Achieving Focus in Service Organisations

This article builds upon the work on focus found in both the manufacturing and service literatures. The theme of the study is that lack of focus is a fact of life for many service organisations but there are many ways in which organisations can achieve the advantages of focus. The author uses information from thirty service organisations and proposes that there are five distinct and hierarchical levels at which service organisations may choose to focus. The five levels are service concept, business, site, delivery system and service encounter: Each level is described and some of the operational implications are identified.     

公益的央企式路径

7月12日,首届中国公益慈善项目交流展示会在深圳举行。这一目前全国最大规模的国家级、综合性公益项目集中展示平台,此次汇聚了包括企业、公益慈善组织、基金会、科研机构等在内的544家组织参会,覆盖31个省（区、市）和港澳台地区。从形式到内容,从展示到互动,为期3天的展会,成为公益界的一次思想分享盛宴。被认为在公益界并不算活跃的央企,在与众多民企的同台展现中,以用心布展所呈现的鲜明理念和特色实践,独树一帜,始终吸引着不少人的关注。     

将公益进行到底

5月16日晚,由国家广电总局电影局、北京市委宣传部、北京奥组委新闻宣传部主办,北京紫禁城影业公司、电影频道节目中心CCTV-6承办的《一个人的奥林匹克》首映庆典暨电影人迎奥运抗震救灾文艺晚会在北京北展剧场隆重举行。晚会汇聚了百名奥运冠军、百名著名影视明星、电影人和社会知名人士,构成了有史以来最独特最庞大的晚会阵容。     

A Behavioural Analysis of Co-operative Marketing Organisations

Most research to date on co-operative marketing has focused on large organisations. This paper explores co-operation that takes place between smaller businesses for the purpose of marketing the generic elements of their product. A review of literature discusses the business and social objectives of co-operative marketing organisations. It is suggested that the social element of such groups may be more important than in the strategic alliances of larger organisations. A proposition is developed that co-operative marketing groups have a tendency to begin life with a business focus, but over time a social focus becomes more important. The proposition is tested by a qualitative study of co-operative tourism marketing groups. While business objectives were cited by most co-operative groups as their primary goal, evidence within this study suggests that a drift toward more social objectives occurs as associations mature. Adopting a social role may be a means of extending the lifecycle of an association, while the missionary zeal of newer associations provides a focus for co-operation which has more clearly defined business objectives.     

Business Ethics: Practical Proposals for Organisations

A review of ethical literature demonstrates that the material presented to date is largely based upon theoretical and empirical research. While this information has contributory value, the information produced is largely observational rather than practical. Managers are anxious to receive assistance with the mechanisms by which ethics can be integrated into their organisations. Utilising the recent experience of the author with a large utility company in Asia committed to developing an ethical programme to enhance ethical awareness in their organisation, this paper intends to review current systems and procedures available to managers for integrating ethics into business. In addition to reviewing mechanisms for promoting an ethical climate, where appropriate, reference will be made to prior research and specific organisations where these practices have been used successfully. The paper concludes with a set of summary recommendations for managers embarking on the introduction of an ethical programme to their organisation.     

Business Ethics: Practical Proposals for Organisations

A review of ethical literature demonstrates that the materialpresented to date is largely based upon theoretical and empiricalresearch. While this information has contributory value, theinformation produced is largely observational rather thanpractical. Managers are anxious to receive assistance with themechanisms by which ethics can be integrated into theirorganisations. Utilising the recent experience of the authorwith a large utility company in Asia committed to developing an ethical programme to enhance ethical awareness in theirorganisation, this paper intends to review current systems andprocedures available to managers for integrating ethics intobusiness. In addition to reviewing mechanisms for promoting anethical climate, where appropriate, reference will be made toprior research and specific organisations where these practiceshave been used successfully.The paper concludes with a set of summary recommendations formanagers embarking on the introduction of an ethical programme totheir organisation.     

The Ethics of Social Research in Organisations

Permitting social researchers access to employees can raise ethical issues for management and researchers which are here identified and examined. Dr Baruch is Research Fellow in Human Resources at City University Business School, London. He wishes to thank Professor Roger Jowell from the Social & Community Planning Research and Mr Steve Birault from the Centre for Social Development for their helpful comments on an early draft of this article.     

Charity Care by Non-profit Hospitals: The Price of Tax-exempt Debt

In this paper, we study the effects of tax-exempt debt on the supply of charity care of non-profit hospitals. We hypothesize that hospitals using tax-exempt rather than taxable debt are forced to provide higher levels of charity care as a condition for gaining access to the tax-exempt market. The study uses a panel of 189 California non-profit hospitals. Hospital uncompensated care is regressed on the level of uncompensated care by other hospitals in the market, lagged values of tax-exempt and taxable debt and other control variables.The magnitude of the tax-exempt bond subsidy has a positive effect on the flow of charity care and varies positively with the charity care provided by other hospitals. We conclude that subsidies provided by tax-exempt debt are an effective media to increase the supply of charity care by hospitals. Regulators can use competition between non-profit hospitals in order to enforce the desired behavior.     

Analyzing Leadership Attributes in Faith-Based Organizations: Idealism Versus Reality

Journal of Business Ethics - This paper aims to contribute to the growing discussion about leadership in the contemporary Church of England with a particular interest in the complex interaction...     

Ethics of Resistance in Organisations: A Conceptual Proposal

This study suggests a conceptual proposal to analyse the ethics of resistance in organisations, drawing on Foucault’s practising self as a refusal and Schaffer’s ethics of freedom in opposition to the legitimacy of managerial control and the ethics of compliance. We argue that ethics is already part of such politics in the form of ethico-politics on the basis of participation in political action in organisations. Hence, the practising self as resistance in the face of the status quo of managerial power in an ongoing dialectical process with others and for others comprises our conceptual proposal as an ethics of resistance. Acknowledging dialectics as the driver of the continuous reconstruction and co-construction of politics and praxis, we propose an ethics from the bottom up with a critical and radical perspective. Our contribution is based on opening up an ethico-political space for those who are ignored or suppressed in the ethics and organisations literature.     

CSR,Transparency and the Role of Intermediate Organisations

Transparency is a crucial condition to implement a CSR policy based on the reputation mechanism. The central question of this contribution is how a transparency policy ought to be organised in order to enhance the CSR behaviour of companies. Governments endorsing CSR as a new means of governance have different strategies to foster CSR transparency. In this paper we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of two conventional policy strategies: the facilitation policy and the command and control strategy. Using three criteria (efficiency, freedom and virtue) we conclude that both strategies are defective. Most attention is paid to the facilitation strategy since governments nowadays mainly use this. In evaluating this strategy we analyse the Dutch case. As an alternative we introduce a third government policy: the development of a self-regulating sub-system. By construing an analogy with the historical development of corporate financial disclosure, we point out that the vital step in the creation of a self-regulating subsys- tem is the creation of strong informational intermediate organisations.     

Social Accountability and Corporate Greenwashing

Critics of SRI have said little about the integrity of corporate representations resulting in screening inclusion or exclusion. This is surprising given social and environmental accounting research that finds corporate posturing and deception in the absence of external verification, and a parallel body of literature describing corporate "greenwashing" and other forms of corporate disinformation. In this paper I argue that the problems and challenges of ensuring fair and accurate corporate social reporting mirror those accompanying corporate compliance with law. Similarities and points of convergence between social reporting and corporate compliance are discussed, along with proposals for reform.     

Determinants of Formal Training Programmes in Large Canadian Organisations

This study investigated the extent to which large employers provide formal training to employees. More than two-thirds of large Canadian employers had formal training. Factors related to the presence of formal training included organisation size, decision-making ideology, and the use of team-based programmes.     

Redefining Accountability As Relational Responsiveness

The way in which accountability is currently employed in business ethics practice is based on a few central assumptions. It is assumed, for instance, that ethical failures result from the deliberate, rational decision-making of moral agents. A second important assumption is that there is a direct cause and effect relationship between the decisions and actions of individuals and the consequences of those decisions. Furthermore, the current approach towards accountability failures relies on the ability on legal sanctions to deter agents from ethical lapses. This paper will argue that these three assumptions do not survive critical interrogation and that our understanding of accountability therefore has to be reconsidered. It will propose that accountability be reconceived as a relational responsiveness towards stakeholders.     

企业参与慈善捐助应协调好相关方利益

在我国,与企业捐赠活动相关的法律法规还很不完善,很多企业（尤其是中小企业）参与慈善活动常常达不到预期的良好目标。如何更好地协调企业承担社会责任和保障股东利益的关系已成为一个亟待解决的问题。本文将对此做出全面探讨,为营造我国企业参与慈善损助活动的良好环境提出合理化建议。     

From Stakeholder Management to Stakeholder Accountability

Confronted with mounting pressure to ensure accountability vis-à-vis customers, citizens and beneficiaries, organizational leaders need to decide how to choose and implement so-called accountability standards. Yet while looking for an appropriate standard, they often base their decisions on cost-benefit calculations, thus neglecting other important spheres of influence pertaining to more broadly defined stakeholder interests. We argue in this paper that, as a part of the strategic decision for a certain standard, management needs to identify and act according to the needs of all stakeholders. We contend that the creation of a dialogical understanding among affected stakeholders cannot be a mere outcome of applying certain accountability standards, but rather must be a necessary precondition for their use. This requires a stakeholder dialogue prior to making a choice. We outline such a discursive decision framework for accountability standards based on the Habermasian concept of communicative action and, in the final section, apply our conceptual framework to one of the most prominent accountability tools (AA 1000). Andreas Rasche is currently working at the chair for Business Administration at the Helmut-Schmidt-University, Hamburg, Germany and is finishing his PhD in strategic management at EUROPEAN BUSINESS SCHOOL, Germany where he is also teaching business ethics. His research interests include the institutionalization of ethics initiatives in multinational corporations (see also www.ethics-in-pratice.org) and reflections about the theory of strategic management. Daniel Esser until recently was a Tutorial Fellow in Development Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is now working for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific where he is involved in the design and management of urban governance programmes and service schemes supporting the poverty reduction agenda for the region.     

Employees and the Operation of Accountability

This article examines a social accounting cycle in a Danish savings bank with specific focus on how employees interacted with the cycle. The case study is based on archival material and observations of employee engagement sessions that were a significant part of the cycle. The article exposes the ways in which the cycle can be understood as an initiative that prompts different forms of accountability. The cycle had the potential to bring different forms of accountability together, but the cycle also faced challenges that threatened its relevance from an employee perspective. These challenges might have implications for the way we perceive social accounting and the role of employees.     

Advertisement Style and the Recruitment of Charity Volunteers

ABSTRACT

Affective, cognitive and conative reactions to (i) altruistically focused, and (ii) egoistically orientated recruitment advertisements for charity volunteers were measured and related to individual differences in altruistic disposition among three sets of respondents. The first sample comprised 51 existing charity shop volunteers; the second consisted of 100 members of the general public who had undertaken some form of voluntary activity during the previous two years; while the third was made up of 100 people who had not completed any voluntary act over the same period. It emerged that although less altruistically inclined people responded more positively to advertisements which emphasised the material and emotional benefits of volunteering, it was not the case that people who displayed high altruistic tendency were more attracted by altruistic recruitment messages. Apparently, individuals with highly altruistic dispositions also preferred recruitment advertisements which listed the egoistical advantages accruing to voluntary work.     

Accountability and the public benefit corporation

Can benefit corporations be held accountable for delivering requisite public goods? An oft-cited criticism is that they cannot, but little empirical research exists to support that claim. Based on an in-depth case study of the oldest corporation to amend its governing documents as a public benefit corporation (PBC) under Delaware law, this article suggests that a company can be held accountable for delivering requisite public goods when external mechanisms are accompanied by an organization’s internal commitment to self-awareness, learning, and measurement. In the case in question, the company established a three-pillar structure focused on professional engagement, community support, and charitable giving built on a 6-year-old sustainability initiative, accompanied by an adaptive learning culture, and driven by top-down and bottom-up efforts. Current challenges include measuring impact and branding the PBC to grow the company’s business.