逆水行舟,不进则退——《无名的裘德》文学伦理学解读

哈代在《无名的裘德》中,描写了主人公裘德与女主角淑违背维多利亚时期传统伦理观念的故事,展示了19世纪末资本主义过渡时期,新旧道德标准冲突,人们追求个性与真爱所遭受到的阻力。裘德对伦理禁忌的畏惧与对自由爱情的追求形成伦理冲突,体现了他艰难的伦理选择,而裘德的伦理选择也把淑置于伦理困境之中。从文学伦理学角度来分析这一现象,可揭示小说的劝诫和教诲力量。     

Ethical Judgements: Does Gender Matter?

A number of studies have addressed the question, ``Whois more ethical, men or women?'' Using ethicaljudgement as a measure of how ethical a person is,some studies have found that women are more ethicalwhile other studies have found no differences betweenthe sexes. This study investigates the influencesthat a character's gender, the evaluator's gender, andthe interaction between the two genders have onethical judgements. We conducted an experiment wheresubjects (evaluators) read a scenario that describedan action taken by a character. We found someevidence to suggest that both women and men applygender-based double standards when making ethicaljudgements. The widest gap in ethical judgementoccurred between the female evaluator/male charactergroup and the male evaluator/male character group. Consistent with prior research, we found that femaleevaluators made ethical judgements more consistentwith those of experts.

     

Working Together: Critical Perspectives on Six Cross-Sector Partnerships in Southern Africa

Early strategy scholars have pointed to the importance of reflecting on moral issues within the scope of strategic management. Although strategy content and context have been discussed in relation to ethical reflection, the third aspect, strategy process, has found only little or no attention with regard to ethics. We argue that by emphasizing the process perspective one can understand the related character of strategic management and ethical reflection. We discuss this relatedness along formal, functional, and procedural similarities. Whereas formal aspects refer to the conditions under which both processes occur, functional aspects look at the role that strategy process and ethical reflection fulfill. Procedural aspects account for similarities in the nature of both processes insofar as the activities that are conducted within each process phase share common characteristics. We claim that ethical reflection can be thought of as an integrative part of strategic management – either explicitly or implicitly. Michael Behnam received his PhD from the University of Frankfurt, Germany. He is an Associate Professor of Management at the Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University, Boston, USA. Prior to this he was the Head of the Department of International Management at the European Business School, Germany. His research has been published in Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of International Business and Economy as well as in German top-tier outlets. He authored or co-authored numerous book chapters as well as three books, most recently the 7th edition of a textbook on Strategic Management. His research areas are Strategic Management, International Management and Business Ethics. Andreas Rasche received his PhD from European Business School, Germany and is currently Assistant Professor for Business Ethics at Helmut-Schmidt-University, University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg, Germany. He has published articles in the Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly and authored numerous book chapters on international accountability standards. He has gained working experience at the United Nations in Washington D.C. and New York and works closely with the United Nations Global Compact Office. His research interests and publications focus on the process of standardization in the field of CSR and the adoption of standards by corporations. More information is available under: http://www.arasche.com     

Ethical standards,attitudes toward risk,and intentional noncompliance: An experimental investigation

Prior research has investigated the influence of decision maker characteristics on decision choice. This research examines the effect two personality traits of taxpayers, attitude towards risk and ethical standards, on intentional noncompliance. A taxpayer who is more (less) ethical will have lower (greater) intentional noncompliance, while a taxpayer who is more (less) risk averse will have lower (greater) intentional noncompliance. However, this study also found significant correlation between risk attitudes and ethical standards. This is because tax evasion is not just a gamble which can be explained by merely considering the risk variable. To understand tax evasive behavior better requires incorporation of noneconomic factors in the analysis, such as ethical standards, although risk attitudes may be an important explanatory factor. The current research suggests that individuals with lower ethical standards will have more intentional noncompliance. However, since ethical standards are correlated with attitude toward risk, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can partially overcome the influence of ethics by making the tax audit environment more uncertain. Thus, the research results justify the decision of the IRS not to release all its audit parameters because it makes the audit environment less uncertain.Dipankar Ghosh's research interests are in judgment and decision making, transfer pricing, and negotiation. He has published inDecision Science, Journal of Conflict Management, International Journal of Accounting, andJournal of Management Accounting Research.Terry L. Crain's research interests are in tax policy, tax equity, and the effects of taxation on taxpayer decision. He has published inDecision Science, International Journal of Accounting, andJournal of the American Taxation Association.     

Matt Goldspan's trilogy

Matthew Goldspan was faced with a series of coincidental personnel issues that tested both his fairness and integrity. He had been a branch manager of a financial services operation for three years, where he oversaw thirty five employees. In one instance, a clerical employee protested salary differences she discovered; in another, his affirmative action record, as well as his right to make hiring decisions, was in question; and thirdly, he had to decide how to respond to theft by a temporary employee who happened to be the son of a prized member of his staff. In each case, employees were looking for Matt to demonstrate appropriate leadership and sound judgment.Jay Halfond is currently Associate Dean of the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University, where he also teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in social and ethical issues of management. He has published numerous articles, reviews, and cases on higher education administration and on ethical issues in management.     

Organizational influences on individual ethical behavior in public accounting

A framework is presented for studying ethical conduct in public accounting practice. Four levels of analysis are distinguished: individual, local office, multi-office firm and professional institute. Several propositions are derived from the framework and discussed: (1) The effects of ethical vs. unethical behavior on an accountant's prospects for advancement are asymmetrical in nature; (2) the way individuals perceive or frame the decision problem at hand will make an ethical response more or less likely; (3) the economic incentives present in competitive markets influence the work goals of firms and offices, and lead to ethical dilemmas for individuals; and (4) initiatives at the firm or institute level aimed at compliance with professional ethical standards will by themselves have little effect on individual ethical behavior. Research into ethical behavior of practitioners will capture self-conscious and biased responses unless it is designed so as to permit indirect observation and recording of spontaneous comments. To assure valid research findings, practitioners should be interviewed and their motives assessed indirectly. A longitudinal approach is recommended, beginning with students who are choosing an accounting career. Two types of questions for use in these interviews are described.Paul J. Schlachter is an assistant professor in the School of Accounting, Florida International University. As a certified management accountant (CMA), he studies ethical dilemmas in both corporate and public accounting, in south Florida and in Latin America.     

Ethical Attitudes in Small Businesses and Large Corporations: Theory and Empirical Findings from a Tracking Study Spanning Three Decades

This study offers a theoretical framework of ethical behavior and a comparative analysis of ethical perceptions of managers of large, mostly publicly traded corporations (those with 1,000 or more employees) and the owners and managers of smaller companies (those with fewer than 100 employees) across 17 years. The primary research provides basic data on the changing standards of ethics as perceived by leaders of large and small businesses where the cultures frequently fall into sharp contrast. Our findings reveal the extent to which the message of business integrity is gaining or losing ground within large and small companies. It does this by means of respondents’ judgments of acceptable responses to 16 scenarios profiling common business situations with questionable ethical dimensions. Based on responses from over 5,000 managers and employees (from firms of all sizes) to our scenarios at three points in time (1985, 1993, 2001), we tested two research questions. First, for firms of all sizes, have business ethics improved or declined between the years 1985 and 2001? Second, comparing responses of large and small firm executives across the 1985–2001 time frame, is there a discernible difference in their ethical standards? Our results suggest that business leaders are making somewhat more ethical decisions in recent years. We also found that small business owner–managers offered less ethical responses to scenarios in 1993 but that no significant differences existed with large firm managers in 1985 and 2001. Implications of our findings are discussed.     

Why executives won't talk with their people

Three years ago Robert Saltonstall, Jr., Associate Vice President for Operations at Harvard University, faced an increasingly common problem in business and institutions today when he severed 68 long-service, wage employees to solve a problem of low productivity in a particular trade group. He did this using relatively conventional and creative techniques. But now three years later, he asked Nona Lyons of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who is researching the ethical dimensions of executives' decisions, to assist him in evaluating how these employees felt about the process. The employees' loyalty in spite of everything has caused Saltonstall to rethink the ethics of both his decision and its execution. In this article Saltonstall asks and answers many of the questions executives face when challenged to handle work reduction decisions in a more ethical way. And Lyons assists him with commentary on some of the current research on moral decision-making which will help executives to understand why they find some of their decisions to be moral dilemmas. The article challenges executives to think about reorganization decisions in a participative way and suggests seven central issues executives should consider before commencing a participative approach. The article reaches no specific conclusion, but introduces some new ways to think about lay-off decisions and their ethical implications for those affected.Nona Lyons is a Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research interests link moral and developmental psychology with education. A former school administrator, Lyons returned to graduate study in a mid-career professional change. Her doctoral research involved developing a methodology that made possible the first systematic identification of two moral considerations in peoples' thinking about their real-life moral conflicts, that is, traditional considerations of justice and more recently revealed considerations of care. In 1987, Lyons was awarded a Spencer Fellowship to explore and document how teachers come to change their practices as well as the values dimensions of their work. In all, Lyons has been concerned to connect research with new ways to think about the education of professionals.Robert Saltonstall, Jr. is currently Associate Dean for Harvard Medical School Operations. From June, 1981 to November, 1987 he was Associate Vice President of Operations for Harvard University. In that capacity he handled the subject matter for this article. Prior to his university work Saltonstall served in the commercial sector as General Manager of a resort, and President of a boat manufacturing company. He also held various manufacturing positions in the packaged food industry. He holds an MBA from Harvard (1964) and an A.B. in math from Brown (1957).     

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.     

Ethical Values as Part of the Definition of Business Enterprise and Part of the Internal Structure of the Business Oganization

The orientation of this paper is that there is no special science of "business ethics" any more than there is one of "medical ethics" or "legal ethics". While there may be issues that arise in medicine or law that require special treatment, the ways of relating to such issues are derived from a basic ethical stance. Once one has evolved such an ethical stance and thus has incorporated a fundamental mode of relating to her or his fellow human beings, the "how" to deal with various ethical "issues" will follow as a natural consequence of one's ethical stance or modality. It is not necessary, in the formation of one's fundamental ethical stance to know if one is a utilitarian or a deontologist. It is doubtful whether Buddha knew what kind of ethics he was practising. If one conceives of ethics as something extrinsic to various disciplines and attempts to first practise a discipline and then to apply ethics to modify the results of that discipline it is entirely possible that conflicts will result between what is perceived of as the proper pursuit of that discipline and the ethical considerations. The argument of this paper is that it is more efficacious (in addition to being more true) to take ethical considerations into account in the construction of the definition of the discipline. This paper is devoted to showing that business and ethics are not two different and competing fields of interest (thus requiring a discipline of business ethics to be grafted onto the study of business enterprise), but that ethical concerns are part and parcel of the very concept of a business enterprise and the internal operation of a business organization.     

Organizational Ethical Standards and Organizational Commitment

Organizations interested in employee ethics compliance face the problem of conflict between employee and organizational ethical standards. Socializing new employees is one way of assuring compliance. Important for longer term employees as well as new ones, however, is making those standards visible and then operable in the daily life of an organization. This study, conducted in one large organization, found that, depending on organizational level, awareness of an organization's ethical standards is predicted by managerial adherence to and organizational compliance with those standards and/or discussions with peers. Regardless of level, organizational commitment was predicted most strongly by managerial adherence to organizational standards. These findings have theoretical implications for the fields of business ethics, organizational identity and organizational socialization and practical implications for the implementation of ethics policies.     

Trading with Repressive Regimes

Is it ethical to do business with regimes which are politically repressive or which do not respect Western minimum labour and environmental standards? The author is completing his MBA degree at London Business School, and is a Canadian with a background in marketing.     

A comparison of ethical perceptions of business and engineering majors

Previous research has reported that ethical values of business students are lower than those of their peers in other majors. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a self-selection bias with respect to ethical values exists among students enrolled as business majors when compared with students planning to enter the engineering profession. Engineering students are exposed to a similar technical orientation in academic curricula and also supply the market for managers.A survey instrument was administered to 195 students enrolled in undergraduate business and engineering programs and a graduate business program. The research instrument measured how business and engineering students perceive their own ethical beliefs and actions and how they perceived the ethical beliefs and actions of their peers.The results indicate a perceptual trap, or the self-versus-others disparity exists for the entire sample. However, there was a divergence between the two groups on the issue of whistle blowing. Engineers may be more sensitive to this issue. It was concluded that if a self-selection process exists, it is present for both business and engineering professional tracks with implications for educators in both disciplines.It is not enough to teach a man a specialty. Through it he may become a kind of useful machine, but not a harmoniously developed personality. It is essential that the student acquire an understanding of and a lively feeling for values. He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good. Otherwise he — with his specialized knowledge — more closely resembles a trained dog than a harmoniously developed person. He must learn to understand the motives of human beings, heir illusions, and their sufferings in order to acquire a proper relationship to individual fellow men and to the community.— Albert EinsteinPriscilla O'Clock, Ph.D., 1991, CPA, Assistant Professor, Xavier University.Marilyn Okleshen, Ph.D., 1991, CPA, Associate Professor, Mankato State University.     

Professional Ethics and The Culture of Trust

The cause of ethical failure in organisations often can be traced to their organisational culture and the failure on the part of the leadership to actively promote ethical ideals and practices. This is true of all types of organisations, including the professions, which in recent years have experienced ongoing ethical problems. The questions naturally arise: what sort of professional culture promotes ethical behaviour? How can it be implemented by a profession and engendered in the individual professional? The answers to these questions are of interest to business ethicists since the causes of ethical problems in business are often the same and the professions, as ethically challenged organisations, make useful and informative analogues for the measures to be adopted or avoided when the attempt is made to raise the ethical standards of business. Given this focus on the professions, it will be argued that the usual, direct attempts to control unethical behaviour by using codes of ethics, legislation and self-regulatory regimes, are not successful. The answer, it will be argued, lies in using an enforced self-regulation model that aims for ethics indirectly. Such a strategy seeks to develop a goal-orientated professional culture which is actively promoted by the leadership of the profession as well as the members. Specifically, the culture is one that seeks to promote trust in the profession and trustworthiness as a virtue exemplified in each individual. It will be argued that in order to develop a professional culture that cultivates trust a profession will need to develop certain institutions, programs and structures within the profession. I conclude by setting out a model of these trust-cultivating structures.     

The Frankenstein Syndrome: The Creation of Mega-Media Conglomerates and Ethical Modeling in Journalism

Aristotle saw ethics as a habit that is modeled and developed though practice. Shelly's Victor Frankenstein, though well intentioned in his goals, failed to model ethical behavior for his creation, abandoning it to its own recourse. Today we live in an era of unfettered mergers and acquisitions where once separate and independent media increasingly are concentrated under the control and leadership of the fictitious but legal personhood of a few conglomerated corporations. This paper will explore the impact of mega-media mergers on ethical modeling in journalism. It will diagram the behavioral context underlying the development of ethical habits, discuss leadership theory as it applies to management, and address the question of whether the creation of mega-media conglomerates will result in responsible corporate citizens or monsters who turn on their creators.     

Principal Theory and Principle Theory: Ethical Governance from the Follower’s Perspective

Organizational governance has historically focused around the perspective of principals and managers and has traditionally pursued the goal of maximizing owner wealth. This paper suggests that organizational governance can profitably be viewed from the ethical perspective of organizational followers – employees of the organization to whom important ethical duties are also owed. We present two perspectives of organizational governance: Principal Theory that suggests that organizational owners and managers can often be ethically opportunistic and take advantage of employees who serve them and Principle Theory that focuses on guiding principles that are sometimes taken too far in organizations. In introducing these two new organizational governance perspectives, we offer insights into the value of rethinking ethical duties owed to organizational followers. Cam Caldwell received his Ph.D. from Washington State University where he was a Thomas S. Foley Graduate Fellow. Dr. Caldwell is Editor of the Academy of Management Ethics website and a member of the Academy’s Ethics Committee. His research is primarily in the areas of ethical leadership, organizational governance, and developing organizational trust. Prior to obtaining his Ph.D., Caldwell worked for 25 years as a city manager, human resource director, and management consultant. Ranjan Karri is Assistant Professor of Management at Bryant College. He received his Ph.D. in strategic management from Washington State University. His research interests include corporate and business strategies, ethical leadership and corporate governance. Pamela Vollmar is an undergraduate student at the University of Houston – Victoria majoring in Business Management. She has worked for 25 years as an electrical specialist for a major engineering firm.     

Whose “loyal agent”? Towards an ethic of accounting

In order to move towards an Ethic of Accounting, one must start by defining the function and role of the accountant. This in turn depends to a great extent on the identity of the “client” or whatever party the Accountant owes his “loyal agency” to. The issue is one of cardinal importance, and it is perceived as such by the accountants themselves. Loeb for instance says that the “client-identity issue is overriding importance now, and will become even more crucial in the immediate years ahead”. The question of what constitutes ethical behaviour on the part of the accountant will depend then upon the relation within which such ethical behaviour will have to be deployed. The main question raised in this paper will therefore be, is the accountant primarily engaged by one client (whether an individual or a corporation) to act as their “agent”, deal with their problems by loyally advancing their interests to the best of his professional competence, although within the limits imposed by law and morality? Or is the “public sector” to be considered the principal target of the accountant's resolute professionalism and unswerving loyalty? These problems and other related issues are here analyzed against the background of a recent (1984) case involving a Revenue Canada Auditor in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, which helps to bring out the almost paradoxical relation between accountant and client, and the difference between this relation and that of other professionals to their clients or patients.     

To Go Or Not To Go? Ethical Perspectives on Tourism in an ‘Outpost of Tyranny’

For many years, the actions of Myanmar’s military government have provoked domestic discontent and strong condemnation overseas. The government is encouraging tourism in an attempt to legitimize its actions whilst generating valuable foreign currency. However, a number of organizations are urging people to avoid travel to Myanmar and thus prevent the military junta from obtaining the hard currency and global legitimacy it needs to survive. In this article, the ethical arguments for and against tourism in Myanmar are discussed, and for the first time the ethical perceptions of tourists themselves are explored. The study applied the Multidimensional Ethics Scale to a group of 376 Myanmar visitors, finding that respondents were generally in favor of tourism in Myanmar, but were uncomfortable with the ethical implications of their visit. Simon Hudson is an Associate Professor in the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. He has a marketing degree from Brighton, England, an MBA from California, and a PhD from Surrey, England. Prior to working in academia, he spent several years working in the tourism industry in Europe, and six years running his own business. Dr Hudson has published numerous journal articles and book chapters from his work, and has three books to his name; Snow Business, Sport & Adventure Tourism and Tourism & Hospitality Marketing.     

Transformational change and leader character

Leader character is foundational to good leadership. We define character as an amalgam of virtues, values, and personality traits that influence how leaders behave in various contexts. Our research identified 11 dimensions of leader character and 60-plus character elements that are illustrative of those dimensions. We integrate two frameworks: John Kotter’s eight-step model of leading change and our framework of leader character dimensions and associated elements. Specifically, the objective of this article is to illustrate which dimensions of leader character come into play at various points in the organizational change process and how their presence or absence affects the outcomes of the change process. Beyond that, we draw inferences about how organizations might develop character among all leaders but especially those younger, less experienced leaders who will become tomorrow’s leaders of change projects.     

Managerial Harmony: The Confucian Ethics of Peter F. Drucker

“Confucianism⋯ is a universal ethic in which the rules and imperatives of behavior hold for all individuals.” (Peter F. Drucker, Forbes, 1981). Peter Drucker is credited as the founder of modern American management. In his distinguished career he has written widely and authoritatively on the subject and to a large extent his work possesses a distinctive ethical tone. This paper will argue that Confucian ethics underlie much of Drucker's writing. Both Drucker and Confucius view power as the central ethical issue in human relations. They emphasize authority, leadership, legitimacy, hierarchy, interdependence and individual ethical responsibility in their analysis of human affairs. Drucker views the development of large-scale formal organizations and the concomitant rise of the managerial class as the most significant developments of the 20th century, which makes the management of interdependent roles and relationships a central ethical challenge. Confucius, and the early Confucians, understood human relationships as based upon hierarchy, interdependence and personal ethics. The paper will analyze Drucker's work in light of the early Confucian Classics (The Analects, The Mencius, The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean). Drucker, himself, considers The End of Economic Man (1939), The Future of Industrial Man (1942), Concept of the Corporation (1983), and The Essential Drucker (2001) as his most important and influential works. The paper will analyze these along with other works by Drucker as appropriate.