Normative contexts and moral decision

This paper attempts to explain the significance of the ‘ideologies’ — or ‘middle-level’ normative discourse — described by Kenneth Goodpaster in his paper ‘Business Ethics, Ideology, and the Naturalistic Fallacy’. It is argued that the propositions constitutive of this discourse are not invokable moral principles (i.e. principles which generate solutions to actual moral problems). Rather, they are characterizations of the normative contexts in which moral decisions are made. As such, they place limits on the ways in which the abstract moral principles of traditional moral theory may be applied or interpreted in making real-life moral decisions.     

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.     

EFTA and its relations with the EC

With its association with the EC in July 1977, EFTA will have achieved its immediate goal of bridging the economic division of Western Europe. Moreover, the influence of this small but efficient international organization — which due to its pragmatism and liberal principles fits quite well into the world trade order — has spread to the countries behind the iron curtain as well as to the international cooperation inside OECD and might go still further into an even more international economic order emerging from the North-South dialogue.     

UN economic conference in Africa

The 11th session of the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the second Ministerial Conference of that Organisation took place in Accra from February 19 to 23, 1973. The Commission—a regional organisation of the United Nations—has 41 independent African states as members.     

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     

Tiresome subsidies — the nuisance of subsidies distorting international competition

Subsidies are not only a nuisance to the tax payer financing them but in a world economy in the process of integration they are also distorting competitive conditions. Most annoyingly it is not only impossible to abolish subsidies but, what is even worse, they are propagating themselves. Any competitive advantage the economy of a State with a propensity to subsidise obtains, gives the competitors in other countries an appetite for similarly generous support—a demand that in a pluralistic society will easily find a willing ear. In the following contributions our authors will try to give a survey of subsidisation in Federal Germany, France, the United States and Britain, and to answer the question of to what extent the subsidisation of certain economic branches is influencing competitiveness on an international level.     

The political economy of transport projects

The UN General Assembly has designated the 1978–1988 period as a Decade of Transport in Africa to draw attention to the immense efforts that are—in an internationally coordinated fashion—still needed in this continent. What contribution to Africa’s social and economic development may be expected from major rail and road proejcts?     

Making sure of survival

Early in 1980—well before the Special Session of the UN General Assembly in New York—the Independent Commission for International Development Issues chaired by Willy Brandt presented its Report: “North-South: A Programme for Survival”. The findings of the Commission which is better known as “North-South Commission” or “Brandt Commission” have met with agreement and approval but also with criticism. Which recommendations has the Commission made? Which points of the Report are being criticised?     

The limits to growth — Malthus revived

The publication of “The Limits to Growth — A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind” has resulted in a world-wide discussion of this vital issue. The following article reviews different aspects of the study.     

The IMF and the countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance

In November 1981 Hungary and, one week later, Poland applied for membership of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank). These applications have highlighted a subject which had been neglected for quite some time. This analysis deals with the problems and consequences which arise from the membership of countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon)—the economies of which largely conform to principles of central economic planning—in IMF, an institution organized according to market principles.     

New developments in east-west economic relations

The past four years have witnessed a marked increase in the economic activity between East and West. The volume of foreign trade rose strongly; but as Eastern exports showed only slight increases while their imports from the West went up by leaps and bounds, the deficits of the Comecon countries became ever greater — an imbalance which has given rise to a number of problems.     

The internal morality of the corporation

Is good morality the natural outcome of profitable business practices? The thesis explored here is one version of the recent literature on corporate culture, typified by the bestselling In Search of Excellence — that the corporation that creates a strong culture, one that best serves the customer, the product, and the employee, must also be profitable. The thesis turns out to have an historical parallel in Plato's Republic (subtitled, I suppose, “In Search of Justice”). Parallel “virtues” can be worked out for state and corporation. In the end, profitability turns out not to be a necessary consequence of excellence, just as Plato's “Ideal” state turned out to be mortal.     

Common Market—A step towards unification

The focus of the Conference of the Organisation of American States held in April 1967 at Punta del Este was the efforts to achieve the economic integration of South America. The most important item in the “Declaration by the American Presidents” at Punta del Este is the projected creation of a Common Market for the whole of Latin America. The Latin American Free Trade Association (ALALC) and the Central American Common Market (MCC) are to be the foundation for economic integration over a vast area. The statement put out by the Punta del Este Conference is, however, only the first step along the road towards the economic consolidation of South America. It is now up to the Latin American countries to bring true these oft-repeated protestations of Latin American solidarity. All the Latin American countries will have to co-operate purposefully to tackle the tasks ahead of them and they will need the support of the larger industrial nations, particularly the United States. Nothing less than economic collaboration between the countries of the american sub-continent, forgetting all national rivalries, would enable Simón Bolivar's dream of a strong and united Latin America to become a practicable reality. The following contribution discusses the ways and means of Latin American integration, the results achieved hitherio and the prospects for a comprehensive unification of South America—including political unification.     

Limited paternalism and the Pontius Pilate Plight

Ebejer and Morden (‘Paternalism in the Marketplace: Should a Salesman Be His Buyer's Keeper?”, Journal of Business Ethics 7, 1988) propose ‘limited paternalism’ as a sufficient regulative condition for a professional ethic of sales. Although the principle is immediately appealing, its application can lead to a counter-productive ethical quandary I call the Pontius Pilate Plight. This quandary is the assumption that ethical agents' hands are clean in certain situations even if they have done something they condemn as immoral. Since limited paternalism can give rise to this queer conclusion in the salesperson/buyer relationship, the principle is suspect. It may be a necessary condition for ethical sales, but is not sufficient. This discussion concludes by suggesting two additional criteria which, when complemented by the limited paternalism principle, are jointly sufficient.     

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.     

Why economic sanctions always fail — the case of Rhodesia

Demands for the imposition of economic sanctions under UN auspices on South Africa have been voiced for quite some time. Rhodesia was the first country ever to be subjected to a full obligatory embargo by the UN Security Council. An analysis of the embargo against Rhodesia will therefore help to answer the question whether an embargo on South Africa stands a chance of success.     

The ecological handicap of the tropics

The long-forgotten subject of the ecological disadvantages of the tropics has been brought to the fore once again by the catastrophic droughts in the Sahel and in southern Africa. The naive belief that economic development is simply a matter of finding the right technology and of spreading scientific knowledge must give way to the acknowledgement that the “development threshold” of the tropical countries is very substantial and complex, and that surpassing it will be a long and wearisome business.     

On the definition of Transnational Corporations in a UN Code of Conduct

The UN Commission on Transnational Corporations which was appointed by ECOSOC will have its next meeting in May. An Intergovernmental Working Group will have held ten sessions by then and present a draft Code of Conduct dealing with transnational corporations. (For a review of the state of preparations for this Code see the article by Hartmut Scheele in INTERECONOMICS No. 6/1979). The Commission itself and the Working Group have dealt more than once with the question to which enterprises the future Code is to apply but they have so far been unable to reach agreement. The difficulties are examined in the following article.     

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.     

UN development strategy for the eighties

The recently held 11th Special Session of the UN General Assembly reached agreement on an international strategy for the Third Development Decade which is to be formally passed by the current 35th General Assembly. In the discussion it became obvious that the developing countries’ interest still focusses on a New International Economic Order. There are however grave doubts about the possibility of reaching, by institutional reforms, a real solution for the development problems to be faced in this decade.