Encouraging informed balance in management education: An ethical path to understanding Middle Eastern culturalism

Abstract

Practitioner tools to promote multicultural understanding in business ethics are scarce. Moreover, training is often ethnocentric, potentially fanning differences and even exacerbating tensions when values conflict. We address this void by presenting a framework to help managers consider ethical decision-making from an alternative perspective. By way of example, we focus on the tribal-collectivist perspective emanating from the Middle East. Our goal is to prompt openness regarding a tribal-collectivist lens in relation to the more individualistic standards common in the West. By examining an alternative way of approaching ethical issues, we show how other views may complement and/or contradict Western assumptions in pursuit of moral action. Several management education activities are presented, designed to create a more balanced focus toward business ethics, elevating strengths and weaknesses, and framing alternative viewpoints as resources. Through facilitated discovery managers from around the world can transcend their own biases and assumptions, using Balanced Experiential Inquiry (BEI) to build moral competency. Working to identify commonalities and differences is essential if we hope to advance respect and accommodation for the views of others. Rather than overlooking precepts derived from culture and religion, collaborative reflection and discourse can be used to advance ethical awareness in organizational settings.