others. Sometimes, internal ethical issues may evolve into ethical and social responsibility issues between organizations or nations. This may occur either because of a shift in attitudes by companies and the public toward certain practices, or because hidden and often condemned behaviors are exposed. Similar examples include the negative impacts of importing clothing from countries that use child labor or convicts, and exporting cigarettes to developing countries. Some cases are extremely complex because they involve the actual use of products rather than their intended design. The experience of Mr. H.B. Fuller of H.B. Fuller in Central America is one such example. Mr. Fuller's company is an industrial adhesive, coating, and paint manufacturer in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, which has long prided itself on being a socially responsible company. Among the products manufactured by the company is a shoe adhesive called Resistol. For many years, children in Central America have been sniffing this adhesive because it provides a pleasant sensation that alleviates hunger and despair. Moreover, Resistol is addictive and damages the brain, and in some cases, it can even lead to death. Fuller's company attempted to prevent the abuse of Resistol by reducing its toxicity and restricting its sale in Honduras and Guatemala. However, Fuller's company, unlike other companies, did not add mustard oil to the adhesive, which made it no longer enjoyable to sniff and even caused vomiting when inhaled. The addition of mustard oil significantly reduced the sales of these companies. Fuller's company faced accusations that threatened its self-image and its public image as a company with ethical and social responsibility (Henriques, 1995). The ethical issue Fuller faced was whether to take measures such as withdrawing the product from the market to further prevent its abuse. Could Fuller's company use science and technology to resolve this ethical dilemma?
Ethical Studies Researchers study ethics in organizations using social science methods. Ethical field researchers and social scientists observe managers' hypothetical fieldwork to record how they face ethical dilemmas and adjust their behavior to adapt to such situations (Jackall, 1988). Another research method involves analyzing the potential consequences of compromising decisions. An example is the NASA ethical culture reconstruction leading to the catastrophic consequences of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. Organizational culture and bureaucracy can normalize abnormal behavior, weakening the fairness of quality control procedures when manufacturers produce non-compliant parts under time pressure and social demands (Vaughan, 1996).
Afterward, researchers can use interviews and questionnaires to study the policy orientations and actual practices of managers and other organizational members regarding ethics.