IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i11p3097-d236301.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Personality Effects on the Endorsement of Ethically Questionable Negotiation Strategies: Business Ethics in Canada and China

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaoyi Liu

    (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, Heilongjiang, China)

  • Zhenzhong Ma

    (School of Business, Nanjing Audit University, Nanjing 211815, China
    Odette School of Business, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9E 4Z4, Canada)

  • Dapeng Liang

    (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, Heilongjiang, China)

Abstract

This study explores personality effects on the endorsement of ethically questionable negotiation strategies in Canada and China. With a sample of over 400 business professionals, this study examines the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and the perceived appropriateness of five categories of negotiation strategies in the two cultures. The results show that the Big Five personality traits strongly affect the endorsement of ethically questionable negotiation strategies (EQNS) both in Canada and in China, but in different ways. For Canadian negotiators, individuals high in conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness are more prone to use EQNS, and individuals high in emotional stability and agreeableness are less likely to use them. For negotiators from Mainland China, only agreeableness and emotional stability are negatively associated with the endorsement of the EQNS. Implications for research on business ethics and for negotiation practitioners and policymakers are then discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaoyi Liu & Zhenzhong Ma & Dapeng Liang, 2019. "Personality Effects on the Endorsement of Ethically Questionable Negotiation Strategies: Business Ethics in Canada and China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:11:p:3097-:d:236301
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/11/3097/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/11/3097/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kit-Chun Lam & Guicheng Shi & Guicheng Shi, 2008. "Factors Affecting Ethical Attitudes in Mainland China and Hong Kong," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 77(4), pages 463-479, February.
    2. Moshe Banai & Abraham Stefanidis & Ana Shetach & Mehmet Özbek, 2014. "Attitudes Toward Ethically Questionable Negotiation Tactics: A Two-Country Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(4), pages 669-685, September.
    3. Karianne Kalshoven & Deanne Den Hartog & Annebel De Hoogh, 2011. "Ethical Leader Behavior and Big Five Factors of Personality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 100(2), pages 349-366, May.
    4. Ruth Alas, 2006. "Ethics in countries with different cultural dimensions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 69(3), pages 237-247, December.
    5. Volkema, Roger J., 1999. "Ethicality in Negotiations: An Analysis of Perceptual Similarities and Differences Between Brazil and the United States," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 59-67, May.
    6. Moberg, Dennis J., 1999. "The Big Five and Organizational Virtue," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 245-272, April.
    7. Zhenzhong Ma, 2009. "The Status of Contemporary Business Ethics Research: Present and Future," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(3), pages 255-265, December.
    8. Zhenzhong Ma & Dapeng Liang & Honghui Chen, 2013. "Negotiating with the Chinese: Are They More Likely to Use Unethical Strategies?," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 641-655, July.
    9. George Lan & Zhenzhong Ma & JianAn Cao & He Zhang, 2009. "A Comparison of Personal Values of Chinese Accounting Practitioners and Students," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 59-76, April.
    10. Po Ip, 2009. "Is Confucianism Good for Business Ethics in China?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 463-476, September.
    11. Zhenzhong Ma, 2010. "The SINS in Business Negotiations: Explore the Cross-Cultural Differences in Business Ethics Between Canada and China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(1), pages 123-135, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Beatriz Andres & Vicente Javier Blanes, 2020. "A Negotiation Approach to Support the Strategies Alignment Process in Collaborative Networks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-30, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhenzhong Ma & Dapeng Liang & Honghui Chen, 2013. "Negotiating with the Chinese: Are They More Likely to Use Unethical Strategies?," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 641-655, July.
    2. Zhenzhong Ma, 2010. "The SINS in Business Negotiations: Explore the Cross-Cultural Differences in Business Ethics Between Canada and China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(1), pages 123-135, February.
    3. Aditya Simha & K. Praveen Parboteeah, 2020. "The Big 5 Personality Traits and Willingness to Justify Unethical Behavior—A Cross-National Examination," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 451-471, December.
    4. Sherwood, Charles, 2022. "A lie is a lie: the ethics of lying in business negotiations," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113331, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Lillian Y. Fok & Dinah M. Payne & Christy M. Corey, 2016. "Cultural Values, Utilitarian Orientation, and Ethical Decision Making: A Comparison of U.S. and Puerto Rican Professionals," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(2), pages 263-279, March.
    6. Cheryl Rivers & Roger Volkema, 2013. "East–West Differences in “Tricky” Tactics: A Comparison of the Tactical Preferences of Chinese and Australian Negotiators," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 17-31, June.
    7. David Ralston & Carolyn Egri & Olivier Furrer & Min-Hsun Kuo & Yongjuan Li & Florian Wangenheim & Marina Dabic & Irina Naoumova & Katsuhiko Shimizu & María Garza Carranza & Ping Fu & Vojko Potocan & A, 2014. "Societal-Level Versus Individual-Level Predictions of Ethical Behavior: A 48-Society Study of Collectivism and Individualism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(2), pages 283-306, June.
    8. Lei Wang & Heikki Juslin, 2013. "Corporate Social Responsibility in the Chinese Forest Industry: Understanding Multiple Stakeholder Perceptions," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(3), pages 129-145, May.
    9. Yu Yang & David De Cremer & Chao Wang, 2017. "How Ethically Would Americans and Chinese Negotiate? The Effect of Intra-cultural Versus Inter-cultural Negotiations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(3), pages 659-670, October.
    10. Zhenzhong Ma & Maoliang Bu, 2021. "A New Research Horizon for Mass Entrepreneurship Policy and Chinese Firms’ CSR: Introduction to the Thematic Symposium," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(4), pages 603-607, April.
    11. Raphael Schoen, 2021. "Lacking pluralism? A critical review of the use of cultural dimensions in negotiation research," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(2), pages 393-432, April.
    12. Martin Obschonka & Mingjie Zhou & Yixin Zhou & Jianxin Zhang & Rainer K. Silbereisen, 2019. "“Confucian” traits, entrepreneurial personality, and entrepreneurship in China: a regional analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 961-979, December.
    13. Shujun Chao & Shanyong Wang & Haidong Li & Shu Yang, 2023. "The power of culture: Does Confucian culture contribute to corporate environmental information disclosure?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2435-2456, September.
    14. Irene Chu & Mai Chi Vu, 2022. "The Nature of the Self, Self-regulation and Moral Action: Implications from the Confucian Relational Self and Buddhist Non-self," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 245-262, September.
    15. Fuan Li & Mike Chen-ho Chao & Nancy Yi-feng Chen & Sixue Zhang, 2018. "Moral judgment in a business setting: The role of managers’ moral foundation, ideology, and level of moral development," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 121-143, March.
    16. Ming Kong & Jie Xin & Wenxiao Xu & Haonan Li & Dandan Xu, 2022. "The moral licensing effect between work effort and unethical pro-organizational behavior: The moderating influence of Confucian value," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 515-537, June.
    17. M. Rosario González-Rodríguez & M. Carmen Díaz Fernández & Biagio Simonetti, 2016. "Corporate Social Responsibility perception versus human values: a structural equation modeling approach," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(13), pages 2396-2415, October.
    18. Lei Wang & Heikki Juslin, 2011. "The effects of value on the perception of corporate social responsibility implementation: A study of Chinese youth," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(4), pages 246-262, July.
    19. Min Huang & Mengyao Li & Cailing Huang, 2024. "Confucianism culture and green innovation: Evidence from Chinese industrial firms," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 4862-4877, September.
    20. Kaili Zhang & Bin Zhao & Kui Yin, 2024. "When Leaders Acknowledge Their Own Errors, Will Employees Follow Suit? A Social Learning Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(2), pages 403-421, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:11:p:3097-:d:236301. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.