Work Values and Preferences for Employee Involvement in the Management of Organizations

This study has 3 objectives: to develop a scale to measure preferences for involvement in management (PIM), to examine if PIM are related to work values (altruism, pride in craftsmanship, collectivism, and individualism), and to examine if PIM are affected by a bundle of work values. Data are taken from 749 participants to develop a psychometrically appealing scale for measuring PIM. Using the universalistic perspective, we predict a positive relationship between PIM and altruism, pride in craftsmanship, and collectivism, and a negative relationship between PIM and individualism. Using the synergistic perspective, we hypothesized that PIM are likely to be positively affected by a bundle of work values. Our results support the universalistic perspective because PIM are positively related to altruism, pride in craftsmanship, and collectivism, and negatively related to individualism. Our results did not support the synergistic perspective. In the final section of the paper, we outlined the implications of our results for organizational practice and public policy.     

The Managerial Lineages of Neoliberalism

Managerialism is often depicted as a key practice of neoliberalism yet relatively little has been written by scholars of neoliberalism about the actual relationship between managerialism and neoliberalism. Usually subsumed under a functional reading of neoliberalism, managerialism has too often been understood simply as a means for neoliberal ends (i.e. to promote market rule or competition). This paper challenges this perspective on the grounds that it conflates practices that stem from two different historical lineages. As we show, managerial governance not only has a very different history than neoliberal theory, but it also rests on different principles. Its development can be traced back to the US defence sector in the 1950s and the pivotal role of the RAND Corporation. On the basis of this historical perspective, we argue for the need to analyse managerialism on its own terms and make the case for considering the rise of managerial science as a paradigmatic shift in governance. In doing so, we show how managerial governance represented a radical rupture from previous management practices and show how it profoundly reshaped how we have come to understand governance.     

A Note on Investment Incentives in the WTO and the Transition Economies

Most of the transition economies are already members of or in the process of accession to the WTO. Therefore their investment incentive regimes need to be compatible with the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures in the WTO. This study compares the fiscal investment incentives in the transition economies provided to foreign investors and shows which are expected to be phased out soon owing to their inconsistency with the current WTO regulations. It would be to their own benefit for these economies to make their investment policies consistent with the relevant WTO provisions, to take steps to eliminate subsidies prohibited in the WTO system and to try not to waste their resources, considering that the incentives may be subjected to countervailing measures by WTO members.     

Industrial Targeting and Non‐shiftable Capital in the Harris–Todaro Model*

This paper shows that, in the 2 × 3 sector‐specific capital Harris–Todaro model, capital growth owing to either domestic or foreign investment always enhances the welfare of the country (i.e. non‐immiserizing), and this result of non‐immiserizing foreign investment holds regardless of initial holdings of foreign capital; the policy of industrial targeting via capital investment is more effective vis‐à‐vis the (neoclassical) 2 × 2 mobile‐capital Harris–Todaro model or the Heckscher–Ohlin model; in contrast to the recent generalization by Marjit and Beladi (2003 ), capital growth cannot be immiserizing in the present model, even if it destroys the “envelope theorem.”     

Globalizing Business Ethics Research and the Ethical Need to Include the Bottom-of-the-Pyramid Countries: Redefining the Global Triad as Business Systems and Institutions

A majority of the countries in the world are still considered “developing,” with a per capita income of less than U$1,000. Hahn (2008, Journal of Business Ethics 78, 711–721) recently proposed an ambitious business ethics research agenda for integrating the “bottom-of-the-pyramid” countries (Prahalad and Hart, 2002, Strategy and Competition 20, 2–14) through sustainable development and corporate citizenship. Hahn’s work is among the growing field of research in comparative business ethics including the global business ethics index (Michalos, 2008, Journal of Business Ethics 79(1), 9–19; Scholtens and Dam, 2008, Journal of Business Ethics 75(3), 273–284; Tsalikis and Seaton, 2008, Journal of Business Ethics 75(3), 229–238). This article is complementary to Hahn’s work and it advocates an urgent need for business ethics researchers to globally integrate the bottom-of-the-pyramid countries through a fundamental re-definition of the global economic triad, including the United States, Western Europe, and Japan [Ohmae, 1985, Triad Power: The Coming Shape of Global Competition (New York: Free Press)]. The definition that we propose is based on business systems and institutional perspectives that include the bottom-of-the-pyramid countries. We also propose to broaden the research in business ethics to enable comparisons across business systems indifferent income levels.     

The World Social Forum as an emergent learning process

One of the most prominent manifestations of world civil politics today—and arguably, in history—is the World Social Forum, set up in 2000-2001, which held its first world meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January 2001. Beginning with the emphasis on opposition to neo-liberal globalisation, the ferment generated by the Forum soon gave rise to its evocative slogan, ‘Another World Is Possible!’ and the emphasis moved from opposition to developing specific alternative proposals for a world level political and economic system. In the last few years, the WSF has evolved into a permanent, horizontal open public space, a commons, which provides an opportunity to diverse organisations and individuals from all over the world to meet and dialogue across boundaries and to interact and exchange information in multifarious ways to work towards making another world possible. This paper examines the dynamics of the WSF process and argues why perhaps it is one of the most significant developments of the last century, which is giving rise to another, more open culture of politics and is forging a great piece of public ‘architecture’ in our times. The WSF is not only calling for another world, in a sense it contains the other world, or plural other worlds!     

Editorial introduction

This special issue brings to a close a series of three issue of this journal that have sought to expand the philosophical vocabulary of those concerned with business ethics. Previous issues treated the work of Emmanuel Levinas (Business Ethics: A European Review 2007, 16:3) and Jacques Derrida (Business Ethics: A European Review 2010, 19:3), whereas this issue is organised around engagements with the work of Alain Badiou. The three issues together seek to show ways in which the idea of the ethical, in all of its variety, poses grave challenges to the continued practice of capitalist business enterprise. The editorial introduction to this issue introduces the work of Alain Badiou, some of the specific challenges his thought poses for business and business ethics and the papers included in the special issue.     

Responsible Leadership for Multinational Enterprises in Bottom of Pyramid Countries: The Knowledge of Local Managers

The gulf between multinational enterprises’ focus on high income countries and the reality of 80% of the world living in developing, bottom of pyramid (Hahn, J Bus Ethics 84:313–324, 2009) economies could magnify the anti-globalisation movement and political backlashes in the twenty-first century. The global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 has increased such social tensions throughout the world and creates greater challenges for, responsible leadership. In this conceptual article, the authors analyse the value and identity of local managers, and the liability of foreignness caused by over-reliance on expatriate managers and under-reliance on local managers in bottom of pyramid countries (Hahn, 2009). It is argued that multinational enterprises need to assess local managers’ knowledge and contributions as having not only operational and market value, but also institutional value, such as access to local knowledge and local social capital; such a holistic approach will ensure fairer, equal treatment of all managers in the multinational enterprise. Responsible leadership in the twenty-first century requires a greater appreciation of local managers’ institutional value and the overcoming of any psychological distance towards local managers of bottom of pyramid countries.     

Product Market Imperfection and the Two‐sector Harris–Todaro Economy

This paper examines the ramifications of market imperfection for a dual economy in the context of the two‐sector Harris–Todaro model with the agricultural (manufacturing) sector under perfect competition (monopoly). Based on a utility function of constant elasticity of substitution variety, it demonstrates (i) existence of a unique equilibrium at which the consumer price ratio and the producer price ratio are synchronized; (ii) several fundamental properties of the model (crucial to extended research on this subject area); (iii) contrary to an earlier result obtained under an oligopolistic manufacturing sector, trade liberalization for a small economy may be immiserizing.     

Patent Statistics as an Innovation Indicator? Evidence from the Hard Disk Drive Industry

We assess the usefulness of patent statistics as an indicator of innovation, using a direct measure of innovation in the hard disk industry (1976–1998). Three findings emerge: (i) patents “predict” innovations better than a random guess, and a simple refinement makes them more useful; (ii) conditional on actually innovating, conglomerates and larger firms patent more than specialised startups and smaller firms; and (iii) patent reforms seem to make the patent–innovation relationship nonstationary. These results suggest that researchers should use caution when comparing patents of different types of firms and across years.