Ethics and Governance: Business As Mediating Institution
Abstract
This book argues that ethical business behavior can be enhanced by taking fuller account of human nature, particularly with respect to the need for creating relatively small communities within the corporation. Timothy Fort discusses this premise in relation to the three predominant theories of business ethics--stakeholder, virtue, and contract. Drawing heavily from philosophy, he analyzes traditional business ethics and legal theory. Overall, his work provides a good example of how to integrate normative and empirical studies in business ethics, a task that often receives substantial discussion in academic journals.
... DeGeorge categorizes three strands of business ethics: 1) Business Ethics as an Academic Field, 2) Business Ethics as a Corporate Movement, and 3) Business Ethics as Individual Values. For purposes of our discussion we will add a fourth strand, developed by Tim Fort (2001, 4) Business Ethics as a Mediating Institution. ...
... Business Ethics as a Mediating Institution Tim Fort, (2001, pp. 227-228 ...
... In a sense the employees were not only members of a business community, but they were also citizens of that community because executives could not ignore their voices. (Emphasis added) (Fort, 2001, p. 8). ...
Some view business ethics as an oxymoron, some as a subordination of a profession to altruistic ideals, others as an art form. All struggle with the implications of applying business ethics in practice. This paper provides an overview of differing uses of the terms Law, Business Ethics, Entrepreneur, and Manager. It briefly explores whether transformational entrepreneurs can create transformational organizations that maintain those transformational qualities apart from their leader, or whether transformational qualities are individual to a leader at a given point in time. Finally, it draws some conclusions and makes a recommendation based on that analysis.
... Family firms contain unique characteristics derived from patterns of ownership, governance, and succession that influence organizational value and belief systems such that family firms may differ from non-family firms (Aronoff & Ward, 1994;Fort, 2001). Some scholars have argued that the unique characteristics relevant to family firms will foster more ethical or virtuous organizations (e.g., Aronoff & Ward, 1994), while others have argued the opposite (e.g., Kets de Vries, 1993). ...
... Overall, family-driven cultures play a key role in influencing ethical orientations in family firms (Debicki et al., 2009;Wortman, 1994) and such interpersonal dynamics may provide catalysts to enhance OVO. Fort (2001) argues that family businesses, possessing unique characteristics, can serve as mediating institutions and enhance virtue, while Allio (2004) proposed that certain virtues (e.g., loyalty) are more commonly associated with family businesses. Overall, there appears to be a general assumption in the family business literature that family firms will likely be more ethical than non-family firms (Aronoff & Ward, 1994;Miller & Le Breton-Miller, 2005). ...
This manuscript develops the concept of organizational virtue orientation (OVO) and examines differences between family and non-family firms on the six organizational virtue dimensions of Integrity, Empathy, Warmth, Courage, Conscientiousness, and Zeal. Using content analysis of shareholder letters from S&P 500 companies, our analyses find that there are significant differences between family and non-family firms in their espoused OVO, with family firms generally being higher. Specifically, family firms were significantly higher on the dimensions of Empathy, Warmth, and Zeal, but lower on Courage. Based on these findings we further develop the OVO concept through the discussion of implications and areas for future research.
... Others are interested in the context in which virtues are exercised (e.g., Kanov et al., 2017 theorize about the relationship between compassion and courage under conditions of uncertainty). Other researchers are interested in the impacts of single predictors on two or more virtues (e.g., Fort, 2001, claims that wisdom and justice may develop when an individual spends time in a "mediating institution" wherein the interdependence of people upon each other becomes clear). Such efforts to theorize about the interactions of virtues are complicated when the elemental virtues appear in fundamentally different ways in prior literature. ...
This article aims to help Positive Social Science (PSS) researchers develop theories of virtues, whether of single, discrete virtues, or several virtues considered together. We argue that a weak virtue theory assumes a virtue consists of single constructs, whereas a deep virtue theory assumes a virtue is an integrated system of constructs. We briefly review indicators of weak theory in the PSS literature: definitional divergence, valence confusion, and conceptual incommensurability. Drawing from the field of Virtue Ethics, we suggest four essential attributes of a virtue that should guide the development of deep virtue theory. Any virtue is (1) holistic, in that it integrates all aspects of character, including cognition, affect, and behavior; (2) a human good, in that it is an intrinsic aspect of individual well-being and a flourishing community; (3) situationally expressed, such that prudence regulates its enactment across various situations; and (4) characteristic, in that it is a second-nature trait rather than a state. We suggest four principles that account for these attributes. Scholars might use these principles to build deep virtue theory and evaluate existing, empirically based PSS virtue theories. We propose that PSS scholars will create more robust theories, develop more defensible and meaningful measures, and generate more compelling accounts of specific virtues if they draw on these principles.
... It is somewhat curious truism that despite the fact that management touches nearly Philosophers were primarily interested in management from an economic or political standpoint and not as a primary object of attention. As a general rule, management practitioners and theorists tend to accept the principles that are current in their society 10 . Modern management practices and theory developed in the age of scientific discovery and this gave it a mechanistic orientation. ...
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
(THE CASE OF A NEGLECTED SPECIAL SCIENCE)
ABSTRACT
The Philosophy of Management Science has been sadly neglected by most contemporary literature in the Philosophy of science. This paper argues that this neglect has been unfortunate and that there is much to be learned from paying greater philosophical attention to the set of issues discussed or analysed by the philosophy of management science. The major contribution of this field to such current topics as reductionism, explanation and methodology within the scientific enterprise is viewed as a possible insight into the broader understanding of the philosophy of science
... 1. An increasing number of authors draw on research from the natural sciences to explain business and economic behavior: Ken Baskin (1998) uses DNA as a metaphor of corporate decision making; Gareth Morgan (1997) says organizations behave like living organisms; Nigel Nicholson (1998) points out that much organizational behavior is modeled on biological impulses; Barbara Pierce and Roderick White (1999) find analogies between organization types in simian social groups and certain types of business organization; Thomas Petzinger, Jr. (1999) describes entrepreneurial firms as complex adaptive systems seeking niches on fitness landscapes; Paul Hawken, Amory B. Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins (1999) say an environmentally sustainable corporate strategy can be achieved by basing production on processes found in nature; Timothy Fort (2001) uses research on the cortex-imposed size limitations of viable human groups to argue for scaled-down corporate governance systems more expressive of human morality; Andrew Henderson, Ithai Stern, and Jungzheng Ding (2001) say the survival and death of individual firms and products can be explained by natural selection; Sandra Waddock (2002) recognizes ecology as the biological basis of global corporate citizenship; Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria (2002) propose that four nature-based drives underlie most organizational and business behavior; Michael Rothschild (1990), Matthias Ruth (1993), and Jane Jacobs (2000) are but three among several economists who use natural forces to explain the operation of economic systems. ...
The business firm, called here the Evolutionary Firm, is shown to be a phenomenon of nature. The firm's motives, organiza-tion, productivity, strategy, and moral significance are a direct outgrowth of natural evolution. Its managers, directors, and employ-ees are natural agents enacting and responding to biological, physical, and ecological impulses inherited over evolutionary time from ancient human ancestors. The Evolutionary Firm's moral pos-ture is a function of its economizing success, competitive drive, quest for market dominance, social contracting skills, and the neural algo-rithms found in the minds of its executives and directing managers. Behavioral, organizational, and societal contradictions arise from the normal expression of these nature-based executive impulses, so that the business corporation cannot simultaneously satisfy society's moral expectations and perform its nature-dictated economic functions.
... This theoretical perspective offers an explanation of the feelings and attitudes that builds on common understandings of believing in self. This theory has been applied to many areas of interest that exceed the scope of this study including goals of high school students (Carraway, 2000), cardiac rehabilitation (Doyle, 2000), exceptional student education (Eisenberger, Conti-D'Antonio, & Bertrando, 2000), exercise adherence at the worksite (Fox, 2000), ethics and governance (Fort, 2001), social studies (Doppen, 2002), football practice (Downey, 2002), smoking and African American males (Wallack, 2002), snowboarders with disabilities (Bright, 2004), video games and their impact on trainee gaming experience (Orvis & U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences., 2005), dealing with Chlamydia infection in college students (Thomas, 2006) and perspectives on the use of the internet in the election process (Williams & Tedesco, 2006). However, self-efficacy theory also can be useful to help explain the beliefs that faculty need to have in order to be willing and ready to teach online. ...
... In recent years, there has been a virtual explosion of interest in corporate values under headings like shareholder value (Rappaport, 1986; Copeland, 1994; Jensen, 2000), stakeholder value (Freeman, 1984), customer value (Murphy et al., 1996), business ethics (Velasquez, 1998; Fort, 2001), corporate social responsibility (Carroll, 1999), environmental sustainability (e.g. Tisdell, 1993; Tenbrunsel et al., 2000) or citizenship (Bolino, 1999). ...
There is growing interest in corporate values but where do they come from? What factors determine corporate values? This paper argues that they are determined by corporate governance in a broad sense of the word. Three governance mechanisms are emphasized: ownership structure, board composition and stakeholder influence. In smaller companies founder-owners often play a pivotal role in shaping corporate value systems that influence companies for years to come. In larger companies that separate ownership and control, managers and boards come to play a powerful role. In both cases repeated interaction with customers, employees and other stakeholders shape corporate values by way of corporate reputation and corporate culture.
... This question has been addressed for some time by scholars in the field of business ethics, in moral terms. In many cases the business ethics focus has been on whether corporations should act as social change agents, regardless of the specific economic consequences (Donaldson, 1982;Donaldson & Dunfee, 2000;Fort, 2001;Fort & Schipani, 2004;Solomon, 1993;Werhane, 1985). ...
Over the past two decades, there have been a growing number of corporations, both within and beyond the United States, engaging in activities that promote positive social change. The papers in this special topic forum examine corporate social change agency at the micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis. Through these analyses, the authors of these papers build a richly textured, multidisciplinary conceptual foundation for analysis and research on corporate social change activities.
... When confronted with a moral quandary in this "moral free space," such as whether to sell a product in a host country that is prohibited for sale in the home country, a firm's well-articulated CSR policy can act as a framework for decision making (Logsdon & Wood, 2004). This is consistent with Fort's (2001) goals to construct corporations as mediating institutions whose organizational architecture, legal and ethical, needs to be carefully considered to promote ethical business behavior. ...
This paper provides a multi-level theoretical model to understand why business organizations are increasingly engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, and thereby exhibiting the potential to exert positive social change. Our model integrates theories of micro-level organizational justice, meso-level corporate governance and macro-level varieties of capitalisms. Using a theoretical framework presented in the justice literature, we argue that organizations are pressured to engage in CSR by many different actors, each driven by instrumental, relational and moral motives. These actors are nested within four "levels" of analysis: individual, organizational, national and transnational. After discussing the motives affecting actors at each level and the mechanisms used at each level to exercise influence, as well as the interactions of motives within levels, we examine forces across levels to propose the complex web of factors, which both facilitate and impede social change by organizations. Ultrimately, this proposed framework can be usd to systematize our understanding of the complex social phenomenon of increasing CSR engagement, and to develop testable hypotheses. We conclude by highlighting some empirical questions for future research, and develop a number of managerial implications.
... Cooperative value is a derived version of corporate value ( Hollender, 2004 ;Thomsen, 2004 ) and has been examined under different headings such as ethics and social responsibility ( Carroll, 1999 ;Fort, 2001 ;Hollender, 2004 ), shareholder value ( Jones et al ., 1997 ;Lopez-Iturriaga and Rodriguez-Sanz, 2001 ) or citizenship ( Bolino, 1999 ). In the marketing literature, scholars refer to customer value which represents the trade-off between sacrifi ces and benefi ts and arises from both quality and price ( Gale, 1994 ;Holbrook, 2005 ;Kumar and Grisaffe, 2004 ;Lam et al ., 2004 ;Spiterie and Dion, 2004 ;Walters, 1999 ;Zeithaml, 1988 ). ...
The purpose of this article is to identify the information used by credit union members in evaluating the image of their service organizations. With data collected from two credit unions in Canada and in Mexico, the results show that in both countries cooperative value, organizational culture and identity, contact personnel and physical environment are significant factors affecting consumers' perceptions of corporate image. The managerial and research implications of the reported study are also discussed.Corporate Reputation Review (2006) 9, 62-78. doi:10.1057/palgrave.crr.1550010
... Ethics, the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group, represent an important issue for organization leaders, and the subject of a rapidly growing literature, broad in scope, and multifarious in content (Singh, Carasco, Svensson, Wood, & Callaghan, 2005;Thomas, Schermerhorn, & Dienhart, 2004;Banaji, Bazerman, & Chugh, 2003;Gordon & Miyake, 2001;Fort, 2001;Donaldson & Dunfee, 1999;Denhardt, 1997;Treviño & Youngblood, 1990). Ethical behavior presents subtle issues of rightness or fairness, and is defined by Lindgreen (2004) as individuals or enterprises adhering to non-corrupt work or business practices. ...
ABSTRACT Corruption is a ,flagrant violation of the norms ,of trust and professional standards. What organizations do internally to prevent corruption is very important in the global equation of corruption control. In this paper, we propose to understand corruption as aphenomenon,that can be discouraged; we use ,this insight to imagine ,people as neither already corrupt nor inherently corruptible and propose a meromorphic model for discouraging ,corruption ,in organizations. Our model ,can help improve ,the effectiveness of organization leaders with respect to discouraging corruption, and can beused,in education ,and training programs. The model ,can also be expanded ,by adding new dimensions, as considered appropriate, and can form a basis for empirical research. ,2
... Recent developments in CSR theories fall under one of these three perspectives , so that we can easily evaluate what scholars are focusing on. Recently, relational theories of CSR seem to have captured the attention of scholars, and new concepts and perspectives seem to come under this third perspective (Fort 2001; Vogel 2005). One of the main contributions that a useful literature review provides to scholars is that of defining some field boundaries. ...
Concepts and theories of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been examined and classified by scholars since the mid-1970s. However, owing to the evolving meaning of CSR and the huge number of scholars who have begun to analyze the issue in recent years fresh efforts are needed to understand new developments. Since there is a great heterogeneity of theories and approaches, the task remains a very hard one, mainly because heterogeneity derives from multi-disciplinary diversity. The criterion for selection is to consider the role that theorists confer to the firm. Following this idea, three groups of theories have been discerned: (1) the utilitarian group, in which the corporation is intended as a maximizing ‘black box’ where problems of externalities and social costs emerge; (2) the managerial category, where problems of responsibility are approached from inside the firm (internal perspective); (3) relational theories, or those in which the type of relations between the firm and the environment are at the center of the analysis. The three perspectives allow the reader to understand the most significant differences between the various theories of CSR. The objective is to classify the theories and to draw a map in which group specificities can be made available. This allows scholars to reach a better understanding of corporate–society relations, and enhances developments both in theoretical and empirical terms.
... With a small number of notable exceptions applying this type of thinking to the investigation of organizational phenomenon is in its relative infancy (Campbell, 1986). The recent work of Fort (2001), Frederick (1995), Lawrence and Nohria (2002), Nelson (1995), Nicholson (1997Nicholson ( , 1998, Salter (1995), and Saad and Gill (2000) provide compelling arguments for the potential of joining together organizational and evolutionary theory. Reisman (1988) and Wilson (1998) maintain that while difficult, developing theory and conducting studies bridging disciplines has the potential to produce major expansions of knowledge. ...
Using evolutionary theory as its underlying perspective this research explores the relationship between evolved social behaviors; specifically emergent social structures, and the ecology of the social group; specifically the contestability of the resource context. Contexts where resources are clustered, predictable, and visible, and where consumption is delayed are highly contestable. When resources are dispersed, unpredictable, and concealed and consumption is immediate the context is less contestable. In our ancestral environment this variation in resource context posed differing adaptive problems for the formation and maintenance of social groups. Different social structures evolved to solve these different problems. The relationship between contestability of the resource context and emergent social structure was tested in an experiment employing 114 subjects over 21 trials. Individuals operating in a low contestable resource context perceived a more egalitarian, hedonic-like social structure; those functioning in a high contestable context reported experiencing a more hierarchical, agonic-like social structure. These findings support the theory that our response to social situations is determined by an endogenous component, our evolved human nature, in combination with an exogenous component, the character of the ecology within which the group forms and functions. While the endogenous component is a product of the evolutionary process and largely beyond the influence of management, the ecological component, the perception of the resource context can be affected by managerial action. Implications for researchers and managers, and areas for continued investigation are explored. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... This argument was central to Fort's study on businesses optimally being mediating institutions. To the extent that businesses become too large or, if large, do not consciously allow for sub-groupings so that individuals can find a sense of community correlating to their neurobiological limits for processing human relationships, they lose their empathic concern for others and with that, the importance of their own ethical actions (Fort, 2001). A central reason for this is the importance of voice, a key aspect of democracy also often cited as being connected to sustainable peace. ...
Our goals in this article are to summarize the existing literature on the role business can play in creating sustainable peace
and to discuss important avenues for extending this research. As part of our discussion, we review the ethical arguments and
related research made to date, including the rationale and motivation for businesses to engage in conflict resolution and
peace building, and discuss how scholars are extending research in this area. We also focus on specific ways companies can
actively engage in conflict reduction including promoting economic devel- opment, the rule of law, and principles of external
valuation, contributing to a sense of community, and engaging in track-two diplomacy and conflict sensitive practices. We
conclude by developing a set of future research questions and considerations.
Key wordspeace-building-track-two diplomacy-economic development-conflict-sensitive business practices
By highlighting the affinities between the good society and the general education curriculum, liberal arts faculty can better prepare students to meet the needs of the world. Optional common curricula can help socialize students into a domain crucial to flourishing communities, the voluntary pursuit of collective aspirations within civil society.
By highlighting the affinities between the good society and the general education curriculum, liberal arts faculty can better prepare students to meet the needs of the world. Optional common curricula can help socialize students into a domain crucial to flourishing communities, the voluntary pursuit of collective aspirations within civil society.
Aristotle has little to say about ethics across cultural lines. I have suggested that dialectic or reflective equilibrium may be helpful there. But upon further consideration I note that intuitions and principles may differ radically across national and cultural boundaries, and that rationality is not very common and not always useful to ethics in the absence of supportive emotions. Perhaps businesses, which require cooperation in diversity, can encourage a transactional form of association that in due course ripens into something like a strong form of friendship, much as habits develop into virtues. They may also create some space for dialectical conversations. Insofar as friendly conversations about ethics increase organizational effectiveness, they may spread widely. But recent political developments, along with new organizational forms, raise issues that should temper our optimism.
The purpose of this paper is to present an understanding of business ethics based on a theory of internal social criticism. Internal social criticism focuses on how members of a business organization debate the meanings of their shared traditions for the purpose of locating and correcting hypocrisy. Organizations have thick moral cultures that allow them to be self-governing moral communities. By considering organizations as interpretive moral communities, I challenge the conventional notion that moral criticism is based primarily on exogenous moral principles delivered by outside critics. I describe an interpretive process of business ethics and develop a theoretical model of internal social criticism. I also propose that organizational identification serves as a mechanism for inducing ethical behavior. I conclude by calling for more research that understands the development and use of existing moral principles inside of organizations.
This chapter investigates how academic KIOs can manage the boundary of regulation in bridging science to insights from humanistic disciplines. It examines (i) governance mechanisms of intellectual property policies in research consortia in which the private incentive, public responsibilities, and academic science norms coexist; (ii) factors that determine the scope of moral responsibilities that academic KIOs perceive. The internalization is a promising alliance design. The problem is to control claims of rights over inventions. The agency-based governance helps extend the trusteeship governance by unbundling property rights and ownership. By detaching and reconfiguring rights toward benefits, this direction is also consistent with the common good-based stakeholder theory. At the same time, the combination of moral identity and ownership determine the humanistic issues that KIOs perceive commitment.
Though translational science is promising in understanding neurobiological pathways of cancer induced-bone pain and epilepsy, they have barriers to a legal requirement of informed consent. Physical and cognitive characteristics of specific subgroups compromise their self-determination capacity, the precondition of valid consent. This chapter investigates two directions to mitigate barriers. One is to extend trusteeship governance to introduce fairness-based stakeholder theory. In based on this model, subjects enter a cooperative scheme of research with a consent. A catalyst is fair transaction model of informed consent that fairly limits investigators’ responsibility to assure the same level of understanding on the side of subjects. The other is to refine the measurement standards of self-determination capacity, as even minimal-conscious-state subjects retain a consent capacity with the aid of imaging technologies.
In this chapter, the history of philosophy of management is discussed with a focus on the search for legitimacy in the Judeo-Christian tradition. This is the basis for evaluating modern concepts of the economics of the philosophy of management and corporations. The chapter also presents the neoliberal paradigm of the philosophy of management and the attempt to search for another economy beyond rational individual utility maximization. Here we move toward business ethics, CSR, and corporate citizenship. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013. All rights are reserved.
This chapter presents the problem of legitimacy as the central question of the philosophy of management and corporations. This problem is then presented with the economic theory of Adam Smith and with the concept of legitimacy from Max Weber. Further on, the contributions of recent theories to the question of legitimacy of the corporation in the modern world are presented, in particular, a number of American approaches that are related to institutional theory and recent efforts to determine the legitimacy of management and corporations. Finally, we briefly discuss Habermas's concept of legitimacy as the foundation of corporate citizenship. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013. All rights are reserved.
This chapter develops the positive responsibility of Chap. 4. It explores responses to the complex social and physical environment illustrated by the Niger Delta case. In the light of social conflict it examines the underpinning ideas of Total Integrity Management and the moral imagination (developed through Lederach). Examples of this proactive integrity then are explored around business and peace-building, human rights and managing the supply chain, with particular reference to modern slavery.
Novo Nordisk defines sustainable development as being about preserving the planet while improving the quality of life for its current and future inhabitants. From a business perspective this involves the inclusion of economic, social and environmental considerations in the business strategy. During the 1990s many companies experienced an enormous pressure from critical stakeholders, governments, media, NGOs and international organisations to demonstrate that they had adopted sustainable business practices.
In the survey of CSR published by The Economist in January of 2005, Clive Crook argues that the CSR movement has, at least on the face of it, won the battle of ideas concerning modern business capitalism. In fact, there has not been much of a battle at all, since the opponents have never really turned up. Unopposed, Crook argues, the various fractions of the CSR movement have managed to distil a widespread suspicion of capitalism into a set of demands for action: ‘they have held companies to account, by embarrassing the ones that especially offend against the principles of CSR, and by mobilising public sentiment and an almost universally sympathetic press against them. Intellectually, at least, the corporate world has surrendered and gone over to the other side’ (Crook, 2005: 3).
Both Corporate Governance (CG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have become important topics in recent years, but there is some confusion as to the relationship between the two concepts.
The history of international norms is marked by differential spread and uptake of ideas. In some cases, gradual shifts in internationally accepted norms have taken place over generations. In contrast, the international uptake of the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) is unusual: the RtoP moved in only a few years from a concept in a few reports and papers to a serious point of discussion and debate acknowledged by numerous organizations (Thakur and Weiss, 2009). This adoption was broad as well as rapid. Organizations, including the UN Security Council (Cotler and Genser, 2011), the UN General Assembly (United Nations, 2009a), the popular press (Rieff, 2011), NATO and many INGOs, have written on and invoked the RtoP. This discussion unsurprisingly has generated a diverse and contested field of interpretations about what specifically the RtoP entails (Stahn, 2007), or what kinds of actions are appropriate outgrowths of the RtoP as generally understood (Thakur, 2011).
There is substantial tension between the contractarian and the communitarian models of society. This paper proposes that each of these models emphasizes a different characteristic of our human nature. The personal drive for more is the basis of contractual interactions. Social embedded-ness leads to participation in multiple overlapping communities. A person’s preference for one model or the other depends upon his or her narrative consciousness which reflects the complementarity and contradictions between the drive for more and social embeddedness. The argument in this paper is introduced with a discussion of these three characteristics of human nature.
The new inclusive social dynamics is refocusing the intricacies of formation of social structures. The process of globalization is unifying various cultures leading to the creation of Multiculturalists society. As a corollary to this various ethnic groups are expanding their boundaries to form the larger social structures. The concept of spatial management relates to the management of spaces of various ethno-cultural formations into single social unit. This merging can be facilitated by building up mutual trust and respect for each other, which in turn can be reinforced by communicating with the help of Information and Communication Technologies. Hence the role of ICT in enhancing the process of unification is crucial as it pierces through the tightened boundaries of ethnic groups to develop the newer identities. This unveiled dimension is explored in this article, which focuses on the use of the technology in social reconfiguration.
Corporate diplomacy is an emerging concept within the management literature. It describes corporate conduct in the international arena, particularly in challenging political and social environments. Management scholarship and practitioner literature have focused on the communication processes and instrumental benefits associated with corporate diplomacy, exploring and explaining how managers negotiate stakeholder relationships to achieve a firm's profit-oriented goals. We enrich the current understanding of corporate diplomacy by viewing it as an umbrella concept that encompasses scholarship from political corporate social responsibility, international relations, diplomacy, and peace studies. We also suggest that corporate diplomacy includes the political role that multinational enterprises play in addressing social issues and governance gaps affecting less developed and potentially conflict-prone host countries where they operate. Based on this approach, the concept of corporate diplomacy builds on the premise that multinationals have an expanded role and responsibilities in terms of global governance and that the practice of corporate diplomacy can play a role in resolving social or political conflicts, leading to wider societal benefits beyond corporate profits. To illustrate our concept of corporate diplomacy, we focus on the governance gaps addressed in the literature on peace through commerce, discussing instances where firms implement corporate diplomacy through peacemaking or peacebuilding to accomplish both private and public goals in conflict-prone regions. We conclude with the practical implications of corporate diplomacy as well as suggestions for research to further develop a richer understanding of corporate diplomacy.
This research paper looks at the transparency policies of the major ICT companies and the accountability format of Transparency Report. Their study is set against the backdrop of a case study of the leak about the US NSA surveillance practices (6-7 June 2013). The involvement of the major Internet-companies at the early stage of the scandal as allegedly colluding with the state put the issues of the transparency high on the agenda in the ICT industry reflecting new challenges in data protection and privacy policies that they face as aggregators of vast amounts of data, which they also must disclose to the state authorities in response to lawful requests. The study has revealed the increased salience of the transparency agenda in the corporate policies whereby the companies, already issuing transparency reports on compliance with state requests on user data, have reiterated their commitment to user trust and the values of human right of privacy operationalised inter alia by these reports; other companies, having made earlier pledges about coming up with their reports in the near future, were able to highlight the value of the report both as a trust-building instrument and a corporate lobbying tool as tested by the recent event. This has indicated that transparency reports, although not comprehensive at the moment, are developing as the ICT industry accountability standard, which was further stimulated by the event. At the same time it was revealed that apart from more expectations about the content of the reports, much more transparency is anticipated from the governments on how they access and use citizens’ data. The study has taken place at the very start of a new wave of debates around online privacy following shortly the above mentioned event.
This study used qualitative interviews (n = 15) to identify a grounded theory related to ethics in security management. The study explored how educators in graduate level organizational Security Management programs in the United States describe their definitions of ethics in security management and the role that ethics play in security management as a practice and as a profession. The research findings resulted in the creation of a theoretical model for ethics in security management emphasizing a balance between various personal and professional factors. In addition, the findings resulted in a model for the role of ethics in organizational security, which is based on trust, and combines security's heightened authority and access to information with increased exposure to potential ethical decisions, which result in significant personal, organizational, and professional consequences for ethical failure.
This paper presents a self adaptive architecture to enhance the energy efficiency of coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures (CGRAs). Today, platforms host multiple applications, with arbitrary inter-application communication and concurrency patterns. Each application itself can have multiple versions (implementations with different degree of parallelism) and the optimal version can only be determined at runtime. For such scenarios, traditional worst case designs and compile time mapping decisions are neither optimal nor desirable. Existing solutions to this problem employ costly dedicated hardware to configure the operating point at runtime (using DVFS). As an alternative to dedicated hardware, we propose exploiting the reconfiguration features of modern CGRAs. Our solution relies on dynamically reconfigurable isolation cells (DRICs) and autonomous parallelism, voltage, and frequency selection algorithm (APVFS). The DRICs reduce the overheads of DVFS circuitry by configuring the existing resources as isolation cells. APVFS ensures high efficiency by dynamically selecting the parallelism, voltage and frequency trio, which consumes minimum power to meet the deadlines on available resources. Simulation results using representative applications (Matrix multiplication, FIR, and FFT) showed up to 23% and 51% reduction in power and energy, respectively, compared to traditional DVFS designs. Synthesis results have confirmed significant reduction in area overheads compared to state of the art DVFS methods.
The idea of a lean business culture has greatly improved business results in terms of product quality, customer satisfaction, product market share and profitability in the advance countries in recent times. This exploratory research paper attempted to investigate the application of lean accounting as a strategy to achieve lean business philosophy in Nigeria manufacturing firms. The study population consists of 53 manufacturing firms listed in the Nigeria stock exchange with 2,246 employees selected based on the researcher’s criteria. 50% of the population used as sample frame was selected at random. The formulated hypotheses were confirmed and the result obtained revealed that lean accounting correlated positively with lean business philosophy but due to ignorance, implementation is insignificant in Nigeria. The study suggested the need for full implementation of lean business culture and lean accounting to gain the total benefit of lean business philosophy which in turn through the multiplier effect will influence Nigeria economy positively.
Whether characterized as corporate social responsibility (CSR), business ethics, or some other name, best practices in a given industry often fall short, thus causing efforts of companies seeking to improve their own CSR practices to fall short as well. A typical CSR model uses philanthropic donations to demonstrate the company's commitment to social welfare. Even a strategic version of CSR falls short of what it could achieve. To be sure, these can be important efforts worth celebrating, but we seek to raise the bar higher. Our case study focuses on the pharmaceutical industry because of our experience working in and studying that industry. In Section 2, we identify the typical CSR efforts of pharmaceutical companies. Dissatisfied with the scope of current efforts, Section 3 switches from an inductive approach to a deductive one in which we rely on scholarly literature and some exemplary benchmarks to propose a stronger model of corporate ethics. At the heart of this model is the claim that optimum instrumental benefits accrue to corporate CSR actions when they are undertaken for sincere aims rather than for instrumental ones. Section 4 then explains how this framework provides a way for pharmaceutical companies to embrace a more robust model of corporate responsibility that could be extended to other industries as well.
This paper speculates upon the reasons for Peter Drucker's ongoing and vigorous denial of the relevance of business ethics. It contemplates whether Drucker consciously, or even perhaps subconsciously, associates the aims of business ethics with the aims of those associated with the Arbeitsfreude movement in Germany prior to the outbreak of the second world war. If this is the case the paper questions whether Drucker's distaste for some of the more notorious outcomes of that movement in Germany are reflected in his hostility to business ethics. Drucker's reflections regarding the social responsibilities of business are discussed, as are the limitations which he imposes upon such corporate social responsibility. Drucker's distinction between societal ethics and individual ethics are also discussed.
Framing issues of organizational ethics in terms of virtues and moral agency (rather than in terms of rules and ethical behavior) has implications for the way social science addresses matters of morality in organizations. In particular, attending to matters of virtue and moral agency directs attention to the moral identity, or self-concept, of persons, and to the circumstances that influence self-identity. This article develops parallels between philosophical theories of virtue and the concept of moral identity as developed in social cognitive identity theory. Explicating notions of virtue and moral agency in terms of social cognitive identity theory, in turn, helps direct attention to a range of factors - including both organizational and extraorganizational, macro-cultural ones - that can foster or inhibit moral agency in organizations.
Today Philips is one of the largest foreign investors in East Asia. The foundation for the company’s East Asian position was laid by investment in Taiwan in the 1960s and early 1970s, at a time when this country and the rest of the region were still largely ignored by other European investors. This article investigates the motives for Philips to play a pioneering role among European firms in large-scale investing in Taiwan. The author uses the traditional method for direct investment analysis, known as Dunning’s eclectic paradigm. He also addresses shortcomings in this method regarding individual company behavior, by adding a corporate governance analysis that is based on Freeman’s stakeholder theory. The resulting analysis shows that, although locational factors constituted the main precondition to direct investment by Philips, the crucial reason Philips made its early investments in Taiwan was its chief executive officer’s enthusiasm for this particular project.
How can a business institution function as an ethical institution within a wider system if the context of the wider system is inherently unethical? If the primary goal of an institution, no matter how ethical it sets out to be, is to function successfully within a market system, how can it reconcile making a profit and keeping its ethical goals intact? While it has been argued that some ethical businesses do exist, e.g., Johnson and Johnson, the argument I would like to put forth is that no matter how ethical a business institution is, or how ethical its goals are, its capacity to act in an ethical manner is restricted by the wider system in which it must operate, the market system. Unless there is a fundamental change in the notion of the market system itself, the capacity for individual businesses to act in an ethical manner will always be restricted. My argument is divided into two parts. The first part is to show the inherent bias towards unethical outcomes that is inherent in the market system. The second part is to suggest how to reorient the general economic framework in order to make ethical institutions more possible. The question then becomes, how to define economic behavior in terms other than competition for profit.
The authors describe a semester-long action-learning project where undergraduate or graduate management students learn about ethics, responsibility, and organizational behavior by examining the policy of their college or university that addresses academic integrity. Working in teams, students adopt a stakeholder management approach as they make recommendations for improvements to their school’s academic integrity policy, its dissemination and enforcement. The authors detail their efforts facilitating this project at three universities. As students examine how an ethical conduct policy informs and is informed by individual and organizational behaviors, they come to more deeply understand the social processes through which all manner of responsibility-promoting outcomes are enacted. The approach to learning described in this project promotes students’ internalization of ethical principles and accountability for responsible behavior that is consonant with the core aims and principles of responsible management education.
The world is full of suffering. How then can we justify spending time at play? Given certain utilitarian assumptions, it becomes clear that time spent playing could be put to better use. Furthermore, if a life could have been saved by working instead of playing a “round of golf,” then our passion for play and games is not only a matter of morality, but likewise a matter of life and death. In this article I argue that such thinking is confused; primarily about how we develop a healthy concern for other people. Using the idea of “mediating institutions,” play and games are defended on the grounds that human particularity necessitates learning compassion—needed to reduce suffering—through the kind of intimate human relationships found at play.
Purpose
This paper aims to test the impact of corporate governance structure on corporate values.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper employs factor analysis and three‐stage least squares to identify and explain variance in corporate values.
Findings
In accordance with the proposed theoretical framework ownership, board and stakeholder structure are found to influence corporate values. When value determinants are taken into account there is no significant relationship between values and profitability.
Research limitations/implications
This is a pilot study of 71 Danish firms. Further research needs to address measurement of corporate values and to test hypotheses on larger datasets.
Practical implications
One practical implication is that corporate values should be grounded in the company's ownership, board and stakeholder structure. Real changes in corporate values may require real changes in governance structure.
Originality/value
The paper tests a new approach to the study of corporate values which connects values to governance. It thereby establishes empirical foundations for current discussions about corporate values. This should be important both to practical work on company missions, values and responsibilities and to academics who search for an operational approach to the study of corporate values.
This article will be published in two issues of LFMR as Parts 1 and 2. Sections A and B are published here in Part 1, and Sections C and D of the article will be published in Part 2. Section A of the article argues that “financial regulation” is essentially a regulatory space, ie a landscape where a variety of actors and interest groups may have resources, capacity and ability to exert influence over the governance of issue areas in the landscape. The regulatory space is dominated by the industry and regulatory agencies, giving rise to governance driven by industry interests and objectives as well as public interest. Section B of the article then provides a literature review of modern governance and regulation theories to show how “public-private” models in governance have been developed in contemporary theory and practice. Section C draws on the literature review to discuss specific areas in financial regulation represented by different models of “public-private governance” and critically examines the nature of “public-private governance” in the context of the global financial crisis. Section D argues that “public-private governance” in financial regulation has given rise to problems of unaccountability, agency and capture, and some suggestions are made in relation to the dynamics of the “public-private governance” going forward.
The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) field presents not only a landscape of theories but also a proliferation of approaches, which are controversial, complex and unclear. This article tries to clarify the sit-uation, ''mapping the territory'' by classifying the main CSR theories and related approaches in four groups: (1) instrumental theories, in which the corporation is seen as only an instrument for wealth creation, and its social activities are only a means to achieve economic results; (2) political theories, which concern themselves with the power of corporations in society and a responsible use of this power in the political arena; (3) integrative theories, in which the corporation is focused on the satisfaction of social demands; and (4) ethical theories, based on ethical responsibilities of corporations to society. In practice, each CSR theory presents four dimensions related to profits, political performance, social demands and ethical values. The findings suggest the necessity to develop a new theory on the business and society relationship, which should integrate these four dimensions.
Caritas in Veritate (CV) poses a challenge to the business community when it asks for “a profoundly new way of understanding business enterprise” (CV 40). The paper proposes the concept of the “common good” as a starting point for the discussion and sketches a definition of the common good of business as the path toward an answer for this challenge. Building on the distinction between the material and the formal parts of the common good, the authors characterize profit as the material part of the common good of business and work as the formal part that expresses the essential significance of business.
The article starts by arguing that seeing the firm as a mere nexus of contracts or as an abstract entity where different stakeholder
interests concur is insufficient for a “humanistic business ethos”, which entails a complete view of the human being. It seems
more appropriate to understand the firm as a human community, a concept which can be found in several sources, including managerial
literature, business ethics scholars, and Catholic Social Teaching. In addition, there are also philosophical grounds that
support the idea of business as a human community. Extending this concept, and drawing from some Phenomenological-Personalist
philosophers, we propose that the firm should be seen as a particular “community of persons” oriented to providing goods and
services efficiently and profitably. Being a “community of persons” emphasizes both individuals and the whole, and makes explicit
the uniqueness, conscience, free will, dignity, and openness to human flourishing. This requires appropriate communication
about and participation in matters which affect people’s life, and makes it essential to cooperate for the common good of
the business firm and the society.
KeywordsAristotle–Business as a community–Business enterprise–Business ethos–Catholic Social Teaching–Corporation–Firm–Personalism
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