Ethical and Ethnic Values in Organizational Culture in Latvia. Part I

Abstract

The authors of the article show the importance of studying the economic environment, organizational culture in Latvia, as an ethnically diverse side, taking into account the influence of the ethnic factor. Since there are two ethnocultural poles in the ethnic diversity of Latvia - ethnic Latvians, who are the core of the Latvian nation-state, and Russians, as the largest ethnic minority in the country, the author of the article focused on the issue of the nature of ethnic differences within the Latvian organizational culture. The complexity of this approach to description is due to the fact that the vast majority of scientific works in Latvia, taking into account the influence of the ethnic factor on social life, belong to the field of political science and sociological research. While the few works within the framework of the economic science of Latvia consider the established organizational culture in this country mainly as a homogeneous ethno-cultural entity. To confirm the hypothesis that the ethnic factor also plays an important role in the economic life of Latvia, the author of the article in 2021 organized a sociological study in research project “Interaction of the individual, society and the state in the overall process of Latvian history: conflicts of values and the formation of common values at historical breaking points”. The purpose of this study was to identify the ethnic characteristics of the organizational culture in Latvia through the nature of the ethical relationship between ethnic Latvians and Russians in the economic life of the country. As a key indicator of the integrity of organizational culture for the multi-ethnic environment of Latvia, the author chose the value of universal moral norms, primarily justice, to regulate relations between ethnic Latvians and Russians, to mutually assess their professional and personal qualities in the life of companies and organizations. The data of this study showed that a high assessment of the ideals of justice is characteristic of the moral consciousness of both ethnic Latvian and Russian respondents. At the same time, the attitude towards the implementation of these ideals, as well as other moral values, in economic behavior, business communication, in the adoption of corporate ethics and respect for the established hierarchy in the enterprise and organization, in the perception of professional, moral and psychological qualities of employees with different ethnic identities has some differences among representatives of these ethnic groups. This indicates a significant place of ethnic favoritism both in the minds of ethnic Latvians and Russians when assessing the opposite side, and thus the existence of ethnic subcultures within the business culture and organizational culture in Latvia. Given the large volume of the article, it is divided into two parts. The first part provides a theoretical justification for understanding the relationship between ethical and ethnic values in organizational culture. The second part presents the data of sociological research and their analysis.