MGMT5050 Chap.6 Ethics Across Cultures

Ethics Across Cultures

Cultural humility replaces claims of cultural mastery with ongoing self-reflection, inquiry, attention to power and accountable adaptation. The chapter distinguishes understanding from moral approval and avoids treating communities as single voices. It shows how a global responsibility can remain firm while the process for evidence, participation and remedy adapts to context.

What this chapter covers

• 01

  Limits of cultural knowledge

• 02

  Power and safe disagreement

• 03

  Explanation versus justification

• 04

  Global boundaries and local process

• 05

  Learning, adaptation and correction

Worked example · free

Localise a speak-up system

Key terms

Cultural humility

Ongoing self-reflection, inquiry and attention to power across cultural difference.

Cultural essentialism

Treating a diverse group as if every member shares fixed traits or values.

Core boundary

A responsibility or protection that adaptation must preserve.

Ethics Across Cultures FAQ

Assessment move

When reading a global case, list your assumptions and the voices missing from the material. Separate what must be protected from what can be adapted in process.

Build a detailed working note from the chapter: C6 · CULTURAL HUMILITY Practise cultural humility in global decisions D-CASE · WEEK 6 Replace mastery claims with inquiry, reflection and accountable adaptation culture · power · listening · correction Global business ethics becomes shallow when culture is treated as a list of national traits;

Cultural humility is a continuing practice of recognising the limits of one's knowledge, examining how power shapes interaction and learning from people whose experience differs; It does not require abandoning ethical standards;

It requires checking whether the way those standards are interpreted or implemented ignores context and voice; Move beyond “respect differences” Begin with curiosity about how a practice is understood locally, who has authority to speak and whose disagreement may be unsafe to express;

Distinguish explanation from justification: learning why a norm exists does not automatically make every consequence acceptable; Look for insiders who disagree with each other, because a community is never a single voice;

Adapt the process where possible and explain any non-negotiable boundary with reasons; My assumptions power · norms · experience Others' realities voice · context · meaning inquiry reflection and correction Cultural humility is ongoing;

Inquiry must be paired with reflection on power and a willingness to correct practice; Practice Observable behaviour Self-reflection Name assumptions and how your position shapes access Inquiry Ask open questions without demanding one spokesperson Power awareness Create channels for lower-power participants to disagree Adaptation Change timing, format, consultation or implementation Accountability Return with what changed and invite correction ;

Avoid cultural essentialism Do not infer an individual's values from a national label; Treat cultural information as a question to investigate, not a verdict about a person; C6 · GLOBAL ETHICS Navigate a cross-cultural implementation conflict B-METHOD · CASE Keep ethical boundaries while changing how the decision is made voice · context · boundary · learning Separate the outcome from the process A global policy may express a legitimate responsibility while its rollout silences the people it is meant to protect;

Test both; Ask whether the desired outcome is defensible, whether the process gives affected groups meaningful influence and whether local adaptations preserve the core purpose; This avoids the false choice between imposing a headquarters template and accepting every local practice;

GLOBAL-LOCAL DISTINCTION Core boundary: the responsibility that must be protected; Adaptable process: how evidence, voice, timing and remedy are organised locally; MODEL A speak-up system across regions boundary plus adaptation A company introduces one English-only hotline for reporting harassment;

The underlying boundary, safe access to remedy, is defensible; The process is not; A culturally humble design uses trusted local channels, language choice, protection against retaliation and consultation with workers who understand informal power;

Headquarters keeps common standards for investigation and review, while local partners help shape access; The organisation then reports back on changes and monitors whether lower-power workers actually use the system; TRY 1 Essentialism check AskSia practice Prompt: Rewrite “employees from this culture avoid conflict.” Answer: Ask which organisational, language and power conditions make open disagreement costly in this setting, then gather evidence;

TRY 2 Non-negotiable AskSia practice Prompt: When can a company refuse local adaptation; Answer: When adaptation would remove a fundamental protection or enable serious harm; explain the boundary and seek a culturally workable path to uphold it; End a cross-cultural recommendation by stating what you learned from local voices and exactly what changed because of that learning; CLOSING MOVE · RETURN WITH CHANGE.

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