Ethics,public policy,and managing advanced technologies: The case of electronic surveillance

A vigorous debate has developed surrounding electronic surveillance in the workplace. This controversial practice is one element of the more general issues of employee dignity and management control, revolving around the use of polygraph and drug testing, integrity exams, and the like. Managers, under pressure from competitors, are making greater use of technologically advanced employee monitoring methods because they are available, and hold the promise of productivity improvement. In this paper, the context of electronic surveillance is described and analyzed from the perspectives of ethics, public policy, and managerial behavior.The future creeps in on small feet ... We do not awaken suddenly to a brave new world. (Zuboff, 1990) Edward J. Ottensmeyer is Assistant Professor of Management at Clark University's Graduate School of Management, where he conducts research in competitive strategy, technology management, and social issues. His research has been published in journals such as Academy of Management Review, Policy Studies Journal, Growth & Change, and Policy Studies Review, and in edited volumes, the most recent of which is Strategic Management in High Technology Firms from JAI Press. He holds MBA and Ph.D. degrees in Management from Indiana University. Mark A. Heroux is a software engineer at the Locus Computing Corporation, in Burlington, Massachusetts. His research interests include high-level security protocols in large-scale computer networks, and effectiveness in high technogy firms. He holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Anna Maria College and an MBA from Clark University.     

论公共政策分析中的公共原则

本文对论公共政策分析中的公共原则进行了论述.     

Public and firm interests in public service diversifications

Public service organization's increasingly are considering diversification into new “for-profit” or “high-profit” enterprises. Such undertakings offer a number of potential benefits to both the organization and the public. They also have potential problems. This article examines some of the major types of benefits and problems in hopes that both public service managers and public policy makers will give a balanced consideration to these diversification efforts.     

Consumer empowerment: public policy and insurance regulation

This paper explores consumer advocacy as it applies to insurance regulation based on the literature and on the author's experience as a consumer representative and member of the Board of Trustees for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The NAIC, founded in 1871, is a non‐profit voluntary organization of the chief insurance regulatory officials of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. One of its key objectives is to facilitate the fair and equitable treatment of consumers. Each year 13–16 consumer representatives are selected to speak for consumers at national meetings in addition to serving as year‐round resources to consumers, attorneys representing consumers, regulators, and other groups. Readers of the paper are encouraged to participate more fully in the public policy process. Although the focus of this paper is on insurance and regulation in the USA, the guiding principles apply to other nations, organizations, and consumer causes.     

Collective punishment and public policy

In this paper I shall discuss various philosophical theories of collective punishment: marxian annihilism, metaphysical collectivism and methodological individualism. After refuting metaphysical collectivism and its modified version, I defend a modification of methodological individualism.J. Angelo Corlett has written on a wide variety of philosophical topics. His work appears in journals such asTheory and Decision, Theoria, Journal of Business Ethics, American Psychologist, Social Epistemology, andNew Ideas in Psychology. His main areas of research include ethics, social and political philosophy, and epistemology. He is currently working on a book concerning collective rights, responsibility, and punishment.     

无效合同中损害社会公共利益的理解与适用

将损害社会公共利益的合同列为无效合同有效促进了法律的自身完善,这也是各国合同法的通用做法,明确社会公共利益的具体范畴,掌握其适用标准,对损害社会公共利益致合同无效的情形加以规范,将有效规范司法,推动我国的法制建设.     

Employee attitudes toward whistleblowing: Management and public policy implications

Managers of organizations should be aware of the attitudes of employees concerning whistleblowing. Employee views should affect how employers choose to respond to whistleblowers through the evolving law of wrongful discharge. This article reports on a survey of employee attitudes toward the legal protection of whistleblowers and presents an analysis of the results of that survey. Among the most significant findings of the survey are:

1. Recognition by employees of a hierarchy of proper whistleblowing outlets: internal first, law enforcement agencies second, and news media last.
2. Less employee support for legal protection for whistleblowers who report unethical activities than for those who report illegal conduct.
3. Very strong overall employee support for legal protection of whistleblowers, even among managerial and supervisory employees.
4. A belief among employees that a fear of being fired deters whistleblowing.

These findings have important implications for both management and public policy. Organizations that want to encourage whistleblowing clearly must protect whistleblowers from retaliation, while organizations that do not encourage whistleblowing may want to reconsider that policy. The survey results also have implications in the handling of individual whistleblowers. From a public policy perspective, the survey results provide support for increasing the legal protection of whistleblowers. On the other hand, any such increase in whistleblower protection should considerr the importance of employee loyalty and managerial discretion.     

Conglomerates: The legal issues: A review of public policy needed

The recent developments o f the conglomerate merger again bring forth the question of bigness, already posed by the trusts and holding companies o f earlier decades. The Pattersons probe into the reasons for such unions and into the legality o f such combinations. Antitrust policy is at a crossroads. Will the necessary decisions concerning these mergers be decided by the courts, which must rely on vague instructions in the law and established legal precedent, or should Congress define new guidelines? Soon it must be decided whither conglomerate mergers.     

促就业的财税政策现实途径分析

近年来,由于提高就业水平的巨大需求,采取财税政策刺激就业成为我国政府的常规手段,从国内外促就业财税政策现实经验分析可知,通过促进中小企业发展,形成新增就业能力,优先发展第三产业,增强劳动力的吸纳能力改革财税分配体制,促进城市化建设等现实途径来促进就业.     

Crisis costs and debtor discipline: the efficacy of public policy in sovereign debt crises

Recent debate on the reform of the international financial architecture has highlighted the potentially important role of the official sector in crisis management. We examine how such public intervention in sovereign debt crises affects efficiency, ex ante and ex post. Our results shed light on the scale of capital inflows and the implications for debtor country output of such a regime. The efficacy of measures such as officially sanctioned stays on creditor litigation depend critically on the quality of public sector surveillance and the size of the costs of sovereign debt crises.     

A defense of utilitarian policy processes in corporate and public management

The growing awareness that corporate and public policy forming processes are intensively utilitarian has provoked a variety of criticism. The procedural difficulties of utilitarianism are well known; less well known but potentially more devastating is a set of charges that utilitarian policy processes intrude upon important relationships and societal processes. This paper defends utilitarian methods against these charges.More specifically, two criticisms are singled out for examination. The first is the claim that utilitarian policy processes systematically discriminate against the rights of non-human life and suppress any feelings of sympathy or obligation humans might have for animals or plants. The second is the argument that utilitarianism ultimately circumvents considerations of process which are essential for the development of individual and societal identity.Given these criticisms, the goal of this paper is to defend the role of utilitarian techniques in corporate and public policy processes against such charges. F. Neil Brady is Assistant Professor of Management at the College of Business Administration, San Diego State University. He is the author of Feeling and Understanding: A Moral Psychology for Public Servants, Public Administration Quarterly 7, and Ethical Theory for the Public Administrator: The Management of Competing Interests, American Review of Public Administration 15, pp. 119–126.     

论公共政策的价值取向及在和谐社会中的作用

当今社会的和谐问题和公共政策的价值取向问题,受到社会各界广泛关注,公平和效率构成了公共政策的双重价值取向,效率取向追求的是公共政策对其资源配置的有效性;公平取向关注的是公共政策对社会价值进行权威性分配的合理性.     

论公共政策的价值取向及在和谐社会中的作用

当今社会的和谐问题和公共政策的价值取向问题,受到社会各界广泛关注,公平和效率构成了公共政策的双重价值取向,效率取向追求的是公共政策对其资源配置的有效性;公平取向关注的是公共政策对社会价值进行权威性分配的合理性.     

Modeling the international gray market for public policy decisions

Composed of a heterogeneous group of resellers, the members of the international gray market surreptitiously, but legally, acquire genuinely branded goods from various sources and remarket them throughout the globe in competition with channels authorized by trademark owners. These owners charge that this practice of global arbitrage unfairly damages the value of their brands and channel relationships and seek government protection against these imports under national trademark laws. Because of the sensitivity of gray market activities, evidence of harm to authorized channel members is difficult to verify. This paper turns to a modeling approach to disentangle the web of relationships and identify the economic impact of international gray market trading. The model views the problem from the perspective of the international firm managing its independent channel members in two countries and confronted with a gray market that will engage in arbitrage given sufficient incentive. The results show that though the global gray markets can make channel management a painful exercise, the damage is insufficient to warrant prohibition by public agency.     

Ethics perceptions of American Farmers: An empirical analysis

A 123 item survey of ethics perceptions of Farmers had 796 respondents. Of these, 517 (64.9%) felt that farm ethics had gotten worse. A discriminant analysis employed to offer insight into the extent and nature of group differences produced 22 independent variables along with an adequate increase in classification results above expectations due to chance. These variables reflect a division between the outside business and political world and the concerns of farmers. The responses suggest an appreciation by the respondents of the interdependence of their business actions with their neighbors. The results are also suggestive of both an absolute and a relative ethics component. Further research on the relevance of communitarian ethics is suggested.Allen Rappaport is Professor of Finance at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA. He is a former Managing Editor of the North American Journal of Economics and Finance and current Executive Director of the North American Economics and Finance Association. He has published extensively in Academic Journals.Robert A. Himschoot is currently Real Estate Specialist with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was Instructor in Law, Management Department, at the University of Northern Iowa when this paper was written. He has worked in the mediation of Legal Disputes. He resides in Bethel, Alaska.