A cross-cultural comparison of ethical behavior in business related dilemmas: A comparison among Turkish, Egyptian, Kirghiz and Kazak marketing employees

Research comparing the ethical behavior of people from different nations other than the Western world is limited. This study tries to partially fill this gap in the literature on ethical behavior by investigating the ethical responses of Turkish, Egyptian, Kirghiz and Kazak marketing employees to four different types of ethical dilemmas submitted in the vignette form. Responses were examined to understand whether the ethical behavior of marketing employees from different cultures and economic ideologies varied according to the type of ethical problem faced, and if demographic factors affected their responses. The results indicate that respondents vary in their ethical decisions depending on which type of ethical problem they face. Kirghiz and Kazak respondents' ethical behavior choices are similar to each other but different from Turkish and Egyptian ones, while Turkish and Egyptian responses to three vignettes out of four resemble each other. It is worth noting that all of the respondents taking part in this study were found to be ethically sensitive toward the whistle blowing problem, but their ethically least-sensitive issue was the bribery dilemma. Among the demographic variables included in this study, only the years of experience and the education level had significant effects on the respondents' ethical-decision choices across the different types of ethical problems.