Education for the moral development of managers: Kohlberg's stages of moral development and integrative education

Recent management behavior such as the PINTO gasoline tank decision has received a great deal of notoriety. In fact, repugnant examples of management amorality and immorality abound. One is forced to ask a number of questions. Does such behavior reflect a lack of a proper education in moral behavior? Can education result in moral behavior? If so, what kind of education might that be? Answers to these questions might point a way out of the moral shadows giant corporations have cast over much of the world. An attempt to answer these questions, then, might be a worthwhile venture.     

The uses of moral talk: Why do managers talk ethics?

When managers use moral expressions in their communications, they do so for several, sometimes contradictory reasons. Based upon analyses of interviews with managers, this article examines seven distinctive uses of moral talk, sub-divided into three groupings: (1) managers use moral talk functionally to clarify issues, to propose and criticize moral justifications, and to cite relevant norms; (2) managers also use moral talk functionally to praise and to blame as well as to defend and criticize structures of authority; finally (3) managers use moral talk dysfunctionally to rationalize morally ambiguous behavior and to express frustrations. The article concludes with several practical recommendations.Frederick Bird teaches Comparative Ethics at Concordia University, where he is an associate professor. He has recently written a text on the comparative sociological study of moral systems as well as a number of articles on business ethics and contemporary religious movements.Frances Westley is an Assistant Professor of Policy at McGill University in Montreal. She publishes in the area of visionary leadership, organizational culture and change, and strategic communications. James A. Waters was Dean, Graduate School of Management at Boston College. His research interests concerned the process of strategy formation in complex organizations, organizational change and development, and ethics in organizations. His work has been published in such journals as Organizational Dynamics, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, California Management Review, Business Horizons, Journal of Applied Psychology, Business and Society, Canadian Journal of Administrative Science, Advanced Management Journal, Journal of Business Ethics, Organizational Behavior Teaching Review, and numerous anthologies. He died January 4, 1989.     

Individual career planning: Managerial help for subordinates

Personal career expectations have risen, and more individuals are showing initiative and demanding career opportunities. Turnover is increasing, and white-collar unions have been suggested. The author suggests that managers provide adequate support and guidance for individual career planning through human resource planning and development. Career planning begins with choices concerning occupation and organization, the job assignment, performance and development, and, ultimately, retirement. Management supports these choices through the way it attracts, recruits, and orients new talent; matches individual interests and talents with opportunities; helps individuals perform effectively and develop their capabilities; and helps individuals prepare for a satisfying, secure retirement. The author offers several guidelines for influencing career behavior, the core of the human resource management process.     

The influence of ability,benevolence, and integrity in trust between managers and subordinates: the role of ethical reasoning

Numerous researchers have examined the antecedents of trust between managers and subordinates. Recent studies conclude that their influence varies depending on whether what is being examined is a manager's trust in a subordinate or a subordinate's trust in a manager. However, the reasons given to justify this phenomenon present limitations. This article offers a new theoretical approach that relates the influence of each antecedent to Aristotelian forms of reasoning, ethical, and instrumental. The proposed approach shows that the influence of each antecedent depends on which rationality prevails in the person who trusts. The contribution of this article is to better explain the phenomenon of interpersonal trust formation and its logic, while offering at the same time several practical implications for managers interested in developing an organizational culture based on trust. The article begins with a literature review of more relevant empirical studies analyzing superior–subordinate trust formation and presents some theoretical limitations of the arguments described in these works. Then, it offers a new theorerical approach based on Aristotelian thought to explain the influence of the antecedents of trust in management–subordinate relationships. The theoretical contribution is then confirmed in an empirical study of 163 mid‐level managers in Spain.     

What Is happening to middle managers in Europe? problems and promises associated with their changing roles and responsibilities

Few people have anything encouraging to say about middle management: past, present, or future. The picture of middle management that comes from many articles and from the business press is predominantly a gloomy one. Most writers portray the middle manager as a frustrated, disillusioned individual caught in the middle of a hierarchy, impotent, and with no real hope of career progression. In this article, these predictions are discussed and compared with a recent study of middle management in Europe that suggests a different picture. The authors have been participating in a six-country Western European study, initiated and partially funded by the European Foundation for Living and Working conditions, which has been examining the nature of the changes affecting middle management jobs and careers and middle managers' reactions to such changes. Specifically, the study sought to examine the nature of the changes affecting middle management jobs and careers and middle managers' reactions to these changes in six countries: U.K., Germany, Italy, France, Denmark, and The Netherlands. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Retail managers: their work stressors and coping strategies

This article considers the factors causing stress to retail managers and their coping strategies. The findings from a series of group discussions add to existing knowledge of causes of managerial stress. While some findings corroborate previous research into executive stress, other findings are of particular relevance within the retail sector. Most notably these were the nature and pace of change within the industry, new technological developments, quantitative work overload, staff shortages, customer demands and attitudes, threat of violence, the service orientated environment and the general organisational structure and climate. Problem focused and palliative coping strategies are adopted by individuals and organisations to cope with these pressures. Recommendations are provided to ensure retail companies avoid future threats of litigation and loss of productivity because of stress related illness. These may include re-examining traditional ways of working, instigating written policies on stress and employing occupational health advisors.     

Interesting problems and interesting research: A path to effective exchanges between managers and scholars

Understanding how organizations operate and finding ways to improve organizations are of central importance to managers and to scholars that study business. We believe that greater synergy can be developed between these two groups. In particular, we suggest that collaborating on issues that both groups view as interesting can provide a motivating and stimulating setting for finding ways to improve organizations. We also offer two series of specific recommendations: one for managers and one for scholars. These recommendations are intended to make each side’s goals more salient to the other and to help each side become a more valued resource for the other.     

Ethical corporate social responsibility: A framework for managers

Managers encounter difficulties in developing corporate social responsibility programmes. These difficulties arise from conflicting interests and priorities. Pressures may be both internal and external and corporate social responsibility programmes usually evolve from a combination of proactive and reactive policies. The first experiences of a company are likely to be reactive, in response to requests for equipment, sponsorship or charitable donations but companies soon become aware of the benefits of planned programmes. Planning implies objectives, performance criteria and evaluation, and a rational framework for decision-taking. This paper attempts to highlight problem areas for managers and to develop a pragmatic framework of analysis which will help identify and clarify corporate social responsibilities. The paper, which is written from a UK perspective discusses the contribution of stakeholder models and highlights limitations of this approach. It develops an ethical framework focused on concepts of responsibility.Jacquie L'Etang is a Lecturer in Public Relations at the University of Stirling, Scotland and teaches on the full-time and distance learning MSc degrees in Public Relations. She has postgraduate degrees in history, public relations and social justice and her main research interests are in business ethics and the theory, history and sociology of public relations.     

The management club: A quality circle for managers

Many authorities argue that poor management is at the heart of the United States' productivity problem. Since traditional means of improving management seem to be falling short of their goal, the authors propose the establishment of management clubs whose members would be volunteers and who would find and implement solutions to their company's specific problems.     

The relationship between moral decisions and their consequences: A tradeoff analysis approach

While at one level, the literature in ethics for some issues is broad, deep, and complex, for others it appears limited and lacking in sophistication. This cross — cultural study deals not only with the moral reasoning behind moral dilemmas in business but also with the magnitudes these dilemmas in concert with their possible outcomes and consequences. While many studies discuss the effect of these outcomes, we have found none that have explicitly examined them.The methodology and analysis use a novel approach for this topic, and is a major contribution of the paper: that of tradeoff analysis. Tradeoff analysis is capable of revealing both the nature of an individual's moral reasoning as well as interactions between this and the rewards or consequences for the moral action. These interactions are illustrated with a cross — cultural pilot study conducted in Singapore and the United States, which reveal noteworthy differences in moral decision making.William R. Swinyard is a Professor of Business Management at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA, 84602.Thomas J. Delong is a Professor of Education at the same university.Peng Sim Cheng is a Senior Tutor at the National University of Singapore, School of Management, Singapore 0511. Correspondence should be addressed to the first author.     

Judging the morality of business practices: The influence of personal moral philosophies

Individuals' moral judgments of certain business practices and their decisions to engage in those practices are influenced by their personal moral philosophies: (a) situationists advocate striving for the best consequences possible irrespective of moral maxims; (b) subjectivists reject moral guidelines and base judgments on personal values and practical concerns; (c) absolutists assume that actions are moral, provided they yield positive consequences and conform to moral rules; (d) exceptionists prefer to follow moral dictates but allow for exceptions for practical reasons. These variations, which are based on two fundamental dimensions (concern for principles and concern for promoting human welfare) influence a variety of moral processes and have implications for ethical debates over business practices.Donelson R. Forsyth is Professor in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. A social psychologist, his three major interests are affective and attributional reactions in interpersonal, education, and clinical settings, individual differences in ethical ideology, and the dynamics of interacting groups. He is the author of numerous journal articles, as well as several books dealing with social psychology, group processes, and health.     

To stay or to leave: The moral dilemma of divestment of South African assets

The question of U.S. divestment of South African assets can be segmented into two major issues: (1) corporate behavior in a general sense and (2) nature of the product produced. The first issue has four sub-issues: (1) Is apartheid immoral? (2) Do corporations have any social responsibility? (3) Do the rights of South African blacks concerning the issue of apartheid outweigh those of the corporations to do business freely? (4) Are the benefits to blacks greater with divestment than without? The term “benefits” is then defined in both macro and micro dimensions. A “NO” answer to any one of the several questions would lead to the conclusion that there is no moral obligation for U.S. firms presently in South Africa to divest. The analysis presented will conclude that the answer to the first three questions is “yes”. Further, the answer to the first half of the fourth question (macro benefits) will be determined to be “no”. The micro benefit issue, namely, the nature of the product produced, will then be evaluated using a model based on which group benefits most from the item produced. Assuming corporations are successfully meeting their moral obligations under questions # 2 and # 3, then the general conclusion will be reached that firms producing items of direct benefit to the black community should stay; firms producing items of direct benefit to the government should divest; and no generalized model for analysis can be assumed for firms producing items which benefit both groups equally. Finally, a brief discussion is presented of the issue of obligation for positive action against apartheid, both political and economic, on the part of U.S. corporations.     

Rational interaction for moral sensitivity: A postmodern approach to moral decision-making in business

Moral dissensus is a distinct feature of our time. This is not only true of our post-modern culture in general, but also of business culture specifically. In this paper I start by explaining how modernist rationality has produced moral dissensus without offering any hope of bringing an end to it in the foreseeable future. Opting for a form of post-modernist rationality as the only viable way of dealing with moral dissensus, I then make an analysis of a number of ways proposed by both specialists in the field of business ethics, as well as philosophers to deal with moral decision-making in this situation of moral dissensus. The conclusion reached is that none of these attempts succeeds in coming to terms with moral dissensus. I then formulate an alternative approach to moral decision-making which I call: Rational interaction for moral sensitivity. After explaining this approach, I defend it against some of the most obvious objections that might be raised against it in a business environment.

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A moral basis for corporate philanthropy

The authors argue that corporate philanthropy is far too important as a social instrument for good to depend on ethical egoism for its support. They claim that rule utilitarianism provides a more compelling, though not exclusive, moral foundation. The authors cite empirical and legal evidence as additional support for their claim.Bill Shaw is the Woodson Centennial Professor in Business Administration at The University of Texas at Austin. He teaches courses in business ethics and in legal environment of business. Professor Shaw's articles have appeared in law and ethics journals, and he is co-author, with Art Wolfe, ofStructure of the Legal Environment (1991).Frederick R. Post is Assistant Professor of Business Law and Management at the College of Business Administration, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio. Professor Post teaches business law and labor policy courses. His research interests include business ethics and labor management relations. His publications have appeared inThe Journal of Business Ethics, The Mid-American Journal of Business andThe Journal of Legal Studies Education.     

See no evil: moral sensitivity in the formulation of business problems

This paper explores moral sensitivity in a learning perspective, and a framework is developed for the understanding of how moral sensitivity can be developed through reiterative problem solving in the face of diverse ethical problems. Factors that may inhibit the individual's ability to conceive of moral issues are discussed, and perspectives from moral psychology are integrated with theory on problem formulation. It is argued that (1) the individual's moral sensitivity is pivotal for ethical problem solving, because problem formulation is paramount for further reflection and behaviour; (2) ethical behaviour must be understood both (a) in terms of the individual's psychological make-up that determines psychological response to moral features and (b) in terms of external constraints on the individual's moral sensitivity; and (3) the development of moral sensitivity can be promoted by actively and consciously pursuing disciplined imagination in multi-perspective formulations of problems.     

Managing moral distress: A strategy for resolving ethical dilemmas

Conflicts of interest. The boundaries of confidentiality. Right v. right dilemmas. Matters of duty, responsibility, character, and consequence. Ethical issues pervade professional life, and the moral distress they can create requires thoughtful reflection that moves beyond gut intuitions and knee-jerk reactions. This article presents a practical framework for assessing and resolving ethical dilemmas in a sophisticated manner, guided by a circumspect and reflective analysis able to withstand the scrutiny of others and minimize the potential for personal regrets. Central to the analysis set forth in this article's strategy are ‘interrogation questions’—a series of inquiries that draw from the richness of moral philosophy and ethical traditions, while reflecting the practical concerns of contemporary business practices—which guide the decision maker through a comprehensive review of primary considerations. Additionally, the article highlights myriad obstacles that may challenge one's awareness of a moral dilemma, a necessary precondition to employing the strategies of careful analysis and reflective judgment that this article outlines.