A cross-cultural comparison of ethical attitudes of business managers in India, South Korea and the United States: Multivariate statistical analysis

Culture has been identified as a significant determinant of ethical attitudes of business managers. But culture is a loaded variable. It needs to be unpacked into a set of interpretable dimensions which as independent variables can help reach meaningful conclusions.;This research studies the impact of culture on the ethical attitudes of business managers in India, South Korea and the United States using multivariate statistical analysis. Employing Geert Hofstede's cultural typology, this study examines the relationship between his five cultural dimensions---individualism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity and long-term orientation---and business managers' ethical attitudes. Additionally, it examines the relationship between. business managers' ethical attitudes and various demographic and organizational variables.;The study uses primary data collected from 345 business managers currently participating in Executive MBA programs in selected business schools in India, South Korea and the United States using Hofstede's Value Survey Module (94) and an instrument designed by the researcher to measure respondents' ethical attitudes---attitudes toward business ethics in general and toward twelve common questionable practices in particular.;Results indicate that culture has a strong influence on business managers' ethical attitudes. In addition to culture, respondents' general attitudes toward business ethics are related to their personal integrity; their attitudes toward questionable business practices are related to the external environment, gender and personal integrity. A strong relationship exists between cultural dimensions of individualism and power distance and respondents' ethical attitudes toward certain questionable practices. The analysis of the relationship between cultural dimensions of masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation and respondents' ethical attitudes toward questionable practices produced mixed results, likely due to the lack of notable differences in cultural dimension scores among the countries surveyed.;This research also addresses certain methodological issues often ignored in cross-cultural studies on business ethical attitudes and makes specific use recommendations.