Perceptions of Business Ethics in a Multicultural Community: The Case of Malaysia

This paper examines the perceptions of the Malays, Chinese and Indian managers and executives on business ethics in Malaysia. Based on twenty-four hypothetical business situations, 161 respondents participated in the study. Discriminant analysis was used to determine the differences in the perceived...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics 2003-03, Vol.43 (1/2), p.75-87
Main Authors: Rashid, Md. Zabid Abdul, Ho, Jo Ann
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business ethics
Business management
Business studies
Case studies
Communication
Communities
Community
Cultural values
Culture
Discriminant analysis
Employees
Ethical instruction
Ethics
Ethnic groups
Executives
Individual ethics
Malaysia
Managers
Minority & ethnic groups
Multiculturalism
Multinational enterprises
Nepotism
Perception
Perceptions
Religion
Southeast Asian culture
Studies
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Summary:This paper examines the perceptions of the Malays, Chinese and Indian managers and executives on business ethics in Malaysia. Based on twenty-four hypothetical business situations, 161 respondents participated in the study. Discriminant analysis was used to determine the differences in the perceived business ethics among the Malays, Chinese and Indian respondents. The overall results of the classification matrix showed that 65.2% of the twenty-four business ethics were correctly classified according to Malays, Chinese, and Indian groups. However, the classification matrix for their perceptions on issues relating to consumers showed that 55.3% of the six issues on ethics were correctly classified, while the results for the issues relating to employees were 67.7% of the twelve issues were correctly classified. The results for the issues relating to suppliers showed that 59.6% of the six issues were correctly classified. These findings suggest that ethnic groups have some influence on the perceived business ethics. The implications of the findings are also discussed.
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1023/A:1022963232042