The Importance of the Cultural Context for Business Ethics: The Italian Example

Abstract

It is not the case that Italy is a country of knaves who know and care nothing about ethics. But for a series of historical reasons, one might well say that Italy is a country with a “low ethical temperature”. We operate within a Catholic tradition, first of all. We don’t have a strong sense of national identity, nor do we have a strong sense of the state. It is as though we lacked faith in hetero-regulatory mechanisms - such as the law - as well as in any internalised, self-regulating mechanisms, other than those relating to family loyalty. So when Banfield (1976) refers to Italy as a country of familial amorality he is quite right. This typically Italian evidence is also a main finding of the research report (ASFOR, 1989) on Italian managers who define many ethical dilemmas in terms of face-to-face problems similar to the familial context. Ours is a country which tends to prefer self-regulatory mechanisms - but then only employs and respects them very partially. Rigour is not the norm with us although our behaviour is much more open and proper than it is often made out to be.