The Trompenaars database (1993) updated with Hampden-Turner (1998) has been assembled to help managers structure their cross cultural experiences in order to develop their competence for doing business and managing across the world. The database comprises more than 50,000 cases from over 100 countries and is one of the world's richest sources of social constructs. Woolliams and Trompenaars (1998) review the analysis undertaken by the authors in the last five years to develop the methodological approach underpinning the work. (...) Recently Trompenaars with Hampden-Turner (Trompenaars and Woolliams, 1999) have extended the concepts into a new model on dilemma reconciliation of cultural differences. This paper reviews these latest updates in relation to dilemmas of cross-cultural business ethics. The paper asserts that knowledge in relation to business ethics is culturally specific; and that ethnocentrism is not easy to avoid. Too great an emphasis on rational-analytic conceptions of reality may mean that syntheses, emotion, and intuition, are not adequately developed. This presents implications for doing business and managing across cultures and for resolving ethical dilemmas. (shrink)

In this paper, we explore the impact of individualism and collectivism on three basic aspects of ethical decision making - the perception of moral problems, moral reasoning, and behavior. We argue that the inclusion of business practices within the moral domain by the individual depends partly upon individualism and collectivism. We also propose a pluralistic approach to post-conventional moral judgment that includes developmental paths appropriate for individualist and collectivist cultures. Finally, we argue that the link between moral judgment and (...) behavior is related to individualism and collectivism. (shrink)

Institute a proactive reputational management framework that matches individual behaviour to organizational values The Business Ethics Twin-Track is a practical guide to reputational risk management. A deep exploration of the concept of reputation, the ways in which it can suffer, and the consequences when it does, the book outlines an ethics controls framework that can mitigate risk and improve business performance. Readers will learn how to identify and manage weaknesses, and how to institute a system of (...) governance that embeds proper, ethical conduct into the corporate culture. A clear set of controls and procedures provides actionable instruction that can be customised to suit the organisational structure, and discussion of historical and international ethics provides the context for implementation. Case studies illustrate the real-world applications, while interviews with executives from a variety of sectors provide important practical insights into some of the key issues discussed in the book. The law regulates behaviour in health and safety and financial crime, but otherwise, conduct is largely determined by the culture, ethics and values of an organisation. Effective reputation management is complex, and often difficult to achieve, as much of the available information on the topic is more theoretical than practical. This book bridges the gap by providing the tools that will help managers to: Implement a modern ethics control framework, encompassing codes, officers, reporting lines and training Consider the role of the media and social media in reputational damage to individuals and organisations Analyse the key controls in responsibility and governance frameworks from around the world Determine the causes and controls of conduct risk, including incompetence, negligence and criminality Today's fast-paced media environment means corporate reputations can be obliterated in moments, and damage limitation is often too little, too late. Adopting the measures set out in this book will embed ethics into the culture, and match people's behaviours to the organisation's values. (shrink)

This study investigates the differences in ethical beliefs between blacks and whites in the United States. Two hundred and thirty four white students and two hundred and fifty five black students were presented with two scenarios and given the Reidenbach-Robin instrument measuring their ethical reactions to the scenarios.Contrary to previous research, the results indicate that the two groups, which belong to different subcultures, have similar ethical beliefs.

Although a number of articles have addressed ethical perceptions and behaviors, few studies have examined ethics across cultures. This research focuses on measuring the job satisfaction, customer orientation, ethics, and ethical training of automotive salespersons in the U.S. and Taiwan. The relationships of these variables to salesperson performance were also investigated. Ethics training was found to be negatively related to perceived levels of ethicalness and performance. High performance U.S. salespeople reported high ethical behavior, while the opposite was (...) true in Taiwan. Customer orientation in both countries was influenced by ethics training. Managers should evaluate current ethics training programs to insure correct ethical behavior is taught and rewarded. (shrink)

Using classical American pragmatism, the authors provide a philosophical framework for rethinking the nature of the corporation--how it is embedded in its natural, technological, cultural, and international environments, emphasizing throughout its pervasive relational and moral dimensions. They explore the relationship of this framework to other contemporary business ethics perspectives, as well as its implications for moral leadership in business and business education.

Business ethics has largely been written from the perspective of analytical philosophy with very little attention paid to the work of continental philosophers. Yet although very few of these philosophers directly discuss business ethics, it is clear that their ideas have interesting applications in this field. This innovative textbook shows how the work of continental philosophers - Deleuze and Guattari, Foucault, Levinas, Bauman, Derrida, Levinas, Nietzsche, Zizek, Jonas, Sartre, Heidegger, Latour, Nancy and Sloterdijk - can provide (...) fresh insights into a number of different issues in business ethics. Topics covered include agency, stakeholder theory, organizational culture, organizational justice, moral decision-making, leadership, whistle-blowing, corporate social responsibility, globalization and sustainability. The book includes a number of features designed to aid comprehension, including a detailed glossary of key terms, text boxes explaining key concepts, and a wide range of examples from the world of business. (shrink)

Ethical dilemmas are inescapable components of business negotiations. It is thus important for negotiators to understand the differences in what is ethically appropriate and what is not. This study explores the cross-cultural differences in business ethics between Canada and China by examining the perceived appropriateness of five categories of ethically questionable strategies often used in business negotiations. The results show that the Chinese are more likely to consider it appropriate to use ethically inappropriate negotiation strategies, (...) but the impact of cultural values on ethically inappropriate negotiation strategies is much stronger in Canada than in China when negotiators choose to use these strategies. In addition, there are more gender differences in Canada, where men are more likely to consider it appropriate to use ethically questionable strategies in all five categories than women; while in China no gender differences are found in the perceived appropriateness of using these strategies in all but one category. Implications are also discussed along with potential future research directions. (shrink)

Despite the so-called ‘paradigm wars’ in many social sciences disciplines in recent decades, debate as to the appropriate philosophical basis for research in business ethics has been comparatively non-existent. Any consideration of paradigm issues in the theoretical business ethics literature is rare and only very occasional references to relevant issues have been made in the empirical journal literature. This is very much the case in the growing fields of cross-cultural business ethics and undergraduate (...) student attitudes, and examples from these fields are used in this article. No typology of the major paradigms available for, or relied upon in, business ethics has been undertaken in the wider journal literature, and this article addresses that gap. It contributes a synthesis of three models of paradigms and a tabulated comparison of ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions in the context of empirical business ethics research. The author also suggests the likely (and usually unidentified) positivist paradigm assumptions underlying the vast majority of empirical business ethics research published in academic journals and also argues for an increased reliance on less positivist assumptions moving forward. (shrink)

The role of ethics in business -- Business in society : beyond the market and laws? -- Cultural diversity and international standards for business -- Ethics, at the core of the human action -- Individual responsibility and moral judgments in business -- Frequent ethical issues in business -- The purpose of the firm and mision-driven management -- Use and misuse of power -- Human virtues in leadership of organizations -- Ethics in (...) organizational cultures and structures. (shrink)

This book concentrates on some leading questions in business ethics research in the last two decades and tries to find explanations concerning cultural issues. It focuses on the alignment or congruence between business ethics and cultural contexts with a special emphasis on Eastern European countries. The core of this book is doing business in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in order to throw light on the cultural issues related to business (...) class='Hi'>ethics. Its primary purpose is a finer view of the impact of national, organizational and professional cultures in business ethics. The general questions encountered in this book are related to the nexus between culture and ethics in (CEE), national, organizational and professional cultures' link to (CEE) countries' ethics. The aim of this book is a deeper understanding of the cultural differences in Central and Eastern Europe. This might help organizations provide better opportunities for doing business across a wide cultural spectrum. With the increase of global mobility, cultural and ethical issues become more and more important. Multi-national corporations might garner a competitive advantage when they understand the importance of local culture and ethics. International business professionals may benefit from a deeper understanding of cultural values that affect the perceptions of individuals during negotiation and decision-making across cultures. Multinational companies that do not take into consideration or minimize the importance of cultural and ethical issues expose themselves to a higher risk of failure. The expectation of the authors of this book is that the conclusions would help alert international business scholars and practitioners of the need to thoroughly understand the cultural issues influencing ethics. (shrink)

The aim of this literature-based study is to explore the influence of socio-cultural factors on business ethics in post-soviet countries with dissimilar cultural contexts. Specifically, this article seeks to identify and compare contextual influences on informal norms of morality in business in transitional post-soviet societies. In order to pursue this investigation, the countries of Belarus and Estonia were identified as being among the most noteworthy examples of culturally different post-soviet countries in transition. The study reveals (...) contradictory manifestations of mixtures of business norms in both Estonia and Belarus, which are conditioned by the merger of an autocratic bureaucratic soviet system with more participative and empowering forms of western management. The most persistent changes relate to moves from patriarchal and paternalistic types of relationship and low work motivation. The significance of these differences, which include nationality and religious legacies, will almost inevitably be overlooked should the countries be placed under the general umbrella of'former soviet states' when considering business ethics in these contexts. (shrink)

This paper argues that an African business ethic should take the promotion of cultural justice as one of its major tasks. After an explanation of globalisation as homogenizing cultural force that shapes moral identity, the notion of cultural justice as "unselfconscious living" is explained. This is then set in the context of an agenda for business ethics in Africa that would require more work on how a narrative moral identity is constructed, and how trans- (...) class='Hi'>cultural business environments could be created and sustained. (shrink)

'Business Ethics and Organizational Values' operates on three levels - society, organization and values. First, the dynamics of modern society are analyzed. Secondly, organizations are viewed as autopoietic systems constantly engaged in value debates with their stakeholders. Thirdly, values are placed in a business context.

"This book presents a collection of chapters that contribute significantly to the field of business ethics by promoting much needed insights into the motives that drive people to act ethically or unethically. It acknowledges that business ethics plays a pivotal role in the way business is conducted and adds insights derived from a behavioral view that will make us more aware of morality and provide recommendations into how we can improve our actions"--Provided by publisher.

The demand for principled and transparent corporate moral judgement and ethical decision making in the workplace makes it necessary for business students as future managers to understand the expectations of ethical workplace conduct. Corporate scandals mean that there is enhanced interest in ensuring that ethical content is included in curricula in universities. In this study, we re‐visit the question of whether culture has an influence on ethical perceptions of workplace scenarios, using students enrolled in a College of Business (...) in a New Zealand (NZ) university as respondents. Consistent with current research, this study demonstrated mixed results. However, we also found evidence to suggest some identifiable patterns in the data across cultural groups. Overall, Chinese and Other respondents were more likely than NZ European to consider the scenarios as ethical. On the other hand, Chinese respondents were significantly less likely to report that their peers would carry out ethically questionable actions. (shrink)

The aim of our research is to analyze how different religions influence business ethics. We develop an index of practices in the field of business ethics, made up of 19 items containing practices related to workers, consumers, products, human rights, management of ethical conflicts, and crime prevention. Also, we consider a wide range of religion affiliations. To undertake this research, we use a panel data sample composed of 11,956 firm‐year observations from 18 countries. Drawing on stakeholder (...) theory, we posit some hypotheses based on the religions considered. The results obtained show that a higher percentage of religious adherents in the country where a company does business usually involve the implementation of more ethical practices in the corporate field. These findings are obtained for Christian, Islamic, Jewish, and Hindu religions. In contrast, this does not stand for Buddhist and folk religions. Also, countries where there is no predominant religion do not show a confluence between religion and ethical corporate practices. (shrink)

This book concentrates on some leading questions in business ethics research in the last two decades and tries to find explanations concerning cultural issues. It focuses on the alignment or congruence between business ethics and cultural contexts with a special emphasis on Eastern European countries. The core of this book is doing business in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in order to throw light on the cultural issues related to business (...) class='Hi'>ethics. Its primary purpose is a finer view of the impact of national, organizational and professional cultures in business ethics. The general questions encountered in this book are related to the nexus between culture and ethics in (CEE), national, organizational and professional cultures' link to (CEE) countries' ethics. The aim of this book is a deeper understanding of the cultural differences in Central and Eastern Europe. This might help organizations provide better opportunities for doing business across a wide cultural spectrum. With the increase of global mobility, cultural and ethical issues become more and more important. Multi-national corporations might garner a competitive advantage when they understand the importance of local culture and ethics. International business professionals may benefit from a deeper understanding of cultural values that affect the perceptions of individuals during negotiation and decision-making across cultures. Multinational companies that do not take into consideration or minimize the importance of cultural and ethical issues expose themselves to a higher risk of failure. The expectation of the authors of this book is that the conclusions would help alert international business scholars and practitioners of the need to thoroughly understand the cultural issues influencing ethics. (shrink)

While business ethics has generated a great deal of research internationally over the last few decades, academic reviews of the business ethics literature remain limited. Moreover, there has been little attempt to date to analyze this literature specifically in the Greater China region, which has been experiencing rapid socioeconomic growth and dynamic evolution of business ethics in recent decades. This paper addresses this research gap by undertaking a comprehensive and critical appraisal of the (...) class='Hi'>business ethics literature on Greater China. In particular, it maps out the existing research findings, identifies limitations in methodology, and suggests future directions for business ethics research in this region. The findings indicate that the scholarly interests cover 24 research themes, including corporate social responsibility and social performance; ethical beliefs, judgment, values, decision-making, and culture; workplace ethics and behavior; marketing ethics and consumer behavior; and sustainability. This review reveals a growing imbalance between empirical and conceptual/theoretical studies on business ethics. In addition, the published works covered in this review heavily rely on survey method and convenience sampling, with a predominant focus on a single individual level of analysis. Importantly, this study identifies four directions for future research: contextualized theoretical development, addressing multilevel research, developing research design tailored to the Chinese context, and ensuring more diversified and rigorous data collection. (shrink)

Social norms are an important input for ethical decisions in any business context. However, the cross-cultural discovery of extant social norms presents a special challenge to international management because norms may be inscrutable to outsiders. This article considers the contribution of Integrative Social Contracts Theory (ISCT) to the analysis of social norms in business ethics. It questions the origins and dynamics of norms from a sociological perspective, and identifies a tension between prescriptive efforts to make norms (...) obligatory and positivist accounts that describe norms as evolving and unstable. In the presence of dynamic and incomplete norms, managers can either deliberate with stakeholders to make norms flexible or codify norms to make them rigid. This essay argues that deliberation is the only reliable method for anticipating emergent norms. (shrink)

Despite the fact that business people and business students often cast doubt on the relevance of universal moral principles in business, the rejection of relativism is a precondition for business ethics to get off the ground. This paper proposes an educational strategy to overcome the philosophical confusions about relativism in which business people and students are often trapped. First, the paper provides some conceptual distinctions and clarifications related to moral relativism, particularism, and virtue (...) class='Hi'>ethics. More particularly, it revisits arguments demonstrating that virtues in business are not in contradiction with the relevance of universal principles, despite the fact that virtue ethics is often identified with particular relationships and contexts. It goes on to show how students and managers, but also researchers, often mix up radically different conceptions of moral relativism. It is also argued that this confusion is in part created by the cross-cultural management literature in which the methodological stance of the value-freedom of the social sciences is, in a perplexingly mistaken way, transformed into a rejection of all normative discussion and a plea for relativism. The remainder of the paper presents some tools that may be helpful in steering people toward less simplistic views about moral relativism and virtue ethics. It further argues that it is equally important to spell out that moral universalism can be understood in a humble way, without implying either arrogant ethnocentrism or omniscience, as part of an ongoing debate that progresses gradually. (shrink)

With the increased attention paid to ethical issues in business practice, there is interest in the ethics gap between the U.S. and the U.K. and in the ramifications for educating college students for business management positions. This paper examines the differences in ethics judgments between U.S. and U.K. business students. The results indicate that differences in their demographic profiles do not influence their ethics judgments. However, consistently higher business ethics of female students (...) from both countries are discussed in relation to providing business ethics education. (shrink)

It may be nearly impossible to use standard principles to make a decision about a complex ethical case. The best decision, say virtue ethicists in the Aristotelian tradition, is often one that is made by a person of good character who knows the salient facts of the case and can frame the situation appropriately. In this respect ethical decisions and strategic decisions are similar. Rationality plays a role in good ethical decision-making, but virtue ethicists emphasize the importance of intuitions and (...) emotions as well.Virtue ethics suggests a reconciliation of the factual and the normative. Virtues may explain as well as justify actions. The same is true of other psychological states and events. That psychological terms have normative implications does not render them useless in explanation. As Aristotle does not distinguish cleanly between the normative and empirical, so many moral philosophers today reject the is-ought dichotomy. They are prepared to learn from economists, psychologists, and other empirical scientists who offer information about the nature of the good life and of values. Social psychologists who study community or corporate culture suggest a close relationship between organizational and ethical features, much as Aristotle saw a close relationship between politics and ethics. We should infer from all this that in business ethics there is good reason for philosophers and organization scholars to work closely together. (shrink)

Business ethics, as it is understood and practised generally, lacks a component of radicality. As part of the contemporary ‘return to ethics’ it displays an undesirable conservatism and blocks off possibilities for systemic alterity. I argue that a normal and ‘apologetic’ business ethics should therefore be supplemented with a radical or utopian business ethics. Put differently, business ethics should not only contribute to more responsible business practices, more morally sensitive (...) class='Hi'>business managers and more ethical organisational cultures, but should also facilitate social hope via hermeneutic strategies aimed at changing the way we think about ourselves, our economies and the roles and responsibilities of business as such. (shrink)

A comparison of attitudes among managers from France, Germany and the United States is made with respect to codes of ethics and ethical business philosophy. Findings are also compared with past studies by Baumhart and by Brenner and Molander where data are available. While the current data appear to be consistent with the past studies, there appear to be differences in attitudes among the managers from the three countries.

A number of empirical studies have examined business ethics across cultures, focusing primarily on differences in ethical profiles between cultures and groups. When managers consider whether or not to develop a business relationship with those from a different culture, their decision may be affected by actual differences in ethical profiles, but potentially even more so by their perceptions of ethicality in the counterpart culture. The latter issue has been largely ignored in extant empirical research regarding cross-cultural (...) ethical profiles. In this study, we employ a design that allows for a more complete analysis of cross-cultural perspectives, examining both the manner in which selected cultures view themselves and the manner in which those same cultures perceive the ethical profiles of others. To this end, we surveyed master’s students in business fields at several universities in the United States and China—two countries/cultures that engage in a significant amount of business transactions—and examined differences in personal ethical profiles across cultures, differences in one group’s ethical profile and the way it is perceived by the other group, and differences in perceived ethical profiles across cultures; that is, differences in how groups view each other. Findings suggest meaningful discrepancies in the ethical perceptions formed toward the counterpart culture. Results support a role for ethical perceptions in future research, and further examination and inquiry into the development and adaptation of ethical perceptions in cross-cultural business dealings. (shrink)

An interdisciplinary critique of business ethics as an ideology. The author discloses how contemporary business ethics is too weak to create a truly critical voice of American capitalist economy.

To commemorate 40 years since the founding of the Journal of Business Ethics, the editors-in-chief of the journal have invited the editors to provide commentaries on the future of business ethics. This essay comprises a selection of commentaries aimed at creating dialog around the theme Bringing Excitement to Empirical Business Ethics Research (inspired by the title of the commentary by Babalola and van Gils). These editors, considering the diversity of empirical approaches in business (...) ethics, envisage a future in which quantitative business ethics research is more bold and innovative, as well as reflexive about its techniques, and dialog between quantitative and qualitative research nourishes the enrichment of both. In their commentary, Babalola and van Gils argue that leadership research has stagnated with the use of too narrow a range of perspectives and methods and too many overlapping concepts. They propose that novel insights could be achieved by investigating the lived experience of leadership (through interviews, document analysis, archival data); by focusing on topics of concern to society; by employing different personal, philosophical, or cultural perspectives; and by turning the lens on the heroic leader (through “dark-side” and follower studies). Taking a provocative stance, Bal and Garcia-Lorenzo argue that we need radical voices in current times to enable a better understanding of the psychology underlying ethical transformations. Psychology can support business ethics by not shying away from grander ideas, going beyond the margins of “unethical behaviors harming the organization” and expanding the range of lenses used to studying behavior in context. In the arena of finance and business ethics, Guedhami, Liang, and Shailer emphasize novel data sets and innovative methods. Significantly, they stress that an understanding the intersection of finance and ethics is central to business ethics; financial equality and inclusion are persistent socio-economic and political concerns that are not always framed as ethics issues, yet relevant business policies and practices manifest ethical values. Finally, Charles Cho offers his opinion on the blurry line between the “ethical” versus “social” or “critical” aspects of accounting papers. The Journal of Business Ethics provides fertile ground for innovative, even radical, approaches to quantitative methods (see Zyphur and Pierides in J Bus Ethics 143(1):1–16, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3549-8, 2017), as part of a broad goal of ethically reflecting on empirical research. (shrink)

Most of the features of modern Russian business are transient, determined by the transitional character of the Russian economy and drastic changes in the social structure, ideology, and consciousness of Russian society in general. There are three main normative experiences in the traditions of Russian business: a) the experience of pre-Revolutionary business, specifically developed and practiced by the merchants of the old-believers extraction; b) the experience of socialist economy, which was more or less oriented to the public (...) good and presupposed selfless aspirations by the economic agents; c) the experience of legally and administratively constrained private business and illegal shadow business, which expected businessmen to be vigorous, industrious and enterprising. The process of privatization was developed under the aegis of state, specifically the state bureaucracy. The influence of changes in the social-economic system has been ambivalent for social morals. However, the reforms could stimulate their improvement. The recent development in the cultural environment of business testify to the emerging space of civilized business, which manifests that it is practically useful for businessmen to be ethical. (shrink)

Why do certain ethical values and beliefs work within the realities of organisation life, while others do not? Research into corporate culture in its various expressions can provide a means of relating corporate rhetoric to actual performance and provide a deeper understanding of the conditions for practical change. Dr Brigley is a member of the Centre for the Study of Organisational Change in the School of Management, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY. He wishes to acknowledge the benefits (...) received from discussion with his colleagues in the Centre and especially with its Director, Dr Paul Bate. (shrink)

We analyze ethical policies of firms in industrialized countries and try to find out whether culture is a factor that plays a significant role in explaining country differences. We look into the firm’s human rights policy, its governance of bribery and corruption, and the comprehensiveness, implementation and communication of its codes of ethics. We use a dataset on ethical policies of almost 2,700 firms in 24 countries. We find that there are significant differences among ethical policies of firms headquartered (...) in different countries. When we associate these ethical policies with Hofstede’s cultural indicators, we find that individualism and uncertainty avoidance are positively associated with a firm’s ethical policies, whereas masculinity and power distance are negatively related to these policies. (shrink)

This article is an introduction to the selection of papers on "Business Ethics in Spain" included in this monographic issue of the Journal of Business Ethics. Specifically, this article is a survey of the development of the social, political, cultural and economic background of business in Spain since 1940, in order to show how the ethical values, attitudes and problems of the Spanish managers changed in these years. First, the global evolution of this background (...) is explained, and then several relevant problems are discussed, namely those of the attitudes of business towards the State and the law (with an aside on the attitudes of society towards profit and wealth), corruption, and the grey economy, taxes, and irregular labour. The article concludes with a survey of the scientific developments of business ethics in Spain. (shrink)

This paper documents that business ethics has positive impacts upon the development of intellectual capital. Knowledge has become the most important asset of modern businesses, and this study argues that business ethics is associated with the development of intangible knowledge resources—intellectual capital. Businesses with ethical values at the core reinforce ethical conducts and successfully build trust with their various stakeholders, leading to the formation of an ethical and trustworthy corporate culture and a positive corporate environment. Thus, (...) in this reasoning, an ethical approach to business can encourage open communication, problems solving, knowledge sharing and creativity among employees to increase organisational capital; enhance interactions and relationships with suppliers, customers and other stakeholders to increase social capital; attract and retain good talent to increase human capital. Questionnaire survey is adopted as the research method with businesses in the electronic and information technology industries in Taiwan as sample. The results suggest that business ethics is associated with increased intellectual capital. Thus, this study demonstrates that the development of intellectual capital is in line with strengthened ethics. It contributes to the literature through combining research on business ethics with intellectual capital theories and extends the extant intellectual capital literature. (shrink)

What is the role of leadership in organisational ethics? How does one develop an ethics strategy? How can ethics be embedded within corporate culture? What are the implications of the Companies Act and King IV for business ethics? 'Business ethics' 6th edition offers an introduction to the theoretical underpinnings of the field of business ethics, as well as practical guidance on governing and managing ethics in organisations. The combination of theory (...) and practice makes the book useful for graduate and post-graduate teaching, managerial training and the ethical orientation of members of professional associations."--Back cover. (shrink)

Confucian ethics as applied to the study of business ethics often relate to the micro consideration of personal ethics and the character of a virtuous person. Actually, Confucius and his school have much to say about the morals of the public administration and the market institutions in a more macro level. While Weber emphasizes the role of culture on the development of the economy, and Marx the determining influence of the material base on ideology, we see (...) an interaction between culture – specifically Confucian business ethics – and the economy. In this paper, we are going to study this interaction in several crucial stages of development of Confucianism. The paper concludes by postulating the relevance of Confucian business ethics to the global knowledge economy. (shrink)

Since China's Reform Era began in 1979, corporations of all shapes and sizes mushroomed in the economic landscape. Among these companies, a few have distinguished themselves by their unique corporate cultures and financial performance. The Chinese state–owned enterprises (SOEs) are notorious for their inefficiency, conservatism, bloated bureaucracy, and obsoleteness. However, a few good SOEs stand out as corporations of excellence with commitment to business ethics. Very little study has been done on SOE corporate cultures and business (...) class='Hi'>ethics, especially in the western literature. This paper provides an insight into one such organisation – the Double Star Group of Qingdao. This paper includes the results of an empirical survey on Double Star's employees’ perception of its corporate culture and business ethics. (shrink)

Business ethics is usually taught either from a philosophical perspective that derives guiding normative principles from abstract theories of philosophical ethics or from an atheoretical perspective that has students analyze cases that present difficult ethical issues and propose solutions on a casuistic basis. This article proposes a third approach—the Principles Approach—that derives guiding normative principles teleologically from the nature of market activity itself. The articledemonstrates how the Principles Approach can meet the four main challenges facing those who (...) teach ethics in business schools—the challenges of definition, abstract, cultural relativism, and integration. (shrink)

As we know, the most interesting themes in modern Chinese societies are economic developments and environmental problems, both of them adhere closely. By the way, the main body of economic development is enterprise, the sustainable environments and economic developments are possible when enterprises make efforts to do their responsibilities for ‘green growth’. In shorts, enterprises are the most important agents for green growth. Like this, the roles of enterprises for green growth are very important for our future. Every economic activity (...) is made by enterprises, the government and the individuals. Also, all of them are interrelated with the sustainable environmental problems. Environmentally sustainable economic development is emerging as a new conceptual framework to address escalating environmental challenges created by increased pressure for economic growth and development. A sustainable future is one in which protection of the natural environments, economic prosperities and social justice are pursued simultaneously to ensure the good qualities of our life. It must be accomplished for our descendants, but it is not easy. And so, all of us have to do our best responsibilities. Business ethics is concerned about the members of corporations who make decisions and promote policies with moral value. After more than twenty years of development, business ethics in China demonstrate their own characteristics and development trends. In recent years, due to world economic circumstances, researches in Chinese business ethics concentrate on risks and security issues of enterprises, especially on cultural ethical risks. Under economical globalization, risks of transnational enterprise development include not only economic ones, but also political ones including unrest, potential for local war, and concerns about terrorism. In the long-terms, they also face cultural ethical risks. Generally speaking, through marketing research and self-growth, enterprises pay enough attention to trans-national and trans-regional economic or political risks, and exercise means of prevention. However, as for ethical risks, on the one hand, enterprises ignore their existence, or ignore their influence on enterprise’s security and sustainable development. On the other hand, during operations, firms lack prevention methods and avoidance strategies. This drives enterprises to consider ethical risks and corresponding ethical costs during transnational and trans-regional economic activities, so as to guarantee the real enterprise security in economic crises. In the mean time, social contribution of corporations is assumed to be one of their duties in modern societies. Especially, ethical management of corporations and their efforts for social contribution play a significant role in enhancing their corporate images and brand values, and help them greatly in getting consumers' reliability. Nowadays, Chinese enterprises also must be concerned about Creating Shared Value(CSV) in modern societies. Also, all moral considerations aside, we are left with the question concerning the possible positive contributions of unequal ranking and rewarding to social systems. The evidence regarding the mixed outcomes of social inequality strongly suggests the examination of alternatives. The evidence regarding the possibilities of social growth under conditions of more equal rewarding are such that the exploration of alternatives seems eminently worthwhile. In this paper, I have started from the development of business ethics and social enterprise in modern societies, and then elaborates the origin and characteristics of enterprise ethical risks, discusses the major types of ethical risks Chinese enterprises are facing, and on reducing risks and guarantee safety, provides some principals and paths which can be referred to. (shrink)

Business ethics in Africa, as a field of research, practice, and teaching, has grown rapidly over the last two decades or so, covering a wide variety of topical issues, including corporate social responsibility, governance, and social entrepreneurship. Building on this progress, and to further advance the field, this special issue addresses four broad areas that cover important, under-researched or newly emerging phenomena in Africa: culture, ethics and leadership; business, society and institutions; corruption, anti-corruption and governance; and (...) philanthropy, social entrepreneurship and impact investing. In addition to advancing research by addressing some of the imbalances and gaps in the extant literature, this special issue draws attention to indigenous African theories, models and firms. Some challenges facing business ethics, as a field of practice and teaching in Africa, are also highlighted. The paper concludes with a summary of the eight articles in this special issue. (shrink)

This volume explores worldwide developments in the field of business ethics. It studies ethical issues faced by transnational corporations, the possibilities for international cooperation after the cold war, as well as regional business ethics issues from around the world. The essays, taken from the Ninth Bentley Conference on Business Ethics sponsored by the Center for Business Ethics, include cases and regional studies from Africa, Eastern Europe, the Pacific Rim, and North and South (...) America. Topics discussed include the BCCI scandal, the IBM-Fujitsu case, land-use policies, transnational codes of business conduct, ethics and international law, business and cultural diversity, and ethics and economic development. (shrink)

Despite the recent rash of corporate scandals and the resulting rush to address the problem by adding more laws and regulations,seemingly little attention has been paid to how the nature (not the substance) of rules may or may not affect ethical decision-making.Drawing on work in law, ethics, management, psychology, and other social sciences, this article explores how several characteristics of rules may interfere with the process of reaching and implementing ethical decisions. Such a relationship would have practical implications for (...) regulatory policy and managers of organizations, and the article concludes by suggesting how regulations and corporate ethics programs should be able to improve the ethical culture of business and enhance the ethical decision-making skills of employees. (shrink)

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's death, during 2006 quite a number of cultural events were launched (cf. http://www.ibsen.net/). The article suggests celebrating Ibsen as a potentially useful resource for business ethics teaching. Departing from a short presentation of Ibsen's plays An enemy of the people and A doll's house the main focus of this paper is on two selected scenes from the latter piece -both as raw material for developing scenarios for moral (...) maturity assessment (one of them is strikingly similar to and different from Heinz' dilemma), and for teaching business students moral reflection and imagination. As an open end of the article a few wider questions are asked about the use of literature in addition to or instead of ethics when it comes to triggering moral reflection and imagination. (shrink)

Confucianism has attracted some attention in business ethics, in particular as a form of virtue ethics. This paper develops ideas about Confucianism in business ethics by extending discussion about Confucian ideas of ritual. Ritual has figured in literature about organisational culture, but Confucian accounts can offer additional ideas about developing ethically desirable organisational cultures. Confucian ritual practice has diverged from doctrine and from the classical emphasis on requirements for concern and respect as parts of ritual. (...) Despite some differences of emphasis amongst early writers, classical texts like the Analects and Mencius allow for the importance of ritual as opportunity for interpersonal encounter. These are texts that bring out the flexibility and context-sensitivity of ritual, with associated implications about the need for care and attention to other individuals. They eschew ritual as unthinking repetition, in favour of ritual as meaningful expression. The mutual awareness such ritual can engender is an important part of human existence. Such ritual is a means to solving coordination problems through common knowledge, as opposed to unthinking routine. Undue routinisation can be one problem with organisational ritual, while another can be use of ritual as a means of oppressive control. In organisations, ritual should satisfy general requirements of concern and respect, and should maintain opportunities for mutual encounter. The difference between arrangements which do or do not offer such opportunities may suggest lines of development for virtue ethics in business. (shrink)

This article investigates the relation between corporate governance and business ethics in the Asia-Pacific region. It draws on four examples of countries in the region (Australia, China, Singapore, and India), not because they are representative of certain regional characteristics, but as a means of reflecting on the diversity in this region. These countries display pronounced differences in terms of inter alia, historical development, cultural and social factors, legal system, corporate governance model, political system, and economic development. The (...) complex interaction of all these considerations provides the context for corporate governance and business ethics in each of the countries. The article highlights different orientations to stakeholder management and integrity behavior in the boardroom and executives’ offices. Although globalization and financial market hegemony suggests a convergent model is theoretically desirable, this research suggests that the human capacity to protect diversity and enshrine regional and local interests seems likely to inhibit rapid change. (shrink)

Traditionally, books on business ethics focus on CSR, companies' relations with their stakeholders, and corporate citizenship. More recently, green credentials and sustainability have been added to that agenda. Unconventionally, this book argues that business ethics are basic to running business, not a separate subject. They are inherent to the governance and management of every organization, not an optional exercise in corporate citizenship. Business ethics concern behaviour in business and the behaviour of (...) class='Hi'>business. Decisions at every level in a company have ethical implications - strategically in the board room, managerially throughout the organization, and operationally in all of its activities. The use, and sometimes the abuse, of corporate power, the process of corporate governance, raises ethical issues. Business involves risk-taking, whether decisions are at the strategic, managerial, or operational level. Exposure to ethical risk needs to be part of every organization's strategy formulation, policy making, and enterprise risk management. Designed to be read by both undergraduates and postgraduates, this book is a primer on ethics in business. It is also relevant to ethics courses that are now part of many legal, accountancy and other professional examinations. The book is not about moral philosophy, nor does it prescribe appropriate standards of behaviour or recommend economic, legal or political solutions. Rather it enables readers to recognize ethical issues in business, to respond appropriately, and to embed ethics in business processes. The book not only considers what business ethics are, and why they are important, but offers practical approaches on how to develop a successful corporate ethics culture. (shrink)

A Contemporary Look at Business Ethics provides a 'present day' look at business ethics to include the challenges, opportunities and increased need for ethical leadership in today's and tomorrow's organizations. The book discusses current and future business ethics challenges, issues and opportunities which provides the context leaders and their organizations must navigate. The book includes an in‐depth look at lessons learned about the causes of unethical behavior by examining a number of real‐world examples of (...) ethical scandals from around the world that have taken place over the past few decades. The analysis of the various ethical scandals focuses on concepts like ethical versus unethical leadership, received wisdom, the bottom‐line mentality, groupthink and moral muteness, all of which contribute to the kind of organizational culture and ethical behavior one finds in an organization. The book discusses ethical decision making in general and the increased role of religion and spirituality, in confronting unethical behavior in contemporary organizations. The book also takes an in‐depth look at the impact ethical scandals have on employees and more specifically the psychological contract and person‐organization ethical fit with the goal of identifying, along with other things, what leaders can do to restore relationships with employees and rebuild the organization's reputation in the eyes of various stakeholders. (shrink)