Laura Pincus Hartman

School of Choice / l'Ecole de Choix (Haiti) · Administration

In the wake of the global financial market collapse of 2007–2008, Werhane and her co-authors Hartman, Archer, Bevan and Clark reconsider the issue of trust. Trust is considered here as invaluable and essential metaphorical glue in the smooth running of any globalized economy. The causes and effects of such a breakdown in this dynamic are identified...

This article, written with Calton, Hartman and Bevan, develops the position that poverty, globally, can be alleviated if not eradicated if Western industrial companies and other commercial institutions will form partnerships and collaborations in the emerging economies. These efforts are not intended to arise from any form of philanthropy. Indeed,...

In this article, written with Hartman, Moberg, Parmar, Englehardt and Pritchard (2011), the authors argue that one of the problems of obedience to authority as depicted in the Milgram experiments, and later reiterated in many managerial scenarios such as the 2016 Volkswagen scandal, is the lack of moral imagination as well as lack of moral courage....

Using the examples of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle explosions, Werhane et al illustrate how smart, good-willed people and decent companies create or take part in flawed systems that produce untoward outcomes. The authors argue that the organizational causes of the Columbia failure demonstrated that little had changed at NASA to prevent...

In this essay Werhane et al expand a topic she first explored in “Why do good people do bad things” (2005). The suggestion here is that it may be easy to understand evil when it is done with deliberate intent, but it is harder to explain why good managers and companies with good reputations engage in questionable or aberrant behavior. Currently, fo...

In this paper, we examine the drivers involved in an alternative business model: cross-sector social partnerships (CSSPs) between for-profit, predominantly multinational corporations (MNCs) and nonprofit organizations (NPOs). We explore these cross-sector social partnerships (CSSPs) from the perspective of these primary stakeholders, examining the...

An ongoing argument often made by business ethicists is that a singular preoccupation on profitability, will lead, in the long run, to disvalue for all the stakeholders and the communities it affects, and often (but alas not always), economic challenges for the company. On the other hand, we argue, a preoccupation with ethics and CSR as the primary...

Our case study examines national human resource development in Haiti, a developing country that has not yet been carefully studied within NHRD research. Using a descriptive case study approach, we collected data through participant observation and documents of an innovative elementary school. Data analysis revealed a gap between Haiti's educational...

Trust is critical to the development and maintenance of collaborative and cohesive relationships in societies, broadly, and in organizations, specifically. At the same time, trust is highly dependent on the social context in which it occurs. Unfortunately, existing research involving trust remains somewhat limited to a particular set of developed e...

The purpose of this discussion is to explore how the educational and social philosophy of John Dewey offers insight for those involved in education evolution in emerging economies, with a particular emphasis on nurturing leaders who are capable of recognizing and responding effectively to the challenges of a globalized economy now and for the next...

This text brings together case studies focusing on specific instances of corporate best practices. All too often, we showcase cases based on questionable or unethical corporate behavior. Instead, the editors bring together in this book examples of how some firms got it right. Certainly, there is no claim that the companies in these case are perfect...

This paper builds on London & Hart’s critique (2011) that C. K. Prahalad’s best-selling book (2005) prompted a unilateral effort to find a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP). Prahalad’s instrumental, firm-centered construction suggests, perhaps unintentionally, a buccaneering style of business enterprise devoted to capturing markets rather...

Much of the attention of ethics scholars has focused on the balance of self-interest with the interests of others, equating self-interest with profit, or at least on its acquisition, and presenting a dilemma to both companies and the stakeholder groups that socially responsible business practices might serve. We are in significant agreement with Po...

In this article, we explore the realm of carbon offset markets that have been set up to enable consumers to offset their share of carbon emissions. Though the market is a relatively new one, it has quickly spawned countless offset providers under both regulated and voluntary schemes. Our research points out that the market is widely unregulated and...

While unethical actions may arise from conscious, deliberate and reflective choices to do ‘wrong,’ many unethical decisions emerge instead from an absence of awareness of ethical responsibility. The metaphor of ‘blind spots’ has been deployed productively to describe mental obstacles that impede ethical responsibility at the individual level, but d...

Over the last decade, and culminating in the 2008 global financial meltdown, there has been an erosion of trust and a concomitant rise of distrust in domestic companies, multinational enterprises, and political economies. In response to this attrition, this article presents three arguments. First, we suggest that trust is the “glue” of any viable p...

In this article, we explore the world’s response to the increasing impact of carbon emissions on the sobering threat posed by global warming: the carbon offset market. Though the market is a relatively new one, numerous offset providers have quickly emerged under both regulated and voluntary regimes. Owing to the lack of technical literacy of some...

There are important synergies for the next generation of ethical leaders based on the alignment of modified or adjusted mental models. This entails a synergistic application of moral imagination through collaborative input and critique, rather than “me too” obedience. In this article, we will analyze the Milgram results using frameworks relating to...

When using cases to teach corporate strategy and ethical decision-making, the aim is demonstrate to students that leadership decision-making is at its most effective when all affected stakeholders are considered, from shareholders and employees, to the local, national, and global societies in which the company operates. This paper challenges the ob...

The central purpose of this article is to demonstrate that it is feasible to alleviate, if not actually eradicate, global poverty, but only if we change the way in which we approach global free enterprise, and only if we deconstruct and effectively reexamine our mental models regarding how poverty issues are addressed. Proposals surrounding poverty...

(This abstract refers to a book, so it is not available by request. Please contact the publisher, Cambridge University Press, for a review copy if interested. Thank you!) In commerce, many moral failures are due to narrow mindsets that preclude taking into account the moral dimensions of a decision or action. in turn, sometimes these mindsets are...

While no one seems to believe that business schools or their faculties bear entire responsibility for the ethical decision-making processes of their students, these same institutions do have some burden of accountability for educating students surrounding these skills. To that end, the standards promulgated by the Association to Advance Collegiate...

BHP Billiton began construction of Phase 1 of the Mozal aluminum smelter in 1998. Because of the challenges that the community presented, BHP Billiton and its partners created the Mozal Community Development Trust (MCDT), which worked to improve the infrastructure, social services, and health care of the community. During the two construction phase...

The question of whether ethical issues should be integrated throughout an undergraduate or graduate business curriculum is no longer relevant. To the contrary, it is instead the urgency of how those challenges are most effectively addressed and where to find models of positive corporate performance that occupies our current attention. While no sing...

In this book, the authors approach poverty alleviation from an atypical perspective. The thesis is that poverty can be reduced, if not eradicated, both locally and globally, but this will occur only if we change our shared narratives about global free enterprise, and only if we recalibrate our mindsets regarding how poverty issues are most effectiv...

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The second part of the polyphonic conversation introduced by the article immediately preceding it, above. In this segment, we interpret the responses proffered and offer summative analysis. The authors do pragmatically agree upon a provisional closing. However, given the scope to argue endlessly in a trite pseudo intellectual either/either argument...

In 2006, following St. Vincent of DePaul’s commitment to serving the poor, the IBPE aligned its mission with that of DePaul University’s: “serving first-generation and underserved student populations and …addressing social issues.” This initiative was further promoted by DePaul’s new strategic plan, Vision Twenty12. As a result, IBPE enhanced its m...

This chapter defends the following thesis: Poverty can be alleviated, if not eradicated, both locally and globally, but only if we change our narratives about global free enterprise and only if we rethink our mindsets regarding how poverty issues are is most effectively addressed. The chapter begins with an overview of the current state of the econ...

This study explores corporate social responsibility (CSR) by conducting a cross-cultural analysis of communication of CSR activities in a total of 16 U.S. and European corporations. Drawing on previous research contrasting two major approaches to CSR initiatives, it was proposed that U.S. companies would tend to communicate about and justify CSR us...

The paper is aimed at analyzing the contribution that the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) makes to the field of sustainability reporting. It provides an overview of the multitude of initiatives aimed at standardizing corporate social responsibility efforts on a global scale and highlights the ways in which the GRI can be distinguished from other...

This paper investigates how deans and directors at the top 50 global MBA programs (as rated by the Financial Times in their 2006 Global MBA rankings) respond to questions about the inclusion and coverage of the topics of ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability at their respective institutions. This work purposely investigates ea...

Disputes concerning global labor practices are at the core of contemporary debates regarding globalization. Critics have charged multinational enterprises with the unjust exploitation of workers in the developing world. In response, some economists and "classical liberals" have argued that these criticisms are grounded in a naïve understanding of g...

Notwithstanding published articles on the nature and quality of research and scholarship in practically every other business discipline, to date there has been little systematic evaluation of relevant journals in the business law discipline. This deficiency is due, in part, to the fact that business law may still be described as a developing discip...

The purpose of this paper is to extend the concept of positive ethical deviancy and moral imagination to the entrepreneurial environment. We specifically explore the connection between moral imagination and positive ethical deviance in firms that, from their inception, display positive deviance from established ethical industry norms. Our analysis...

This paper responds to the concern that insufficient attention has been paid to those companies that are “positive deviants” with respect to their global labor practices. In this essay, we outline the conventional case for sweatshop conditions, as well as conventional arguments for the mandated improvement of those conditions. Next, we provide a su...

Part C of this three part series is the presentation from the Oxford style debate held at the Tenth Annual International Conference Promoting Business Ethics between Laura Hartman, J.D., and Dr. Moses Pava on topics related to the EverQuest® v. EverCrack case (Part B). In a traditional Oxford style debate, two debaters take opposing viewpoints and...

The American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business has called for stronger ethics programs. There are two problems with this battle cry. First, the AACSB rejects, with weak arguments, the single best way to get ethics into the curriculum. Second, the AACSB can only vaguely describe some unpromising alternatives to that strategy. A number of le...

In this essay we explore several multinational corporations’ global labor programs in an effort to illustrate the positive impact of moral imagination at the individual, organizational, and systems level on the “sweatshop” problem. The intent is to identify the factors that have allowed particular MNCs to respect the basic rights of workers and the...

The following address considers the relevance of business ethics education to our students. Is our concept of ethics one of practice and application? And, if so, are we accountable to our students, our institutions and ourselves, for the practical impact that we have or, conversely, that we do not have? Aren't we responsible in part if one of our s...

No abstract available.

The challenge that confronts corporate decision-makers in connection with global labor conditions is often in identifying the standards by which they should govern themselves. In an effort to provide greater direction in the face of possible global cultural conflicts, ethicists Thomas Donaldson and Thomas Dunfee draw on social contract theory to de...

Senior executives are thought to provide the organization’s ethical ‘tone at the top’. We conducted an inductive interview-based study aimed at defining the perceived content domain of executive ethical leadership. We interviewed two types of key informants - corporate ethics officers and senior executives - about executive ethical leadership and t...

The aim of this analysis is to document and explain the operation of programs designed to address labor problems associated with globalization. The manuscript suggests that the included programs merit consideration by other multinationals as potential models for addressing labor problems associated with globalization.

Executives should not take a reputation for ethical leadership for granted. Based on interviews with senior executives and corporate ethics officers, this article reveals that a reputation for executive ethical leadership rests on two essential pillars: the executive's visibility as a moral person (based upon perceived traits, behaviors, and decisi...

Employers have a number of reasons to consider monitoring employee email—more than two million of them, if you ask Chevron Corporation. Recently, the San Francisco-based oil company was required to pay four plaintiffs a total of $2.2 million after their attorneys found email evidence of sexual harassment. The attorneys had found a smoking gun when...

From the Universities to the Marketplace: The Business Ethics Journey arose from the awareness of the slow progression of academic theory into market practice. The contributions in this volume reflect a diversity of disciplines and approaches to research, study and teaching business ethics, such as philosophy, accounting, theology, marketing, manag...

In terms of ethical business practices, MNEs operating with trust and integrity in the global environment must have corporate cultures that demonstrate such values. The accomplishment of this objective, however, depends on recognition and integration of local cultural norms to create an organizational culture that is both consistent and sensitive t...

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we explore the tension between the perspective of the free-trade economists and that of the labor advocates with regard to voluntary responses to the sweatshop dilemma. Second, we introduce and define the concept of positive deviancy and relate it to the apparel and footwear global labor markets. Third...

Six defective mental models that obstruct multinational enterprises from efforts at global poverty alleviation are identified. These include mindsets that define poverty in terms of individual daily earnings, that contend that global poverty is unsolvable, and frame global poverty as a human rights issue. In addition, there are the biased mental mo...