Part III: Building and Managing
a Global Workforce
CHAPTER 9
Effective
Management
of Global
Ethics and
International
Workforces
Managing Ethics in an International Context:
The Role of Culture
•Universalism
➢Posits that the same objective moral guidelines
regarding certain behaviors as unacceptable for doing
•Cultural Relativism
➢Proposes that ethical behavior in a country is
Table 9.1 The United Nations Global Impact
Human Rights
—Businesses should:
Principle 1
Support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human
Labor Standards
—Businesses should:
Principle 3
Uphold freedom of association and the recognition of the right to
collective bargaining
Principle 4
Work to eliminate all forms of forced and compulsory behavior
Environment
—Businesses should:
Principle 7
Support appropriate cautions to protect the environment
Principle 8
Undertake initiatives to improve environmental responsibility
Anti
-Corruption—Businesses should:
Principle 10
Work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery
Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
•Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
➢The expectation that multinational firms are to adopt
•Criticisms of CSR
➢Detracts from the fundamental profit-making role of
business
Figure 9.1 Views about the Trade-off between Jobs and the Environment
Ethical Differences across Countries
•Although views about ethical issues are similar
across countries, they may result from different
moral reasoning processes.
➢Americans see personnel matters (e.g., theft) more
as individual ethical issues than either Austrians or
Germans do.
Bribes and Questionable Payments
•Effects of Questionable Payments
➢Bribery, extortion, and “grease payments” to
bureaucrats and business leaders
•Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977
➢It is illegal for U.S. firms to offer bribes to foreign
officials in an effort to gain new business.
Examples of Permissible Grease Payments
•Giving gifts to overcome bureaucratic red tape, such as
having electricity turned on in your plant more quickly.
•Making modest payments to supplement poorly paid
officials’ low salaries in exchange for services
Least Corrupt Most Corrupt
Nation
% Reporting
Corruption Nation
% Reporting
Corruption
Australia
1
India
54
Denmark
1
Uganda
61
Finland
Cameroon
Spain
2
Mozambique
62
Canada
3
Zimbabwe
62
South Korea
3
Kenya
70
Malaysia
3
Yemen
74
Liberia
Table 9.2 Rankings of the Most Corrupt and Least Corrupt Nations
Labor Relations in and across Cultures
•Why Unions?
➢To provide workers with a measure of input (voice)
•Unions and the Law
➢Laws permit, protect, and enable unions by controlling
the actions of multinational employers
Table 9.3 Legal Protections for Worker Severance in Several European
Countries
Country Legal Protections Common Additions/Summary
Belgium •Extensive advanced notice
•Prorated year-end premium
•Outstanding holiday pay
•Outplacement counseling
•Monthly pre-pension payments for employees > 45
Union-negotiated additions (e.g., closure
premiums, employment search costs, moral
damages) can often double the cost of the
total severance package
increasingly militant at notice of layoff
Germany •Notice of up to 7months
• Two weeks’ pay per year of service
•Employer not entitled to choose employees based on
individual performance alone, but must use social
criteria (disability, age, etc.)
Payments vary a good deal on specific
characteristics of the employee (age, years of
service, more)
Figure 9.2 Public Expenditures on Labor Market Programs as a
Percentage of GDP, 2003 & 2013
Canada
Australia
Japan
U.K.
U.S.