Proceedings of 12th Asian Business Research Conference
8 - 9 October 2015, Novotel Hotel Bangkok on Siam Square, Bangkok, Thailand
ISBN: 978-1-922069-85-6
Personal Business Ethics across Cultures: A Comparative
Study among Working Adults in Thailand and Vietnam
Lam D. Nguyen
st
The 21 century has marked a new era with technology advances that made the world of
business become more integrated and borderless. The new global economy has brought
together organizations and people from all over the world with different cultural values,
norms and practices, legal systems and ethical standards. Global leaders and managers
nowadays must possess adequate leadership skills to manage the highly cultural diverse
and complex workforce. Understanding and recognizing the differences in cultural values
and ethical standards of people in different countries, as well as properly dealing with
ethical issues that arise in cross cultural environment, are among top priorities of global
business leaders. The purpose of this study is to examine the personal business ethics
perception of working adults in Thailand and Vietnam, the two high-context cultures in
South East Asia. Using Clark and Clark's Personal Business Ethics Scores (PBES)
measure, this study compares their level of ethical maturity based on a variety of
variables including gender, business law course taken, code of conduct, and ethics
training. Using Univariate Analysis of Variance method, this research analyzes 475
working adults (236 Thai and 239 Vietnamese adults) to examine their Personal Business
Ethics Scores (PBES). It appears that Thai respondents have higher business ethics
perception than Vietnamese respondents. Female adults demonstrate higher ethical
maturity level than their male counterparts. Ethics courses, business law courses and
ethics training seminars seem to make a difference in the ethical maturity of the
respondents. Management experience, however, does not make a significant difference
in the ethical perception of the respondents. In this study, literature on business ethics as
well as the current bribery and corruption issues in the Thailand and Vietnam are
presented along with practical applications, suggestions and implications for educators,
managers, and employees.
Keywords: business ethics; business law course; ethical maturity; ethics course; ethics
training; gender; management experience; Thailand; Vietnam
________________________________________________________________
Dr. Lam D. Nguyen, College of Business, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Room 335, Sutliff Hall,
400 East Second Street, Bloomsburg, PA 17815, U.S.A., Email: lnguyen@bloomu.edu