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With the advent of globalisation, Western values have diffused worldwide and eroded many cultural barriers. The way of doing business – transnationally – has therefore, necessarily, converted to those practices and values promulgated by the Western core. These practices are esteemed as value-free (by the West) but are, in actual fact, representative of Western values and ideologies. Value-free economics and business are therefore nothing but an instrumental delusion (Rice, 1999:346) to ensure the conformation of non-Western societies’ corporate practices towards those of the ‘global North’. It is, therefore, important to acknowledge that business ethics vary across cultures and religions and an investigation of these differences gives one insight into the workings of transnational corporations. In the following section I will identify what is meant by work and business ethics.

A particular “business ethic” and its history are unique to each country and region. “Business ethics is understood in a comprehensive sense that includes issues at the individual, organizational, and systemic levels of decision making and acting in business and economic life” (Enderle, 1997:1476). Business ethics are further defined by Rossouw (1997:1540):

As far as definitions of business ethics go, mainly three trends are apparent ... The first trend defines Business ethics in terms of personal values and virtues that should be applied to business practices; the second, in terms of the application of societal or religious norms/ rules/standards/values to business practices; and the third as a reflection on economic and business practices and decision-making that will ensure that business activities are beneficial to individuals and society alike within the framework of a competitive market-driven economy.

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Hamilton-Attwell (1998:79) defines a work ethic as “the basic belief that a person should do work that has some basic moral worth and that every person should do his or her very best, irrespective of reward”. Conversely, one can define a work ethic as a set of beliefs or perceptions about work. A work ethic, or business ethic, has been the focal point of many historical scholars such as Weber. It was in fact the publication of The Protestant Ethic and

the Spirit of Capitalism which placed work ethics central to a significant body of scholarship

(Ali & Al-Owaihan, 2008:6). Enderle (1997:1476) ascribes the emergence of business ethics as a scholarly topic to two primary assumptions (amongst others): Firstly, that good ethics will lead to good business: “Ethical conduct lies in the self-enlightened interest of the companies and is seen as an important motivational and unifying force to compete in the global marketplace,” and secondly, the idea that economic thinking has penetrated all domains of life as the “economisation of society”. When considering this concept historically, one can identify key changes and ideologies which led to the globalised and Western notion of modern work practices. Ali & Al-Owaihan (2008:6) states:

[W]ork ethic as a concept was the product of an era of scarcity and deprivation when workers either worked or starved. He viewed work ethic as an ideology propagated by the middle classes for the working classes with enough ‘plausibility and truth to make it credible’ … [T]he existence of work ethic is a phenomenon that is linked to and associated with the emergence of industrial revolution and the rise of contemporary capitalism.

During the 18th century religious and social norms appeared as rather hostile of work per se. Adam Smith, in his most famous text The Wealth of Nations (1776), described businessmen as “an order of men, whose interest is never the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it”. Ali & Al-Owaihan (2008:6) add some comment on this when they argue: “This negative view of work may induce researchers in the West to attribute the evolving positive view of work to the emergence of Protestantism in Christian Europe and the corresponding rise of the industrial revolution” (Ali & Al- Owaihan, 2008:6).

When looking at the concept of work ethic historically, five different views can be identified. The Classical view respects the planning of wars, large-scale commerce, arts, architecture, literature and philosophy during the Greek and Roman civilisations as noble work. “But work, hard labour and subordination to a master’s orders were inherently degrading. In fact it

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was something that only a slave should do. And slaves could only be motivated to do this work for fear of the master’s whip and starvation” (Hamilton-Attwell, 1998:80). Work, however, as viewed by the Hebrew doctrine, was none other than a curse and punishment by God as noted in God’s treatment of Adam and Eve as written in the book of Genesis. The second view, that of the Traditionalist work ethic, was perceived as the ultimate outlook one should have regarding one’s work. It is Weber’s writing on the Protestant ethic that describes the traditional view of work. This includes maxims written by Benjamin Franklin in Advice to

Young Tradesmen; the most important of which are:

Time is money; Credit is money; Money can beget money; The good paymaster is Lord of another man’s purse; Keep an exact account for some time of both your expenses and your incomes; Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both; If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as of getting; Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt

(Hamilton-Atwell, 1998:81).

The accumulation of wealth without displaying it or buying influence whilst saving for the future and reinvesting in new ventures, in addition to many of Benjamin Franklin’s maxims, have become fundamental to business in the Euro-American West. The fourth view, the

Rationalist view, elucidated manners in which production could be stimulated through

actions of the entrepreneur. Freedom, self-interest and individualism were core themes underlying this view. No interference from government or any other group was to be allowed in economic affairs and “the work domain had no social or cultural value” (Hamilton-Atwell, 1998:82). The fourth historical trend in the development of business ethics was that of the

Japanese view which differed significantly from the Protestant ethic. The foundation of this

view was religious, particularly Confucian, which highlighted the importance of trust in employment practices and “a sense of fulfilment from work to attain a common purpose” (Hamilton-Atwell, 1998:82). The fifth and final view of business ethics is that of the Post-

Industrial view. This view supposes that the modern employee is more enlightened and has

the following five characteristics: self-actualisation; hedonism; entitlementalism; anti- productivism; and anti-authoritarianism (Hamilton-Atwell, 1998:83).

Work and business ethics have, in recent decades, come to the fore in academic scholarship as there is an increased awareness that differing work and business ethics ought to be studied as it has significant influences in the corporate climate of transnational corporations which

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employ both nationals and expatriates from around the globe. It is, however, also noteworthy to discover who these transnational workers are and how one can go about studying them.