Roger boisjoly and the challenger disaster: The ethical dimensions

This case study focuses on Roger Boisjoly's attempt to prevent the launch of the Challenger and subsequent quest to set the record straight despite negative consequences. Boisjoly's experiences before and after the Challenger disaster raise numerous ethical issues that are integral to any explanation of the disaster and applicable to other management situations. Underlying all these issues, however, is the problematic relationship between individual and organizational responsibility. In analyzing this fundamental issue, this paper has two objectives: first, to demonstrate the extent to which the ethical ambiguity that permeates the relationship between individual and organizational responsibility contributed to the Challenger disaster; second, to reclaim the meaning and importance of individual responsibility within the diluting context of large organizations.Russell P. Boisjoly is Associate Professor and Chairperson, Department of Finance at the University of Lowell where he specializes in Corporate Finance. His research focuses on applications of finance to regulated firms, especially in trucking and electric utility industries. He has published a number of articles on capital structure, mergers, bankruptcy prediction, and ethics.Ellen Foster Curtis is Associate Professor of Management at the University of Lowell where she specializes in Business Policy, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Transportation. Her research focuses on labor relations, impacts of transportation deregulation, and ethical issues in business. She has published a number of articles on these topics, labor relations in the transportation industries, and ethics.Eugene Mellican is Chairperson of the Philosophy Department at the University of Lowell. He describes himself as a student of philosophy concentrating on issues in applied ethics.     

Internationalization of currencies: The case of the US dollar and its challenger euro

This article examines the benefits and costs to the United States of having the US dollar used as an international currency and explains the factors underlying the dollar's use internationally. The main benefit for the United States is that it derives seigniorage from the dollar's international use while the main cost is that there is less scope for controlling domestic monetary conditions. There are three prerequisites for the international use of a currency: (1) confidence in the political stability of the issuing country; (2) deep, broad, and open financial markets in the issuing country; and (3) a large share of world exports on the part of the issuing country. The implications of the euro for the dollar's leading international position are discussed. Data are presented showing that the dollar is the world's leading international currency.     

Learning from error: The influence of error incident characteristics

This study investigates the influence of error incident characteristics on organizational learning among operators in the chemical process industry. The study asks operators to describe recently occurred error incidents at time 0 (n = 87), followed up by measurements for learning 6 weeks later (n = 48). Organizations learn more from error incidents with more severe consequences. Severity of consequences relates positively to learning. When consequences are more severe, communication about an error is higher. Communication is subsequently related to learning. Error incidents without imminent negative consequences, however, can also be a platform for learning. This research recommends attention towards the promotion of learning from conditions that do not necessarily encourage employees to learn.     

The artisans' dilemma: Artisan entrepreneurship and the challenge of firm growth

An increasing number of entrepreneurial ventures are growing at exponential rates despite their founders' professed intentions not to grow their firms. We refer to these individuals as artisan entrepreneurs. Through an inductive, phenomenon-based research approach, we explore how artisan entrepreneurs subscribe to a counter-institutional identity yet engage in a divergent set of behaviors. We discover that artisans' counter-institutional identity contains two sides—promoting the exclusion of ‘who we are not’ (oppositional identity) or providing support for ‘who we are’ (relational identity). We theorize that artisan entrepreneurs' differing views regarding their independence led to very different approaches to growth. When artisans either do not see forms of external control as impinging on their independence or sense that serving stakeholders is a means to perform relational identity work, they embrace growth. Thus, artisans may find that growth serves stakeholders, but funding growth brings about financial pressures, which may force the artisan down a path of growth.     

The ethical challenge of management buy-outs as a form of privatisation in Central and Eastern Europe

There has been a growing debate about the ethics of management buy-outs (MBOs). One possible criticism of the MBO is that it serves the interests of incumbent management at the expense of shareholders. In this paper we develop the general arguments concerning the ethical aspects of the MBO to include other forms of buy-out beyond “going privates” and apply the analysis to MBOs as a mode of privatisation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). MBOs are justified in this context postperestroika as a means of incentivising economic activity by giving managers an ownership stake in former state enterprises. The actual mode of privatisation, though, raises issues of social justice and the criticism that MBOs are at the expense of the broader social good. The ethical problem for the CEE is to balance the economic gains of a move to markets with the ethical risks to the agents of these markets.     

The challenge to Europe: Regional powers and the shifting of the global order

Europe’s position as the most important economic area in the world is gradually being challenged by China and other regional powers which have been growing faster than the EU in the last 20 years. An economic and political power shift is taking place. How can Europe best cope with this challenge?     

监理工程师在仓储建设施工中的作用

工程建设监理作为微观性的监督管理活动，是针对和围绕一个具体工程项目而展开的。从大的方面来讲，可分为投资决策和项目实施两个阶段。在实际工作中，工程建设监理可以参与工程从招标、设计到工程实施等全过程。     

The african debt crisis and the challenge of development

Africa's total debt outstanding, which doubled during the 1980s, represents a serious threat to the continent's prospects of economic recovery and long-term development. Professor Ezenwe examines the situation in detail and proposes policy action towards a solution.     

The end of the American challenge?

“Fifteen years hence not Europe will be the third industrial power in the world, after the United States and the USSR, but American industry in Europe” Servan-Schreiber wrote 1967 in his “The American Challenge”. Now those fifteen years are past. What has happened really?     

The new challenge in Eastern Europe: Investment and restructuring

The reform programmes of most Eastern European countries have liberalized prices and taken on the task of macroeconomic stabilization, but the formation and implementation of structural policies has largely been neglected so far. What steps should the governments of Eastern Europe take to encourage the necessary restructuring of their economies and to attract the urgently needed foreign investment?     

The marketing challenge: Towards being profitable and socially responsible

This article reviews the history of marketing thought in relation to social responsibility and business ethics. The main objective of the article is to show that business can be profitable and socially responsible at the same time by practising the societal marketing concept. More specifically, it presents the development of a marketing philosophy, discusses the influence of consumerism on the marketing concept and deals with ethics and social responsibility in marketing. It is argued that organisations who adopt the societal marketing concept will be the ones most likely to make long-run profits as well as be beneficial to society as a whole. Russell Abratt is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He has published in the Journal of Business Ethics, European Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Advertising, Industrial Marketing Management and the Quarterly Review of Marketing amongst others. His current research interests are in Social Marketing, Industrial Marketing and Retailing. He has also taught at the Unversity of Melbourne in Australia and the Ohio State University in the U.S.A. Diane Sacks is an LLM student at Harvard University. She holds the BA, LLB, and MBA degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.     

Human resources in Vietnam: The global challenge

This article takes a critical look at the management of people in Vietnam. It examines the prevailing business environment and the reform process and their implications for skill formation and the development of managerial expertise. The analysis then proceeds to examine on a thematic basis some specific human resource practices in four firms based in Hanoi—two state‐owned enterprises and two multinationals. The article analyzes the traditional and emergent human resource practices showing how they reflect industrial and historical‐cultural contextual factors. The discussion also considers the suitability and adequacy of these practices while locating them within the international human resource management debate. This article thus contributes to the critique of global human resource management by exploring the relevance of mainstream human resource theory and practice to the Vietnamese case, especially given the increasing role of multinational firms in the Vietnamese economy. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The challenge of preparing ethically responsible managers: Closing the rhetoric-reality gap

This article begins by questioning the commitment of business, government, and education leaders to the goal of ensuring that our public and private sector organizations are directed by ethically responsible individuals. Noting that while there appears to be genuine concern with the most recent outbreak of ethical failings as well as widespread support for the concept of morally and ethically educated current and future managers, there is less agreement on the most efficient and effective means of realizing this goal. For perspective purposes, recent research findings and opinions of leaders in higher education and business on the issue of ethics and the curriculum are highlighted. This paper challenges business, government, and higher education to disengage the “cheap” talk and to engage in a collaborative effort to develop a required, team-taught, interdisciplinary business ethics course based on philosophical inquiry, organizational theory, and actual business situations. Course goals, content, leadership, and benefits to students, managers, and ethicists are identified and discussed. Perhaps the failure of America's higher education institutions in preparing ethically responsible future leaders of business and government reflects the inability to “teach” ethics under any format. Could the problem be, however, that the approaches, to date, have not sufficiently incorporated the talents and experiences of line managers in conjunction with the theoretical frameworks of moral philosophers? This relatively simple conceptual approach, though admittedly difficult to successfully implement, is offered as a means of closing the business ethics rhetoricreality gap.     

食品安全治理模式创新:合作治理

食品安全问题绝不单纯是一个政府监管的问题,而是个系统工程,与科技进步、经济发展、社会管理、环境质量等众多因素有关,其中社会公众的参与也是重要的环节,需要包括消费者、食品行业协会和新闻媒体等等在内的社会监督力量科学地看待和积极协作,由此形成一个协调、组织、有序的有机社会监督系统,各子系统既是发展的结果,也是发展的动力.本文我国食品安全规制中公众参与的现状进行了分析,并为构建合作治理模式提出了建议.