Ethical issues in the globalization of the knowledge economy

More and more people in China are now realizing that the country has already become a globalizing economy, but some contend that China's economy is still far from being based on knowledge. However, as globalization necessarily brings with it a knowledge economy, China is of necessity involved in the new economy, and has in consequence encountered many new ethical issues. In the first part of the paper some of these issues are discussed – issues of intellectual property protection, issues related to the exploitation of Chinese know-how and knowledge products by foreign companies, and issues of cultural colonization. These issues are complicated, widespread and novel, and there is a need to develop ethical guidelines to deal with these issues. Although the perspective of the analysis is Chinese, these same problems are faced by countries the world over.     

Ethical decision-making in business: Behavioral issues and concerns

This article examines selected behavioral aspects of ethical decision making within a business context. Three categories of antecedents to ethical decision behaviors (individual differences, interpersonal variables, and organizational variables) are examined and propositions are offered. Moral development theory and expectancy theory are then explored as possible bases for a theory of ethical decision making. Finally, means of improving ethical decision making in firms are explored.Stephen B. Knouse is Professor of management at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. His research interests are in behavioral aspects of business ethics, employment selection, and impression management in organizations. His work has appeared in a number of journals includingJournal of Business Ethics, Personnel Psychology, andPersonnel.Robert A. Giacalone is Associate Professor of Management Systems at the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business, University of Richmond. His work has appeared inHuman Relations, Business and Society Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Group and Organization Studies, Journal of Social Psychology, as well as in a variety of other journals and books.     

Ethical ideology and ethical judgment regarding ethical issues in business

Differences in ethical ideology are thought to influence individuals' reasoning about moral issues (Forsyth and Nye, 1990; Forsyth, 1992). To date, relatively little research has addressed this proposition in terms of business-related ethical issues. In the present study, four groups, representing four distinct ethical ideologies, were created based on the two dimensions of the Ethical Position Questionnaire (idealism and relativism), as posited by Forsyth (1980). The ethical judgments of individuals regarding several business-related issues varied, depending upon their ethical ideology.Tim Barnett is Assistant Professor of Management at Louisiana Tech University. He has published in such journals asPersonnel Psychology, theJournal of Business Research, andHuman Relations. His research interests include ethical decision making and ethical issues in HRM.Ken Bass is Assistant Professor of Management at East Carolina State University. He has articles published in several journals, including theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. His research interests include ethical decision making, ethical strategy, and methodology.Gene Brown is Associate Professor Marketing at Louisiana Tech University. He is published in such journals as theJournal of Retailing, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Business Research, Psychology and Marketing, and Industrial Marketing Management. His main interests include personal selling, retailing, ethics, and methodology.     

Ethical issues in contemporary human resource development

Training and development activities are perhaps the aspects of HRM that are least likely to come under ethical scrutiny. However, despite an espousal of ethical humanism, and various attempts to develop professional standards, training and development activities can be vulnerable to unethical practice.     

Scoring an Own Goal? Ethical issues in the UK professional soccer business

It is only in recent years that soccer has become big business, and the ethical strains are beginning to show. What is the “product” and where do fans figure in the list of “stakeholders”? The writer is completing his MBA at London Business School, and is a lifelong football fan.     

Using informal learning for business decision making and knowledge management

The process of making decisions in business requires, among other things, the efficient management of information to do with employee competencies. Dealing solely with competencies that employees learn in institutional contexts, however, is insufficient, as employees also acquire competencies through informal learning activities outside the organization. If an organization is to make well-informed decisions, the entity must gather information about the external activities of its employees that contribute to their competency development. This paper proposes a methodology to facilitate the identification and recognition of an employee's informal learning instances, which receives support from a technological framework. To validate the methodology, a pan-European project implements the framework, and a panel of experts evaluates its modus operandi. The main findings from this study suggest that, although making decisions on the basis of instances of informal learning is possible, both the methodology and the tools behind the gathering of this information should be flexible enough to satisfy the needs of the organization.     

商务档案管理在国际贸易中的作用

现代社会经济发展的多元化管理形势下,档案管理已经成为各项事务管理的重要形式.商务档案是经济主体在各种商务活动过程中直接形成的原始记录.新形势下,商务档案管理对于促进各项商务活动的健康运行举足轻重,同时又与社会各个阶层密切联系,相互促进相互发展,商务档案管理,在国际贸易活动中发挥了积极作用.     

Ethical issues in the selection interview

This article evaluates various aspects of the selection interview in terms of the major principles of business ethics. It looks at both interviewer and interviewee behavior and examines the ethical questions that arise around five key themes: Preparation for the interview; Openness, disclosure and the invasion of privacy; Honesty and impression management; Power relationships in the interview; The use of interview information in decision making. It is argued that clear guidelines for ethical behavior in the interview are needed and would actually serve to increase the effectiveness of the method. Various topics that require empirical investigation are identified, and some parallels drawn with research on other assessment methods.Clive Fletcher is Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths' College, University of London. He completed his Ph.D., then spent seven years as a psychologist in the British Civil Service, before taking up an academic post. His research interests focus on assessment centres, performance management and the selection interview     

Improving human capital through knowledge management practices in knowledge-intensive business services

This article studies how knowledge management (KM) practices improve human capital. We conceptualize KM practices through six dimensions and test the relationship between each dimension and human capital. The empirical study which was carried out in Spanish firms belonging to the biotechnology and telecommunications industries shows that introducing KM practices has a positive impact on the improvement of human capital. In fact, firms that introduce practices related to continuous learning and the development of an innovative culture that encourages R&D projects improve the skills or abilities of their human capital.     

Ethical issues in international lending

This article deals with the ethical issues faced by commercial banks, governments and international financial institutions in their international lending activities. Such issues include not only to whom and for what purpose such lending takes place but also the more delicate questions of the relations between sovereign lending and economic management, as well of lending to sovereign countries embroiled in situations of conflict. It leads to the ethical issues raised by the present international debt crisis: co-responsibility, burden-sharing, role of the international organisations. Finally, capital flight out of developing countries is studied as a special case.Bernard Snoy born in Bois-Seigneur-Isaac (Belgium) in 1945.Holder of bachelor's degree in philosophy and of doctor's degree in law from Catholic University of Louvain and of Ph.D. in economics from Harvard.Has worked for 12 years with the World Bank in Washington and in Paris.Has been teaching at the Catholic University of Louvain and at the College of Europe (Bruges).Has been for two years Economic Adviser at the Commission of the European Communities.Since May 1988, Bernard Snoy assumed the position of Chief of the Minister's Cabinet at the Belgian Ministry of Finance.This presentation made in November 1987 reflects the views of the speaker and does not necessarily represent the views of the Commission.     

Ethical issues in corporate speechwriting

Executive speechwriting is a common practice in most large organizations. This activity, however, raises a number of ethical questions about responsibility and about audience deception. This essay explores the ethics of speechwriting from three perspectives and offers some general guidelines for maintaining ethical standards when using speechwriters.Matthew W. Seeger is an Associate Professor of Speech Communication and Director of Graduate Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit. His major research interests lie in the area of organizational communication including crisis communication, leadership and ethics. His article Free Speech and Institutional Constraint was published in theFree Speech Yearbook and won the 1986 Wichelns Award for Research in Free Speech and Law.     

谈商务英语的特点及应注意的问题

一、语言的运用必须符合特定场合的要求。商务合同作为一种半法律文件，其主要功能是明确地规定有关各方商定的权利和义务，严谨地表达其合法意愿。商务合同的社会职能决定了它的文体和语言的特殊性，促使它形成了自己的文体风格。庄重性和程序规范化是商务合同文本的语体特点。它所使用的是一种严体语言程序，表现为句子复杂，文辞严密，某些词语仍然保持着一些古英语的特征。在英语多种功能文件中，商务合同可谓是较庄重、规范的书面语，而词语、句式的恰当选用是突出庄重、规范的重要手段。在语言表现方面，不但要求其句式运用准确、严密…     

Ethical implications of business format franchising

Franchising in the business format sector accounted for approximately 35 percent of retail sales in the U.S. in 1991. Consequently, the franchising industry has a clear ethical responsibility to the public. At the same time, there exists an ethical obligation of the two major factors in the industry — the franchisor and the franchise — toward each other. Because the franchise agreement, which is the basis of the relationship, is originated by the franchisor, an asymmetrical distribution of power often exists, resulting in opportunistic behavior by the franchisor. In other cases, questionable or unethical practices by franchisees likewise result in conflict. This paper examines some of the basic areas of the franchise relationship which result in conflict, and discusses the situation analysis in business format franchising, which shows promise for reduction of conflict and unethical behavior for the future.Gordon Storholm is Associate Professor of Marketing at St. John's University, New York, N.Y. He is an active member of the Society of Franchising and has published several articles in the franchising field. He has contributed to this Journal and has several years' experience as a consultant in the Franchising and Marketing fields.Eberhard E. Scheuing is Professor of Marketing at St. John's University, New York, N.Y. He is Director of the Business Research Institute and has published several books and articles in the marketing field. He is widely recognized as a leading authority in the field of ethics in service quality.     

Assessing the application of cognitive moral development theory to business ethics

Cognitive moral development (CMD) theory has been accepted as a construct to help explain business ethics, social responsibility and other organizational phenomena. This article critically assesses CMD as a construct in business ethics by presenting the history and criticisms of CMD. The value of CMD is evaluated and problems with using CMD as one predictor of ethical decisions are addressed. Researchers are made aware of the major criticisms of CMD theory including disguised value judgments, invariance of stages, and gender bias in the initial scale development. Implications for business ethics research are discussed and opportunities for future research delineated.John Fraedrich is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Southern Illinois University of Carbondale. His areas of interest include ethical decision making and international marketing. He has published inJournal of Macromarketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Management, International Journal of Value Based Management, andJournal of International Consumer Marketing. Dr. Fraedrich is co-author of a textbookBusiness Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Second Edition.Debbie M. Thorne is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Tampa. Her areas of interest include business ethics, social network analysis, and cultural issues in organizations. She received a Ph.D. in 1993 and has published in theJournal of Teaching in International Business and numerous conference proceedings.O. C. Ferrell is Interim Dean and Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Business Ethics in the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at Memphis State University. Dr. Ferrell was chairman of the American Marketing Association Ethics Committee that developed the current AMA Code of Ethics. He has published articles on business ethics in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, as well as others. He has co-authored ten textbooks includingBusiness Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Second Edition, and a tradebook,In Pursuit of Ethics.     

Crucial issues in successful European business

Time has come to put business ethics explicitly on the agenda of those who bear responsibility in the business world and of the scholars working in the field of business administration sciences. Reflection should bear on specific issues of concern, but also on processes of decision in business practices and on patterns of thought at work inside issues and processes. What the issues are, which processes and patterns need scrutiny, is to be decided upon in the course of the public normative debate in which ethicists, as experts of conceptual analysis and argumentation, and corporate executives as experts in decision-making each take an equal and fair share, as people who are able and willing to proffer an argued personal standpoint in an open debate.Henk J. L. van Luijk is Professor of Ethics at Nijenrode, The Netherlands School of Business, Breukelen, The Netherlands, and at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He is chairman of the Executive Committee of EBEN, The European Business Ethics Network. His special field is business ethics. He is the author of three books on various philosophical subjects. In his special field he published several articles, mainly in Dutch philosophical and professional journals.     

浅谈财务管理在企业管理中的基础作用

财务管理是企业管理的核心内容,同时财务管理也是企业经营决策、日常中心工作、计划体系、管理信息系统等工作的基础.企业管理,包括许多方面,除财务管理之外,还有劳动人事管理、营销管理、技术管理、物资管理、生产管理等内容.但是所有管理只能影响某一特定方面,只有财务管理(即对资金运动的管理)才能对企业经营活动的整体实施管理.     

财务管理在企业管理中的作用

财务管理作为一门管理科学,与生产管理、质量管理和营销管理一样是管理学科的一个分支,财务管理是研究企业的资源和行为的管理,是企业管理中不可缺的部分.经济的发展使得经济环境日益复杂,我国企业将面临更多的机遇和挑战.因此,新形势下企业应该加强财务管理.文章对财务管理在企业管理中的地位做了一些初步的阐释.     

The interface between globalization,trade and development: Theoretical issues for international business studies

Globalization, widely cited as the dominant international economic trend of the post-World War II era, is deeply connected with the opening of the world economy. The relationship between trade and growth has been intensively debated in the economic literature, within the fields of economics, sociology, political sciences, and others. However, in the areas of International Business (IB) and management studies, research about an integrated approach to the issues of globalization deserves further attention. In particular, in the 21st century, companies are being challenged to think differently about the purpose and societal impact of their activities on the poorest nations. Therefore, this paper addresses economic and social issues of accelerating globalization within a framework of IB and management studies.