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9 - The resurgence of ancient civilizations: a taste of the exotic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Terence Jackson
Affiliation:
Middlesex University Business School
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Summary

Although India and South Asia, and East Asia (except Japan) are often lumped together with Africa as ‘developing’ or at least emerging countries, there is often almost a reverence (from the West) towards these regions as being the successors of ancient civilizations. This reverence does not exist for Africa, which is seen as being without history. Nonetheless, much has been written, particularly on China and India, on the problems of business ethics. For example, similar arguments are given for China, as an economy in transition, as they are for say Russia (see Chapter 6), that ‘China today has business ethics issues primarily because its economy is in transition … As the old command economy is replaced by a market-based economy, the rules of the game become less clear, and central authorities have less control’ (Hulpke and Lau, 2008: 59). That this may be an oversimplification is taken up later. In some ways these regions of Asia are seen in the same light as Africa: corruption, nepotism and so on. Yet Said (1978/1995) had pointed to this ambivalence of the West towards the East: not only seeing the ‘Orient’ as backward and primitive, but also seeing it as exotic. He alludes to ‘Oriental despotism, Oriental splendour, cruelty, sensuality’ (2008: 5).

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Chapter
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International Management Ethics
A Critical, Cross-cultural Perspective
, pp. 239 - 266
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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