Managerial morality and behavior: The questionable payments issue

This research examined the effect of managers' value systems and personality traits on ethical decision behavior, in the context of questionable payments to foreign officials to assure business. Using a complex international management game to simulate the real-world competitive business environment, the study measured the instrumental and terminal value systems of the game participants as well as their tendencies towards Machiavellianism. It then observed their decision behavior in response to what was clearly a demand for an illegal payment.The findings indicate that ethical values, in most instances, were subordinated to the manager's duty to achieve company goals. They also revealed that the inner conflict between what was professed as right, and what had to be done in practice, was generally resolved on the basis of utility rather than on ethical or moral grounds. Richard D. Rosenberg is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at Technion — Israel Institute of Technology. He has written several articles which have been published e.g., Industrial and Labor Relations Review; Industrial Relations; and Industrial Marketing Management.The guidance and suggestions of Professor Y. Rim and Dr. M. Erez of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Technion are gratefully acknowledged.     

Stakeholders as Citizens? Rethinking Rights, Participation, and Democracy

This paper reviews and analyses the implications of citizenship thinking for building ‘ethical’ institutional arrangements for business. The paper looks at various stakeholder groups whose relation with the company changes quite significantly when one starts to conceptualize it in terms of citizenship. Rather than being simply stakeholders, we could see those groups either as citizens, or as other constituencies participating in the administration of citizenship for others, or in societal governance more broadly. This raises crucial questions about accountability and democracy in stakeholder relations with the corporation. We sketch out the main currents informing and emerging from the citizenship perspective on firm-stakeholder relations; analyze specific stakeholder groups and their particular relevance in the context of a citizenship perspective; and conclude with a discussion of the broader implications in terms of building ethical institutions.     

Ethics at the workplace in the fourth industrial revolution: A Catholic social teaching perspective

While many studies on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR) focus on efficiency, productivity and economic progress, only a few have considered its ethical aspects. This article tries to contribute to filling this vacuum by providing a comprehensive approach to ethical risks at the workplace. Drawing upon Catholic social teaching (CST)—addressed to all people of good will—it analyzes ethical aspects at the workplace posited by the FIR, and more particularly by Industry 4.0, which is at the core of this revolution. CST emphasizes the dignity of the worker and the necessity to flourish at the workplace. While robots, artificial intelligence, and interconnected technologies are only instrumental, the real subject of work is the worker. This casts specific light on the ethical issues analyzed, including effects on employment, wages and inequality, human quality treatment, relational aspects, safety and health, surveillance on employees, and meaningful work.     

Will the ethics of business change? A survey of future executives

This article reports the results of a study of attitudes of future business executives towards issues of social responsibility and business ethics. The 455 respondents, who were MBA students during 1985 at one dozen schools from various regions in the United States, were asked to respond to a series of open-ended and closed-ended questions. From the responses to the questions the authors were able to conclude that future executives display considerable sensitivity, though to varying degrees, towards ethical issues in business. Women, in particular, tend to evince strong feelings regarding such issues. Thomas M. Jones is Associate Professor of Organization and Environment at the School of Business Administration, University of Washington. He is the author of several articles which have been published in journals such as Academy of Management Review and California Management Review. Frederick H. Gautschi, III, is Associate Professor of Engineering Management at Old Dominion University. His articles have been published in Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy and Industrial and Labor Relations Review.     

A New Approach to Resolving the Right-to-work Ethical Dilemma

Union security has long been an industrial relations controversy. While compulsory unionism supporters say it benefits the working class, right-to-work advocates denounce it as an unethical infringement of individual rights and freedom. Unfortunately, neither side has adequately addressed the shortcomings of their viewpoint, nor the broader worker concerns about effective representation beyond just “unionism”. In this paper, we examine the ethical and practical problems of compulsory (union security) and voluntary (right-to-work) unionism and propose a new resolution, compulsory proportional representation, that has the advantages of: (a) ensuring workers’ freedom to associate or not associate, (b) promoting freedom to contract, (c) allowing free competition in representation in line with anti-trust principles, (d) improving industrial peace and efficiency, (e) enhancing fairness and social justice, and (f) addressing the employer–employee power imbalance. It is superior to either voluntary unionism, which often lead to management unilateralism, or compulsory unionism, where workers are compelled to join unions against their will. Helen Lam is an Associate Professor, Human Resource Management, in Athabasca University, working at the Centre for Innovative Management which focuses on graduate management programs in business administration. She received her Ph.D. from the Faculty of Business at the University of Alberta. Her research interests include the areas of downsizing, restructuring, quality initiatives, business ethics, employment relations, human rights and legal issues at the workplace. Her work has been published in a variety of academic journals. Mark Harcourt is a professor in the Department of Strategy and Human Resource Management, Waikato Management School, Waikato University. Mark has a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Alberta, a Masters of Industrial Relations from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University. His teaching focus is on employment relations and human resources management. Mark has also published articles in many national and international journals on a variety of topics, including health and safety, and discrimination.     

An Ethical Opportunity for UK Labour Relations

'An opportunity now exists to adopt an ethical approach to labour relations on the basis of a recognition by all parties of legitimate rights and duties and an acceptance of mutualism and trust.'Dr Sheldrake is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and Government, City of London Polytechnic, and author of Industrial Relations and Politics in Britain 1880-1989 (1991).     

Fairness in the selection of employees

A number of fairness issues and principles are developed and discussed from the context of personnel selection. It is noted that not too much attention has been paid to these issues and concerns in the past. A distinction is made between justice and fairness having to do with the procedural components and processes of selection, the nature of the information used to make selection decisions, and the resulting outcomes of the selection process. Ideas for future research and exploration are also extended.Richard D. Arvey is the Carlson Professor of Industrial Relations at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. He received his Ph. D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and has published widely in journal and book form. His text,Fairness in Selecting Employees, is a widely cited book amongst those familiar with the fairness debate.Gary L. Renz is a Ph.D. graduate student in the Department of Industrial Relations, University of Minnesota. He also holds a law degree.     

The Role of Business Ethics in Merger and Acquisition Success: An Empirical Study

The purpose of this paper is to explore job performance, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) from an ethical perceptive. A great number of studies have extensively discussed the link between M&A and performance; however, most focused on the financial functions and strategy selections. Although ethical issues emerge in the M&A process, it is a less studied area. This study adopted the structural equation modeling approach to empirically test our hypotheses. Based on 264 samples from financial companies, data analyses indicated that ethical conduct in M&A is significantly correlated with employee job performance. Ensuring employment security and caring practices can significantly explain organizational commitment. Organizational commitment also plays a significant mediating role between a company’s ethical conduct and employee job performance. Managerial implications are also provided.Carol Yeh-Yun Lin is a Professor of the Department of Business Administration at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. in Human Resource Development from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992. She has published previously in the Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Psychology, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, Industrial Relations Journal, International Journal of Human Resource Management, and a number of other scholarly journals. Yu-Chen Wei is a doctoral candidate of the Department of Business Administration at National Chengchi University. Her research interests include intellectual capital, high-performance work system and business ethics.     

Ethical Pitfalls of Temporary Labour Migration: A Critical Review of Issues

The article discusses a particularly contentious aspect of labour mobility—state sanctioned and controlled temporary labour migration. In contrast to forced migration, which always has had a recognizable ethical dimension in terms of the universal right to asylum, temporary labour migration has tended to be viewed as an exclusively economic and thus ethically neutral phenomenon. This article presents a diametrically opposite approach to temporary labour migration: it is argued that this form of labour mobility creates a plethora of ethical challenges to the body which regulates it—the state. Furthermore, attention is drawn to employers’ rationalizations in relation to temporary migrant workers and trade unions’ responses to it. The article examines how these industrial relations actors deal with the moral hazards characteristic to temporary labour migration. It concludes with the exploration of the emergent issues in migration ethics and points out to a tentative research agenda.     

Labour Relations and Ethical Dilemmas of Extractive MNEs in Nigeria,South Africa and Zambia: 1950–2000

This article examines the ethical characteristics of MNEs employee relations in developing countries. Specifically, it addresses various ethical issues relating to labour relations and trade unions in extractive industries in Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia. Data collected in these countries indicate that criticisms against MNEs relating to labour issues and labour practices in developing countries are not lessening. The discussion is lent focus and direction through the analysis of critical incidents from the perspectives of various stakeholders: government, oil and mining companies, and leaders of trade unions. Tensions over pay, expatriate employments as against the locals, negotiation rights and employees well-being are evident. The argument advanced is that the MNEs operating in the extractive industries of Africa will have to improve their relations with local employees in order to bridge the legitimacy gaps that exist. An improved mutual understanding between the MNEs and trade unions is required for both actors to have a smooth working relationship.     

Ethical Standards and Ideology Among Korean Public Relations Practitioners

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the Korean public relations practitioners' perceptions toward ethical issues, individual practices, and ethical standards in the context of ethical ideology. The survey was conducted with the Korean public relations practitioners. A 2 (Relativism: High/Low) × 2 (Idealism: High/Low) factorial design was devised for the analysis.The MANOVA results showed that ethical ideology (idealism and relativism) had significant effects on ethical decision-making. Idealistic ideology had a main effect on ethical issues, individual practices, and ethical standards. However, relativistic ideology only affected the decision-making process related to ethical issues. No interaction effects were detected. This study indicated that the individual's ethical ideology could be an important variable in explaining the outcomes of the individual's ethical decision-making among Korean public relations practitioners.     

A Comparison of the Ethics of Convicted Felons and Graduate Business Students: Implications for Business Practice and Business Ethics Education

This research compares and contrasts the ethics of convicted felons in three midwestern United States prison systems with those of a cross section of MBA students from previous research. Building on and replicating seminal works in business ethics, this study identifies the differences and many similarities between students and inmates on several dimensions of ethics and values. Both groups expressed similar views of which ethical issues need attention from the business community, those constituencies that are most important to business firms, and perceptions of the ethics of other salient groups. When confronted with difficult ethical situations, inmates usually, although not always, tended to be more willing do what was asked and less willing to speak out regarding the conflict. Inmate priorities for ethical issues and constituency groups tended to be very similar to the MBA student sample. Implications for business practice and business ethics education are discussed.     

Migration Intermediaries and Codes of Conduct: Temporary Migrant Workers in Australian Horticulture

Over recent decades, developments in network governance have seen governments around the world cede considerable authority and responsibility to commercial migration intermediaries for recruiting and managing temporary migrant labour. Correspondingly, a by-product of network governance has been the emergence of soft employment regulation in which voluntary codes of conduct supplement hard (enforceable) legal employment standards. This paper explores these developments in the context of temporary migrant workers employed in Australian horticulture. First the paper analyses the growing use of temporary migrant labour in this industry. It then describes how different types of intermediaries interact with this workforce. The paper then outlines both hard and soft employment regulations, and contrasts them with actual employment conditions, questioning how a network governance approach has affected this vulnerable workforce. The paper concludes that changes in network governance of migration and employment relations have emasculated formal legal regulation, leaving market forces to operate without effective or ethical constraints at the expense of the public good.     

Enhancing Employee Voice: Are Voluntary Employer–Employee Partnerships Enough?

One of the essential ethical issues in the employment relationship is the loss of employee voice. Many of the ways employees have previously exercised voice in the employment relationship have been rendered less effective by (1) the changing nature of work, (2) employer preferences for flexibility that often work to the disadvantage of employees, and (3) changes in public policy and institutional systems that have failed to protect workers. We will begin with a discussion of how work has changed in the last 20 years in countries like Australia and the United States, and then take up the issue of employees as organizational stakeholders and the ethical duties that are owed them, with special attention given to issues of power. We will then consider whether voluntary action by employers such as social auditing is sufficient to ensure equity for employees, and conclude with a discussion of how changes in public policy might ensure greater fairness in the employment relationship by bringing employers and employees together in partnership.     

Unpacking the Ethical Product

Acknowledging the increasing attention in the literature devoted to the incorporation of ethical considerations into consumers' purchase decisions, this paper explores the notion of an ethical product. It is argued that ethical issues have long been involved in consumers' product evaluations, but that there has been little academic investigation of ethics in terms of product concepts and theories. Ethics are thus examined in the context of the augmented product concept, and two dimensions of ethical augmentation are identified: direction and content. These dimensions are set out and discussed at some length, and then they are used to construct an ethical product matrix. It is shown how this could be used to provide structure and coherence to examinations of the perceived ethics of any given product offering. The implications of the analysis offered in the paper are discussed, and a number of limitations of the ethical product notion are identified. Finally some conclusions and directions for future research are suggested.     

Nanoethics: Old Wine,New Bottles?

This paper reviews the question of whether “nanoethics” should be treated as a special essay in ethics, quite different to bioethics, cyberethics, or neuroethics. Whilst some believe that a fundamental rethinking of our ethics is needed, others conclude that ethics as applied to nanoproducts or to nanomedicine will prove to be largely a case of business as usual. The paper is in four principal parts. In the first part, the basic pattern of ethical argument is set out, a pattern that holds no matter which of the emerging technologies is under debate. In the second part, a sketch is offered of the way in which precautionary reasoning plays relative to three key ethical constituencies (utilitarian, rights-led, and dignitarian), including some reflections on how these constituencies would view the so-called precautionary principle (as a guide to regulators). In the third part, the essential features of a particular kind of ethical community, (a “community of rights”) are outlined, such a community being put forward as the appropriate setting for debating matters of nanorisk and regulation. In such a community, the protection of rights is focal, ethics and regulation are viewed as deeply connected discourses, and the aspiration is to develop regimes of control and compensation that are fully integrated and coherent. Finally, there is a discussion of the way in which this kind of community, with its rights-led approach to precaution, would address questions concerning liability for nanoproducts and nanomedical services in a context of profound uncertainty.     

The Employment At-Will Doctrine: Second Level Ethical Issues and Analysis

There is an ongoing debate over the ethical status of policies that give an employer the right to discharge an employee without a good reason or notice (i.e., employment at-will policies). This article moves beyond the question of whether the adoption of such a policy is unethical per se under all circumstances, focusing instead on the following question: Assuming that an at-will policy is not unethical per se in all circumstances, what are the ethical issues associated with an employer's implementation and maintenance of an employment at-will policy, and how can these issues be addressed? Three primary ethical concerns are identified and discussed, and specific propositions regarding employers' obligations are presented. The article concludes by offering practical guidance intended to assist at-will employers in meeting the identified ethical obligations.     

Applying ethical theory to public relations

There seems to be a prevailing belief among public relations professionals that ethical problems can easily be solved by either reference to a simplified code or citation of a few well-worn platitudes. However, the route to a more complete understanding of questions of ethics is circuitous and often painstaking. By applying a number of ethical theories to a public relations problem, both the skilled public relations technician and the public relations professional may arrive at similar conclusions concerning moral obligations; however, the professional is in the most favorable position to effect change.Thomas H. Bivins is Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon, School of Journalism. He is also Head of Public Relations Sequence and has been awarded Public Relations Student Society of America: Faculty Advisor of the Year, 1984, 1986.     

Ethical decision-making in business: Behavioral issues and concerns

This article examines selected behavioral aspects of ethical decision making within a business context. Three categories of antecedents to ethical decision behaviors (individual differences, interpersonal variables, and organizational variables) are examined and propositions are offered. Moral development theory and expectancy theory are then explored as possible bases for a theory of ethical decision making. Finally, means of improving ethical decision making in firms are explored.Stephen B. Knouse is Professor of management at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. His research interests are in behavioral aspects of business ethics, employment selection, and impression management in organizations. His work has appeared in a number of journals includingJournal of Business Ethics, Personnel Psychology, andPersonnel.Robert A. Giacalone is Associate Professor of Management Systems at the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business, University of Richmond. His work has appeared inHuman Relations, Business and Society Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Group and Organization Studies, Journal of Social Psychology, as well as in a variety of other journals and books.