The Ethical Case for Affirmative Action

Affirmative action has been a particularly contentious policy issue that has polarised contributions to the debate. Over recent times in most western countries, support for affirmative action has, however, been largely snuffed out or beaten into retreat and replaced by the concept of ‹diversity management’. Thus, any contemporary study that examines the development of affirmative action would suggest that its opponents have won the battle. Nonetheless, this article argues that because the battle has been won on dubious ethical grounds it is important that we do not allow affirmative action to sink unnoticed. This article explores and challenges the ethical and philosophical underpinnings of opponents’ views and finds their cases against affirmative action are not ethically sound. The article concludes there are strong ethical grounds for those organisations which seek to do well, to reassert affirmative action programmes in the global efforts to eradicate systemic discrimination and disadvantage.     

Affirmative action as a form of restitution

Though the common sense defense of affirmative action (or employment equity) appeals to principles of restitution, philosophers have tried to defend it in other ways. In contrast, I defend it by appealing to the notion of restitution, arguing (1) that alternative attempts to justify affirmative action fail; and (2) that ordinary affirmative action programs need to be supplemented and amended in keeping with the principles this suggests. Leo Groarke is associate professor of philosophy at Wilfrid Laurier University. His work has appeared in a number of scholarly journals, including Dialogue, Atlantis, The Public Affairs Quarterly, Teaching Philosophy and The Journal of the History of Philosophy. His books include Nuclear War: Philosophical Perspectives (1985) and Greek Scepticism (forthcoming from McGill-Queen's University Press).     

Affirmative action programs and business ownership among minorities and women

Affirmative action programs are commonly used as a means to level the playing field for minority- and women-owned firms in public procurement markets, and therefore may be a positive factor in business entry and survival. To the extent that affirmative action programs also apply to traditional labor markets, however, they may alter the opportunity cost of starting a business. We utilize the elimination of affirmative action in California and Washington States through voter initiatives to identify the effect of affirmative action on minority and female self-employment rates. In our base specifications, we find evidence of modest increases in self-employment among minorities and women in both California and Washington after elimination of affirmative action, consistent with the hypothesis that the opportunity cost of starting a business fell due to restricting opportunities in the traditional labor markets. The sign of the estimated effect, however, is not uniformly positive when considering specific race/gender groups, and the statistical significance of the main results is somewhat sensitive to the choice of control states.     

Affirmative action: An ethical evaluation

This paper examines four major arguments advanced by opponents of race and gender conscious affirmative action and rebuts them on the basis of moral considerations. It is clear that the problem of past racial/gender discrimination has not disappeared; its effects linger, resulting in a wide disparity in opportunities and attainments between minorities/women and whites/males. Affirmative action, although not the perfect solution, is by far the most viable method of redressing the effects of past discrimination. Thus it cannot be dismissed lightly by way of arguing for mere colorblindness. Bill Shaw is Professor of Business Law at the University of Texas at Austin. He is on the editorial board of the American Business Law Journal and the Midwest Law Review. Among his most recent publications are The Legal Environment of Business (with Art Wolfe), Environmental Law: Text and Cases, The Global Environment: A Proposal to Eliminate Marine Oil Pollution (With Frank Cross and Brenda Winslett, The Natural Resources Journal), and Comparable Worth and Its Prospects (The Labor Law Journal). Professor Shaw would like to acknowledge the research assistance of Ms. Sohni Z. Yousuff.     

Plato's Statesman and the nature of business leadership: An analysis from an ethical point of view

Plato's paradigm for statesmanship in the Statesman, the “weaving” of temperate and courageous properties, provides the contemporary business ethics theorist with an aid for determining certain problems and solutions with regard to business leadership. The history of American business values manifests the destructive, and especially unethical, effects of deviating from this paradigm by over-emphasizing one or the other of the above types of qualities. However, with the aid of Plato's model for leadership in the Statesman and suggestions from Peters and Waterman's In Search of Excellence, progress can be made towards constructing an adequate model for corporate leadership, especially from an ethical standpoint.     

From unemployment to rapid growth?

With unemployment in the OECD countries approaching 30 millions, and with the Mitterrand regime providing yet another example of the failure of demand-led attempts at growth, this article considers the possibility of the advanced industrialised countries returning to a pattern of rapid growth based on plentiful labour supplies. If Keynesian measures to combat high unemployment are rejected, will redundant labour eventually find its own demand, and will this allow a new wave of fast industrial expansion?     

A comparison of five business philosophies

While the media and public opinion polls suggest that the state of business ethics is declining, surveys of corporate managers on the subject are less than conclusive. This study presents results of a survey of 487 adult, MBA, and undergraduate business students on the business philosophies of Machiavellianism, Darwinism, Objectivism, Relativism, and Universalism. The findings were consistent with earlier research which showed prospective managers to be less ethical than practicing ones and that women and those reporting a strong religious conviction tend to be more ethical. Explanations and several recommendations for improving the situation are offered. ‘If you saw Atlas... trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders — what would you tell him to do?’ ‘To shrug.’ —Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged     

The Paradox of Corporate Social Responsibility Standards

The purpose of this paper is to provide a constructive criticism of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standards. After pointing out a number of benefits and limitations in the effectiveness of CSR standards, both from a theoretical point of view and in the light of empirical evidence, we formulate and discuss a Paradox of CSR standards: despite being well-intended, CSR standards can favor the emergence of a thoughtless, blind and blinkered mindset which is counterproductive of their aim of enhancing the social responsibility of the organization. We analyze three problems that might underlie the Paradox—namely the problem of deceptive measurements; the problem of responsibility erosion and the problem of blinkered culture. We apply the philosophical tradition of American Pragmatism to reflect on these issues in relation to different types of existing standards, and conclude by suggesting a number of considerations that could help both CSR standards developers and users to address the Paradox.     

Developing Sustainable Strategies: Foundations,Method, and Pedagogy

While the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) are a very positive development in the horizon of management education over the last decade, there are still many significant challenges for engaging the mind of the manager in ways that will foster the values of PRME and the UN Global Compact. Responsible management education must address three foundational challenges in business education if it is to actualize the aspirations of PRME: (1) it must confront the cognitional myth that knowing is like looking, (2) it must move beyond mere analysis to systems thinking, and (3) it must transition from a values-neutral stance to a values-driven stance. Using Developing Sustainable Strategies, an MBA practicum in the Sustainable Management Concentration at DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business as a case study, this article identifies the ways in which Pragmatic Inquiry can address these challenges. The method of Pragmatic Inquiry prepares students to become responsible managers, to develop sustainable strategies, and to be creators of shared value. Built from the philosophical foundations of American pragmatism and Bernard Lonergan’s critical realism, Pragmatic Inquiry is an effective method and pedagogy for responsible management education.     

Dual career couples: Individual and organizational implications

Since the introduction of the term ‘dualcareer’ family by Rapoport and Rapoport in 1969, an increasingly large body of literature concerning this phenomenon has developed — perhaps in response to the rapid growth of dual-careerism in North American Society. This literature is extremely diverse, ranging from purely ‘academic’ articles in the professional journals of economics, business, sociology, psychology, etc., to ‘self-help’ and ‘trade’ books such as The Two Career Couple by Hall and Hall; to ‘light’ articles in popular magazines such as Redbook, People, Good Housekeeping, etc. This paper reviews this literature and discusses the implications of the dual-career family structure from both the individual and the organizational points-of-view. Specifically, five major topic areas are covered: (1) advantages and disadvantages of the lifestyle, (2) marital satisfaction, (3) egalitarian relationships, (4) the impact of transfers, relocations and living apart, and (5) the employing organization's reaction to and adaption to the phenomenon.     

Economic science and ethical neutrality II: The intransigence of evaluative concepts

This paper returns to a perennial controversy I examined in a previous paper in the Journal of Business Ethics (Vol. 2, 1983). Is economic theory an ethically neutral discipline or do its statements presuppose a commitment to moral values? Once again this issue is addressed via a case study of the neo-classical theory of rational choice. In the present paper I focus on behaviourist forms of “operationalist” attempts to short-circuit any argument that would seek to infer moral presuppositions from the use of evaluative discourse. In particular, I examine strategies that have sought to excise from economic theory the “mentalistic” vocabulary required to describe valuations per se. And I argue that such tactics are deficient since they i) impoverish the explanatory power of economic theory, (ii) fail to recover the normative usefulness of the theory of choice, and (iii) camouflage the continued presupposition of moral commitments within neo-classical theory.     

World trade and structural adjustments

The developing countries have to be involved more closely in the international division of labour if they are to be able to play their part in a New International Economic Order. Increased competition in semifinished and finished products and internal substitution processes will pose new problems for the industrialized countries and force them to consider structural readjustments in their own economies.     

The corporation and its employees: A case story

One of the main objectives in the information society is to improve the quality of life. — Paying attention to the needs of people seems to be a key element in good ethical behaviour, says Tor Dahl, Managing Director of Manpower Scandinavia. In defining these needs, Manpower used Abraham Maslow's famous pyramid, his hierarchy of needs, as a model for trying to satisfy in practise the needs on each level. However, they went a step further, asking; what comes after Maslow? To mean something for others; togetherness and that people can be trusted and that they seek a purpose with their work, came out as answers. In his paper Mr. Dahl tells us how Manpower Scandinavia has developed a written set of values, which function as a basis for action and guidelines for behaviour, and where the key idea behind it all is to let people be self-managed. Furthermore, he shows us how Manpower has organised the company according to this conviction. — If your really have faith in people and show them trust, they will show you trust in return. Then you have a good basis for ethical behaviour, Tor Dahl concludes his paper.     

Drug prohibition: A legal and economic analysis

This paper argues the case for the legalization of addictive drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. It maintains that there are no market failures which could justify a banning of these substances, and that, as in the earlier historical case of prohibition of alcohol, our present drug policy has increased crime, decreased respect for legitimate law, and created great social upheaval.A member of the faculty of the Economics Department of the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, Dr. Walter Block is Adjunct Scholar at the Fraser, Cato, and Mises Institutes. His professional affiliations include the American Economic Association, and Western Economic Association, the British Columbia Association of Professional Economists, the Canadian Economic Association, the Canadian Association for Business Economics and the American Law and Economics Association. He has previously taught at Stony Brook (S.U.N.Y.), Baruch (C.U.N.Y.) and Rutgers Universities, and has worked in various research capacities for the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Tax Foundation,The Financial Post, Western Report, andBusiness Week. Dr. Block has published numerous popular and scholarly articles on economics and writes a syndricated column forSterling newspapers. An economic commentator on national television and radio, he lectures widely on public policy issues to university students, service, professional and religious organizations.Nothing in this article should be taken as an indication that the author favours the use of the drugs discussed herein. Actually the very opposite is the case. While he opposes prohibition, he advocates all non-coercive methods — arguments, counselling, advertising, etc. — which lead to decreased or zero usage of these pernicious and immoral materials and substances.     

Entrepreneurship,innovation, and human flourishing

This essay uses Edmund Phelps’ new book Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change (Phelps 2013) as inspiration to discuss innovation and entrepreneurship. The book is laudable for its discussion of what constitutes a “good life”. Phelps argues that true life satisfaction cannot be achieved through a purposeless quest for wealth and material consumption, but rather through adventure, entrepreneurship, and creative endeavors. Weaknesses of the book include an overly glossy characterization of the period before World War II, a niggardly evaluation of European innovation, and the lack of convincing empirical evidence for the claim that the rate of innovation has slowed. These flaws are regrettable given the importance of the book’s main message: innovation and creative entrepreneurship are not merely the keys to economic growth, but to life satisfaction as well. This essay discusses topics in entrepreneurship research linked to the book, including the link between innovation and entrepreneurship, the role of institutions for entrepreneurship, and the tendency of national accounts to under-record the social value of innovation and entrepreneurship. If the measures used do not capture the full social value of innovation, we are likely to underestimate the genuine rate of innovation. Government policy may also be misguided. Finally, the challenge to entrepreneurial capitalism posed by the postmodernist research paradigm is discussed.     

Individual and organizational characteristics of women in managerial leadership

Women are making a substantial impact on the employment market, both in terms of overall numbers as well as by appointment to male-dominated organizational roles. Research on women in leadership positions within organizations has concentrated on two main foci. Firstly, the identification of relevant individual and organizational characteristics and secondly, on the impact of these variables on the women in management roles. This paper presents the findings from a series of studies in relation to these broad dimensions. Dr. Rowney was the chairperson of the Management of Organizations and Human Resources Area from 1978 to 1980 and until recently held the position of Associate Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies. During 1988 she was a Visiting Professor to the Jiatong University in Xi'an and to the Australian Management College in Mount Eliza, Victoria, Australia. Commencing in January 1990 she will be at the International Management Center in Budapest, Hungary. Consultative activities have included such organizations as the Alberta Wheat Pool, Alberta Gas Ethylene, Gulf Canada and Technology Systems International. Research papers have been published in numerous journals including the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology, Canadian Personnel and Industrial Relations Journal, Canadian Psychological Review and Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science. Her more recent publications include A Comparison of Burnout Across Public/Private Sector Managers and The Relationships Between Risk Propensity, and Individual and Job Environment Variables, Journal of Health and Human Administration; and A Preliminary Investigation of Burnout Dimensions in Intact Work Groups, Proceedings XXIV International Congress of Psychology. Currently, Dr. Rowney is involved in a major cross-cultural study of the environmental context of management and personnel in several countries. This research is an extension of projects involving women in management, stress, burnout and the public/private sector. Dr. Rowney is also a registered O.D. consultant and member of the International Advisory Board of the O.D. Institute. Dr. Cahoon has published numerous articles in journals such as Academy of Management Review, Canadian Public Administration, Journal of Health and Human Resource Administration Organization Development Journal, Canadian Journal of Petroleum Technology, and Leadership and Organization Development Journal. He has served as a member of the National Executive of IPAC and on the editorial board of the International Journal of Public Administration. Dr. Cahoon was a member of the Directing Staff of the Australian Administrative Staff College in Mount Eliza, Victoria, Australia from September 1, 1986 to July 1987. Some of his more recent publications include the chapter Overcoming Resistance to Affirmative Action in R. Rentschler's, T. Tullock's and K. Cole's (Eds) Affirmative Action in Action: A Guide to Implementation, JPMA (Inc.), Melbourne, Australia, 1987; and the article Management Development: A Competency Based Approach, The Practicing Manager, Vol. 8, No. 3, April 1987. His conference papers include: The Interaction Between Worksite Variables and Personal Characteristics for Female Managers (with Julie Rowney, JIA), presented at the Third International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women, Dublin, Ireland, July 1987; and The Challenge of Human Resource Management: Maximizing the Human Asset Potential, presented at the Annual Conference of the Victoria Council for Educational Administration, Melbourne, Australia, June 1987. He is currently involved in a longitudinal study on the status of women as managers, stress and burnout. He is completing a text on Public Management in Canada and looking at the organizational and human resource implications of downsizing.     

Money is Power: Monetary Intelligence—Love of Money and Temptation of Materialism Among Czech University Students

In this study, we develop a theoretical model of monetary intelligence (MI), explore the extent to which individuals’ meaning of money is related to the pursuit of materialistic purposes, and test our model using the whole sample and across college major and gender. We select the 15-item love of money (LOM) construct—Factors Good, Evil (Affective), Budget (Behavioral), Achievement, and Power (Cognitive)—from the Money Ethic Scale and Factors Success and Centrality and two indicators—from the Materialism Scale. Based on our data collected from 330 university students in Czech Republic, we provide the following findings. First, our formative models are superior to our reflective models. Second, for the reflective model, money represents Power, Good, Achievement, and not Evil, in the context of materialism. Our formative model suggests that those who pursuit materialism cherish Achievement (vanity) but Budget their money poorly. Third, multi-group analyses illustrate that humanities students (62.4 % female) consider money as Evil and Budget their money poorly, while those in natural sciences (37.6 % female) do not. Further, men are obsessed with Achievement, whereas women do not Budget their money properly, suggesting reflective temptation for males and impulsive temptation for females. Our novel discoveries shed new lights on the relationships between LOM and materialism and offer practical implications to the field of consumer behavior and business ethics.     

EC reform inch by inch

After ratification by member countries, the “Luxembourg reform package” worked out by the European Council at the end of 1985 is to provide the basis for the development of the European Community into the nineties. What are the challenges facing the EC? What opportunities do the Luxembourg reforms open up?     

LAFTA’s successes and failures

The Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA), established by the Treaty of Montevideo in 1960, was an attempt by the participating countries to seek a way out of the dilemma of declining demand for their exports, on the one hand, and the inadequacy of a solely inward-looking strategy in development policy, on the other.     

An Empirical Quest to Identify the Most Dominant Negotiating Styles Among American Sales Managers

SUMMARY

This study addresses the proposition as to whether the collaborative negotiation style is the most prevalent among American sales managers in the competitive landscape created by the global economy. It also examines whether there are relationships between the sales managers' negotiation styles and selected personal and organizational characteristics that may affect negotiation styles. The findings of the study reveal that the collaborative style is indeed the most predominant. However, some sales managers do still emphasize the competitive style. This variation may imply Weitz's (1981) Weitz, B. 1981. Effectiveness in sales interactions: A contingency framework. Journal of Marketing, 45(1): 85–103. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] adaptive behaviors. There are also significant relationships between the sales managers' negotiation styles and personal and organizational characteristics.