Do Anglo countries still form a values cluster? Evidence of the complexity of value change

To what extent does the Anglo Cluster remains a cultural cluster in today's managerial and professional workforce? Across six Anglo countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, U.K., and U.S.), we found significant differences in values orientations (openness to change, conservation, self-enhancement, and self-transcendence values) that challenge the concept of a cohesive Anglo cluster. We also explored the influence of micro-level factors on values orientations and found consistent life-stage and gender differences across countries. We conclude that, even within a group of countries perceived as similar, multi-level analyses are needed to fully capture the essence of values differences across and within countries.     

论商务文化对国贸专业英语教学的影响 ——以高职院校为例

伴随经济全球化进程加深,国际贸易的发展跌宕起伏,亟待重新整合社会需求,培养更具商务文化意识的复合型国贸人才。以高职院校为例,从国贸专业英语教学的理论与实践切入,发掘商务文化的内涵,思考商务文化嵌入对英语教学的影响。语言教学需以传授语言文化背景为基础不断深化学生对语言结构形式的语用能力,国贸专业英语教学则应建构以商务文化为框架的丰富化、高效化、交际式、品质化教学模式。商务文化对国贸专业英语教学发挥基础性、多元化的作用,自觉树立商务文化意识、处理商务交际障碍、辩证把握母语文化与目的语文化关系是促进教学成果、提升学习效率、灵活商务交际、对标能力素质的必由之路。     

Foreign Languages in International Business

The New Zealand economy is an open one and in recent years has pursued a market diversification away from traditional English speaking markets. This research investigated the attitudes dnd perceptions of large New Zealand companies with respect to the employment of foreign language specialists. The sample companies appeared to have a good appreciation of the benefits of conducting international business in the clients' native language. Most companies reported that employees with foreign language ability represent less than five percent of recruits over the preceding four years. When languages were required to be spoken, most employers believed that at least a working knowledge was necessary. Language skills are more likely to be utilized at upper levels of an organization, for New Zealand companies Asian languages, particularly Japanese, are the areas of great potential.     

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.     

Challenges for Research Ethics and Moral Knowledge Construction in the Applied Social Sciences

Certain critical accounts of conventional research practices in business and the social sciences are explored in this essay. These accounts derive from alternative social paradigms and their underlying assumptions about appropriate social inquiry and knowledge construction. Among these alternative social paradigms, metatheories, mindscapes, or worldviews are social constructionist, critical, feminist, and postmodern or poststructural thinking. Individuals with these assumptions and values for knowledge construction are increasingly challenging conventional scholarship in what has been referred to as paradigm debates or wars. Issues of incommensurability or cross-paradigmatic communication potentials, as well as reflexivity, are raised in terms of moral education and development potentials for applied social science fields. Barriers and suggestions for increased moral development in academic and professional communities are discussed. In particular, moral forums in which participants have enhanced intrapersonal and interpersonal communication skills appear to be needed to surface and share often taken-for-granted assumptions concerning moral knowledge construction.     

The Evolution of Certainty in a Small Decision-Making Group by Consensus

We propose a dynamical systems model for approximating the certainty as a function of communication. Uncertainty is measured during a small group decision-making process, in which participants aim to reach consensus. Assuming that the communication is a one-dimensional continuum variable, both first- and second-order differential models of certainty are analyzed, and then, the general model is obtained by superposition. An experiment was organized, and the data have been used to test the model. A detailed discussion on the assumptions of this approach from the decision theory point of view is also included.     

Perspectives of Accountability in Charities in New Zealand

This study identifies three perspectives of accountability in charitable organizations: agency, stewardship, and stakeholder in relation to the availability of financial information. To examine current accountability practices, 75 interviews and informal conversations were undertaken with participants in charities in New Zealand. Many of the interviewees operated under some form of stewardship milieu. They regarded the need to discharge accountability by providing financial information as a low priority. Education may provide a way to resolve this issue by advancing stakeholders’ perspectives of accountability. This could result in reduced support for charities that do not uphold a certain standard of financial information.     

对英语专业实践教学内容体系的思考与实践

英语专业学生创新能力的培养是目前外语类院校人才培养的重要任务之一,实现这一目标的主要途径就是加强实践教学,而系统科学的实践教学内容体系的建立则是完成这一任务的根本保证。目前外语课堂教学中仍存在讲多练少的情况,同时,绝大部分英语专业课程设置中缺乏较完善的实践教学内容体系。因此,高校英语专业十分有必要建立一套适应外语学科发展要求、符合因材施教原则和体现时代特点的层次分明、系统科学的实践教学内容体系。     

Social Paradigms and Attitudes Toward Environmental Accountability

This paper argues that commitment to the Dominant Social Paradigm (DSP) in Western societies, which includes support for such ideologies as free enterprise, private property rights, economic individualism, and unlimited economic growth, poses a threat to progress in imposing greater standards of corporate environmental accountability. It is hypothesized that commitment to the DSP will be negatively correlated with support for the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and support for corporate environmental accountability, and that belief in the NEP will be positively correlated with support for corporate environmental accountability. The findings, based on a survey of MBA students, are generally consistent with the hypotheses. William E. Shafer is an associate professor in the Department of Accountancy at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. His primary research interests are professionalism and ethics in accounting and corporate social and environmental accountability. His publications have appeared in a variety of academic and professional journals, including Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory; Accounting Horizons; Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal; Business Ethics Quarterly; Journal of Business Ethics; Journal of Accountancy; and The CPA Journal.     

关于商务英语专业建设的探讨——以南京信息职业技术学院商务英语专业为例

从商务英语专业建设的背景和特色出发，以南京信息职业技术学院商务英语专业为例探讨专业建设路径。通过成立专家顾问委员会，进行课程体系和教学内容体系改革以及教学方法和教学手段改革，加强教师队伍建设等具体措施，将商务英语专业建设与工作实践紧密结合，培养并提高学生在相关领域的实际工作能力，以适应我国经济社会快速发展对商务英语人才的需求。     

商务英语专业学生就业竞争力提升策略研究

需求分析是了解人才竞争力的重要前提与基础。当前商务英语专业人才培养存在人才目标定位模糊、培养规格同质化、人才就业竞争力不强等问题。调查发现,近年来用人单位对商务英语专业人才的需求呈明显上升趋势,要求学生具备扎实的语言沟通能力、复合型知识结构、良好的商务实践能力及职业素养。提升商务英语专业人才就业竞争力的关键在于进一步明确应用型人才培养目标、构建系统化实践教学体系、提高学生的创新精神与创业能力等。     

清末广州对外经贸活动与英文粤音借词的产生

广州是英语词汇中的中文借词发源地之一。这些粤音借词数量可观,涉及中外经贸活动的各个环节,从而在生动反映清末广州对外商贸活动概况的基础上,折现出这一历史时期广州及周边地区社会文化生活的一些侧影。更为可贵的是,这些粤音借词以语言为载体,记录了西方人士对华人社会的观感和体验,为近代中外交流史留下了一份宝贵记录。     

Public Professional Accountability: A Conditional Approach

In the past decades, profession(al)s have increasingly been called to account. Several authors have reported that this increased public professional accountability, in the form of showing that professional conduct meets predefined standards or rules, has had severe negative consequences for professionals, their clients and society, and call for ‘intelligent’ forms of accountability; forms of accountability that may inform a wider public about professional conduct but do not harm it. In this paper, we propose a form of ‘intelligent’ public professional accountability. Taking Freidson’s (Professionalism. The third logic, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2001) notion of institutional ethics as a point of departure, we develop a form of accountability that seeks to account for the conditions required for professional conduct. The paper first discusses the current ‘dilemma of professional accountability,’ describes ‘ideal-type professional conduct’ and goes into the conditions it requires. Next, it shows what accounting for these conditions entails and that this form of accountability fits the criteria for intelligent accountability, as set by O’Neill (in: Morris and Vines (eds.) Capital failure: rebuilding trust in financial services, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014).     

Using Discourse to Restore Organisational Legitimacy: ‘CEO-speak’ After an Incident in a German Nuclear Power Plant

We analyse managerial discourse in corporate communication (‘CEO-speak’) during a 6-month period following a legitimacy-threatening event in the form of an incident in a German nuclear power plant. As discourses express specific stances expressed by a group of people who share particular beliefs and values, they constitute an important means of restoring organisational legitimacy when social rules and norms have been violated. Using an analytical framework based on legitimacy as a process of reciprocal sense-making and consisting of three levels of analysis which capture the relationship between text and context, we investigate the discourse used by CEOs in their initial and subsequent accounts of the incident. We find that CEOs aim to negotiate a resolution between their initial account and organisational audiences’ incongruent interpretations of the event by adopting an ad hoc normative attitude to stakeholders. This manifests itself in the strategic use of the discourse of stakeholder engagement as a means of signalling change, yet maintaining the status quo. It suggests that CEOs strategically use discourse to manufacture organisational audiences’ consent regarding the continued operation of the nuclear power plant affected by the incident. Our findings contribute to the critical corporate communication literature which regards corporate narrative reporting as a means of consolidating the private interests of corporations, rather than increasing transparency and accountability.     

How ecopreneurs’ green values affect their international engagement in supply chain management

Ecopreneurs are emerging as a new type of entrepreneur who are worthy of much greater consideration than has been given to date. The aim of this paper was to explore how a group of 14 New Zealand ecopreneurs engage with supply chain management issues of an international nature—namely importing, manufacturing and exporting. A case study method was used to collect data from face-to-face semi-structured interviews with the ecopreneurs and a wide range of secondary data such as industry reports, the company’s web sites and items from the media. On the supply side, ecopreneurs considered environmental and social costs of procuring from other countries. However, they had little power to influence supplier practices. Ecopreneurs also wanted to manufacture locally regardless of cost. Likewise, on the demand side, ecopreneurs assessed the environmental costs of exporting and were more in favour of selling locally due to their green values. The study found that various dilemmas of an environmental and social nature emerge as being important in the decisions and practices that ecopreneurs undertake with respect to managing their supply chain internationally. These dilemmas facing New Zealand ecopreneurs may offer a glimpse into future realities for other countries and businesses. We believe that these ecopreneurs are leading the way to a new frontier where environmental issues are likely to become increasingly unavoidable and should be considered in supply chain management. This exploratory research raises a number of important questions that require further research in order to more fully understand their implications for ecopreneurs.     

Trust, reputation and corporate accountability to stakeholders

This paper explores the relationship between accountability, trust and corporate reputation building. Increasing numbers of corporations are mobilising themselves to put more and more information out into the public domain as a way of communicating with stakeholders. Corporate social accounting and stakeholder engagement is happening on an unprecedented scale. Rather than welcoming such initiatives, academics have been quick to pick faults with contemporary social auditing and reporting, claiming that in its current form it is not about demonstrating accountability at all, but rather about building corporate reputation. Academics argue that 'accountability should hurt', that if accountability is an enjoyable process, then the organisation isn't doing it right. For organisations that are currently engaging with stakeholders and ostensibly becoming more transparent about their corporate social performance, this kind of critique is likely to be bewildering. This paper argues that central to the notion of accountability and to contemporary social accounting practice is the concept of trust. Accountability is based upon a distrust of corporate management, whereas corporate reputation building is about strategically seeking to establish trust in stakeholder relationships in order to negate formal accountability requirements. Using a split trust continuum, the paper seeks to explain and synthesise what seem to be two very different paradigms of organisational transparency.     

Business Ethics in New Zealand Organisations: Views from the Middle and Lower Level Managers

This study is carried out to assess the state of business ethics in New Zealand organisations from the point view of middle and lower level managers. The survey results clearly indicate that companies in New Zealand give low priorities to ethics with other values in the corporate culture. A significant number of respondents also believe that pressures from the top to achieve results and the organisational climate and ruthless competition help create an unethical environment. A greater emphasis on ethical content in the business curricula has been overwhelmingly supported by the respondents. Moreover, the majority of respondents also think that the ethical standard in New Zealand businesses has declined in the past decade.Finally, a number of suggestions have been put forward by the respondents to develop and maintain a high standard of ethical environment. These include mandatory moral/ethical education both in the educational institutions and in commerce and industry, commitment of top management and written and published code of ethics.     

Corporate codes of conduct: A collective conscience and continuum

This paper discusses the vast continuum between the letter of the law (legality) and the spirit of the law (ethics or morality). Further, the authors review the fiduciary duties owed by the firm to its various publics. These aspects must be considered in developing a corporate code of ethics. The underlying qualitative characteristics of a code include clarity, comprehensiveness and enforceability. While ethics is indigenous to a society, every code of ethics will necessarily reflect the corporate culture from which that code stems and be responsive to the innumerable situations for which it was created. Several examples have been provided to illustrate the ease of applicability of these concepts.Cecily Raiborn, Ph.D., C.P.A. is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is interested in integrating the study of ethics with all academic disciplines, and especially with accounting.Dinah Payne, J.D., M.B.A. is an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of New Orleans. She also is interested in the application of ethics to all fields of study, and particularly with law.     

International language management and diversity climate in multicultural organizations

Increasing globalization has made the use and management of language a vital element of engaging in international business activities. Despite this fact, empirical surveys with many respondents examining language management are extremely rare. Another equally important issue related to internationalization is how to develop and support an environment that is tolerant of the diversity which exists in multicultural organizations. Based on questionnaire responses from 489 members of academic multicultural departments, we examined the relation between the management of a common language and a positive diversity climate. Results showed that consistency in English management communication had strong positive relationships with all of the four investigated diversity climate variables; openness to linguistic, visible, value, and informational diversity. English communication consistency had a positive association with openness to value and informational diversity. Since there is no similar study on international language management with so many respondents, the findings may be of considerable theoretical and practical importance. Implications of these findings are discussed in detail.     

A cross cultural comparison of ethical perspectives and decision approaches of business students: United States of America versus New Zealand

While differences do exist, there are many ethical issues which transcend national barriers. In order to contribute to the development of understanding of global ethics, this study documents the existing ethical perspectives of collegiate business students from two countries and identifies the determinants of their ethical orientations.A survey instrument was administered to USA and New Zealand (NZ) students enrolled in undergraduate business programs. The research instrument measured students' ethical perspectives across multilayered ethical domains and their self-professed decision method used in evaluating ethical scenarios.The results indicate that USA students were less tolerant than the NZ students of situations involving the ethical constructs of fraud, coercion and self-interest. Additionally, females are less tolerant than males in all ethical domains in both countries. Within the group of students who reported experience in an ethics course there was no significant difference in the ethical values of the USA and NZ students. The implication is that educational experience in an ethics course produces homogeneity and is beneficial towards obtaining cross cultural understanding and agreement in ethical values.Marilyn Okleshen is an Associate Professor in the Accounting Department, College of Business Administration, Mankato State University.Richard Hoyt is an Associate Professor in the Finance Department, College of Business and Economics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He spent one year on sabbatical leave with the Property Group, Department of Accounting and Finance, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand. His dissertation topic was on the social responsibility of business. He has published in academic and professional journals.