Google in China: A Manager-Friendly Heuristic Model for Resolving Cross-Cultural Ethical Conflicts

J. Brooke Hamilton, Stephen B. Knouse and Vanessa Hill ()
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J. Brooke Hamilton: University of Louisiana
Stephen B. Knouse: University of Louisiana
Vanessa Hill: University of Louisiana

Journal of Business Ethics, 2009, vol. 86, issue 2, No 3, 143-157

Abstract: Abstract Management practitioners and scholars have worked diligently to identify methods for ethical decision making in international contexts. Theoretical frameworks such as Integrative Social Contracts Theory (Donaldson and Dunfee, 1994, Academy of Management Review 19, 252–284) and more recently the Global Business Citizenship Approach [Wood et al., 2006, Global Business Citizenship: A Transformative Framework for Ethics and Sustainable Capitalism. (M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY)] have produced innovations in practice. Despite these advances, many managers have difficulty implementing these theoretical concepts in daily practice. Using the example of recent decisions by internet service providers Google, Yahoo, and MSN regarding censorship requirements in China, we offer six heuristic questions to help managers to resolve cross-cultural ethical conflicts in which the firm’s way of doing business differs from the practice in the host country. Recognizing that companies can take different approaches to law and ethics (Paine, 1994, Harvard Business Review 72(2), 107–117), our aim is to provide a management decision process to deal with demands or opportunities for engaging in questionable business practices in a host country.

Keywords: cross-cultural ethics; China; decision tree; international questionable practices; Google (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-008-9840-y

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