Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-gr6zb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-14T12:41:55.895Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

11 - Managing in an imperfect world

Richard M. Steers ,
Carlos J. Sanchez-Runde  and
Luciara Nardon
Richard M. Steers
Affiliation:
University of Oregon
Carlos J. Sanchez-Runde
Affiliation:
IESE Business School, Barcelona
Luciara Nardon
Affiliation:
Carleton University, Ottawa
Get access

Summary

There are truths on this side of the Pyrenees that are falsehoods on the other.

Blaise Pascal Seventeenth-century philosopher, France

The computer is on the dock, it's raining, and you have to pay a bribe to get it picked up and delivered.

William C. Norris Founder, Control Date Corporation, USA

Ethical standards reside within people, not organizations. In fact, organizations have no ethical standards; it is only their members – executives, managers, and rank-and-file employees – who determine whether or not a particular company will act ethically or responsibly at any given point in time, and even this determination lies in the eye of the beholder. Ethical standards are oftentimes amorphous, conflicting, and transitory, but their impact on local communities around the world can be profound.

Consider the challenges facing the petroleum industry in doing business in Nigeria. Global economists and political observers have long suggested that Nigeria has two attributes in abundance: oil and corruption. According to The Economist, Nigeria is one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Indeed, bribery is so commonplace that they even have their own name for it: “chopping.” If this is the case, how do global companies gain access to Nigeria's vast oil reserves to help supply an insatiable world demand for petroleum? Through bribery, of course. Companies that refuse to play – and pay – by the local rules risk being shut out of this lucrative market.

Type
Chapter
Information
Management across Cultures
Challenges and Strategies
 , pp. 363 - 403
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blaise, Pascal, Pensées: Thoughts on Religion and Other Subjects. New York, NY: Washington Square Press, 1965, p. 90Google Scholar
William, Norris, cited in Helen, Deresky, International Management: Managing Across Borders and Cultures. Upper Saddle Creek, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008, p. 45.Google Scholar
The Economist Pocket World in Figures. London: Profile Books, 2008.
Russell, Gold, “SEC investigates Halliburton unit over payments,” The Wall Street Journal, June 14, 2004, p. A3Google Scholar
Russell, Gold and Charles, Fleming, “In Halliburton's Nigeria project, a search for bribes to a dictator,” The Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2004, p. A1.Google Scholar
“Halliburton: a scandal-hit firm fights back,” The Economist, February 19, 2004, p. A1.
Russell, Gold, “Halliburton concedes possibility of payments to Nigerian officials,” The Wall Street Journal, November 8, 2004, p. A5.Google Scholar
“Defense contractor pleads guilty to bribing officials,” Register-Guard, February 12, 2009, p. D1.
George, Steiner, In Bluebeard's Castle: Notes Towards the Redefinition of Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
“Police: father arranged marriage of 14-year-old girl,” Register-Guard, January 14, 2009, p. A2.
David, E. Cooper, Ethics for Professionals in a Multicultural World. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004, p. 90.Google Scholar
Moorthy, R. S., Richard, T. De George, Thomas, Donaldson, William, J. Ellos, Robert, C. Solomon, and Robert, B. Textor, Uncompromising Integrity: Motorola's Global Challenge. Schaumburg, IL: Purdue University Press, 1998Google Scholar
Christian, J. Resick, Paul, J. Hanges, Marcus, W. Dickson, and Jacqueline, K. Mitchelson, “A cross-cultural examination of the endorsement of ethical leadership,” Journal of Business Ethics, 2006, 63, pp. 345–359.Google Scholar
Carolyn, Dewald and John, Marincola (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Richard, Lewis, When Cultures Collide. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 1999, p. 8.Google Scholar
Peter, Ustinov, quoted in Richard, Hill, EuroManagers, Brussels: Europublications, 1998, p. 230.Google Scholar
Samuel, A. Stouffer and Jackson, Toby, “Role, conflict, and personality,” American Journal of Sociology, 1951, 56(5), pp. 395–406.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Rosen. Law as Culture: An Invitation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006, pp. 98–100.Google Scholar
Eileen, Morgan, Navigating Cross-Cultural Ethics: What Global Managers Do Right to Keep from Going Wrong. Woburn, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998.Google Scholar
The Function of Reason. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1929.
“Blinded by the dark,” The Economist, April 2, 1998, p. 15.
Richard, M. Steers and Luciara, Nardon, Managing in the Global Economy. New York, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2006.Google Scholar
Michael, Russo and Paul, Fouts, “A resource-based perspective on corporate environmental performance and profitability,” Academy of Management Journal, 1997, 40(3), pp. 534–559.Google Scholar
Eric, Bellman, “Tata to shift production of minicar after protests,” The Wall Street Journal, October 8, 2008, p. A–14.Google Scholar
Robert, J. House, “Introduction,” in Robert, J. House, Paul, J. Hanges, Mansour, Javidan, Peter, W. Dorfman, and Vipin, Gupta, Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004, p. 1.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×