Cross Cultural Essay

Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Owens Corning – A Global Organization
Owens is global organization with operations and partnerships around the globe. Corporations use business ethics daily in most decision making processes. When a company defines their business ethics they must review the company vision, mission statement, and company policies. Owens is a company that has an entire department devoted to this end. They utilize the 4 ethical perspectives character, obligations, results, and equity. Character or virtue is the ability to use good moral principles in decision making, and business integrity. Obligation or Deontology is used when the company practices sound business responsibility to its employees and customers. Results or Utilitarianism perspective looks at the results and consequences of a business action. They want the best for everyone. The perspective of Equity or Relativism is the hardest to utilize because it is based on a lack of knowledge or subject to human judgment.

Companies use varying points of view which can affect the outcome differently.
There are also varying factors that can impact organizational ethics such as the corporate culture of the organization, whether the company has a code of ethics, formal and informal policies and rules. Other factors like financial incentives and rewards as well as a system for recognizing employees, hiring, and promotion practices. The company Owens utilizes those same factors in their global operations. They operate on a global scale and have companies and partnerships in Europe, Africa, The United Kingdom, Canada, The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Russia, Brazil, and Mexico, when a company operates on a global scale they have to adapt the operation to varying cultural differences. This involves having a sound marketing strategy, world-class product development, effective pricing and