Corruption and ethical relativism: what is at stake?

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to see to what extent ethical relativism could be adopted as justification for corrupt practices. Design/methodology/approach - The paper analyzed the various perspectives which were used to define the boundaries of corruption: a structural perspective, a social‐normative perspective, and an organizational‐normative perspective. It then identified the various ethics positions that could be chosen and particularly focuses on ethical relativism. Findings - The paper finds that corruption should be considered not only as a social construct, a cultural phenomenon (from a social‐historical viewpoint), but also as an object for ethical reasoning (from a moral viewpoint). Owing to that fact that corruption serves both to sway people away from their moral duties and to favour self‐interest, we cannot look at corruption as if it would only be a cultural phenomenon. Originality/value - The paper presents the case ofguanxinetworks as a cultural phenomenon that is not rooted in Confucian traditional texts, but that makes an integral part of the present Chinese culture. The distorted meaning ofguanxi(as favoritism) should make everybody more cautious about the risk to undertake unethical actions.