Johan Wempe

• PhD
• Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

This article reviews the literature on non-profit volunteering to argue that the concept of ‘work calling’ is critical to broadening our understanding of volunteer motivation and retention. As an emerging concept, work calling is generally used to explain how individuals satisfy their calling by doing meaningful work. This concept is introduced to...

In this article, we analyse whether it is possible to hold a loosely organised collective responsible for the effects it has on others. We consider the possibility of holding a loosely organised collective responsible by comparing it with a well-organised collective such as a corporation, a joint action (a collective lacking a formal organisation)...

This article shows that business ethics is not capable of explaining the responsibility of limited organised collectives such as chains, sectors and industries. The responsibility of the pharmaceutical industry to make AIDS blockers available for patients in Africa is an example of such a sector responsibility. By using system theory, it is possibl...

Due to several recent scandals, Business Ethics is now firmly embraced. Whereas in the 1980s and early 1990s there were serious doubts expressed about combining ethics and business, the link now seems to have become self-evident. Fundamental questions about the tensions between business and ethics however continue to receive little attention. In th...

Een bedrijfsethisch vraagstuk In deze rede wordt de oproep vanuit de samenleving tot een grotere maatschappelijke openheid van bedrijven geplaatst in een bedrijfsethisch perspectief. Enerzijds zijn er bedrijfsethische redenen voor openheid. Anderzijds zijn er ook morele begrenzingen. Aan de hand van het maatschappelijk jaarverslag van ondernemingen...

This chapter discusses three competing approaches to ethical analysis: consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics. It describes the Integrity Approach that combines consequentialist, deontological, and virtue ethics. The chapter concludes by discussing a case to illustrate the inadequacy of applying general ethical theories to the corporate do...

When people cooperate in an organizational framework, three new relationships come into being: the relationship between the corporation and its stakeholders, the relations of cooperation within the corporation , and the relations between the different roles that representatives of an organization fulfill. Ethical dilemmas in the corporate domain ar...

“An ethics report is a snapshot of a process taking place at various levels within a company and between its stakeholders.” Ethics reports can serve a number of purposes, and for large multinational companies they can provide an important tool for stakeholder management, as is illustrated in the case of Shell. Muel Kaptein and Johan Wempe both work...

The difficulty in assessing corporations in moral terms is that the dominant ethical theories have been developed to evaluate human action. Since it is awkward to identify corporate actions in practice, applying these theories runs into difficulties. This is why many ethicists argue that corporations cannot be subjected to moral judgement. Chapter...

This chapter argues why an organization is a moral entity.

The Balanced Company provides a coherent overview of the most important theories and insights in the field of business ethics and corporate social responsibility. This is an area of growing concern for corporations today - many have Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) personnel and use ethical codes in areas such as performance appraisals, staff...

In this paper, we argue that the different relationships of corporations can be understood as contractual relationships. The aim of the contract is to do justice to the claims of all parties, including that of the corporation. This renders the notion of a contract eminently suitable as a conceptual model for formulating the moral standards appropri...

This chapter formulates integrity requirements for corporations. These requirements are grounded on the autonomy approach and corporate social contract theory. The integrity requirements can be applied to the actions of corporations but they also make demands on the organization as such. The integrity requirements that are developed are based on de...

This chapter discusses a number of phases for developing and managing corporate integrity. It looks at considerations that must be taken into account in writing and implementing code, the role of management, and the importance of monitoring and reporting the effectiveness of the code.

Corporate citizenship entails companies making a sustainable contribution to the economic, social and environmental development of both the stakeholders and society in general. When stakeholders make conflicting demands on a company, this not only requires a vision from the company on what sustainable business involves, but also its strategy for fi...

Corporate citizenship entails companies making a sustainable contribution to the economic, social and environmental development of both the stakeholders and society in general. When stakeholders make conflicting demands on a company, this not only requires a vision from the company on what sustainable business involves, but also its strategy for fi...

The 12th EBEN Annual Conference was held in Amsterdam from the 1st to the 3rd of September 1999. It was organised by the European Institute for Business Ethics (EIBE) and the Nijenrode University. The conference facilities of the Grand Hotel, the old city hall located in the centre of Amsterdam, proved to be a perfect venue for the main event and f...

In dit artikel wil ik aandacht besteden aan de vraagstukken die zich voordoen bij de geïnte-greerde rapportage en verificatie van de financieel-economische, ecologische en sociale prestaties van een onderneming. Met name zal ik aandacht besteden aan de rapportage en verificatie over de sociale gevolgen van een bedrijf.

Following the example of the many organizations in the United States which have a code of ethics, an increasing interest on the part of companies, trade organizations, (semi-)governmental organizations and professions in the Netherlands to develop codes of ethics can be witnessed. We have been able to escort a variety of organizations in this proce...

To be and to remain ethical requires struggle from organizations. Struggling is necessary due to the pressures and temptations management and employees encounter in and around organizations. As the relvance of struggle for business ethics has not yet been analysed systematically in the scientific literature, this paper develops a theory of struggle...

In this article it is shown how diagnosing a moral problem can pose a justice problem of its own. When incompatible problem perceptions exist, positioning specific stakeholders in morally contradictory ways, we need a heuristic device to judge the quality of these perceptions and settle disputes on the exact nature of the moral problem at hand. The...

The capital market in which the asset-backed securities are issued and traded is composed of three main categories: ABS, MBS and CDOs. We were able to examine a total number of 3,951 loans (worth €730.25 billion) of which 1,129 (worth €208.94 billion) have been classified as ABS. MBS issues represent 2,224 issues (worth €459.32 billion) and 598 are...

De traditionele manier om maatschappelijke vraagstukken tot een oplossing te brengen gaat uit van een vrije markt en een corrigerende overheid. Ondernemingen hebben zich alleen maar te bekommeren om winst maken, terwijl de overheid stuurt en corrigeert. De meer hardnekkige maatschappelijke vraagstukken kunnen niet meer op deze traditionele manier t...