Content Analysis of Secondary Data: A Study of Courage in Managerial Decision Making

Empirical studies in business ethics often rely on self-reported data, but this reliance is open to criticism. Responses to questionnaires and interviews may be influenced by the subject's view of what the researcher might want to hear, by a reluctance to talk about sensitive ethical issues, and by imperfect recall. This paper reviews the extent to which published research in business ethics relies on interviews and questionnaires, and then explores the possibilities of using secondary data, such as company documents and newspaper reports, as a source for empirical studies in applied ethics. A specific example is then discussed, describing the source material, the method, the development of the research questions, and the way in which reliability and validity were established. In the example, content analysis was used to examine the extent to which the executive virtue of courage was observed or called for in items published in four international daily newspapers, and to explore the meaning which was attributed to "courage" in the papers.     

An Exploration of Managerial Views on Positioning Services in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The paper constitutes an analysis of the views of managers of service firms on positioning strategies in Ghana. The research employed a qualitative research method. Data were collected from 21 service managers and analyzed using content analysis procedures. The results indicate that for service managers, the perceived dominant positioning strategies of their organizations were: service quality, customer relationship, innovation, availability of service, community support, and leading organization, among others. The findings suggest that the dominant managerial views of Ghanaian service managers form a ‘hybrid’ of those of the Western manager. This research is important in clarifying this position. Additionally, as an exploratory piece, the study provides bases for further research on a topic in Ghana with a rather scant evidence of research.     

Managerial secrecy: An ethical examination

The paper studies the ethics of withholding information about an impending layoff and describes those situations in which managerial secrecy might be justified. It describes a layoff situation in which a manager has the latitude to decide what information to release and when, lists the reasons managers commonly give for withholding the information and analyzes each reason from a consequentialist and a Kantian perspective. The paper uses Sisela Bok's analyses of lying and secrecy to create the prima facie case against secrecy in the situation.Victor Pompa, is currently a management education consultant at Digtal Equipment Corporation, headquartered in Maynard, Massachusetts. He has 11 years of experience in the education divisions of high tech companies, both as manager and individual contributor. He holds a Bachelor' Degree in Liberal Arts from Colgate University as well as a Master of Arts in Educational Theory. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Human and Organization Development, specializing in Business Ethics, at the Fielding Institute, Santa Barbara California. The catalyst for promoting the author's interest in Business Ethics was readingMoral Mazes, the World of Corporate Managers and meeting the author, Robert Jackall.     

Appreciating Anonymity: An Exploration of Embarrassing Products and the Power of Blending In

While most research suggests using ostentatious packaging as a strategy to increase sales, using such packaging for embarrassing products can actually decrease purchase intentions. Five studies explore two components of packaging that influence product anonymity and the relationship between anonymity, embarrassment, and purchase intentions. The studies use a variety of methods including one field study, three scenario-based experiments, and one virtual reality video study with a behavioral component. This research contributes to retailing literature by examining the effect of packaging dimensions on product anonymity and the subsequent impact on embarrassment and purchase intentions. We consistently show more anonymously packaged products are perceived as less embarrassing and are more likely to be purchased than less anonymously packaged products. Consumers are able to circumvent undesirable stigmas associated with embarrassing products by selecting products that are more anonymously packaged and positioned in the store. Additionally, increased sales due to product packaging differences are more likely when an embarrassing product is positioned in an aisle versus on an endcap. Promotional incentives, such as coupons, in-store discounts, or bonus buys, can mitigate the negative effect of embarrassment onto purchase intentions. These findings have important implications to our understanding of shopper behavior when threatened with embarrassment.     

Managerial judgment and forecast combination: An experimental study

This paper examines the role of managerial judgment in forming a final forecast, or judging the achievability of a critical level of sales, when multiple forecasts or opinions are available to the decision maker. Several factors that can help improve the quality of human intervention are identified and incorporated in a decision aid. Experimental results show that aided combination can help the decision maker exploit her relevant private information and mitigate the generally observed negative effects of human intervention. Further, the results suggest that emphasizing expected sales, even when the organization is primarily interested in go/no-go decisions, helps improve performance. Several suggestions for future research are presented.

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Managerial Ethics: An Empirical Study of Business Students in the American University of Beirut

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Information Technology Professionals’ Perceived Organizational Values and Managerial Ethics: An Empirical Study

This paper summarizes the results of an analysis of empirical data on ethical attitudes of professionals and managers in relation to organizational core values in the Information Technology (IT) industry. This study investigates the association between key organizational values as independent variables and the ethical attitudes of IT managers as dependent variables. The study also delves into differences among IT non-managerial professionals, mid-level managers, and upper-level managers in their ethical attitudes and perceptions. Research results indicated that IT professionals from mechanistic organizations were much more likely to report – compared to those from organic organizations – that managers in their corporate environment engage in behaviors considered unethical and that successful managers were more unethical relative to unsuccessful managers. There were significant differences between the upper-level managers and the mid-level managers and between the mid-level managers and the IT non-managerial professionals on certain key ethical issues. This paper discusses the conceptual framework, hypotheses, research methodology, data analysis, implications of the findings, and suggested areas of further research. K. Gregory Jin, D.B.A, is Professor of the MIS Department, Ancell School of Business, Western, Connecticut State University. He has published numerous conference papers, chapters, and articles in such areas as MIS professional ideology and ethics, communication and control, behavioral issues in information systems development, role of IT and human factors in business process reengineering, service learning in database design, systems theory, MIS participant action research strategy, and political factors in IT management. He has more than twenty years of MIS administrative and professional experiences. He holds a D.B.A. in Information Technology Management from George Washington University. He is a member of the Association of Information Technology Professionals and a former member of DSI. Ronald G. Drozdenko, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Marketing Department, Ancell School of Business, Western Connecticut State University. He is also the founding Director of the Center for Business Research at the Ancell School. Dr. Drozdenko has co-directed more than 100 proprietary research projects since 1978 for the marketing and research and development departments of several corporations, including major multinationals. These projects were in the areas of strategic planning, marketing research, product development, direct marketing, and marketing database analysis. Dr. Drozdenko co-authored Optimal Database Marketing: Strategy, Development and Data Mining and also has published professional and academic articles and book chapters. He holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Missouri and is a member of the American Marketing Association, the Society for Consumer Psychology, and the Academy of Marketing Sciences. Richard A. Bassett, D.P.S, is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems at Western Connecticut State University. He was founder and CEO of Bassett Computer Systems, Inc. for 17 years where he was involved with the design and implementation of information systems for hundreds for small and midsized businesses. He has authored several papers and articles in such areas as web-design as a web-master, web-based course design, the security threats and concerns faced by telecommuters, minimal steps required to secure a Local Area Network and the technology decision challenges which growing companies face. He is actively involved with technology endeavors of numerous nonprofit organizations including: The Children’s Center, Bridges of Milford, North Haven Rotary, Communicare, and the Amber Alert System. He holds a D.P.S. in Computing from Pace University.     

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Stakeholder Influence Strategies: An Empirical Exploration

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The Effect of Implicit Moral Attitudes on Managerial Decision-Making: An Implicit Social Cognition Approach

This article concerns itself with the relationship between implicit moral cognitions and decisions in the realm of business ethics. Traditionally, business ethics research emphasized the effects of overt or␣explicit attitudes on ethical decision-making and neglected intuitive or implicit attitudes. Therefore, based on an implicit social cognition approach it is important to␣know whether implicit moral attitudes may have a substantial impact on managerial ethical decision-making processes. To test this thesis, a study with 50 participants was conducted. In this study the participants were asked to work on a deliberative managerial ethical decision-making task, in which they had to decide on one of two options. Implicit moral attitudes towards the two options were measured using the implicit association test (IAT). A semantic differential scale was used to diagnose explicit moral attitudes towards the two options. Each step taken within the deliberative decision-making process, as well the decision itself, was assessed using a scoring model-based decision analysis and a decision-making questionnaire. The results of this study show that implicit moral attitude has a great influence on the deliberative ethical decision-making process. The derived conclusion is that complex and deliberative decision-making processes in the context of business ethics can be affected by implicit social cognitions such as implicit moral attitudes.