This paper offers six heuristic questions to guide a discussion to a decision on how an organization should act when confronted with a cross cultural ethical conflict.  Google's decision to host web searches in China serves as an example.  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 by Donaldson and Dunfee and more recently the Global Business Citizenship Approach of Donna Wood et al., 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, 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.   GoogleInChina.pdf  

 This paper discusses organizational blocks that pressure employees to act unethically, even though neither their organization nor they themselves want to act unethically.  The analysis uses an example of a decision regarding toxic waste disposal that illustrates pressures at the level of the organization's mission, its structure and processes, and its culture.  In the early 1990s, managers at Exxon decided to seek lower cost disposal in Louisiana for oil-field wastes declared hazardous in Alabama. This decision resulted in injuries to the residents of Grand Bois, Louisiana; the disposal company; Exxon; and the oil industry in the state. Given the need for business and society to manage business operations for mutual benefit, it is essential to understand why businesses injure the public so that similar incidents do not happen again. The authors use three analytical perspectives to suggest how corporations may make unethical decisions without purposefully setting out to do so: their managers may fail to understand changing social expectations for corporate behavior; they may adopt organizational structures, policies, and procedures that block ethical action in the name of efficiency; and they may follow unwritten rules of behavior for career success that exclude ethics. These perspectives suggest that individual Exxon managers may not have been making greed-based decisions, weighing corporate gains against harms to others. The situation more likely involved a failure, for the reasons discussed, to raise ethics questions in making business decisions. This explanation does not make much difference to those injured nor does it absolve those who made the decisions. It does make a difference to society and to companies seeking to understand factors that have to be overcome in any large corporation that wishes to prevent such events from occurring. 
 ExxonAtGrandBoisLa.pdf  

This paper offers a more detailed and comprehensive discussion of organizational blocks that pressure employees to act unethically, even though neither their organization nor they themselves want to act unethically.  The analysis uses multiple examples of recent business conduct that illustrate pressures at the level of the organization's mission, its structure, processes, and rewards, and its culture. This study adds to the empirical evidence supporting a significant connection between ethics and profitability by examining the connection between published reports of unethical behaviour by publicly traded U.S. and multinational firms and the performance of their stock. Using reports of unethical behaviour published in the Wall Street Journal from 1989 to 1993, the analysis shows that the actual stock performance for those companies was lower than the expected market adjusted returns. Unethical conduct by firms which is discovered and publicized does impact on the shareholders by lowering the value of their stock for an appreciable period of time. Whatever their views on whether ethical behaviour is profitable, managers should be able to see a definite connection between unethical behaviour and the worth of their firm's stock. Stockholders, the press and regulators should find this information important in pressing for greater corporate and managerial accountability.
ObservationsOnNeedToRedesignOrganizations.docx

This case study outlines the process Conoco used to solicit nominations from its employees for an annual Business Ethics award that provided the company and its external stakeholders with concrete examples of the decision making that was called for by the core value of Business Ethics.  The two interviews that follow give further information on how the award originated, was implemented, and on what effects it had on conduct within the company.  Conoco'sDecision.doc

“Creating an Ethical Culture as a Strategic Advantage for Global Growth: A Conversation with Archie Dunham, former Chairman of ConocoPhillips,”  Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 10, No. 4 November, 2005, 82-89, Hill, V., Hamilton, J.B. III, and M. Smith. 
ArchieDunhamInterviewCreatingEthicalCulture.pdf

“Implementing Ethics in a Corporate Environment: A Conversation with Steve L. Scheck, General Auditor and Chief Ethics Officer, ConocoPhillips,”  Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 11, No. 1 January, 2006, Hill, V., Hamilton, J.B. III, and M. Smith.
SteveScheckInterviewImplementingEthics.pdf

The article reviews the book "Combating Corruption, Encouraging Ethics: A Practical Guide to Management Ethics," second edition, edited by William L. Richter and Frances Burke. CombatingCorruptionEncouragingEthics.pdf

This paper offers an argument for the moral legitimacy of business lobbying and applies ethical decision making principles to show how business can conduct its lobbying in an ethical fashion.  Rather than being inherently evil, business lobbying is a socially responsible activity which needs to be restrained by ethical standards. To be effective in a business environment, traditional ethical standards need to be translated into language which business persons can speak comfortably. Economical explanations must also be available to explain why ethical standards are appropriate in business. Eight such standards and their validating arguments are proposed with examples showing their use. Internal dialogues regarding the ethics of lobbying objectives and tactics will plausibly occur only in businesses which recognize social responsibility mandates. Public interest stakeholders could hasten this recognition by making use of information made available by the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1993 to institute external dialogues regarding lobbying by specific businesses and industry groups. Given practical ethical standards and the information on business lobbying provided by the law, the press, corporate activists, consumers, pension fund managers and the public can apply pressure for ethical lobbying practices.
 EthicalStandardsForBusinessLobbying.pdf

These two papers on truth telling in business, and marketing in particular, offer two practical guides for when telling the truth is required--the Expectation Standard when the recepient expects the truth as opposed to when he/she knows that the rules of the encounter allow exaggeration and bluffing, and the Reputation Standard when the organization's reputation, as it is or aspires to be, requires the truth.  The news reminds us almost daily that the "truth" is apparently not highly valued by many in business. This paper develops two prescriptive standards -- the Expectation and Reputation guidelines -- that may help businesspeople avoid violating clearly accepted truth standards. The guidelines also assist in determining whether truth is required in circumstances where honesty seems in conflict with the practical demands of business. A discussion of why, when and how these guidelines may be applied to facilitate truth-telling by business organizations follows, along with illustrative examples.  TwoPracticalGuidelinesForTruthTelling.pdf

Salespeople have a moral obligation to their prospect/customer, company and self. As such, they continually encounter truth-telling dilemmas. “lgnorance” and “conflict” often block the path to morally correct sales behaviors. Academics and practitioners agree that adoption of ethical codes is the most effective measure for encouraging ethical sales behaviors.  Yet no ethical code has been offered which can be conveniently used to overcome the unique circumstances that contribute to the moral dilemmas often encountered in personal selling. In this article an ethical code is developed that charts ethical paths across a variety of sales settings (addressing “ignorance”) while illustrating why the cost associated with acting morally is generally reasonable (addressing “conflict”). The code applies the universal transactional notions of customer expectations and salesperson reputation to illustrate why and when salespeople are morally required to tell the truth. In doing so, the code tackles head-on the vexing question of how best to juggle mixed motives– involving self-interests, corporate-concerns, customer-needs and other influences such as the nature of the transaction. The issue of how mixed motives can be dealt with through moral means is one that ethicists have previously sidestepped. 
EssayOnWhenToFullyDiscloseInSales.pdf