A test of U.S. versus Germanic European...

International management must adjust to different cultures’ moral attitudes, values, and behaviors. Previous research suggests that national culture impacts ethical decision-making and that circumstances high in moral intensity lead to stronger ethical decisions than situations low in moral intensity. In a laboratory experiment we find that U.S. subjects have greater ethical awareness than Germanic Europeans. We attribute this to cultural differences in perception of moral intensity and find subjects from the U.S. versus Germanic Europe to perceive some of the six dimensions of moral intensity at significantly different salience, dependent upon the level of moral intensity involved in an ethical decision.