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Ethical dilemmas of relationship building in china
Author(s) -
Stanley Snell Robin,
Tseng Choosin
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
thunderbird international business review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.553
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1520-6874
pISSN - 1096-4762
DOI - 10.1002/tie.1
Subject(s) - guanxi , china , mainland china , anomie , business ethics , language change , lawrence kohlberg's stages of moral development , newspaper , corporate governance , sociology , morality , public relations , law and economics , political science , law , economics , management , moral reasoning , art , literature
We analyze and discuss some ethical dilemmas of doing business on the Chinese Mainland, referring to detailed accounts of the gift‐giving and contract‐getting experiences of two overseas Chinese managers in dealings with Mainland Chinese managers in the sporting and leisure industries. We compare these cases with accounts of transactions in worldwide ship repair, and with a newspaper report of a sport‐related case in Hong Kong. Using a version of Kohlberg's moral‐stages model, and identifying key differences between guanxi and rational‐legal ethics, we explain how guanxi can become entangled with corruption in China. We link our explanations to the absence of rational‐legal moral governance, and to the sociological phenomena of anomie and relative deprivation. We conclude with suggestions about the conduct of China business. 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.