Transcript Ethics In The New Economy

Cultural differences
Denise Oram and Mike Headon
Centre for Applied Internet Research
North East Wales Institute, Wrexham,UK
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What is culture?
Why are cultural differences important?
Approaches to the problem
Difficulties involved
Some solutions
Culture
• Organisational
• National
Organisational culture
company history and tradition
leader influence
technology
industry competition
legislation and company environment
procedures and policies
Organisational culture (cont’d)
missions
visions
values and beliefs
organisation
resources
(Goodman, 1997)
National culture
“A shared set of beliefs, attitudes, norms, values, and
behavior organized around a central theme and
found among speakers of one language, in one
time period, and in one geographic region”
(Triandis, 1995)
A synthesised definition of
culture
“A dynamic mix of national/geographic,
organisational, and professional or disciplinary
elements in constant interaction with one another”
(Heaton, 1998)
• every worker in the industrialised countries uses
computer-based information systems for daily work
• systems involve relationships between individuals
• relationships between individuals are guided by
systems of ethics
• computer-based information systems present new
and unresolved ethical problems
• cultural differences need to be reconciled
• ethics is a highly conceptual field
Speaker
Message
Hearer
“Words obtain meanings in the context of collective
actions by groups of people”
(Stamper, 1991)
Idea 1
Coder
Message
Decoder
Idea 2
context
It’s not what comes out of the mouth – it’s what’s
inside the head
requirements elicitation
or
requirements negotiation?
“Those are my principles – if you don’t like them, I
have others”
(Marx [Groucho])
Steinmann & Lohr’s “constructivist
dialogue ethics” (1996)
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procedural approach to ethics
derived from the practice of life
conflict resolution based on consensus, not
power structures
consensus solutions are better and more stable
harmony is the normative ideal
constrained
ethics
laws
regulations
negotiated
ethics
shareholder
theory
must
duty
stakeholder
theory
ought
obligation
situated
ethics
should
rightness
The culturally negotiated
ethical triangle
social contract
theory
CAIRtools Inc!
Hofstede
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Power distance
Uncertainty avoidance
Individualism
Masculinity/femininity
(later) Long-term/short-term orientation
Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner
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Universalism/particularism
Individualism/communitarianism
Affective/neutral
Specific/diffuse
Achievement/ascription
Time orientation (past, present, future)
Internal/external