An expose of bad businesses and their unethical practices

I came across an interesting article the other day which does an excellent job of contrasting the points of view from which business ethics are seen in the U.S. and in China. This article and its authors, Fred Burton and Scott Stewart, concentrates on the Chinese business philosophy of guanxi. Guanxi is a complex cultural system of business and personal relationships which the Western mind often sees simply as corruption.

The practices of guanxi are thoroughly imbedded in Chinese custom and when Western businesses try to cleanse the practices from their business enterprises in China, resistance is fierce. Basically, where Westerners feel the first loyalty of an employee is to the company, the Chinese often feel that the first loyalty is due to some other party with whom they have some sort of mutually rewarding business relationship or friendship.

Although Westerners see these practices as corrupt, the Chinese see them as the simply the way in which business should be done. At the interface of guanxi and Western business practices, tensions are understandably common. As the authors of the article say, perhaps the Chinese culture is not guilty of Bad Business but of Totally Different Business. If you do business in China, or are planning to, this article would be an excellent place to start your research.