What happened to civility? Understanding rude behavior through the lens of organizational justice

The ability to have polite conversation between individuals who disagree with one another seems to be a rare quality today. Organizational justice theory may help explain why rude behavior seems so prevalent and whether the rudeness in politics and society creates a polarized environment that could impact the workplace. Three recent legal decisions concerning healthcare, same-sex marriage, and the Michael Brown case, along with three workplace examples of deliberate rudeness, are examined to analyze the polarization of opposing viewpoints and the incivility that resulted from these situations. When a decision is viewed as a win-lose situation and people perceive the decision process as unfair, losers in the decision may feel threatened and react by engaging in deviant behavior that is uncivil. Winners may also engage in behavior that is uncivil and intolerant of opposing viewpoints. The result is a cycle of incivility that may include character assassination, protests, and a diminished willingness to compromise. Managers should be cognizant of the dangers of rude behavior and create a workplace environment that counters productivity interference caused by incivility and inability to compromise. I suggest specific steps to help stop workplace incivility before it starts.     

The Environment as a Stakeholder? A Fairness-Based Approach

Stakeholder theory is often unable to distinguish those individuals and groups that are stakeholders from those that are not. This problem of stakeholder identity has recently been addressed by linking stakeholder theory to a Rawlsian principle of fairness. To illustrate, the question of stakeholder status for the non-human environment is discussed. This essay criticizes a past attempt to ascribe stakeholder status to the non-human environment, which utilized a broad definition of the term "stakeholder." This paper then demonstrates how, despite the denial of stakeholder status, the environment is nonetheless accounted for on a fairness-based approach through legitimate organizational stakeholders. In addition, since stakeholder theory has never claimed to be a comprehensive ethical scheme, it is argued that sound reasons might exist for managers to consider their organization's impact on the environment that are not stakeholder-related.     

Turning small business interns into applicants: The mediating role of perceived justice

Internship is a relatively low-risk approach for entrepreneurs to attract and select prospective employees. But what factors can influence interns' intentions to join small businesses? Based on the model of action phases, realistic job preview theory, and organizational justice theory, I hypothesize that interns' post-internship intentions to join can be predicted by their pre-internship job-seeking goal and their during-internship involvement with the host organization. Perceived organizational justice is hypothesized to mediate the relationship between involvement and post-internship intentions to join. Temporally lagged data from 104 small business interns support most hypotheses. In addition, compared to a group of 175 corporate interns, small business interns are more likely to change their minds after the internship, and justice perception has a stronger effect on their post-internship intentions to join.     

Four Design Criteria for any Future Contractarian Theory of Business Ethics

This article assesses the quality of Integrative Social Contracts Theory (ISCT) as a social contract argument. For this purpose, it embarks on a comparative analysis of the use of the social contract model as a theory of political authority and as a theory of social justice. Building on this comparison, it then develops four criteria for any future contractarian theory of business ethics (CBE). To apply the social contract model properly to the domain of business ethics, it should be: (1) self-disciplined, i.e., not aspire results beyond what the contract model can realistically establish; (2) argumentative, i.e., it should seek to provide principles that are demonstrative results of the contractarian method; (3) task-directed, i.e., it should be clear what the social contract thought-experiment is intended to model; and (4) domain-specific, i.e., the contractarian choice situation should be tailored to the defining problems of business ethics.     

Toward understanding passive opportunism in dedicated channel relationships

The investments made in an interfirm relationship have implications for the effectiveness of an agreement. In this study, we investigate whether these investments influence the level of passive opportunism observed in a relationship. Whereas transaction cost theory suggests that firms that make idiosyncratic investments are reluctant to engage in opportunism, reactance theory offers logic suggesting that such investments may increase the likelihood of opportunism. In addition, we investigate whether perceived justice influences the effect of investments on levels of passive opportunism. Data from 120 retail managers in the Norwegian consumer electronics industry support reactance theory predictions and indicate that interactional justice moderates the relationship between specific assets and passive opportunism. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for theory and research.     

Helicopter parents hovering in the workplace: What should HR managers do?

Applying life course theory, this article provides an overview of what is known about helicopter parenting behavior in the workplace and why it exists. Herein, we discuss the pervasiveness of this issue and present a typology of the different levels of intensity or obtrusiveness of parental involvement (‘reconnaissance,’ ‘low altitude,’ and ‘guerilla warfare’) in the workplace, as well as ways in which the adult child may respond to such behaviors. We conclude with a discussion of how employers are responding to this issue with proposed strategies for how to best manage such situations.     

Angels and devils?: How do benevolent and authoritarian leaders differ in shaping ethical climate via justice perceptions across cultures?

The current study examines the effects of two major dimensions of Paternalistic Leadership (PL), authoritarian and benevolent leadership, on the perceived workplace ethical climate in different cultural contexts. Based on social influence and organizational justice theories, we illuminate the processes underlying the effects of these leadership styles on ethical climate by proposing perceived procedural and interactional justice as potential mediators. We also test how these mediating effects vary in three different countries: Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. Based on a sample of 674 Taiwanese, 409 Turkish, and 479 American employees, we identified several interesting mediation and moderation results on leadership‐justice‐ethical climate paths. To our surprise, while procedural justice was an important mechanism linking benevolent leadership and ethical climate in all three countries, it mediated the relationship between authoritarian leadership and ethical climate only in Turkey. However, interactional justice was found to be a significant mediating mechanism only in the United States and for both authoritarian and benevolent leadership. In addition, cultural context moderated the PL‐justice link such that the strongest positive benevolent leadership and interactional justice relationship, as well as the strongest negative association between authoritarian leadership and both types of justice, were observed in Turkey.     

试论儒家的诚信及其现代价值

诚信是以孔子为代表的儒家伦理规范中最重要的范畴,也是我们祖先遗留下来的优秀道德传统。要坚持诚信观念,就要处理好义与利的关系。在义与利的问题上,孔子虽然主张追求富贵是人共同的本性,但又认为人在追求富贵时,应遵守道义的原则。这些思想在市场经济的今天仍具有现代价值和生命力。     

Justice versus fairness in the family business workplace: A socioemotional wealth approach

The organizational justice literature and the family business literature have developed independently, which limits our understanding of fairness and justice in the family business workplace. So far, the concepts of justice and fairness have been used interchangeably in the family business literature, as if objective measures that aim to increase justice in the workplace will automatically translate into fairness perceptions among family business employees. By integrating the organizational justice literature and the family business literature, we first differentiate between the two concepts of justice and fairness and argue that a utilitarian conceptualization of justice may come into direct conflict with fairness perceptions in the family business workplace. Second, we shed light on the importance of incorporating socioemotional goals, particularly those that reveal a bright side of socioemotional wealth, into rules and regulations designed to increase justice in the workplace, which, we argue, contributes to increasing fairness perceptions among employees and to building and maintaining an ethical family business workplace. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed at the end of the paper.     

Singular justice and software piracy

This paper assumes that the purpose of ethics is to open up a space for the possibility of moral conduct in the flow of everyday life. If this is the case then we can legitimately ask: ‘How then do we do ethics?’ To attempt an answer to this important question, the paper presents some suggestions from the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida. With Levinas, it is argued that ethics happens in the singularity of the face of the Other before me ‘here and now’. Ethics matters in my everyday contact with the Other that disturbs my egological existence and claims my response. But what about all other Others, not here now but nevertheless simultaneously already present? What about their equal claim on me? With Levinas and Derrida, the paper attempts to articulate the notion of singular justice as the simultaneous demand of all others requiring my response. In singular justice, the paper attempts to show how the demands of ethics (the singular) and the demands of justice (all other Others) can become the impossible possibility for a ‘justice where there is no distinction between those close and those far off, but in which there also remains the impossibility of passing by the closest’. Furthermore, the paper attempts to argue that singular justice is our calling – or more precisely my calling – to do the right thing, here and now. Finally, by way of explication, the paper discusses a case of software piracy to try to show how singular justice can help us not to think about ethics, which is important, but to (almost) do it – which is very important.     

The Influence of Workplace Justice Perceptions on Commercial Driver Turnover Intentions

Employee retention is a critical and challenging workplace issue including in the U.S. motor carrier industry with its perennially high driver turnover rates. Truck driver retention affects supply chain performance because of its impact on carrier operating safety and the service capacity of the trucking industry. Government authorities exert an influence on truck driver retention via the safety policies, labor policies, and regulations they mandate. A proposed rule requiring electronic on‐board recorders of some carrier drivers offers an opportunity to investigate the influence of government policy on driver work intentions. In this study we examine this influence through the lens of procedural justice theory. Drawing on procedural justice literature, we develop a model which examines the procedural justice perceptions of commercial drivers and the subsequent impact on their decision‐making behavior, including their organizational and industry intentions to remain or quit.     

地方政府一般预算绩效评价指标体系的构建

针对地方政府支出冲动情结浓厚而支出效益低下、缺乏合理的预算绩效评价制度的地方财政管理现状,通过对建立预算绩效评价指标体系的理论依据、地方一般预算绩效评价模型和流程的分析,在借鉴国际经验基础上,提出了我国地方一般预算绩效评价指标体系应该围绕目标、投入、过程和产出的公共品提供过程,在宏观视野下全面定位于预算目标科学性、资源投入经济性、支出效率、产出效果和社会公平目标的构建设想。     

The Completion Rate of IMF Programmes: What We Know,Don’t Know and Need to Know

Although a great deal of attention has been paid to IMF conditionality and to the effects of IMF programmes, relatively little attention has been paid to their completion rate. However, the record is that the clear majority of Fund programmes are uncompleted. Is this a cause for concern and why is it that the completion rate is low? In principle, a number of factors could be at work. Gaining a better understanding of what these are should allow policy reform at the IMF to improve performance. While there are things that we do not know and need to know about programme completion, we know enough to delineate the broad direction that policy should take.     

Weight Discrimination in the American Workplace: Ethical Issues and Analysis

Research providing consistent evidence of pervasive discrimination against overweight job applicants and employees in the American workplace raises important questions for organizational stakeholders. To what extent is the disparate treatment of job applicants or employees based on their weight ethically justified? Are there aspects of weight discrimination that make it more acceptable than discrimination based on other characteristics, such as race or gender? What operational steps can employers take to address concerns regarding the ethical treatment of overweight individuals in the workplace? This article investigates these and related questions. Its purpose is to provide information and analysis that will assist organizations in formulating ethical responses to a widespread phenomenon: weight discrimination in the workplace. Although its focus is the American workplace, the proposed employer ethical obligations and the practical guidance that is provided are viewed as generalizing across countries and cultures.     

Preventing know-how from walking out the door in China: Protection of trade secrets

Protecting ‘know-how,’ or trade secrets, is a vexing problem for companies doing business in China. Primary threats to the disclosure of proprietary information include deliberate actions of current and former employees, as well as loss of trade secrets in the context of joint ventures or other business arrangements. Because China continues to be an important trading partner and its domestic market has tremendous consumer potential, many companies remain in China. With this in mind, what are the best practices firms should undertake to protect their trade secrets in China to prevent competitors from gaining an unfair advantage? Based on an analysis of Chinese trade secrets law, practical recommendations are offered herein. Although there is no way for employers to ‘bullet proof’ the workplace from a loss of know-how, carefully crafted policies consistent with current trends in Chinese law will advance arguments in support of trade secret protection.     

Business Ethics and the Origins of Contemporary Capitalism: Economics and Ethics in the Work of Adam Smith and Herbert Spencer

Both Adam Smith and Herbert spencer, albeit in quite different ways, have been enormously influential in what we today take to be philosophies of modern capitalism. Surprisingly it is Spencer, not Smith, who is the individualist, perhaps an egoist, and supports a "night watchman" theory of the state. Smith's concept of political economy is a notion that needs to be revisited, and Spencer's theory of democratic workplace management offers a refreshing twist on contemporary libertarianism.     

Debt Relief for Low Income Countries: Is it Effective and Efficient?

Although a great deal of attention has been paid to IMF conditionality and to the effects of IMF programmes, relatively little attention has been paid to their completion rate. However, the record is that the clear majority of Fund programmes are uncompleted. Is this a cause for concern and why is it that the completion rate is low? In principle, a number of factors could be at work. Gaining a better understanding of what these are should allow policy reform at the IMF to improve performance. While there are things that we do not know and need to know about programme completion, we know enough to delineate the broad direction that policy should take.     

Perceptions of justice afforded by formal grievance systems as predictors of a belief in a just workplace

This study investigates the relationship between workers' perceptions of distributive and procedural justice afforded by a grievance system and their more general belief in an underlying moral order in the workplace. Using samples representing five ocupationally distinct groups, the presence of any moderating effects of occupation received only weak support. Consistent with previous work, however, workers' perceptions of procedural justice (i.e., fairness in the process) were a stronger predictor of workers' belief in workplace justice than were perceptions of distributive justice (i.e., fairness of outcomes).Gerald E. Frxyell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has conducted research and published in the areas of innovation, organizational culture, corporate social performance, and management training in developing contexts.     

Does ethical leadership enhance group learning behavior? Examining the mediating influence of group ethical conduct,justice climate,and peer justice

The link between ethical leadership and employees' ethical behaviors is well established, but are ethical leadership's benefits confined to ethical behaviors? This study aimed to address this question by examining the extent to which ethical leaders create an environment conducive to cultivating a broader set of desirable behaviors such as group learning behavior. We drew upon and integrated insights from social learning theory and the social marketplace model to develop and test a model that illuminates how ethical leadership enhances group learning behavior. We propose that group ethical conduct, justice climate, and peer justice are three contextual mechanisms through which ethical leadership improves group learning. Using data collected over two time periods from 95 supervisors and 323 work group members from a large financial institution in the United States, we found that ethical leadership significantly relates to group learning behavior, and that this relationship is partially explained by group ethical conduct and peer justice, but not justice climate. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.