The ethics of insurance professionals: Comparison of personal versus professional ethics

This paper considers the level of ethics for insurance professionals for professional situations (measured with three insurance scenarios) compared to personal (consumer) situations (measured by Muncy and Vitell's 1992 Consumer Ethics Scale). The results of the study illustrate that there are significant differences in the ethical behavior of insurance professionals in professional versus personal situations. The authors found that insurance professionals are more likely to actively engage in unethical behavior in order to benefit professionally than in a personal setting. In general, however, the average respondent was unlikely or extremely unlikely to engage in unethical conduct. The managerial implications and need for future research in this area are discussed.K. L. Eastman is an Assistant Professor of Risk Management and Insurance at Florida State University. He received his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.J. K. Eastman is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Valdosta State University. She earned her doctorate from Florida State University.A. D. Eastman is a doctoral candidate in Risk Management and Insurance at Florida State University.     

Corporate democracy and the rights of shareholders

Some have argued that because of weaknesses in corporate democracy, there is widespread abuse of shareholders' rights in American securities markets. I describe a number of horror stories that shareholders might tell to support this claim. Then I argue that despite appearances to the contrary, there is not widespread abuse of shareholders' rights in American securities markets. This is because (i) corporations, when doing things that look abusive, are generally violating neither the legal rights nor the charter rights of shareholders and (ii) shareholders — in their role as shareholders — have no other rights than these. William B. Irvine is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wright State University. He is the author of The Ethics of Investing, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 6, no. 3.     

Ethical aspects of “Japanese leadership style”

This article describes three characteristics of the Japanese Leadership Style (JLS): self-realization, appreciation of diverse abilities, and trust in others, which have both positive and negative ethical implications. In addition to illustrating how JLS allows Japanese corporations to avoid some of the ethical problems plaguing U.S. corporations, the authors will explain how these characteristics engender the loyalty and initiative of Japanese employees which promote incremental innovation and competitive advantages. Implicit in this discussion is the premise that both the American and Japanese business communities, by analyzing their own ethical issues and leadership styles, can learn from each other.Iwao Taka is a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Legal Studies at The Wharton School. He is an Assistant Professor in the International School of Economics and Business Administration, Reitaku University in Japan. His publications include Business Ethics: A Japanese View, Intuitive Decision-Making and Creative Destruction, and Japanese Entrepreneurship after World War II.Wanda D. Foglia, Esquire, is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Legal Studies at The Wharton School where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Criminology. A former Assistant District Attorney, her research focuses on approaches for promoting the individual's commitment to ethical and law-abiding behavior. She has recently coordinated a Project to Integrate Ethics Into the Wharton Undergraduate Curriculum.     

An assessment of ethics instruction in accounting education

Business school faculty have begun to increase ethics instruction, but very little has been done to assess the effectiveness of this instruction. Curricula-wide studies present conflicting results of the effect of ethics integration into the business curricula. Several studies suggest that courses like business ethics and business and society might have an effect on the ethical awareness or ethical reasoning of business students. A belief of many individuals interested in business ethics is that students must be exposed to ethical awareness and ethical reasoning in business ethics and business and society-type courses and this should be supplemented by discussions of these topics in various business courses such as Accounting, Finance, Marketing, and others.This study reports the results of integrating a unit of business ethics into eleven accounting classes at two universities. An approach for measuring the effect of ethics integration into accounting and other business courses is suggested, and an assessment is made of the impact of ethics integration on students in accounting classes. Results indicate that the principles on which students rely when making moral decisions were affected by ethics integration. After ethics integration, students relied more heavily on the disclosure rule, the golden rule, and the professional ethic.Kenneth M. Hiltebeitel, Ph.D., CPA is an Associate Professor of Accountancy at Villanova University. He has included a unit on business ethics in his Auditing and Advanced Accounting classes for the past two years.Scott K. Jones, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at the University of Delaware. He has included a unit on business ethics in his Cost Accounting classes for the past two years.     

Critical theory and curriculum practice in STS education

The STS education movement is identified and related to the critique of technology of the 1960s–1970s. The critics of technology included the system of education in their critiques. There is a practical tension or contradiction in attempting to develop their insights within the curriculum routines of the schools and colleges. This tension is explored under six categories: reductive knowledge, socialization of technical modes of thinking, technicalized processes of learning, the loss of meaning, radical monopoly over learning, and the socialization of secular values.Leonard J. Waks has earned Ph.D.'s in philosophy (Wisconsin, 1968) and organizational psychology (Temple, 1984). He has taught philosophy at Purdue, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon, and been a member of the faculty of the Graduate School of Education at Temple University. Since 1985 he has been Professor of Science, Technology and Society at Penn State.     

Justice: The root of american business ideology and ethics

Although there are many conceptions of Justice, these different perceptions can provide many interesting insights into a business person's ethical standards as well as that person's decision-making processes. Using the Bishops' Pastoral Letter on the U.S. Economy as the basis for asking questions about justice, twenty-four business executives were interviewed about their conception of justice. An analysis of these interviews reveals that this group of businesspeople operated under very different conceptions of Justice at the Macroenvironmental and Microenvironmental levels. This result has some interesting implications not only for those scholars concerned with business ethics but for everyone who has a stake in business education.Men are called good, chiefly on account of their Justice. Cicero, 56 B.C. Ideology is applied philosophy. Lodge, 1986 Richard McGowan, S. J. is an Assistant Professor of Operations and Strategic Management at Boston College. His research focus involves examining both the rationale behind business and public policy decisions as well as determining the effectiveness of these policy measures. Some of his recent publications include Deciphering the Japanese Import Quota, Policy Studies Journal (1988) and Public Policy Measures and Cigarette Sales: An ARIMA Intervention Analysis Study JAI Social Issues Management Volume (1989).     

The influence of stated organizational concern upon ethical decision making

This experimental study evaluated the influence of stated organizational concern for ethical conduct upon managerial behavior. Using an in-basket to house the manipulation, a sample of 113 MBA students with some managerial experience reacted to scenarios suggesting illegal conduct and others suggesting only unethical behavior. Stated organizational concern for ethical conduct was varied from none (control group) to several other situations which included a high treatment consisting of a Code of Ethics, an endorsement letter by the CEO and specific sanctions for managerial misconduct. Only in the case of suggested illegal behavior tempered by high organizational concern were managers influenced by organizational policy to modify the morality of their actions. However, the responses to the illegal scenarios were significantly more ethical than the reactions given to the unethical (but not illegal) situations. The implications of these findings are then discussed. Gene R. Laczniak is Professor of Business at Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI) and he is co-author of Marketing Ethics (with P. E. Murphy), Boston: Lexington Books, 1985. He has also written various articles on Business Ethics. Edward J. Inderrieden is Assistant Professor of Management at Marquette University.     

Living (not learning) ethics

Much has been written recently about both the urgency and efficacy of teaching business ethics. The results of our survey of AACSB member schools confirm prior reports of similar surveys: The teaching of business ethics is indiscriminate, unorganized, and undisciplined in most North American schools of business. If universities are to be taken seriously in their efforts to create more ethical awareness and better moral decision-making skills among their graduates, they must provide a rigorous and well-developed system in which students can live ethics instead of merely learn ethics. A system must be devised to allow students to discover and refine their own values rather than simply learning ethical theories from an intellectual point of view.After reviewing the literature on business ethics in undergraduate curricula, we make a series of recommendations to deliver experiential ethical education for business students. The recommendations include student and faculty written codes of ethics, emphasis on ethical theory within the existing required legal environment course, applied ethics in the functional area capstones using alternative learning, a discussion of employee (and employer) rights and responsibilities during the curriculum capstone course, and a public service requirement for graduation. These recommendations may be implemented without substantive additional cost or programming requirements.Joseph Solberg is an Assistant Professor of Business Law at Illinois State University. His teaching and research interests are centered on the legal and ethical environments of business and the pedagogy of business ethics. He is a member of the American and Midwest Academies and Legal Studies in Business.Kelly Strong is an Assistant Professor of Management at Illinois State University. His teaching and research interests include business ethics, business and society, and strategic issues management. He has published articles in the Journal of Business Ethics and other scholarly outlets in the areas of ethics education, business and society, and ethical decision making.Charles McGuire, Jr. is Professor of Business Law and Chair of the Finance, Insurance and Law Department at Illinois State University. His interests are in the areas of business law and the legal environment of business as well as government regulation. He has published text-books and supplements on the legal environment of business in addition to scholarly works in the American Business Law Journal, among others.     

The ethics of business intelligence

A review of the strategic management, policy, information management, and the marketing literature reveals that many large and medium sized companies now collect and use business intelligence. The number of firms engaging in these activities is increasing rapidly.While the whys and hows of this practice have been discussed in the academic and professional literature, the ethics of intelligence gathering have not been adequately discussed in a public forum. This paper is intended to generate discussion by advancing criteria which could be used as the basis for judging actions of those involved in business intelligence and for creating reasonable policies in this sensitive area of practice.Norm Schultz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Accounting and Taxation at Colorado State University.Allison Collins is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Accounting and Taxation at Colorado State University.Mike McCulloch is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Colorado State University.     

Mergers,takeovers, and a property ethic

The recent takeover and merger trend cries out for ethical evaluation. This essay proposes a model for evaluating them in terms of their impact on a firm's immediate stakeholders: investors, owners, management and employees. Since mergers and takeovers are Transfers of Ownership of Firms (TOFs) they entail a property ethic of ownership, control, securing stakeholder interests, and defining which stakeholders should exercise these rights. I use the model to evaluate two fictional cases, a friendly merger and a hostile takeover. The results show that neither TOF serves all interests equitably. Since the control structure of the private firm is legitimized by its interest structure, I reason that both should be reformed. Both rest on a broader economic rationale; but it is controverted. Accordingly, the economic and ethical evaluation of TOFs, I conclude, both entail the democratic reform of the control structure of the firm.A corporation represents far more than its current stock price; it embodies obligations to employees, customers, suppliers and communities.Robert S. Saul, Peers Merchant BankVincent di Norcia is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sudbury. He is the author of Ethics in Management and Beyond the Red Tory.     

The perceived legitimacy of managerial influence: A twenty-five year comparison

The study examines perceptions of managers, nonmanagerial employees, students, and union officers regarding the legitimacy of managerial influence over various subordinate behaviors and beliefs. The results indicate that: (1) perceived legitimacy has decreased since a comparable study by Schein and Ott in 1962, (2) perceived legitimacy is generally related to proximity to the managerial role, (3) there is a high degree of consensus on the relative legitimacy of influencing various behaviors and beliefs, and (4) only issues of direct relevance to work and task performance are currently perceived as legitimate areas for managerial influence. Theoretical, research, and managerial implications are discussed. Blake Ashforth is Assistant Professor of Management at Concordia University in Montreal. His research interests include the adjustment of newcomers to work, organizational socialization, and the dysfunctions of organizational structures and processes. His work has appeared in the Academy of Management Review, Human Relations, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.Raymond Lee is a doctoral candidate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Wayne State University in Detroit. His research interests include occupational stress and adjustment, work climate, and organizational socialization. His dissertation examines the antecedents and consequences of job burnout among supervisors in a large public welfare agency.The authors are indebted to Gary Johns and Ed Schein for their helpful comments on an earlier draft, and to Barrie Gibbs, Ed Schein, Hal Stack, and Susan Taylor for very kindly assisting in the collection of data at their respective campuses. The data were collected while the first author was at Wayne State University, Detroit. An earlier version of the paper was presented at the 1988 meeting of the Council on Employee Responsibilities and Rights in Virginia Beach, VA.     

Crafting a public image: An empirical study of the ethics of ghostwriting

Ghostwriting is viewed by some as a necessary element for crafting an effective public image. Defenders of ghostwriting see no ethical dilemma in the practice because the audience knows the speechgiver is not necessarily the speechwriter. Alernatively, those regarding ghostwriting as unethical view the practice as deceitful. This group argues that the audience does not recognize the employment of a speechwriter and thus a speechgiver relies on the words of another to fortify personal ethos. This article examines several positions regarding the ethics of ghostwriting and discusses an empirical study testing three major positions found in ghostwriting literature. Findings from the study indicate that respondents do recognize the use of speechwriters by certain individuals in certain circumstances.Linda A. Riley is a College Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing, College of Business Administration and Economics at New Mexico State University. She also serves as the Director of the Center for Economic Development Research and Assistance in the College of Business Administration and Economics.Stuart C. Brown is Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Professional Communication in the English Department at New Mexico State University.     

Displaced workers: America's unpaid debt

The U.S. doctrine of employment-at-will, modified legislatively for protected groups, is being less harshly applied to managerial personnel. Comparable compensation is not otherwise available in the U.S. to workers displaced by technology. Nine pairs of arguments are presented to show how fundamentally management and labor disagree about a company's responsibility for its former employees. These arguments, born of years of labor-management debate, are kaleidoscopic claims about which side has what power. Ultimately, however, not even both together can solve without creative public intervention the emerging problem of massive technological unemployment — the other side of the corporate dream of profit without payrolls. Edmund F. Byrne is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy, Indiana University, Indianapolis since 1969. From 1966 until 1969 he was Assistant Professor at the Michigan State University, and from 1963 until 1966 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Belgium. Important publications: Microelectronics and Workers' Rights, in C. Mitcham (ed.), Philosophy and Technology II, D. Reidel, Boston/Dordrecht, 1985; Robots and the Future of Work, in H. F. Didsbury, Jr. (ed.), The World of Work, World Future Society, Bethesda, MD, 1983; Technology and Human Existence, Southwestern Journal of Philosophy 10.     

Characteristics and practices of “Christian-based” companies

There is a sizeable group of self-described Christian companies which have declared their belief in the successful merging of biblical principles with business activities. As these companies have become more visible, an increasing number of anecdotal newspaper and magazine articles about these companies have appeared. Surprisingly, no rigorous research has been conducted prior to our recent study. This article provides national estimates of the size and predominant characteristics of self-identified Christian companies. In addition, the study investigated the types of relationships these companies maintained with their employees, customers, communities, and suppliers.Nabil Ibrahim is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Augusta College, Augusta, Georgia. He has published articles, case studies, and professional papers in the areas of business policy and strategy.Dr. Leslie W. Rue is Professor of Management in the College of Business Administration at Georgia State University. He is the author of over forty articles, cases, and papers that have appeared in academic and practitioner journals. He has coauthored eight textbooks in the field of management.Dr. Patricia P. McDougall is an Assistant Professor of Management at Georgia State University. Her research focuses primarily on new venture strategies and international entrepreneurship and has been published in several academic journals. Dr. G. Robert Grenne is an Associate Professor of Management at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia where he teaches strategic management and entrepreneurship. He is a Contributing Editor to Spiritual Fitness in Business and has published articles in various academic and practitioner journals.     

Marketing ethics and the techniques of neutralization

The need for conceptual work in marketing ethics is addressed by examining the five techniques of neutralization as a means for partially explaining unethical behaviors by marketing practitioners. These techniques are often used by individuals to lessen the possible impact of norm-violating behaviors upon their self-concept and their social relationships. Borrowed from the social disorganization and deviance literature, the five techniques of neutralization are: (1) denial of responsibility, (2) denial of injury, (3) denial of victim, (4) condemning the condemners and (5) appeal to higher loyalties. Examples of marketing professionals using each of the five techniques are given, and a conceptual model linking the techniques of neutralization with unethical behavior is presented. Finally, relevant research questions are offered for consideration.Scott J. Vitell is Assistant Professor of Marketing at The University of Mississippi. His most important publications include A General Theory of Marketing Ethics (1986) (with Shelby D. Hunt) and Marketing's Contribution to Economic Development: A Look at the Last 30 Years (1985) (with Van R. Wood). Stephen J. Grove is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Clemson University. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Health Care Marketing, the International Journal of Sport Psychology, the Journal of Sport Behavior, the Bulletin of the Association for Business Communication, Simulation and Games, and several national and regional conference proceedings.     

Measuring moral judgment: The Moral Judgment Interview or the Defining Issues Test?

This paper compares and contrasts two distinct techniques for measuring moral judgment: The Moral Judgment Interview and the Defining Issues Test. The theoretical foundations, accompanying advantages and limitations, as well as appropriate usage of these methodologies are discussed. Adaptation and use of the instruments for business ethics research is given special attention.Dawn Elm is currently an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. Elm has written and published articles on ethical decision-making, moral reasoning, defining and measuring honesty, and women's studies and ethics. She also has research interests in socialization to work, gender bias imagery in teaching business, and parental leave policies.James Weber is currently an Assistant Professor of Management at Marquette University. He has published articles focusing on managerial values and moral reasoning, teaching of ethics, and methodological issues in business ethics research inResearch in Corporate Social Performance and Policy, Human Relations, Business Ethics Quarterly, and Journal of Business Ethics.     

A study of Hong Kong Businessmen's perceptions of the role “Guanxi” in the People's Republic of China

Guanxi is perceived as a major determinant for successful business in China. This research paper investigates the importance of Guanxi from the Hong Kong Businessmen's viewpoint. It confirms previous findings in this area and adds on new dimensions. Therefore, practitioners and academics may further refine their knowledge in this subject.Leung, T. K. P. is an Assistant Professor of Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He specializes in industrial marketing and marketing in China. His current research interests include issues in Guanxi, networking in China, and Chinese negotiation. He has published in referred journals related to the PRC market.Wong, Y. H. is an Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He teaches courses in sales management and international marketing. His current research focuses on issues of relationship marketing and Guanxi model. His recent publications include articles in preferred journal and books.Wong, Syson was a lecturer of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is now a business consultant. She specializes in quantitative methods and China business. Her current consultancy works include a big project in China.     

Cognitive moral development and attitudes toward women executives

Research has shown that men and women are similar in their capabilities and management competence; however, there appears to be a glass ceiling which poses invisible barriers to their promotion to management positions. One explanation for the existence of these barriers lies in stereotyped, biased attitudes toward women in executive positions. This study supports earlier findings that attitudes of men toward women in executive positions are generally negative, while the attitudes of women are generally positive. Additionally, we found that an individual's level of cognitive moral development correlates significantly with attitudes toward women executives. Limitations of the present study and implications for ethics and diversity training in organizations are discussed. Debbie Thorne is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at The University of Tampa. She earned her doctorate in 1993. Her research has been published in conference proceedings and in The Journal of Teaching in International Business and The Journal of Business Ethics.Linda Howell Everett is an Associate Professor of Management in the Master of Arts in Organizational Management program at Trevecca College, Nashville, Tennessee. Her research interests include business ethics, decision making, risk, and mergers and acquisitions.Carol Danehower is an Assistant Professor of Management in the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at The University of Memphis. Her research interests include gender issues, employee motivation, and employee benefits.     

Consumer ethics: The possible effects of terrorism and civil unrest on the ethical values of consumers

Research investigating the consumer's ethical beliefs, ideologies and orientation has been limited. Additionally, despite the repeated call in the literature for cross cultural research, virtually no studies have examined the ethical beliefs and ideologies of consumers from cultures other than those in North America. This study partially fills this gap in the literature by investigating the ethical beliefs, preferred ethical ideology, and degree of Machiavellianism of consumers from Egypt and Lebanon. The results indicate that consumers in Lebanon, which has been torn by civil unrest and terrorism, tend to be more Machiavellian, less idealistic, and more relativistic than their Egyptian counterparts. Additionally, the Lebanese consumers tend to be more accepting of questionable consumer practices.Mohammed Y. A. Rawwas is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Northern Iowa. His research has appeared in theJournal of Business Ethics, Journal of Hospital Marketing, Health Marketing Quarterly, Medical Marketing & Media, and national proceedings of the American Marketing Association.Scott J. Vitell is Associate Professor of Marketing and holder of the Michael S. Starnes Lecturship in Marketing and Business Ethics at the University of Mississippi. His work has previously appeared in theJournal of Macromarketing, theJournal of Business Ethics, Research in Marketing, theBusiness and Professional Ethics Journal and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science as well as various other journals and proceedings.Jamal Al-Khatib is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. His research has appeared in theJournal of Consumer Marketing, International Marketing Review andResearch in the International Business Disciplines as well as various national and regional proceedings.     

Ethics in education: A comparative study

This study reports the results of a survey designed to assess the impact of education on the perceptions of ethical beliefs of students. The study examines the beliefs of students from selected colleges in an eastern university. The results indicate that beliefs which students perceive are required to succeed in the university differ among colleges. Business and economics students consistently perceive a greater need for unethical beliefs than students from other colleges. Michael S. Lane is an Associate Professor of Management at West Virginia University. He is the coauthor of Corporate Goal structures and Business students: A Comparative Study of Values, Journal of Business Ethics (1989). Dietrich L. Schaupp is Professor of Management at West Virginia University. He is the coauthor of Pygmalion Effect: An Issue for Business Education and Ethics, Journal of Business Ethics (1988).