Tendency to Infer Bribery and Corrupt Intent in Social and Business Situations: Comparing Chinese and Singaporean Employees

The present paper investigates the differences in ethicalperceptions between Chinese and Singaporean employees. Twocontrasting predictions based on socialization theory are testedusing 142 Chinese and 141 Singaporean employees as subjects. Results show that Chinese employees tend to infer a greaterdegree of unethical (bribery and corrupt) intent than Singaporeanemployees in 17 of the 25 ethical vignettes. The converse isfound in only two and no significant differences are found in therest of the vignettes. Implications for international managersand assignees and researchers in international business workingon or in China are discussed.