Labor Standards in the Global Economy: Issues for Investors

In the mid-1990s, global labour standards emerged as a new and important are of concern for socially responsible investors, especially with respect to investments in the "problematic" footwear, apparel, and toy industries. In this paper, I elucidate the primary areas of concern for investors and discuss a framework for evaluating firms' labor standards performance. In addition, I argue that today's sweatshop debates follow closely those of centuries ago, with the standard economic defense of low wage manufacturing on the one hand, and the activists' protests against poor conditions and wages on the other. An examination of this historical context reveals a promising middle ground in this ongoing debate.     

Compulsory Arbitration in Nonunion Employee Relations: A Strategic Ethical Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the most recent public policy and ethical issues as they relate to the growing usage of nonunion employment arbitration particularly in relation to financial services firms and professional firms. In this era of increasing employment-related litigation, it is wise from an employer’s point of view to find alternative procedures that offer assurances of fairness yet provide expeditious means for resolving disputes. From an employee’s vantage point, however, it is essential that the fundamental issue of procedural and substantive due process be maintained and guaranteed. Therefore, a number of strategic ethical issues arise: How should employment arbitration procedures be designed following the Due Process Protocol of the Task Force on Alternative Dispute Resolution in Employment? How should arbitration procedures follow the national rules for the resolution of employment disputes of the American Arbitration Association? Do recent court decisions shed light on these issues? What ethical principles can be gleaned from these public policy pronouncements? A final objective of this paper is to study some of the current initiatives on this topic.     

Bridging Ethics and Self Leadership: Overcoming Ethical Discrepancies Between Employee and Organizational Standards

In spite of extensive study and efforts to improve business ethics and increase corporate social responsibility, a quick review of almost any business publication will show that breaches of ethics are a common occurrence in the business community. In this paper we explore reasons for potential discrepancies or gaps between organizational and individual ethical standards, the consequences of such discrepancies, and possible methods of reducing the detrimental effects of these differences. The concept of self-leadership, as constructed through social learning theory is examined, and shown to be a potentially valuable tool for employees' use in making reasoned decisions in varying organizational ethical climates. Specifically, the authors will show how the practice of self-leadership can be employed as an important means to improve moral action within the firm.     

国际贸易与劳工权利保护两者关系的法律规则视角

劳工保护在历史上成为一个国际性问题之初就是和公平贸易的诉求紧密联系在一起的。将劳工权益保护与贸易挂钩一方面可以更有效地保障劳动者,另一方面也可能制造阻碍自由贸易的非关税壁垒。发达国家、发展中国家以及在全球化进程中地位日益凸显的跨国公司在国际贸易活动中引入劳工标准都会导致自身内在利益的追求与外在道德形象维护的矛盾。不可回避的一个事实是,当今世界的国际贸易交往中,劳工权益保护问题的重要性被提到了一个相当重要的高度,不论在主权国家与国际组织的层面,还是在跨国公司和非政府组织的层面,劳工问题已深深嵌入到跨国贸易活动中。     

大股东侵害与中小股东利益保护:一个模型分析

大股东侵害中小股东利益的现象已引起社会的广泛关注,但已有文献缺乏对大股东侵害成因和程度的研究。依据公共选择理论和产业组织理论,本文模型指出实施监督职能但没有得到相应投资收益是大股东侵害中小股东利益的重要原因,大股东的侵害包括以补偿监督成本为目的的第I类侵害、要求监督成本的支出取得合理投资回报为目的的第II类侵害和大股东利用公司内部信息以最大化其收益为目的的第III类侵害,且不同类型的侵害对大股东和公司的意义不同。为有效解决大股东侵害问题,并提高大股东的监督水平,就应对大股东的第I类和第II类侵害进行补偿,并对第III类侵害进行惩罚。     

Monitoring Compliance with International Labor Standards: How Can the Process Be Improved, and What Are the Implications for Inserting Labor Standards into the WTO?

The Report of the National Academy of Sciences Monitoring International Labor Standards: Techniques and Sources of Information shows that assessing compliance can be carried out in a thorough, transparent fashion, allowing alternative evaluators to identify where they disagree in assessment. Drawing on the Report and written by the Chair of the Committee that produced it, this paper offers a short overview of the principal challenges in assessing compliance with the ILO core labor standards, and offers a simple framework for investigating compliance. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for trying to include labor standards in trade agreements.     

伦理型领导与伦理问题报告：一个多层次模型

基于社会学习理论及社会信息加工视角,文章探讨了伦理型领导激发员工报告组织内部伦理问题的多层次作用机制。文章采用两阶段问卷调查方式收集67名团队领导与302名员工调查样本,运用多层线性模型进行假设检验,结果表明,个体导向的伦理型领导对员工伦理问题报告具有显著正向影响,道德勇气在二者之间起部分中介作用。同时,团队导向的伦理型领导显著正向影响员工伦理问题报告,伦理氛围在二者之间起完全中介作用。此外,在伦理氛围更强的团队,个体导向的伦理型领导对伦理问题报告的作用更强。研究结果揭示了伦理型领导影响员工伦理问题报告的多层次作用路径及边界条件,对于加强组织的伦理管理具有重要的现实意义。     

Ethical Character and Virtue of Organizations: An Empirical Assessment and Strategic Implications

Virtue ethics has often been regarded as complementary or laissez-faire ethics in solving business problems. This paper seeks conceptual and methodological improvements by developing a virtue character scale that will enable assessment of the link between organizational level virtue and organizational performance, financial or non-financial. Based upon three theoretical assumptions, multiple studies were conducted; the content analysis of 158 Fortune Global 500 firms ethical values and a survey of 2548 customers and employees. Six dimensions of organizational virtue (Integrity, Empathy, Warmth, Courage, Conscientiousness and Zeal) are identified through confirmatory factor analysis, and validated against satisfaction measure. Strategic implications of virtue characters are discussed.     

中国非公有制企业劳资关系与企业绩效的关联性分析

劳资关系与企业绩效的关联性问题,理论上的争议由来已久。但大多数国外学者的实证研究显示,劳资关系状况的改善对企业绩效具有积极的正面影响。在中国的非公有制企业中,通过对劳资关系和企业绩效分层聚类结果的对比分析,可以发现,劳资关系和企业绩效的各个层次上,类成员分布具有明显的一致性特征,表明劳资关系与企业绩效在区域上存在一定程度的关联关系:劳资关系状况较"优"的地区,往往伴随着较高水平的企业绩效,劳资关系状况较"差"的地区,企业绩效水平也较"低"。     

农民工劳动权益保护的法律救济探析

在当前我国社会经济飞速发展和城镇化水平快速提高的进程中,农民工在做出巨大贡献的同时,其权益保护也面临着许多问题,除农民工自身素质不高、维权意识不强、维权能力弱等原因外,现有体制问题和法律救济渠道不畅也是当前农民工权益保护不力的重要原因。为此,应通过尽快出台专门的《农民工权益保护法》、加大劳动监察的监察力度、建立健全专门的农民工法律援助站、为农民工诉讼开辟“绿色通道”等措施,加大对农民工权益保护的法律救济。     

国际贸易与劳工标准挂钩的模式比较研究

虽然在世界贸易组织框架内是否将国际贸易和劳工标准挂钩争论激烈,但由于该问题的现实性,国际贸易与劳工标准挂钩已出现多种实现模式并存的局面。文章对现有的国际贸易和劳工标准挂钩的主要模式从约束性、经济性和有效性方面进行了比较研究,认为各种模式有其特点和适用范围,模式发展的近期方向将是ILO和WTO的充分合作模式。     

Machiavellianism, Profit, and the Dimensions of Ethical Judgment: A Study of Impact

Research by Reidenbach and Robin (1990) provides a means to study the differential impact of three dimensions of attitude toward ethics: moral equity, relativism, and contractualism. It is hypothesized that moral equity will be the most significant predictor of ethical judgment and intent to act. It is also hypothesized that Machiavellianism and profit will affect relativism and contractualism dimensions, but not moral equity. Additionally, it is hypothesized that Machiavellianism will interact with profit to affect intent to act. Moral equity was found to be the only predictor of ethical judgment, and moral equity and contractualism were predictors of intent to act. Machiavellianism impacted contractualism, but not relativism. Corporate profit did not affect either ethical judgment or intent to act, and did not interact with Machiavellianism. Implications for business ethics education and training are discussed.     

Ethical Behavior of Marketing Managers and MBA Students: A Comparative Study

The ethical tendencies of graduate business students from the United States were examined by analyzing their reactions to ethical dilemmas in a replicated study, which presented a set of ethical problem situations. These dilemmas dealt with coercion and control, conflict of interest, physical environment, paternalism and personal integrity. A comparison of these findings with the previous study of marketing managers indicates that the MBA students exhibited a greater degree of sensitivity to the ethical dimensions of business decision-making. Implications are drawn for business education and further research.     

Child Labor and Multinational Conduct: A Comparison of International Business andStakeholder Codes

Increasing attention to the issue of child labor has been reflected in codes of conduct that emerged in the past decade in particular. This paper examines the way in which multinationals, business associations, governmental and non-governmental organizations deal with child labor in their codes. With a standardized framework, it analyzes 55 codes drawn up by these different actors to influence firms external, societal behavior. The exploratory study helps to identify the main issues related to child labor and the use of voluntary instruments such as codes of conduct. Apart from a specific indication of the topics covered by the code, especially minimum-age requirements, this also includes monitoring systems and monitoring parties. Most important to company codes are the sanctions imposed on business partners in case of non-compliance. Severe measures may be counterproductive as they do not change the underlying causes of child labor and can worsen the situation of the child workers by driving them to more hazardous work in the informal sector. This underlines the importance of a broad rather than a restrictive approach to child labor in codes of conduct. The paper discusses the implications of this study, offering suggestions for future research.     

Professional Values and Perceptions Underlying Ethical Judgments: A Survey of Marketing Professionals in Thailand

ABSTRACT

Theoretical and empirical works generally suggest that variations in ethical judgments exist between different cultures. This study analyzes the ethical decisions of Thai marketing professionals. In particular, it examines the relative influences of professional values and ethical perceptions on the ethical judgments of Thai marketers. The results based on a survey of members of the Thai Marketing Association indicate that there is a significant relationship between a Thai marketer's ethical perceptions and his/her ethical judgments. The results reveal a weak relationship between professional values and the ethical judgments of Thai marketers.     

产品内国际生产分工对中国的劳动需求效应分析——基于制造业转移承接国的视角

从国际产业转移承接国角度,借鉴Falk等提出的标准劳动需求方程模型,基于中国2002—2007年25个制造业行业面板数据,实证考察了产品内国际生产分工对中国劳动需求的总量效应和结构效应。研究结论显示,中国参与产品内国际生产分工促进了劳动需求总量的增长,但其对不同行业的影响程度表现出很大的差异。其中,劳动密集型产业、高技术行业和出口导向型行业的产品内国际生产分工对中国劳动需求的增长具有积极的促进作用,而资本密集型行业和进口替代型行业的产品内国际生产分工对劳动需求的增长存在负面效应。因此,进一步促进产业结构调整、消除行业就业壁垒和促进人力资本升级是中国深化国际分工的关键所在。     

A Comparison of Ethical Perceptions and Moral Philosophies of American and Egyptian Business Students

This study compares business students fromEgypt and the United States in terms of theirperceptions of ethical problems, personal moralphilosophies (idealism, relativism), and theirperceptions about the importance of ethics. Aself-administered questionnaire was used tocollect data, in the classroom setting. Theresults reveal significant differences betweenthe business students from the two countries,which may be suggestive for variouscross-cultural business interactions. Theauthors derive some implications for businessethics instruction.     

Achieving and Managing Global Brand Equity: A Critical Analysis

ABSTRACT

According to some experts, brand equity is a company's most important asset. In this article, the authors first study the durability of brand equity in the long run. Then they examine the maintenance of that brand equity. The study analyzes the relative position of the top 50 most important global brands. Rank correlations indicate that, in the short run, the top 50 brands maintain strong equity levels, but in the longer run, this equity dissipates. In order to empower global brands in the long run, the authors put together a general global brand strategy model that would achieve and maintain brand equity. The model has three important components: strategic action, generating brand power, and achieving sustained brand equity. Such a model could balance the success in achieving brand equity globally both in the short and long run.     

Measuring Ethical Ideology in Business Ethics: A Critical Analysis of the Ethics Position Questionnaire

Individual differences in ethical ideology are believed to play a key role in ethical decision making. Forsyths (1980) Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) is designed to measure ethical ideology along two dimensions, relativism and idealism. This study extends the work of Forsyth by examining the construct validity of the EPQ. Confirmatory factor analyses conducted with independent samples indicated three factors – idealism, relativism, and veracity – account for the relationships among EPQ items. In order to provide further evidence of the instruments nomological and convergent validity, correlations among the EPQ subscales, dogmatism, empathy, and individual differences in the use of moral rationales were examined. The relationship between EPQ measures of idealism and moral judgments demonstrated modest predictive validity, but the appreciably weaker influence of relativism and the emergence of a veracity factor raise questions about the utility of the EPQ typology.