A FRAMEWORK FOR ETHICAL DECISION MAKING IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

By definition, both ethics and ethical behavior seem to have strong historical and cultural roots that vary by country and region. The field of between ethics and international business is a deep, natural one which is a branch of philosophy that seeks virtue. Ethics, for instance, deals with morality about what is considered "right” and wrong" behavior for people in various situations, while business ethics emerged as a field in the 1970s and they did not arise until the late 1990s. While ethical decision making is arguably considered as tricky stuff (particularly, regarding international business issues), indeed, it does help those who are interested in international business to examine various kinds of business activities by questioning whether or not if a business conduct is ethically right or wrong.

To begin with, there are two of the biggest challenges to identifying ethical standards which are associated to the questions about what the standards should be based on, and how we apply those standards in specific situations. Although some experts on ethics agree that the identification of ethical standards can be very difficult, however, they have reached some agreement on what ethics is not. Ethics from a business viewpoint is not the same as feelings. Feelings provide important information for our ethical choices. Even though there are some people who are inclined to have highly developed habits that make them feel bad when they do something wrong, however, there are others who feel good even after when they are doing something wrong. As a result, our feelings often times will tell us it is uncomfortable to do the right thing even if it feels hard to do.

Furthermore, ethics is not religion nor culturally accepted norms. Many people are not religious, but ethics applies to everyone. Most religions do advocate high ethical standards but sometimes, they do not address all the types of problems we face. Some cultures, perhaps, are quite ethical but there are also others become corrupt or blind to certain ethical concerns. As the United States was to slavery before the Civil War, the saying that goes "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" is not a satisfactory ethical standard. After all, being ethical does not always mean following the law and just because something is possible, it does not necessarily mean it is ethical.