Reconciling Ethics in the Global Market

We’ve had a lot of discussion about ethics, values and morals this week and have drawn some lines between the meaning of each that applies to our personal and professional lives. Our values help guide us in our understanding of right and wrong, basically what we believe to be acceptable action in any situation we’re presented with. Morals are types of values that deal more with good and bad, the foundation for our behavior and decisions (The Definition of Morality, 2014). Ethics use shared morals and values in a system of accepted rules that a specific group of people agree to abide by. For example, most physicians agree to abide by the Code of Medical Ethics established by the American Medical Association since it is considered to be the most comprehensive code available (AMA's Code of Ethics, 2015).

Personal values, beliefs, and principles are important for individuals to know about themselves. However, when asked the question, “what are your personal values, beliefs, and principles?” The first response is often a laundry list of characteristics with the assumption that those three words are synonymous. From my experience when posed this question the laundry list became long and in retrospect, I began to wonder what the differences were between each of these terms. As a teacher, employee, mother, and Christian knowing these differences and how to answer the question is an important component of determining how I make decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas. Hence, began the investigation of how the terms relate, their meaning and what my answer is to this question. Since my laundry list was quite long for this essay, I will share and explain the top two elements for each category, how they relate to one another and how the knowledge influences tough decisions.

Ethics refers to behaviors, practices, and decisions that address three basic and fundamental questions: What is the right thing to do? What is worth doing? What does it mean to be a good behavior analyst (Cooper, 2007)?

Ethics are principles that are kept throughout one’s life so that he/she maintains a respectable level of honest value. Based on my moral outlook on life, my view of ethics may differ to that of many in this class. The reason for that is ethics partially depends on the individual feelings of a given situation. For example, some cultures believe that it’s unethical to have multiple partners, but in other cultures, you find that this is the norm. Morals and values are the framework to having and understanding ethics. Morals and values are the drivers

Cultural differences between nations often require a company to have multiple marketing strategies. What may be acceptable in on country may not be acceptable in another country. The cultural differences require companies to develop marketing plans that are suitable for each individual culture. Not being aware of and understanding the cultural differences can create costly and embarrassing errors that may actually offend those in other countries. Cultural differences can affect the colors of products, the graphics used on packaging, and how the product is communicated to the foreign target market.

Ethics are the product of a society’s culture so it is natural there will be different responses to similar ethical scenarios. Beekum, Stedam, and Yamamura (2003) suggest these differing conclusions will lead to conflict where one side perceives the outcome is ethical whereas the other does not. Another possible outcome is that one side may not even see a decision even being morally significant. Global organizations have the additional challenge when operating within a multi-national environment of recognizing cultural differences while maintaining a core moral and ethical foundation.

The question of ethical behavior is an age-old conundrum. The prevailing issue with ethics is that it is extremely difficult to measure. A person’s moral fabric is largely based on their particular personality traits, as well as, their psychological state and environmental influences. Many believe that ethics are tied to a person’s conscience, and that good morals are often facilitated by a strong religious background. Furthermore, a person’s moral development can be linked to their economic situation and cultural differences. Interestingly, even while examining the status of one’s moral code is challenging; everyone seems to have their own unique array of ethics.

The first article I would like to elaborate on would be one about business ethics in Singapore. This country has the reputation of being very strict in nature and sometimes unforgiving in the consequences that they often give to people. Over time they have loosened their grip on social matters but still seem to be strict in their manners of business. They follow through with business transactions and promote all around good ethics in business as a normal practice. This article explained the results of a survey that was completed in January 2010, by companies that were members of the Singapore

Our world is full of people who think very different, and discuss if they are right or wrong in a certain way. Ethical values ​​play a role play in our lives, it can show our personality or in how we express ourselves. We don’t born with ethic values, we learn them. There are no boundaries for ethical values not even for children. We learn our ethical values from our parents and people who surround us.

Ethics and morals are fundamental standards and motivational notions of right and wrong governing the conduct of many individuals that seldom alter. They are the foundations that lead to the success of many people; these foundations implement behavioral rules and demeanors that set oneself distinctively from one another. In the ethical dilemma, the choice presents are between two rights. Whereas in moral issues, the choice is between right and wrong. This leaves the character deliberates complex decision making when confronting the dilemma.

In today’s continuous changing world, the one thing that remains constant for most of us is our personal value system of beliefs, known as ethics. Ethics can also be referred to as morals. Therefore, ethics are those morals that reflect and indicate issues that concern behaviors that are right or wrong and the good and bad habits of individual character. This important standard of beliefs can in most cases create the difference in attitudes from others both

After sifting through the leads and finding the right ones to investigate management must formulate an international marketing plan. This further helps management in locating potential markets for their products. The first step is to use secondary research to find out what the sales potential is in a given market. Asking the questions of need, demand, and support gives one a starting point for research. If we were a company that sold pants we might want to ask the following questions. Is there a need for pants? Is it cold enough there to wear pants? Do people that demand the pants have money? These are the questions that one should ask of potential markets. Table 1-located at the end of the paper-shows the statistics that are needed for a general market picture. After gathering the information from the secondary research, the picture of a potential market becomes more evident. However, to make the picture clearer, one must conduct primary research. This research outlines the specifics of the potential market that directly pertain to the product. Robert Douglas' book, Penetrating the International Market, addresses the issue of locating potential markets in greater detail.2

A recurring debate exists relative to product planning and focuses on the question of standardized products marketed worldwide versus differentiated products adapted or even redesigned for each culturally unique market. Those with a strong production and unit cost orientation advocate standardization and others, perhaps more culturally sensitive, propose the policy of a different product for each market. The issue cannot be resolved with a simple either/or decision. Cost revenue analyses need to be done and decisions made in the hard, cold lights of profitability. There is no question that significant cost savings can be realized from having standardized

Debate the issue of global versus adapted products for the international market. A recurring debate exists relative to product planning and focuses on the question of standardized products marketed worldwide versus differentiated products adapted or even redesigned for each culturally unique market. Those with a strong production and unit cost orientation advocate standardization and others, perhaps more culturally sensitive, propose the policy of a different

Culture is the most significant factor which should be taken into account by the international marketer in overseas markets. Culture is based on history, nation, religious and social value. Understanding cultural difference is important and the sign which is relevant to cultural feature is vital to international communication (Usunier, Lee, 2009). The sign incorporates products, brand, advertisements and the behaviours of customer (Fred, 1996). For instance, some cultures are related to specific products, ‘Tee culture’ in China, ’Beer culture’ in Germany. Thus, marketers need to learn and understand the different culture in order to do the global communication (Keegan, Green, 2008).