Adopting a Global Code of Business Ethics: A Comparative Analysis of German and U.S. Attitudes toward Universal Guidelines

Abstract

The United States and Germany share significant aspects of their cultures, their legal and regulatory frameworks, and their attitudes toward protecting the rights of their own citizens, and yet, German corporations have been much more willing than American firms to adopt a universal set of ethical guidelines for business. This article investigates the influences of culture, law and regulation, of unions, collective bargaining and corporate governance, the public attention paid to ethical issues and the pertinence of codes of ethics to local business on the willingness of the two countries to adopt a universal code of business ethics.