Reflective Judgement: Understanding Entrepreneurship as Ethical Practice

Recently, the ethical rather than just the economic resonance of entrepreneurship has attracted attention with researchers highlighting entrepreneurship and ethics as interwoven processes of value creation and management. Recognising that traditional normative perspectives on ethics are limited in application in entrepreneurial contexts, this stream of research has theorised entrepreneurship and ethics as the pragmatic production of useful effects through the alignment of public–private values. In this article, we critique this view and use Kant’s concept of reflective judgement as discussed in his Critique of the Power of Judgement to theorise ethical entrepreneurial practice as the capacity to routinely break free from current conventions through the imaginative creation and use of self-legislating maxims. Through an analysis of the narratives of 12 entrepreneurs, we suggest there are three dimensions to reflective judgement in entrepreneurial contexts: (1) Social Performance; (2) Public Challenge and; (3) Personal Autonomy. Whilst the entrepreneurs were alive to the importance of commercial return, their narratives demonstrated further concern for, and commitment to, standards that they rationally and imaginatively felt as being appropriate. In our discussion, we integrate the findings into existing theoretical categories from entrepreneurship studies to better appreciate ethics within the context of value creation.     

'Beyond the M-form': Towards a Critical Test of the New Form

This paper critically examines Bartlett and Ghoshal's claim that a radical new organizational form, distinctly different from the M-form both in terms of its structure and psychological underpinnings, may be observed among transnationals. The main theoretical dimensions of the M-form and the 'New Form' are delineated and compared within the context of the discourse between Transaction Costs Economics (TCE) and the Knowledge Based Approach on organizational advantage. Thereafter empirical evidence centred on ABB is extended and re-examined. On the basis of this analysis the thesis of an emergent new form is found to be unsupported. It is thus reasonable to assume that any organizational advantage transnational companies may possess still resides in hierarchical governance as identified by TCE and outlined in its multinational M-form application. To the extent to which it exists, normative social control has a secondary status.     

Consumers' Attitudes Towards Professional Advertising in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

This research was designed to investigate consumers' attitudes towards professional advertising in Hong Kong. Three hundred consumers were surveyed on their attitudes towards professional advertising by accountants, doctors and lawyers practicing in Hong Kong. The results found that, in general, professionals in Hong Kong enjoyed a high image and consumers believed that advertising would not significantly affect the current favourable image enjoyed by professionals in Hong Kong. In addition, consumers believed that professional advertising could serve as a means to acquire information. However, they also believed that advertising would increase the cost of professional services.     

Critical Reflective Organizations: An Empirical Observation of Global Active Citizenship and Green Politics

Relationships between the environmental and economic dimensions of sustainability have been solidly specified, but relatively little attention has been given to the social sphere. The current study attempts to fill this gap by integrating corporate environmentalism more fully with concepts of corporate sustainability. This investigation draws specifically from neo-Habermasian critical environmental theory research and brings three concepts together for closer empirical examination: the public sphere, the communicative rationality, and discursive design with the goal of capturing whether critical and reflective organizational systems (CROS) among the selected sample of business participants are in fact developing. Using content analysis on corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, the study reveals that some business organizations appear to be on the brink of developing a type of learning environment consistent with CROS thinking. The empirical findings also suggest that there is a transformative effect on citizenship that can result from the teaching and learning that is facilitated by voluntary CSR initiatives.     

Hypocrisies of Fairness: Towards a More Reflexive Ethical Base in Organizational Justice Research and Practice

Despite becoming one of the most active research areas in organizational behavior, the field of organizational justice has stayed at a safe distance from moral questions of values, as well as from critical questions regarding the implications of fairness considerations on the status quo of power relations in today’s organizations. We argue that both organizational justice research and the managerial practices it informs lack reflexivity. This manifests itself in two possible hypocrisies of fairness. Managers may apply organizational justice knowledge but fail to increase the actual levels of fairness in employment relations. Researchers, on the other hand, may claim to promote fairness through their work while actually providing managers with tools that enable or even encourage them to feed the hypocrisy of fairness identified above. As␣part of our argument, we identify three types of mechanisms managers may use to influence and manage the formation of fairness perceptions. We consider how the exercise of power is related to the potential application of organizational justice knowledge across individual, interpersonal and social levels. Our approach makes power dynamics and moral implications salient, and questions the purely subjectivist view of justice researchers that deliberately discards normative aspects. The questions opened up by considering alternative mechanisms for creating fairness perceptions have led us to formulate a research agenda for organizational justice research that takes multiple stakeholder interests, power dynamics and ethical implications into account. We believe that the fields of organizational justice and normative justice can benefit from combined research. Marion Fortin (Ph.D., Trinity College Dublin) is Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at the Durham Business School, Durham University. Marion previously worked in the financial industry and also was a visiting scholar at the Stern School, NYU. Marion’s main research interest lies in the role of justice judgments in the workplace. Her current and past research projects also involve issues of organizational change, power mechanisms, and the role of emotions in organizations. Martin R. Fellenz (Ph.D., The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at the School of Business, University of Dublin, Trinity College. His research interests include organizational justice, organizational transformation and change, teaching and learning, and the development of theory and theory schools. He regularly contributes to executive education programs in a variety of countries and consults with leading international public, private and not-for-profit organizations on matters of leadership, management development, and organizational transformation. A previous version of this paper was originally presented at the IESE Business School, University of Navarra, for the 14th International Symposium on Ethics, Business and Society: “Towards a Comprehensive Integration of Ethics Into Management: Problems and Prospects”. May 18–19, 2006).     

A Relational Model of Factors Influencing Methodology in Professional Services Marketing

No abstract available for this article.     

Understanding Attitudes Towards Genetically Modified Food: The Role of Values and Attitude Strength

Summary This study was aimed at gaining a better understanding of the nature of negative attitudes towards genetically modified (GM) food. A sample of 250 students at the University of Tromsø responded to a questionnaire measuring attitudes towards GM food, attitude strength, intention to buy such food, and their personal values. Values and attitude strength proved to be important constructs when explaining the attitudes. A structural model was estimated, confirming that the negative attitudes towards GM food were embedded in universalism and hedonism values, and also predicted behavioural intention to buy such food. Attitude centrality was found to moderate the value-attitude relationship. Central attitudes mediated the relation between values and behavioural intention, while for the less central attitudes there was no relation between values and attitudes. Rather, both were independent predictors of intention. The study showed that some individuals hold weak attitudes and therefore may be more likely to change their attitude than those whose attitude is embedded in values.     

Love,Forgiveness, and Trust: Critical Values of the Modern Leader

In a world that has become increasingly dependent upon employee ownership, commitment, and initiative, organizations need leaders who can inspire their␣employees and motivate them individually. Love, forgiveness, and trust are critical values of today’s organization leaders who are committed to maximizing value for organizations while helping organization members to become their best. We explain the importance of love, forgiveness, and trust in the modern organization and identify 10 commonalities of these virtues.     

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.     

Reasoned Ethical Engagement: Ethical Values of Consumers as Primary Antecedents of Instrumental Actions Towards Multinationals

We examine the implications of the US government’s too-big-to-fail (TBTF) policy as it has been applied to banks. Using alternative measures of risk, we compare the risk-taking behavior of 11 TBTF banks, identified by the Comptroller of the Currency in 1984, to a number of non-TBTF banks. We provide both theory and new empirical evidence to support our argument that the TBTF policy leads management to significantly increase risk-taking, with no corresponding increase in performance. While prior studies have considered the effects of the TBTF policy on limited, but risk-related aspects of bank behavior, such as the cost of funds, our study provides direct evidence about the risk-taking behavior associated with the TBTF policy. Our study has important implications for the current political debate regarding the too-big-to-fail policy.     

The Principled Legal Firm: Insights into the Professional Ideals and Ethical Values of Partners and Lawyers

Understanding how the professional ideals and values of partners influence lawyers’ everyday life is a relatively unexplored area given the inherent difficulties of gaining access to lawyers. This case study sheds light on the professional ideals and ethical values of partners and lawyers in a mid-tier Sydney law firm. Semi-structured interviews with partners and lawyers/legal clerks reveal how partners’ professional ideals and ethical values play a pivotal role in: (1) upholding positive normative evaluations of lawyer/firm propriety (moral legitimacy), (2) stressing the importance of a balanced working life (cognitive legitimacy) and (3) satisfying younger lawyers’ needs for personal support, autonomy and responsibility (pragmatic legitimacy). The principled actions of partners are portrayed as the cornerstone of shaping a moral community in legal practise.     

Generic Rivalry Strategies in Business Networks: Towards a Conceptualization

This paper discusses rivalry as a process of occupying incompatible positions within business networks. Rivalry is linked to different forms of strategizing as they unfold in stable and dynamic business contexts and a framework of four different types of rivalry is suggested. Furthermore, propositions with respect to under what business conditions these types of rivalry are likely to be found are proposed. Implications for management and research are discussed.

---

     

Towards a New Paradigm: Stabilising Financial Markets

The pre-crisis paradigm focused exclusively on the positive role of finance. The new paradigm takes the other side of finance seriously and arrives at distinctly different trade-offs and regulatory approaches.     

多媒体技术在物流专业教学中的应用探讨

现代信息技术的不断发展,促使多媒体技术在教学中的应用愈来愈广泛。把多媒体技术应用在物流专业的教育教学,可以显著提高教学效果和教学质量。但运用多媒体时,也存在一些不容忽视的问题,只有正确认识,并在教学实践中注意解决,才能更好的发挥其优势。