The Influence of Organizational Culture over the Ethical Principles in International Businesses

One of the most recent tendencies of modern management is that of looking at a company’s activity from the business point of view. The business culture is a very complex element reflected by the company’s organizational culture and by its components, such as the ethical approach in business, carrying the corporate social responsibility, maintaining the etiquette in business or following the good manners guide in international affairs. The necessity of adapting to the peculiarities and the changes of the international business environment has determined the detailed study of those elements which form the organizational culture and has also highlighted the importance of ethics in business. Currently, respecting the ethical principles represents one of the major issues of international companies’ managers. The modern ethical perspective in business underlines the issue of building a new organizational culture oriented towards following the ethical rules or satisfying the society’s necessities; it is not very interested in gaining immediate financial benefits. The result of the interdependency of organizational culture, social responsibility and ethical behavior in business would turn into a long term competitive advantage for companies. Therefore, this paper has as main goal the analysis of the relationship between organizational culture and business ethics in order to identify the key elements of successful businesses.