Ethics at the workplace

Are facts the only criteria that should determine an arbitrator's decision but are there other ethical criteria that ought to be used? Arbitrators are often faced with deciding issues like whether a person discharged already by a company for arson, should be reinstated or not to his old job. The problem, however, may not be the facts but that the company has discharged him to get rid of him so that it no longer has a problem while society does with the arsonist at work elsewhere. Another problem involves the teaching of human resources management. Most of the current literature dealing with modern management reflects the belief that participatory management is good for management. Most of the evidence supporting such a claim is weak; there surely is very little evidence that such participation should include nonsupervisory employees. The discussion concerning the issue of participatory management could be raised if the participants stopped talking about the increased productivity that is supposed to result, but rather deal instead with the issue that such participation is a form of industrial democracy and therefore is good or bad depending upon a person's ethical judgments concerning such an issue.     

Catholic social teaching and the employment relationship: A model for managing human resources in accordance with Vatican doctrine

Using relevant encyclicals issued over the last 100 years, the author extracts those principles that constitute the underpinnings of Catholic Social Teaching about the employment relationship and contemplates implications of their incorporation into human resource policy. Respect for worker dignity, for his or her family's economic security, and for the common good of society clearly emerge as the primary guidelines for responsible human resource management. Dovetailing these three Church mandates with the economic objectives of the firm could, in essence, alter the firm's nature because profit motivations would be constrained by consideration for worker and societal welfare. Integration of Church teaching with current corporate goals should therefore impact greatly on a variety of human resource policies.The author, Michael A. Zigarelli, is a former National Labor Relations Board field examiner. He is currently a doctoral candidate. The author's primary research interests include labor and employment law, collective bargaining, and ethical treatment of workers.     

Ethics in american companies: A managerial perspective

This study investigated several issues with 1498 managers nationwide regarding, for example, how ethical they felt their organizations were and whether their personal principles must be compromised for the organization's sake. In addition their decision criteria for two scenarios involving ethical implications were articulated. Barry Z. Posner is Associate Professor at the Santa Clara University. He has been awarded the President's Distinguished Faculty Award and Dirksen Fellow. He has written three books on Management and his articles have been published in journals as Journal of Applied Psychology, Human Resource Management and Academy of Management Journal. Warren H. Schmidt is a professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Southern California, where he also serves as faculty director of the Institute for Public-Private Partnership. He has written several books on management topics and authored several management training films.     

Ethical principles of Catholic social teaching behind the United States bishops' letter on the economy

This article analyzes six ethical principles at work in the Pastoral Letter of the Roman Catholic Bishops on the United States economy. The first three principles derive from the Thomistic tradition with its attempt to avoid the extremes of collectivism and individualism. Human beings are by nature social and called to live in political society. The principle of subsidiarity guides the role of the state. Distributive and social justice furnish the criteria for a just distribution of human goods. The fourth ethical principle which is a later development in the Catholic tradition recognizes human rights including economic rights. In keeping with recent emphases in Catholic teaching the fifth principle insists that the goods of creation exist to serve all and stresses the social aspect of property. The sixth principle enunciates a preferential option for the poor and has come to the fore in the light of recent liberation theology. Charles E. Curran is Ordinary Professor of Moral Theology at The Catholic University of America and for the 1987–88 academic year Rachel Rebecca Kaneb Visiting Professor of Catholic Studies at Cornell University. He is a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and of the Society for Christian Ethics. His two most recent books are Faithful Dissent (Kansas City, MO: Sheed and Ward, 1986) and Toward an American Catholic Theology (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1987).     

Ethics as excellence: A strategic management perspective

Confidence in Australian business was severely shaken by the corporate scandals and collapses of the 1980s. Many commentators called for more emphasis on ethics education. This paper surveys the initiatives of Australian business schools and professional bodies and finds them superficial and ineffective. It then presents a case study in Quality Improvement which highlights the need to take a strategic and integrated approach to the development of core values such as quality, trust, ethics and social responsibility. In exploring the process of cultural change, the paper identifies a number of key leadership roles, responsibilities and competencies which are distinguished from the more traditional management functions.John Milton-Smith has been Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Curtin Business School, since 1990. He is currently conducting the Australian Business Ethics Project, part of which is reported in this paper. His other research interests include The Strategic Management of Corporate Culture, Global Business Strategy and International Trade Diplomacy.     

Editorial introduction: Retail innovation in the 4th industrial revolution

Innovative technologies in Industry 4.0 are transforming retail environments and encouraging the digitalization of the retail process. From the retailer's point of view, the adoption of revolutionary technologies has led to the expectation of cost savings and increased revenue. Furthermore, various technological innovations, such as automation, are creating more valuable experiences for consumers. New technologies have also impacted the academic study of retailing through enabling researchers to employ new and more advanced research methodologies. The purpose of this special issue is to address the following question: What is the impact of 4th industrial revolution technologies both in the retail industry and academia? To find out the answer, 58 empirical and theoretical articles were received and reviewed, and 11 articles were finally accepted for inclusion in the special issue. We believe these 11 articles have contributed to the understanding of the theories and practices in the retail industry under the ongoing 4th industrial revolution.     

Effective influencer marketing: A social identity perspective

Social networking in the form of online communities and social groups is a characteristic of social media communication that has profound implications on the identity dynamics and behavior of social media users. Drawing from social identity theory, this research brings the social identity construct (i.e., followers' perception of the self in relation to the influencer community) to the literature on influencer marketing and examines the effect of followers' social identity, along with their interest fit and the influencer's opinion leadership, on their purchase intention. This research also examines the moderating role of storytelling, a pervasive approach of social media influencers, in enhancing the social identity–purchase intention link. Empirical results from 467 Instagram users show that all three factors positively impact followers' intention, but social identity has a more salient effect than the others. Storytelling posts can enhance these effects. Studying influencer marketing through the social identity angle contributes to better understanding of influencer marketing effectiveness.     

Nations of entrepreneurs: A social capital perspective

This research examined the effects of social capital on entrepreneurial opportunity perception and weak tie investment using individual-level data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor linked with national-level data on social capital. Consistent with a social capital perspective, this study found that a resident of a country with higher generalized trust and breadth of formal organizational memberships was more likely to perceive entrepreneurial opportunities. A resident of a country with higher generalized trust was also more likely to invest in an entrepreneur with whom he or she had a weak personal tie than was a resident of a country with lesser generalized trust.     

Barriers to implementing value-based pricing in industrial markets: A micro-foundations perspective

Value-based pricing has the potential to improve differentiation, profitability, and value creation for industrial firms and their customers. However, while most of the pricing research considers the ways organizations set or get value-based prices, only few studies consider how individual managers influence the pricing process and what prevents them from setting and getting value-based prices. This is of critical concern, since it is not just organizations, but individuals within organizations who make pricing decisions—and their decision-making is influenced by institutional pressures such as socially prescribed norms, rationalized meanings, and beliefs about profitable approaches to pricing. This study addresses this gap in the current knowledge by adopting a micro-foundations perspective to pricing, and focusing on the barriers that individual managers encounter when implementing value-based pricing. Drawing on a single case study in a global industrial firm, and from interviews with 24 managers, this study identifies 11 individually, organizationally, and externally induced barriers to value-based pricing. The study also sheds light on the potential sensegiving strategies for overcoming these barriers.     

The Ethics of Branding in the Age of Ubiquitous Media: Insights from Catholic Social Teaching

Extreme narcissistic organizations are unable to behave ethically because they lack a moral identity. While such organizations are not necessarily unethical intentionally, they become self-obsessed and use a sense of entitlement, self-aggrandizement, denial, and rationalizations to justify anything they do. Extreme narcissistic organizations might develop formal ethics programs, but such programs will have little effect on behavior.     

Transformational leadership and job performance: A social identity perspective

Drawing on social identity theory, this study provides a model explaining the underlying process through which transformational leadership influences creative behavior and organizational citizenship behaviors. Individual differentiation and group identification are proposed as social identity mechanisms reflecting the characteristics of personal and collective identity orientations that underpin the differential effects of transformational leadership behaviors on performance outcomes. The model is tested with data from a sample of 250 front-line employees and their immediate managers working in five banks in the People's Republic of China. Results of hierarchical linear modeling provide support for the model whereby group-focused and individual-focused transformational leadership behaviors exert differential impacts on individual differentiation and group identification. Furthermore, individual differentiation mediates the relationship between individual-focused transformational leadership and creative behavior, whereas group identification mediates the relationships between group-focused transformational leadership and OCBs toward individuals and groups. Implications for theory and practice are discussed and future research directions are outlined.     

Exploring the antecedents of social liabilities in CVC triads—A dynamic social network perspective

This study addresses the emergence of social liabilities by taking a social network perspective on intra- and interorganizational network configurations using the hitherto unexplored example of the corporate venture capital (CVC) triad (CVC unit, corporate business unit, and portfolio company). We investigate social capital and social liability resulting from network formation and transformation and assess their impact on interorganizational knowledge transfer and creation. Examining 12 CVC triads in Germany, we identify new antecedents of social liability, show that social capital can initially facilitate knowledge transfer and creation, and that structural and personal lock-ins may eventually turn that capital into a liability. We make key theoretical contributions to the social network and CVC literature.     

Feelings and functionality in social networking communities: A regulatory focus perspective

A sense of community is vital to the sustainability of both face‐to‐face and virtual communities. In this study, we use a mixed methods design to study the motivations that lead to satisfaction in a social media network. In Study 1, we semantically analyze the qualitative comments from a survey regarding the reasons for using social networks (n = 237). Consistent with the literature, the results identify two categories of underlying motivations—hedonic (feelings) and utilitarian (functionality). With these results, we apply regulatory focus theory in Study 2 to propose a structural equation model ( n = 622). This model differentiates between the experiences of promotion‐ and prevention‐focused individuals with social networking based on the core elements of feelings versus functionality . Our findings indicate that a sense of belonging and emotional connection are key hedonic elements and are more relevant for promotion‐focused individuals. For prevention‐focused individuals, the utilitarian and functional aspects of interactivity (influence) and innovativeness (risk) are more important in influencing satisfaction with a social network. Overall, positive and innovative user experience with a social media network requires the creation of an emotional connection, the existence of interactivity between members, and the cultivation of a sense of belonging.     

Rights in the workplace: A Nozickian argument

There is a growing literature that attempts to define the substantive rights of employees in the workplace, a.k.a. the duties of employers toward their employees. Following Nozick, this article argues that — so long as there is a competitive labor market — to set up a class of moral rights in the workplace invades workers' rights to freely choose the terms and conditions of employment they judge best. Ian Maitland is associate professor of business, government and society at the University of Minnesota. He is author of The Causes of Industrial Disordoer (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983) and articles in the Journal of Politics, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Business Strategy, British Journal of Industrial Relations, California Management Review and elsewhere. In 1988 he ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Congress.     

Inheritance and continuity in small family businesses during the early industrial revolution

Explanations for the rapid turnover rates of small businesses during the early years of British industrialisation are usually framed in terms of mismanagement or misfortune. More recently, the short lifespans of family businesses have been presented in the context of family ambitions and priorities. Whilst these explanations are persuasive, such studies tend to describe a reluctance to continue the family firm after the death of the head of household. By utilising evidence of both formal and informal methods of post-mortem estate disposal in Liverpool and Manchester we argue that the petite bourgeoisie of the early Industrial Revolution were more likely than has been thought to continue family businesses and to treat them as valuable going concerns. Moreover, we identify a degree of freedom on the part of those who inherited that allowed them to use their own judgements about the best interests of surviving family members.     

Corporate social responsibility and competitive advantage: A developing country perspective

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has attracted wider research interests over recent decades. While some studies have examined the impact of CSR activities on firm competitive advantage (CA), the findings so far remain contradictory. Moreover, the role of export orientation, firm strategy, and structure on the association between CSR and CA has not been explicitly examined. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the moderating role of export orientation, firm strategy, structure, and firm size on the association between CSR and CA. Using a sample of 179 responses from management staff in organizations across five sectors in a developing country context of Ghana, the study found positive effects of CSR on CA. The study contributes to the resource‐based view (RBV) scholarship by confirming the important complementary effect of export orientation and organizational structure as important resources and capabilities on the CSR–competitiveness relationship. However, no evidence of a moderating effect of firm strategy, or firm size on the CSR–CA relationship was found. These findings are instructive, impactful, and enrich the existing literature on CSR and strategy. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.     

Narcissistic rhetoric and crowdfunding performance: A social role theory perspective

Drawing from clinical and organizational narcissism research, we develop a novel measure of narcissistic rhetoric, investigating its prevalence in a sample of 1863 crowdfunding campaigns. An experiment using 1800 observations further validates our measure and confirms our hypothesized inverted-U relationship between narcissistic rhetoric and crowdfunding performance. Leveraging social role theory, we explore sex, sexual orientation, and race as potential moderators of this relationship. Moderation tests reveal LGBTQ entrepreneurs generally yield greater performance when using narcissistic rhetoric than heterosexuals while racial minorities underperform Caucasians using narcissistic rhetoric. Our findings suggest successful crowdfunding campaigns must balance narcissistic rhetoric with entrepreneurs' perceived social roles.     

Japanese R&D management in the 1990s: An overture to the industrial revolution of the twenty-first century

In the past, the Japanese R&D effort has focused primarily on improving products. Today's Japanese industrial leaders believe that the twenty-first century will bring a new “industrial revolution” that will change the focus of R&D more toward creating new world-class products rather than merely improving old ones.     

The social construction of genetic abnormality: Ethical implications for managerial decisions in the workplace

This paper examines moral issues concerning a firm's use of genetic information about a prospective employee's predisposition to contract occupational and other illnesses. It critically reviews leading social construction literature on genetic abnormality and genetic screening, and it examines the relevance of arguments from justice and meritocratic principles. It concludes that there is a strong moral presumption against genetic screening in employment.Alan Strudler is Research Scholar at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has taught philosophy at Stanford University and California Institute of Technology. His recent writing on professional and corporate responsibility appears inMichigan Law Review andLaw and Philosophy.