Questioning the Domain of the Business Ethics Curriculum

This paper reassesses the domain of the business ethics curriculum and, drawing on recent shifts in the business environment, maps out some suggestions for extending the core ground of the discipline. It starts by assessing the key elements of the dominant English- language business ethics textbooks and identifying the domain as reflected by those publications as where the law ends and beyond the legal minimum. Based on this, the paper identifies potential gaps and new areas for the discipline by drawing on four main aspects. First, it argues that the domain of business ethics requires extensions dependent on the particular geographic region where the subject is taught. A second factor for broadening the scope is the impact of recent scandals, which arguably direct the focus of ethical inquiry towards the nature of the business systems in which individuals and corporations operate. Third, the impact of globalization and its result on growing corporate involvement in regulatory processes is discussed. Fourth and finally, business ethics reaches beyond the traditional constituencies of economic stakeholders as new actors from civil society enter the stage of ethical decision making in business. We conclude by suggesting that a reconsideration of the domain of business ethics, especially in Europe, is timely, but that to do so represents a major challenge to business ethics educators.     

Exporting an Inherently Harmful Product: The Marketing of Virginia Slims Cigarettes in the United States,Japan, and Korea

In recent years, and in close connection with a number of well-known financial malpractice cases, public debate on business ethics has intensified worldwide, and particularly in ethics-unfriendly environments, such as Spain, with many recent fraud and corruption scandals. In the context of growing consensus on the need of balancing social prosperity and business profits, concern is increasing for introducing business (and particularly accounting) ethics in higher education curricula. The purpose is to improve ethical behaviour of future business people, and of accounting professionals in particular. In this study, from a sample of 551 business students at a Spanish university, the importance of accounting ethics is investigated. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we attempt to examine students’ overall perceptions of business ethics in unfriendly environments and, specifically, their views on the importance and goals of accounting ethics education. Second, we intend to investigate whether potential differences in such perceptions depend on previous business ethics courses taken, gender, and age of students. Our results show that those students who have previously taken an ethics course are especially prone to considering that accounting education should include ethical considerations, and show greater interest in further introducing this subject in their curricula. These facts should encourage universities offering business degrees in ethics-unfriendly environments to extend the implementation of ethics courses in their curricula. Besides, significant differences in students’ perceptions on the importance of accounting ethics are found depending on their gender and age. In line with previous research findings, female and older students show more ethical inclinations than, respectively, male and younger students. Thus, ethics-unfriendly environments can be treated as contexts where general trends on students’ ethical attitudes are also clearly visible. This fact, together with the evidenced impact of ethics courses on students’ ethical inclinations, places ethics-unfriendly environments as crucial research settings for further inquiring into the nuances that help explain students’ attitudes towards accounting ethics and the role of ethics courses in business degree curricula.     

Quantitative content analysis as a method for business ethics research

The aim of this article is to discuss quantitative content analysis as established in communication sciences as a method for research in business ethics. We argue that communication sciences and business ethics are neighboring disciplines, which allow the transfer of quantitative content analysis from communication sciences to business ethics. Technically, quantitative content analysis can be applied through human as well as software coding. Examples for both applications are provided and discussed. We make reference to the software solutions ‘Leximancer’, ‘Crawdad’, and ‘Wordle’, and examine their suitability and limitations with regard to ethical questions for researching business ethics. We recommend a mixed-method approach, combining human and software coding. Furthermore, we propose a three-step process that discusses quantitative content analysis as a method for business ethics, including an ethical research objective, and most importantly, concluding with ethical reasoning and interpretation of the quantitative results.     

Editorial Adieu: Cultivating Moral Courage in Business

Leaving an editorial chair provides an opportunity for the departing incumbent to deliver a final message to his readers. Seven years after founding Business Ethics. A European Review the editor can offer no better valedictory than to explore the role of moral courage in the ethical conduct of business. Not only does this provide an excellent illustration of the recent recovery of the subject of “virtue” ethics in moral philosophy in general, as well as in the application of morality to business. It also serves to highlight the important difference between ‘business ethics’ as a term applied to the study of right and wrong behaviour in business, and ‘ethical business’, which is business actually conducted on ethical lines. For the difference between behaving rightly and wrongly in any area of human activity, including that of business, is not simply a matter of knowledge, or of finding the “correct” answer. There is a crucial psychological gap between knowing what one ought to do and then actually doing it; as Ovid ruefully observed, we see and approve the better things, yet we follow the worse. This is where courage comes in, for the gap between ethical perception and ethical performance is bridged by moral courage, as the following article suggests. More colloquially, the author is accustomed to conclude his classroom teaching on business ethics by observing that it is one thing to work out, often laboriously and hesitantly, what is the correct line of behaviour to follow; it is quite another thing to have the guts to follow it. An early version of this paper was delivered in Gresham College, London, while a more developed account dates from the First World Congress of the International Society of Business, Economics and Ethics, held in Tokyo in 1996. The following is reprinted from International Business Ethics: Challenges and Approaches , edited by George Enderle earlier this year and published by the University of Notre Dame Press and Hong Kong University Press.     

Ethical Values as Part of the Definition of Business Enterprise and Part of the Internal Structure of the Business Oganization

The orientation of this paper is that there is no special science of "business ethics" any more than there is one of "medical ethics" or "legal ethics". While there may be issues that arise in medicine or law that require special treatment, the ways of relating to such issues are derived from a basic ethical stance. Once one has evolved such an ethical stance and thus has incorporated a fundamental mode of relating to her or his fellow human beings, the "how" to deal with various ethical "issues" will follow as a natural consequence of one's ethical stance or modality. It is not necessary, in the formation of one's fundamental ethical stance to know if one is a utilitarian or a deontologist. It is doubtful whether Buddha knew what kind of ethics he was practising. If one conceives of ethics as something extrinsic to various disciplines and attempts to first practise a discipline and then to apply ethics to modify the results of that discipline it is entirely possible that conflicts will result between what is perceived of as the proper pursuit of that discipline and the ethical considerations. The argument of this paper is that it is more efficacious (in addition to being more true) to take ethical considerations into account in the construction of the definition of the discipline. This paper is devoted to showing that business and ethics are not two different and competing fields of interest (thus requiring a discipline of business ethics to be grafted onto the study of business enterprise), but that ethical concerns are part and parcel of the very concept of a business enterprise and the internal operation of a business organization.     

A crisis of leadership: towards an anti-sovereign ethics of organisation

A common reaction to crises experienced within or brought about by business is to identify a corollary ‘crisis of leadership’ and to call for better (stronger, more thoughtful or, indeed, more ethical and responsible) leaders. This paper supports the idea that there is a crisis of leadership – but interprets it quite differently. Specifically, I argue that the most ethically debilitating crisis is the fact that we look to leadership to solve organisational ethical ills. There is, I argue, a pressing need to conceptualise a business ethics that is not constrained by the straitjacket of official hierarchy – a need to denaturalise ‘leadership’ as the normal or rightful locus of ethical regulation and renewal in business organisation. To this end, I explore a Levinasian ethico-politics of responsibility and proximity as the basis of an alternative, anti-sovereign, ethics of organisation.     

Taking the pulse: Ethics and the British Cooperative Bank

Policy statements on ethical issues abound. If all organisations which produce mission statements, codes of practice or ethical codes were, therefore, ethical in conduct and performance, business ethics would be non-problematic. However, the effectiveness of corporate codes of ethics is dependent, inter alia, on the day-to-day behaviour of managers.Interest in the impact of ethical codes and mission statements on managerial behaviour has grown in recent years. The assumption underlying this paper is that one way of enriching our understanding of the ethical behaviour of managers is to focus on actual behaviour in real organisations.This paper reports the findings of a research project aimed at discovering the extent to which the British Cooperative Bank's Ethical Policy influences the behaviour of those managers at the Bank who are responsible for achieving the Bank's objectives in acquiring new business in the corporate market.It seeks to explore the impact of the Bank's Ethical Policy on the day-to-day behaviour of a significant group of the Bank's managers.Alan Kitson obtained his first degree in Politics and his doctorate in the political theories of Hegel and Marx from the University of Nottingham. He is Head of Bolton Business School at the Bolton Institute, England and teaches business ethics to undergraduate and MBA students.     

Custom and Moral Sentiment: Cross-Cultural Aspects of Postgraduate Student Perceptions of Leadership Ethicality

The recent crisis in a prominent German car manufacturer generated by unethical leadership practices has brought into sharp focus, once again, the need for radical and fundamental ethical transformation among members of capitalism’s leadership elite. The divide between ethics and business needs to be closed and to do this effectively in a globalized world, cross-cultural aspects of moral sentiment need to be better understood. The current paper contributes to the extant literature in this regard by describing and analyzing cross-cultural aspects of German and South African student’s ‘sympathy’ towards business ethical phenomena, using Adam Smith’s ‘Theory of Moral Sentiment’ as a theoretical framework and qualitative methods. The paper constructs a heuristic device based on Adam Smith’s theoretical framework and then proceeds to empirically analyze the theory by investigating German and South African student moral sentiments towards specific ethical leadership behaviors. The study indicates that while there is general cross-cultural homogeneity in moral approbation among students for fundamental aspects of ethical leadership behavior, nuanced custom-based differences emerge from the qualitative analysis. Following Adam Smith, fine grained differences in moral sentiment arising from ‘custom’ are evident. Thus, although ethicality of specific leadership behavior is found to be viewed similarly by both groups of students, significant nuanced differences arise in German students who emphasize intellectual autonomy over the conservatism favored by their South African counterparts. Practical aspects of these findings are briefly discussed.     

Radical business ethics: a critical and postmetaphysical manifesto

Business ethics, as it is understood and practised generally, lacks a component of radicality. As part of the contemporary ‘return to ethics’ it displays an undesirable conservatism and blocks off possibilities for systemic alterity. I argue that a normal and ‘apologetic’ business ethics should therefore be supplemented with a radical or utopian business ethics. Put differently, business ethics should not only contribute to more responsible business practices, more morally sensitive business managers and more ethical organisational cultures, but should also facilitate social hope via hermeneutic strategies aimed at changing the way we think about ourselves, our economies and the roles and responsibilities of business as such.     

The impact of the work environment on ethical decision making: Some Australian evidence

Business ethics has emerged in recent years as a field of significant scholarly endeavour. Particularly well documented is the existence of ethical conflict at work and the reported inseparability of business decisions and moral consequences. However, to date, the majority of studies have been conducted in the American business context.This paper examines the concept of ethical conflict as experienced by employees in the Australian context. According to a sample of Western Australian managers, ethical conflicts at work do occur — with relative frequency. Of considerable concern is the high incidence of cases where the demands of superiors are deemed to be the cause of this conflict. This finding is particularly disturbing as superiors are also the primary influence on employee ethical decision making. It would see that the ethics role models are also the instigators of unethical behaviour.This research has confirmed in the Western Australian context that the values of top management do have significant impact on the ethical choices made by employees. The management of organisational culture, therefore, is a key to raising ethical standards in business. The institutionalisation of ethics by such formal means as codes of ethics is a necessary, but insufficient, condition of ensuring ethical behaviour in organisations. Management of the informal climate is pivotal to the achievement of ethical organisational behaviour.Geoffrey Soutar is Professor of Management at Curtin University of Technology. He has particular interests in marketing and, in recent times, in the marketing of services. He has published widely across a number of management areas and has acted as consultant for both private and public sector organisations as well as for a number of unions.Margaret McNeil is a Lecturer in the School of Management at Curtin University of Technology. Her research interests include corporate innovation and financial services marketing. Consultancy has been in the areas of financial services, professional services and non-profit organisations.Caron Molster is a Research Assistant in the School of Management at Curtin University of Technology. She has a research interest in the area of ethics, having completed her thesis on this topic.     

Ethical decision–making in business: focus on Mauritius

This paper explores management attitudes towards ethical issues in an attempt to shed some light on the determinants of ethical issue intensity in the context of business. A sample of business executives in Mauritius was surveyed in order to establish their ethical perceptions when exposed to potentially questionable business practices. The findings demonstrated the significant influence of factors associated with moral deliberations on strategies for ethical decision–making as compared with the impact of company policy and legal requirements. Participants revealed that, irrespective of codes of conduct, personal ethics predominate when it comes to making ethical choices. Some view the behaviour of management as a key determinant of ethical conduct. This trend differs from predictions in the literature. To date, research conducted in the developed world shows that employee perception of ethics of their superiors is a stronger predictor of behaviour than employees' personal ethical beliefs. This article focuses on Mauritius as an emerging economy, and looks at potential strategies for ethical decision–making, where business people do not necessarily operate under a specific code of conduct.     

Marketing research and corporate litigation ... Where is the balance of ethical justice?

Tampering with the judicial system has long been regarded as an unethical and illegal standard of corporate behavior. Advances in behavioral research have recently, however, skirted the ‘letter of the law’ by applying consumer research techniques to the sampling universe from which prospective jurors are selected. This practice has resulted in an unfair and measurable advantage which offsets any balance of ethics and justice. This article adopts a protagonistic perspective to demonstrate research illustrating jury evaluation techniques. Because the legal system, which is based on jurisprudence, does not have the ability or resources to monitor or regulate these practices, the question must be addressed within the domain of business ethics. ... Where does the balance of ethical justice lie? Is the sole objective to win and protect the bottom line of the corporate income statement, or does a code of business ethics apply?     

Corporate social responsibility as cultural meaning management: a critique of the marketing of ‘ethical’ bottled water

To date, the primary focus of research in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been on the strategic implications of CSR for corporations and less on an evaluation of CSR from a wider political, economic and social perspective. In this paper, we aim to address this gap by critically engaging with marketing campaigns of so-called ‘ethical’ bottled water. We especially focus on a major CSR strategy of a range of different companies that promise to provide drinking water for (what they name as) ‘poor African people’ by way of Western consumers purchasing bottled water. Following Fairclough's approach, we unfold a three-step critical discourse analysis of the marketing campaigns of 10 such ‘ethical’ brands. Our results show that bottled water companies try to influence consumers' tastes through the management of the cultural meaning of bottled water, producing a more ‘ethical’ and ‘socially responsible’ perception of their products/brands. Theoretically, we base our analysis on McCracken's model of the cultural meaning of consumer goods, which, we argue, offers a critical perspective of the recent emergence of CSR and business ethics initiatives. We discuss how these marketing campaigns can be framed as historical struggles associated with neo-liberal ideology and hegemony. Our analysis demonstrates how such CSR strategies are part of a general process of the reproduction of capitalist modes of accumulation and legitimation through the usage of cultural categories.     

Ethical consumerism: a view from Finland

Business ethics and corporate social responsibility have gained more attention in recent years. However, the consumers’ perspective on ethics is still a little researched area. This study reports a survey (n = 713) on the views of Finnish consumers about ethics in trade. Consumers’ willingness to promote business ethics as well as the obstacles to ethical consumption are investigated. The results of the study show that while the majority of the respondents regard business ethics as important, this attitude does not translate into their choice behaviour. Consumers are uncertain about which products and firms follow ethical rules and which do not. The most important obstacles to ethical consumption were difficulties in obtaining information, problems in product availability and high prices of ethical products.     

Not for turning? Power,institutional ethos and the ethics of irreversibility

Adoption of an ‘ethics of reversibility’ can seem fashionably enlightened, even democratic, but appears less radical when issues of power are opened up. Adopting the motif of keeping, this paper sets its questioning of an on-going individuation of ethics within the context of an insidious reduction of institutional mores to business parlance. Keeping Derrida's ‘philosophy of reversals’ in view, the discussion resists the double bind of attempts to make higher-level decisions ever more ‘irreversible’ on the one hand, while devolving ethical responsibilities for outcomes downwards on the other. In criss-crossing, back and forth, on variations of these themes, the aim of the paper is to contest a division of moral labour in which the more powerful style themselves as ‘not for turning’, while those dispossessed of authority are left to vacillate within the market agendas of flexibility and transparency.     

The power struggle between accountants and marketers and its consequences for business ethics in the U.K.

The dominant managerial discipline in U.K. companies is finance. Accountants are often viewed as being concerned with what is measurable, definite and controllable. The emphasis is on professional conduct, independence, objectivity, technical competence and confidentiality. This paper explores the concept that the growth of professionalism has created an environment in which functional specialists have different ethical perspectives. The pre-eminence of accountants is now being challenged by the marketers, a profession that takes a much wider view of business ethics. This development is bound to have implications for corporate perspectives on business ethics. The paper gives the views of a focus group of managers from other disciplines on the relations between accountants and marketers, and analyses the potential for better understanding between the two groups and the implications of this for business ethics.     

How Ethical Behavior of Firms is Influenced by the Legal and Political Environments: A Bayesian Causal Map Analysis Based on Stages of Development

Even though potential impacts of political and legal environments of business on ethical behavior of firms (EBOF) have been conceptually recognized, not much evidence (i.e., empirical work) has been produced to clarify their role. In this paper, using Bayesian causal maps (BCMs) methodology, relationships between legal and political environments of business and EBOF are investigated. The unique design of our study allows us to analyze these relationships based on the stages of development in 92 countries around the world. The EBOF models structured through BCMs are used to explain how EBOF in a given country group are shaped by how managers perceive political, legislative, and protective environments of business in these countries. The results suggest that irregular payments and bribes are the most influential factors affecting managers’ perceptions of business ethics in relatively more advanced economies, whereas intellectual property protection is the most influential factor affecting managers’ perceptions of business ethics in less-advanced economies. The results also suggest that regardless of where the business is conducted in the world, judicial independence is the driving force behind managers’ perceptions of business ethics. In addition, the results of this study provide further support for scholars who argue that business ethics is likely to vary among countries based on their socio-economic factors. In addition to its managerial implications, the study provides directions for policy makers to improve the ethical conduct of businesses in their respective countries.     

The Ethical Agendas of Employment Agencies Towards Migrant Workers in the UK: Deciphering the Codes

This article examines the connections between employment agencies, ethics and migrant workers. The article identifies three approaches adopted by agencies towards ethics and migrant workers, namely, ‘business case’, ‘minimal compliance’ and ‘social justice’ approaches. Through case studies of three agencies in the UK, the article explores the potential and limitations of each of these approaches for meeting the needs of migrant workers. The article points to the limitations of both the business case and ‘minimal compliance’ approaches, stemming from tensions between the attempt to put in place ethical approaches towards the employment of migrant workers and the imperatives of the competitive strategies being pursued by agencies. The article points to the potential for social enterprise agencies to effectively meet the needs of migrants. These agencies can focus on more than just the first transition of migrants into the labour market; can formalize transitions within the labour market and link people to jobs that are more appropriate to their skills and experience, as a means of preventing the perpetuation of skill underutilisation.     

Has the guest arrived yet? Emmanuel Levinas,a stranger in business ethics

To what extent can business ethics be ‘hospitable’ to Levinasian ethics? This paper raises questions about how business ethics relates to its guests, in this case the guest called ‘Levinas’; the idea of introducing or inviting the work of an author into a field, as its guest, is by no means a simple problem of transference. For Jacques Derrida, there is hospitality only when the stranger's introduction to our home is totally unconditional. Such a conceptualisation of hospitality becomes even more demanding when the ‘stranger’ that is near our ‘home’ is an ethics also demanding hospitality, such as the ethics proposed by Levinas. An invitation puts in place particular circumstances that allow only for an arrival of the one invited. These conditions precede the so‐called stranger, thereby predetermining the route to be taken, the destination to be reached and the correct manner of self‐presentation. An invitation already reduces the Other to that which is expected by the inviter, that is to the Same. The hospitality of the field of business ethics becomes an endorsement of a particular version of the stranger, therefore recognisable by the field. Perhaps conceptualising Levinasian ethics as an ethics that cannot be invited might protect it from procedures that reduce the ‘strangeness’ of the stranger, making it knowable. That is the argument presented in this paper.