A choice-making ethic for organizational communication: The work of Ian I. Mitroff

This article examines the ethical implications of Ian Mitroff's scholarly contribution to the study of Organizational Communication. Although Mitroff does not specifically ground his work in ethics, this article considers an ethic of choicemaking to be a significant interpretive key for understanding the contribution of his research. In addition, this article provides another conceptual key for understanding the considerable quantity of Mitroff's work by organizing it around three major themes: science, decision-making, and myth. The goal of this article is to make explicit two conceptual keys to Mitroff's scholarship, an ethic of choice and a three-fold division of his work that exemplifies his commitment to maximizing choice in organizational settings. Ronald C. Arnett is Academic Dean at Manchester College in Indiana. He has won Recipient of Outstanding Article of Year Award in Religious Communication, 1979, and Elected Vice-Chair Elect of Communication Ethics Commission of Speech Communication Association in 1986. He is the author of numerous articles and of two books: Dwell in Peace: Applying Nonviolence to Everyday Relationships, Brethren Press, 1987 (3rd pr.) and Communication and Community: Implications of Martin Buber's Dialogue, Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1986.     

A cross-cultural comparison of British and Turkish managers in terms of Protestant work ethic characteristics

This paper presents a cross-cultural comparison of Protestant work ethic characteristics of practising Protestant British and practising Muslim Turkish managers using Mirels and Garrett's Protestant work ethic scale. Max Weber's Protestant work ethic thesis is used as the conceptual framework in this study. The nature of the Protestant work ethic thesis and its relationship with organisation culture is discussed. Multivariate and univariate analysis of variance were used to analyse the data. The results suggest that there is a significant difference between practising Muslim Turkish managers and practising Protestant British managers: the Turkish group showed relatively higher Protestant work ethic scores than their Protestant counterparts. Possible reasons for the difference between British and Turkish groups are advanced in the light of Turkish economic, social and political developments. It is argued that representative Islamic sources also support the results of this research by pointing to the important role of a work ethic in Islam.     

The market ethic: Moral dilemmas and microeconomics

Brief cases written as multiple choice questions can provide the basis for a classroom game based on business ethics. This teaching note describes the organization of such a game and provides five sample cases.Julianne Nelson is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Stern School of Business of New York University. She has also taught at the Ecole Superieure de Commerce in Tours, France. Her publications have appeared in theInternational Economic Review, Economics Letters, theJournal of Regulatory Economics, theJournal of Business Ethics, andJapan and the World Economy.I would like to thank my students for their suggestions and support of this project. This research was supported by a grant from the Rundin Foundation.     

The individualistic ethic and the design of organizations

The self-psychology theories used as motivational tools in work organizations during the past 20 years have collided with a confluence of societal changes. The individual has been enticed by more freedom in the work organization and an increasing array of life choices in a pluralistic society. At the same time, the economic environment has become hostile, threatening to limit the individual's choices. The confluence of expanding social choice and contracting economic resources has made it difficult for many individuals to make life choices that may lead to personal self-fulfillment. As a result, employees may most need and most appreciate order and predictability from their work organizations at the very time when more flexible work organization structures are most needed for the wave of new products and production technologies that need to be explored and developed. Hope for a resolution to this dilemma may be found in strengthening society's more durable social institutions, such as the family, organized religion, and the local community. If individuals can find the stability their lives need in these institutions, they may respond better to change, challenge, and freedom in the work organization.Charles Boyd is Associate Professor of Management at Southwest Missouri State University. His primary field of teaching and research is strategic management.A condensed version of this article was presented at the 1985 annual meeting of the Midwest Academy of Management at the University of Illinois.     

The transactional ethic: The ethical foundations of free enterprise reconsidered

A review of the evolution of the ethical foundations of free enterprise reveals the essentially utilitarian ethical foundation prevailing today. To enrich those foundations the article attempts to establish the ethical validity of free transactions by relating them to the basic principle of interpersonal ethics: the Golden Rule. The validity of the transactional ethic is presented as an articulation of freedom in a valid social and economic context. Jeffrey A. Barach is Professor of Management, A. B. Freeman School of Business, Tulane University. His DBA ('67), MBA ('61), and AB ('56) are from Harvard. His interests include business ethics, business policy and marketing. He has published articles and cases in these areas and on pedagogy. His text Individual, Business, and Society was published in 1977. Recent articles concern social marketing (Business Horizons), management of family firms (Sloan Management Review), and the ethics of hardball (California Management Review).John B. Elstrott, Jr., is the Sponsored Research Coordinator at the Freeman School of Business, Tulane University. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Colorado (1975). His interests include business ethics, entrepreneurship, economic development, and environmental economics. He is working on several interdisciplinary research projects including one on economic evaluation of solid waste management alternatives. Dr. Elstrott is an active entrepreneur and serves on the board of several profit and not for profit corporations.     

Thomas mann and the business ethic

Son of a North German businessman, Thomas Mann chose as theme for his early narrative work the conflict between the standards and values of business and those of the artist-writer.Buddenbrooks andTonio Kröger exhibit the tension of values in opposite ways. InThe Magic Mountain, Mann expands his canvas to include military as well as business values in their relation to the creative potential in a young engineer who exiles himself to an Alpine tuberculosis sanatorium to enjoy a unique educational experience. Mann believed that the businessman, like the artist, had a light and dark side, committed by the Protestant ethic, yet bound to entrepreneurial standards of utility and profit. On that account, the businessman, like the creative artist, may experience a certain alientation from ‘Life’.     

加强会计职业道德建设的思考

在现实的会计实务中,业务素质、本位利益等诸多方面的原因使会计人员对外提供的会计信息失真,不能客观、真实地反映企业的财务状况和经营成果,甚至出现虚假报告.因此,加强会计职业道德建设在当前是非常重要和紧迫的.加强会计职业道德建设可以从建立和健全会计法规体系、加大执法力度,健全监督机制、建立职业道德评价体系,开展诚信教育等多方面实施.     

Mergers,takeovers, and a property ethic

The recent takeover and merger trend cries out for ethical evaluation. This essay proposes a model for evaluating them in terms of their impact on a firm's immediate stakeholders: investors, owners, management and employees. Since mergers and takeovers are Transfers of Ownership of Firms (TOFs) they entail a property ethic of ownership, control, securing stakeholder interests, and defining which stakeholders should exercise these rights. I use the model to evaluate two fictional cases, a friendly merger and a hostile takeover. The results show that neither TOF serves all interests equitably. Since the control structure of the private firm is legitimized by its interest structure, I reason that both should be reformed. Both rest on a broader economic rationale; but it is controverted. Accordingly, the economic and ethical evaluation of TOFs, I conclude, both entail the democratic reform of the control structure of the firm.A corporation represents far more than its current stock price; it embodies obligations to employees, customers, suppliers and communities.Robert S. Saul, Peers Merchant BankVincent di Norcia is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sudbury. He is the author of Ethics in Management and Beyond the Red Tory.     

会计的具体核算工作分析

在任何行业里,基础工作都是关键,会计核算更是如此.为了做到连续、全面、系统的反映企业、单位中的经济活动,为经济管理提供系统的财会信息,以及合理、科学地组织会计核算工作,需要会计能及时正确的填制会计凭证、登记账簿和编制会计报表以实现会计循环.     

Whose “loyal agent”? Towards an ethic of accounting

In order to move towards an Ethic of Accounting, one must start by defining the function and role of the accountant. This in turn depends to a great extent on the identity of the “client” or whatever party the Accountant owes his “loyal agency” to. The issue is one of cardinal importance, and it is perceived as such by the accountants themselves. Loeb for instance says that the “client-identity issue is overriding importance now, and will become even more crucial in the immediate years ahead”. The question of what constitutes ethical behaviour on the part of the accountant will depend then upon the relation within which such ethical behaviour will have to be deployed. The main question raised in this paper will therefore be, is the accountant primarily engaged by one client (whether an individual or a corporation) to act as their “agent”, deal with their problems by loyally advancing their interests to the best of his professional competence, although within the limits imposed by law and morality? Or is the “public sector” to be considered the principal target of the accountant's resolute professionalism and unswerving loyalty? These problems and other related issues are here analyzed against the background of a recent (1984) case involving a Revenue Canada Auditor in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, which helps to bring out the almost paradoxical relation between accountant and client, and the difference between this relation and that of other professionals to their clients or patients.     

浅谈管理会计工作的方法

本文对管理会计的工作方法进行了论述.     

浅谈基层机关经贸工作中思想政治工作的重要性

思想政治工作在改革、发展和稳定的全局中所具有的重要地位和作用,坚持两手抓,两手都要硬,切实加强和改进思想政治工作,是摆在全党面前的一项重大而紧迫的任务.     

初探乡镇档案工作现状

本文对乡镇档案工作现状进行了探讨.     

浅谈会计基础工作的重要性

会计工作是一项社会经济治理工作,必需跟着社会经济环境的变化而不断发展.会计基础工作是会计工作的基本环节,加强会计基础规范化管理对提高会计人员素质及工作水平有着极为重要的作用.本文就会计基础工作的现状,成因,重要性以及如何加强会计基础工作,谈了一些简单看法.     

浅析个性化就业指导工作之对策

通过利用个性化的就业指导进行就业统一的工作培训与选择,力求能够帮助就业人员进行有效的就业途经指导.让具有个性化的新型就业指导工作能够成为其指导、管理的核心、基础,以此保障就业及其就业指导工作都能够具有完整性、个性化的发展潜能.     

对现代统计工作发展趋势的思考

统计工作全部在网络环境下运行,实现统计政务电子化、统计工作流程电子化、统计办公电子化,统计生产力实现跨越式发展."跨越式"预示着统计信息产品的时效性将以数倍数提高、统计传统劳动力将相应减少、统计数据技术性差错将大幅度降低、统计整体工作水平迈上一个新台阶.     

对铁路会计的工作管理分析

会计工作是企业财政工作的基础,会计管理一般可分为会计人员管理、会计信息管理以及会计监督管理等几个体系.随着改革开放市场经济的发展,会计管理工作也要相应的做出变革,本文就着眼于铁路系统的会计管理工作展开讨论.     

ERP在财务工作中的应用

ERP系统是指建立在信息技术基础上,以系统化的管理思想,为企业决策层提供决策运行手段的管理平台.它集信息技术、先进的管理思想于一身,核心目标是实现对整个供应链的有效管理,满足企业资源合理调配、最大化地创造企业财富的要求,成为企业在信息时代生存、发展的有力保障,同时也为财务管理提供了基础的信息.     

中等职业学校班主任工作初探

班主任工作是学校工作的一个重要组成部分,是联络各科教师与学生之间的纽带,是沟通学校、家庭与社会教育的桥梁,其工作意义重大,任重道远.