Foreign Business "Payments":: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Greek and American Ethical Evaluations
This study investigates the differences in the way illegal payments to officials are perceived by two different cultures - American and Greek. Two hundred and forty American business students and two hundred and four Greek business students were presented with three scenarios describing a government official demanding a bribe from a businessman and three scenarios describing a government official being offered a bribe by a businessman. The Reidenbach-Robin instrument was used to measure the thical reactions of the two samples to these scenarios. Results indicate that ethical reaction to bribery vary by (a) the nationality of the person offering the bribe, and (b) the country where the bribe is offered. In addition, Greeks perceived bribery differently from the American on only one of the scenarios.