Ethical Education in Accounting: Integrating Rules,Values and Virtues

Ethics in accounting and ethical education have seen an increase in interest in the last decade. However, despite the renewed interest some important shortcomings persist. Generally, rules, principles, values and virtues are presented in a fragmented fashion. In addition, only a few authors consider the role of the accountants character in presenting relevant and truthful information in financial reporting and the importance of practical reasoning in accounting. This article holds that rules, values and virtues are interconnected. This provides a sound approach to ethics in accounting, in which character and practical reasoning are crucial. Consequently, ethical education in accounting has to simultaneously include the knowledge of proper rules and principles and their correct application; values (understood as moral goods) and virtues, whose acquisition, in the view of the author, should be encouraged.     

Managing Ethically Cultural Diversity: Learning from Thomas Aquinas

Cultural diversity is an inescapable reality and a concern in many businesses where it can often raise ethical questions and dilemmas. This paper aims to offer suggestions to certain problems facing managers in dealing with cultural diversity through the inspiration of Thomas Aquinas. Although he may be perceived as a voice from the distant past, we can still find in his writings helpful and original ideas and criteria. He welcomes cultural differences as a part of the perfection of the universe. His systemic approach leads one to place the problem in its proper context, and to reflect on it from the perspective of virtue ethics, with a central role for practical wisdom and giving primacy to neighborly love and natural moral law. Rather than a set of rigid standards with no consideration of diversity Aquinas focuses on the common human ground, which allows for the indispensable dialogue between different positions. When dealing with practical questions, the problem is one of finding the right balance between general principle and cultural specifics, tolerance, and dialogue, always guided by practical wisdom. In this way, Aquinas’ approach is neither rigid ethical universalism with no consideration for diversity nor moral relativism with no place for any transcultural and absolute morals.     

Partial credit guarantees and firm performance: evidence from Colombia

This paper studies the effect of government-backed partial credit guarantees on firms’ performance in Colombia. These guarantees are automatically granted by the National Guarantee Fund (NGF) to firms without enough collateral to lift their credit constraints. We put together a panel of firms covering the period 1997–2007 that allows us to control for observed and unobserved firm characteristics potentially affecting both the selection of firms into the program and firms’ performance. We find that firms that gain access to credit backed by the NGF were able to grow in terms of both output and employment. However, we do not find any effect on productivity, wages, or investment.     

“Human Quality Treatment”: Five Organizational Levels

Quality is commonly applied to products and processes, but we can also define human quality in dealing with people. This requires first establishing what treatment is appropriate to the human condition. Through an inquiry into the characteristics that define the human being and what ethical requirements constitute a good treatment, we define “Human Quality Treatment” (HQT) as dealing with persons in a way appropriate to the human condition, which entails acting with respect for their human dignity and rights, caring for their problems and legitimate interests, and fostering their personal development. With this in mind, we can distinguish between five different levels or degrees of HQT in organizations which can be characterized by the following terms: (1) maltreatment (blatant injustice through abuse of power or mistreatment), (2) indifference (disrespectful treatment through lack of recognition of people’s personhood and concern), (3) justice (respect for persons and their rights), (4) care (concern for people’s legitimate interests and support for them in resolving their problems), and (5) development (favoring human flourishing, mutual esteem, and friendship-based reciprocity).     

Cultural Diversity and Universal Ethics in a Global World

Cultural diversity and globalization bring about a tension between universal ethics and local values and norms. Simultaneously, the current globalization and the existence of an increasingly interconnected world seem to require a common ground to promote dialog, peace, and a more humane world. This article is the introduction to a special issue of the Journal of Business Ethics regarding these problems. We highlight five topics, which intertwine the eight papers of this issue. The first is whether moral diversity in different cultures is a plausible argument for moral relativism. The second focuses on the possibility of finding shared values and virtues worldwide. The third topic deals with convectional universalistic ethical theories in a global world and the problems they present. Fourth, we consider the traditional natural moral law approach in the context of a global world. The last topic is about human rights, as a practical proposal for introducing universal standards in business.     

An integrative model of effort propensity

Over twenty years ago, Mitchell [Mitchell, T.R. (1982) Motivation: New directions for theory, research, and practice. Academy of Management Review, 7:80–88.] called for research which integrates and competitively tests the multitude of motivation theories competitively. Yet, with few exceptions, theories of motivation tend to be narrow in focus. However, many motivation theories incorporate similar predictor variables such as job satisfaction, perceived equity, and organizational commitment, suggesting that theory integration is warranted. In this paper, several literatures are reviewed which deal with employee effort at different levels (e.g., withholding effort, offering extra effort). “Effort propensity” is offered as an appropriate integrating variable, and an integrative model of effort propensity which pulls these various literatures together and stimulates the type of research described by Mitchell [Mitchell, T.R. (1982) Motivation: New directions for theory, research, and practice. Academy of Management Review, 7:80–88.] is proposed.