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Article Excerpt
Abstracts
Cross-cultural management research often assumes cultural homogeneity when investigating nations which potentially hold important regional distinctions. Examining four provinces in Canada, evidence for unique, regional-cultural patterns were identified in British Columbia (for lower uncertainty avoidance) and Quebec (for collectivism). Cultural dimensions were also related to the propensity for whistle-blowing with consistent findings particularly associated with uncertainty avoidance. Results demonstrate: 1) the relevance of intra-cultural examination in management research, particularly in culturally complex nations like Canada; 2) evidence for the importance of a lower uncertainty avoidance cultural pattern in British Columbia compared to other sampled regions; 3) evidence for the importance of a higher collectivism cultural pattern in Quebec compared to other sampled regions; and 4) support for theoretical platforms linking uncertainty avoidance to the propensity for whistle-blowing.
Resumes
>. La recherche en gestion qui traite des comparaisons inter culturelles ont souvent postule une homogeneite culturelle dans leurs explorations de nations qui contiennent potentiellement des distinctions regionales importantes. Quatre provinces canadiennes furent examinees. Les resultats demontrent des patrons culturels uniques pour la Colombie-Britannique (en termes de l'aversion a prendre des risques) et le Quebec (pour le collectivisme). Des dimensions culturelles furent aussi reliees a la propension pour le whistle-blowing avec des resultats consistants associes particulierement avec une aversion pour prendre des risques. Les resultats demontrent : 1) la pertinence d'une exploration intra-culturelle dans la recherche sur la gestion, particulierement dans des nations culturellement complexes telle que la Canada ; 2) un appui pour l'importance d'un patron culturel pour un niveau d'aversion de risque plus bas en Colombie-Britannique en comparaison avec les autres regions etudiees ; 3) un appui pour l'importance d'un patron culturel mettant plus d'accent sur le collectivisme au Quebec en comparaison avec les autres regions etudiees; et 4) un appui pour des seuils theoriques qui lient l'aversion de risques a la propension pour le whistle-blowing.
Introduction
Contrary to a majority of research which has focused on ethics management in the United States, this study investigates select intra-cultural nuances within Canada and relates this to the ethics management topic of whistle-blowing. While there is ample research on inter- and cross-cultural examinations of management and ethics management topics, there has been a void for the intra-cultural level of examination (Huo and Randall 1991) and a tendency for management research to minimize the cultural complexity found within Canada.
With the introduction of the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico (NAFTA) over a decade ago, there has been an augmentation of trade between these countries. Consequently, it bas become increasingly important that American and Mexican managers better understand potential cultural nuances within Canada. A greater comprehension of Canadian culture, its potential complexity within the nation, and how cultural dimensions relate to aspects of management will enhance the accuracy of management research and effectiveness of practice. Intra-cultural examination of Canada may serve as an example for better understanding of other culturally complex nations which the U.S. is developing trade agreements with, including other "Anglo" culture types. (1)
There is a void in the literature for understanding the potentially important aspect of intra-cultural dynamics related to management topics (McSweeney 2002). Specifically, there has been a tendency to examine whistle-blowing from a culturally-bound perspective (Tavakoli et al 2003) while intra-cultural examination is even less available. This work examines the specific ethics management topic of whistle-blowing and how this relates to the intra-cultural examination within Canada--a nation where regional diversity has been argued as potentially significant in examining management phenomena (Huo and Randall 1991). The constructs of ethics management, ethics, whistle-blowing and culture will first be discussed along with an overview of research supportive of cultural diversity in Canada.
Ethics Management
Ethics refers to a set of standards used to judge the rightness or wrongness, or "goodness", in terms of concepts like truth and justice (Mosley et al 1991). Ethics includes the collective cognitions and values a society uses to establish that which is right or wrong behavior (Donaldson and Dunfee 1999; Weaver 2001). In particular, business ethics relates specifically to a set of principles that direct how organizations, companies and their employees ought to operate. Ethics management examines how to operationalize those standards within a work or organizational context. Ethics management is defined as the artifacts, activities and concepts that people use to influence their organization's moral climate or direction (MacNab et al 2007).
While a variety of ethics management tools exists (e.g., ethics ombudsman, ethics audits, reporting lines, codes of conduct), our study focuses on whistle-blowing. A number of whistle-blowing definitions exist in the literature but the following elements are often apparent and representative (Miceli and Near 1992; Jubb 1999; Tavakoli et al 2003):
* communication or information sharing that is unauthorized by the target organization;
* normally voluntary;
* reported by a person or group currently or formerly associated with the target organization;
* focusing on potentially illegal, unethical or improper acts;
* to an empowered entity;
* external to the target organization (e.g., a government regulatory body);
* with a potential or desired outcome or consequence.
Although the above seven parameters provide good detail, a straightforward definition has been proposed as the unauthorized and voluntary reporting of illegal or improper acts within an organization to authorities outside the organization (Courtemanche 1988). Others have made a case for understanding the important nuances of internally reported versus externally reported in relation to the topic of whistle-blowing (MacNab et al 2004; Miceli and Near 2002). In this regard, our research focuses on whistle-blowing of the external type (i.e. to an authority outside the organization).
The act of whistle-blowing has become increasingly important in the literature because it is often viewed as risky for the target organization in terms of legal cost, legal sentencing, decreased sales, negative publicity and loss of goodwill (Keenan and Krueger 1992; Vinten 1992). However, some have supported more long-term, organizational benefits from whistle-blowing such as, overall operational improvement (Briefand Motowidlo 1986; Ferrell et al 1998; Hooks et al 1994; Miceli and Schwenk 1991). While these studies have increased our knowledge of whistle-blowing, a majority of these studies have been conducted in the United States.
While there is some agreement regarding the basic definition and components describing the general term whistle-blowing (Miceli and Near 2002), recent studies have clearly identified important nuances. For example, MacNab and colleagues (2007) developed a four part typology for general types of "whistle-blowing" including: Internal reporting; internal whistle-blowing; external reporting and external whistle-blowing. It is theorized that each of these varieties of whistle-blowing have important and unique distinguishing nuances. Each variety might therefore involve different mediation as related to individuals, cultures and context. Additionally, MacNab and colleagues (2007) examined how culture might influence whistle-blowing activity. The findings suggest that culture will play a role in determining propensities toward, or comfort with, whistle-blowing activity. Finally, MacNab and Worthley (2007) developed an examination of individual traits which might influence whistle-blowing behaviors and found support that an individual's level of self-efficacy was influential. While there have been whistle blowing examinations on the cultural and individual level, there remains a more noticeable void for examinations on the intra-cultural level. Canada provides an excellent cultural landscape for such an examination.
In an attempt to expand understanding of whistle-blowing this study is focused on whistle-blowing in Canada as potentially related to certain cultural dimensions. Next, some central components of Canadian culture are discussed.
Canada: The Cultural Mosaic
A cultural system can be defined as people sharing similar beliefs, customs and norms (Brislin et al 1973). Triandis (1977) emphasizes a subjective context to culture by which he means a group's characteristic way of perceiving its social environment. Most definitions about culture share the following elements: 1. human made elements; 2. shared and passed along through communication; 3. increasing the probability for survival and; 4. resulting in greater satisfaction for those in the community. Additionally, culture is to a region...
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