针对灰色营销进行道德培训的实验效果

本文以道德培训为操纵变量,以工商管理专业的大学生为实验对象,研究了灰色营销的道德培训对人们灰色营销道德判断和行为倾向的影响.结果发现:第一,针对灰色营销的短期道德培训能够显著改进被培训者针对灰色营销的道义论评价和目的论评价,但是不能降低其灰色营销行为倾向;第二,尽管针对灰色营销的短期道德培训能够改进人们针对灰色营销的道义论评价和目的论评价,并且后者对人们的灰色营销行为倾向也有显著影响,但是它们不能中介短期道德培训对灰色营销行为倾向的影响.本文最后讨论了研究结果的理论贡献与实际应用.     

An organizational climate regarding ethics: the outcome of leader values and the practices that reflect them

In this article, we argue that the organizational climate regarding ethics — the shared perception of what is ethically correct behavior and how ethical issues should be handled within an organization — is an outgrowth of the personal values and motives of organizational founders and other early organizational leaders. We begin by arguing that one common label for the climate regarding ethics construct — “ethical climate” — is inappropriate. We also argue that climate regarding ethics has an impact on organizational outcomes, including organizational outcomes that do not have explicit ethical components. We propose that this impact largely occurs through the mediating mechanisms of organizational cohesion and morale. We conclude by discussing the variety of antecedents and outcomes related to climate regarding ethics.     

International Evidence on the Determinants of Organizational Ethical Vulnerability

This paper proposes a model to explain what makes organizations ethically vulnerable. Drawing upon legitimacy, institutional, agency and individual moral reasoning theories we consider three sets of explanatory factors and examine their association with organizational ethical vulnerability. The three sets comprise external institutional context, internal corporate governance mechanisms and organizational ethical infrastructure. We combine these three sets of factors and develop an analytical framework for classifying ethical issues and propose a new model of organizational ethical vulnerability. We test our model on a sample of 253 firms that were involved in ethical misconduct and compare them with a matched sample of the same number of firms from 28 different countries. The results suggest that weak regulatory environment and internal corporate governance, combined with profitability warnings or losses in the preceding year, increase organizational ethical vulnerability. We find counterintuitive evidence suggesting that firms’ involvement in bribery and corruption prevention training programmes is positively associated with the likelihood of ethical vulnerability. By synthesizing insights about individual and corporate behaviour from multiple theories, this study extends existing analytical literature on business ethics. Our findings have implications for firms’ external regulatory settings, corporate governance mechanisms and organizational ethical infrastructure.     

Business Ethics and Business History: Neglected Dimensions in Management Education

This article highlights two large gaps in the business school curriculum: the neglect of historical and ethical dimensions. An overview is provided of progress made so far in the UK in the evolution of business history as an academic discipline; and also of the take–up of business ethics in university teaching. Both have had some success, but overall the response to these areas has been somewhat lacklustre — at least in the UK. A justification is provided for adding both components to a fully relevant business education. When the two are combined, the result can be a highly rewarding combination that provides insights that may not be possible for management writers, who work only in the present. Corporate ethics, the social responsibility of companies, disclosure, the environment, the actions of multinational companies overseas, the dilemmas of whistle–blowing, the impact of lobby groups and health and safety issues can all be understood more fully by students if they approach these subjects from an ethical and historical standpoint.     

Catholic social teaching and business ethics: A search for moral foundations

Do the social encyclicals, especially the 100-year old Rerum Novarum,have any relevance to business people and managers in the practice of their profession? To respond to this question, one must attempt to find a link between Catholic social teaching and business ethics. Establishing this relationship is the goal of this paper. It will discuss the notion of the social question, which is addressed in the social encyclicals; present the philosophical and theological foundations of the social teaching; and point to areas where the linkage between the social teaching and business ethics can be established. By reaching deep into the philosophical grounds of the social encyclicals, the analysis attempts to cut through the often muddled diversity of opinions on specific ethical issues which characterize most moral debates.     

Notwendigkeit,Ziele und Inhalte einer Ethik-Ausbildung in der Betriebswirtschaftslehre

Although business administration scholars in German-speaking countries increasingly engage in business ethics research, their business schools have so far not systematically included ethics related contents into their standard curricula. Based on an understanding of business administration as an applied discipline that should not shun the scientific discussion of normative statements, this article argues that our field needs to address ethical questions not only in research but also in teaching. The subsequent analysis addresses aims, contents, and methods of teaching business ethics in higher education. Rather than teaching students ‘moral truths’, the main aim of business ethics education is seen in providing students with a variety of theories, concepts, and tools that are able to support them in ethical decision processes, which they are likely to encounter in their management careers.     

Analysis of human capital development in Puerto Rico: summary and conclusions

This study explored whether perceptions of organizational business ethics differ by hierarchical levels. The study sample included more than 40,000 executives, mid-level managers and non-managerial employees from business organizations in six countries: Brazil, China, Germany, India, the UK and the US. We found that executives provided the most positive assessment of ethical business culture within their respective organizations. Employees’ assessments were less positive, and mid-level managers’ assessments fell in the middle. Organizational size and respondents’ age were not related to differences in responses. Statistically significant differences among hierarchical levels were found in Brazil, the US, Germany, the UK and China. Differences were not significant in India. Executives with longer tenure at the same organization tended to provide higher ratings of organizations’ ethical cultures, while managers’ and employees’ ratings tended to decrease with time.     

Sustaining the Financial Value of Global CSR: Reconciling Corporate and Stakeholder Interests in a Less Regulated Environment

In this article we examine the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm value. This line of research is important since firms continue to invest in CSR even though past studies reveal a limited linkage between financial value and CSR. However, the business case for CSR or “doing good while making a profit,” appears to be advancing within the business ethics literature as a preferred conception of CSR. We conjecture that the greater unification and refinement of both profit maximization and stakeholder interests through corporate acts, not statements alone, will sustain the financial value of CSR in a less regulated global business environment. We study the triangle of what companies say, what companies do, and firm financial performance. We analyze Fortune 250 firms and find a positive association between what companies do based on KLD Research and Analytics, Inc. (KLD) ratings, and what companies state about ethics in their CSR statements. We then employ regression analysis and find that companies’ socially responsible acts are positively associated with overall firm value and financial performance. Yet we do not find a statistically significant association between what companies say regarding ethics in their CSR statements and their financial outcomes. These results suggest that firm value and financial performance is associated with what companies do and not what they say. Our results seem to be driven by multinational corporations (MNCs) and not by non‐MNCs. This is possibly because MNCs generally operate in a less regulated global business environment that often necessitates strong ethical corporate leadership to further stakeholder interests. Overall, these results help reconcile corporate and stakeholder objectives since evidence of a link between financial performance and doing good sustains global CSR.     

Managed care's Achilles heel: ethical immaturity

How can physician executives determine the prevailing values in the managed care arena? What are the consequences when values statements are ignored during decision-making? These questions can be answered using a process called ethical reasoning, which is different and more productive than making moral judgments, such as "is managed care good or bad?" Failing to include ethical reasoning in executive offices and boardrooms is a form of ethical immaturity. It fuels public suspicion that managed care's goal may be maximizing profit at all costs, as opposed to seeking reasonable profit through provision of dependable and accessible health care services. One outcome of ethical reasoning is rediscovering the basic truth that running one's business on competitive rather than altruistic principles is ethical whenever greater efficiencies and economic growth enlarge the size of the pie for everyone. Reasonable self-interest is a perfectly acceptable reason to act ethically. The time has come for physician executives to develop a basic understanding of pragmatic ethics, and to appreciate the value of adding ethical reasoning to the decision-making process.     

Environmental leadership in business education: Where's the innovation and how should we support it?

General managers have the power to shape environmental performance through the strategic decisions they make about products, markets and investments. Yet, often times managers fail to fully recognize the link between improved environmental performance and business performance. Over the past ten years, many business schools have added environmental content to their classes and research to help future business leaders recognize and act on these links. Ironically, although business leaders articulate ambitious environmental goals, corporate recruiting demands have not kept pace with the growing supply of these graduates. The following recap of the World Resources Institute's recent study, Grey Pinstripes with Green Ties: MBA Programs Where the Environment Matters, helps identify information barriers firms encounter in seeking new managers with a combination of business training and technical competence.     

Trust,Morality, and the Privatization of Water Services in Developing Countries

This article examines the business of water privatization and the ethics implied in the transformation of the water services sector in developing countries. Drawing on data derived from field visits and semi‐structured interviews held with members of government, nongovernmental organizations, and other stakeholders in one country undergoing transformation in this sector, Ghana, the article considers the ethical perspectives of the various involved stakeholders. The analysis draws on three perspectives—Gilligan's ethic of care, Rawls’ principles of justice, and virtue ethics—which together highlight the economic, class, and gender‐based dimensions of the privatization debate. Finding that endemic mistrust characterizes this debate, the article considers what is needed to re‐instill trust among stakeholders. Specific implications are provided for business leaders and government policymakers.     

Factors of Employees’ Effective Voice in Corporate Goverance*

Traditionally, corporate governance has focused on the problem of crafting mechanisms to align the interests of owners and managers. The key characteristic has been to minimize the potential for managers to act in their own self-interest at the expense of shareholders. The purpose of this paper is to focus on employees as stakeholders in the governance process. We argue that creating an environment where employees have help in behaving ethically, in the course of their work, is the first step in encouraging them to voice observations of wrongdoing. Seven groups of professionals in the accounting and insurance fields were surveyed during a 10-year period and asked to indicate the extent to which 14 items were helpful in dealing with ethical challenges. Over 2700 responses were analyzed. The findings indicate that professionals think that their organizational culture and policy for voice was more helpful in dealing with ethical dilemmas than was their professional association. *Presented at the 2004 European Academy of Management Conference in St. Andrews, Scotland     

Was müssen Führungskräfte können?

Ethics Education complements business administration only if it teaches strategic competencies that help managers to become better leaders. To this end, this article sketches an ordonomic approach to an economic ethics for competitive markets, to a business ethics for firms (corporate citizens), and to a process ethics for new governance. The core idea of this ordonomic approach is the win-win concept of mutually beneficial value creation. Thus, ordonomics is compatible with the market economy and at the same time supplements the management education in business schools: This approach systematically identifies strategic competencies that enable managers to display the kind of entrepreneurial leadership that is necessary for firms to fulfill their social function of value creation—by making use of moral commitments as a factor of production.     

An integrated micro- and macrolevel discussion of global green issues: “It isn't easy being green”

Two key issues arising from globalization of world markets are the impact of business activities on the environment and threats to sustainable development. These issues are usually referred to as “green” issues. This paper presents a detailed discussion of global green issues in the context of a number of environments that include the socioeconomic, political, technological, and competitive arenas. The discussion is based on an attempt to integrate two conceptual models by Maslow (Maslow, A., 1954. Motivation and Personality. Harper & Row, New York) and Cateora (Cateora, P.R., 1983. International Marketing, 4th. ed. Irwin, Chicago, IL). The goal is to bring together both a microlevel perspective of the individual consumer and a macrolevel perspective of business through analysis in multiple environments that are affected by green issues. This integration is viewed conceptually as a recursive system of mutually reinforcing causes and effects at the micro- and macrolevels.The leitmotiv throughout the paper is that “it isn't easy being green,” either for consumers, activists, corporate leaders and managers, or public policymakers. Practical examples are presented to support and illustrate the discussion. The main finding is that a new approach is needed to business in general through a new dominant social paradigm (DSP) and to international business in particular in order to achieve both sustainable development and sustainable consumption. In conclusion, the importance of individual responsibility and action by consumers and managers alike is underlined.     

Operational Best Practices in Business Ethics: A Practical and Systematic Benchmarking Tool

This article describes a benchmarking tool managers can use to determine operational policies and processes that could enhance an organization's social and ethical performance. The benchmarking tool consists of a 13‐dimension, 110‐item survey based on an Optimal Ethics Systems Model. These best practices in business ethics are derived from an analysis and assessment of seven institutional infrastructures and accountability standards developed to help managers improve organizational social and ethical performance.     

Institutional Predictors of and Complements to Industry Self‐regulation with Regard to Labor Practices

In recent years, there has been increasing managerial and academic attention given to a variety of mechanisms for companies to respond to stakeholder concerns about global business ethics. One area that merits further analysis is the role of industry‐level cooperation regarding issues in global business ethics such as labor practices. There are two main issues that we will address in this article: institutional pressures that predict when an industry will create a code of conduct and institutional complements for an industry‐level code of conduct to be “successful” with regard to responding to stakeholder concerns about international business operations. We offer a number of propositions—bringing together work from both the corporate social responsibility and (neo)institutional theory literatures—with regard to both predictors and complements of industry self‐regulation in reference to labor practices.     

Management and Business Ethics: A Critique and Integration of Ethical Decision-making Models

This paper critically reviews the literature relating to the management of ethics within organizations and identifies, in line with other authors, a gap between theory and practice in the area. It highlights the role of management (both as an academic discipline and from a practitioner perspective) in bridging this gap and views managers, with their sense of individual ethical agency, as a key locus of ethics within organizations. The paper aims to address the theory–practice gap by surveying the business ethics literature in order to identify, draw together and integrate existing theory and research, with a particular emphasis upon models of ethical decision-making and their relationship to work values. Such an endeavour is necessary, not only because of the relative neglect of management practice by business ethics researchers, but also because of the current lack of integration in the field of business ethics itself. The paper outlines some of the main methodological challenges in the area and suggests how some of these may be overcome. Finally, it concludes with a number of suggestions as to how the theory–practice gap can be addressed through the development of a research agenda, based upon the previous work reviewed.     

Business Ethics through Meditation: The Ethical ‘I,’ the Ethical ‘You,’ the Ethical ‘We’⋆

Environmentalists have been criticizing the ethics of business people concerning the natural environment. Citing Thomas Berry as an example, this paper attempts to bring his three abstract values (presence, subjectivity, and communion) closer to the understanding of the average business person through meditation. The introduction describes business ethics in terms of relationships to the individual, or the ethical ‘I’ to the natural environment, or the ethical ‘You’ and to interpersonal relationships, or the ethical ‘We.’ Meditation is also defined, according to Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1986), as a meditative experience together with a period of reflection and small-group discussion. More specifically, meditation takes on three forms. Part one describes nondiscursive meditation in the context of what Berry means by presence. The problem addressed here is how to meet and cultivate the ethical ‘I.’ Part two will deal with semidiscursive meditation in the context of what Berry means by subjectivity, or the ethical ‘I’ in relation to the earth. The earth then becomes the ethical ‘You.’ Part three will deal with Berry's definition of communion, or the ethical ‘We.’ The practice of discursive meditation gradually leads to what Thomas Berry calls a renewed ‘visionary experience.’ The article concludes with a redefinition of business ethics in terms of our relationships to ourselves, as human persons, to the earth as our living environment, and to each other as members of the human community. The redefinition of our relationships through meditation is ‘visionary,’ or a new ‘paradigm,’ that, hopefully, will lead to the renewed ethical practice that other environmentalists are also advocating, for example, Arnold Berleant. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Can we have global ethics in a global economy?

With the collapse of the bi-polar world, we live in an increasingly integrated global economy, which includes economic, political, and cultural dimensions. We argue that there is a need for a global ethic commensurate with a global economy, based upon the claims of interdependence, economic insecurity, multiculturalism, and shared problems. The need to identify some common cross-cultural ethical norms is asserted as an important component of a global ethic and various sources and means for such identification are proposed. Finally, we propose reasons why global corporations ought to embrace cross-cultural ethical norms within their own corporate ethics.A version of this paper was first delivered at a joint business faculty seminar co-sponsored by Anadolu University and Baldwin-Wallace College, held at Anadolu University, Eskischir, Turkey, in December 1992. I express deep gratitude to my losts from Aanadolu University and special thanks to Professor Selva Herekman, who painstakingly translated my English text into Turkish.