Taking ideology out of ethics: from failed business strategies to new cross‐cultural platforms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to engage and provoke thought amongst strategists that their frameworks are bound by their cultural mindsets. The paper aims to explore the need for a new ethical model that accounts for the cultural differences of the participants from Western and Eastern Europe Design/methodology/approach – This paper applies the varied expertise of the three authors to provide an exploratory study of ethics and strategy within different cultural frameworks. Dilemma theory, the chosen methodology that has been recognized by cross‐cultural management scholars, is applied to illustrate the need to resolve a cultural problem between a Latvian and Russian as a means to creating a unified strategic ethical framework. Findings – The demonstration of Russia's cultural past perceptions of the west illustrates the need for crafting a new ethical platform that allows for all cross‐cultural participants to apply dilemma theory as a prescriptive approach to unite their differences into a new strategic framework. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of the study is related to the methodology. In further research longitudinal data could be potentially collected and mined to actually elicit the real dilemmas existing between those participants from the west, the Baltics and Russia that are involved in the strategy formulation process that creates the proposed ethical framework. Practical implications – Many of the people representing companies in the Baltic States are finding themselves reconciling the cultural differences between themselves, members of neighboring Baltic States, Russia, European countries, the USA and Asia. Special attention should be paid to the importance of being a trans‐culturally competent manager in the Baltics by building the bridge from the West to the East. Originality/value – The main value of the paper is the challenge that it provides to all western management scholars to think outside their own mindset when endeavouring to lecture the Eastern European mentality on how to be “ethical”. Moreover, it provides Russian management scholars with a voice and argues the need for a new platform that incorporates their cultural values and thinking.