Whistle-Blowing and Morality

Whistle-blowing is generally considered from the viewpoint of professional morality. Morality rejects the idea of choice and the interests of the professional as immoral. Yet the dreadful retaliations against the messengers of the truth make it necessary for morality to leave a way out of whistle-blowing. This is why it forges rights (sometimes called duties) to trump the duty to the public prescribed by professional codes. This serves to hide the obvious fact that whether to blow the whistle is indeed a choice, not a matter of objective duty. One should also notice that if it fails to achieve anything then blowing the whistle was the wrong decision (or maybe the right decision that nobody would want to make). There is nevertheless a tendency to judge it based on the motivation of the whistle blower. In a way, whistle blowers should strive to act like saints. Yet, it is logically impossible to hold both whistle-blowing as mandatory and whistle-blowers as heroes or saints. Moreover, this tends to value the great deeds of a few over the lives of the many, which is incompatible with the basic assumptions of morality. But consistency is not a main feature of professional morality.     

Tractable Morality

This article discusses five propositions about managerial moral tractability -- that is, a morality that is amenable to the complexity of managers’ continual pressure to decide and act -- in their customer relations. The propositions come from the comparison of three case studies of different types of managers. To analyze the morality of managers, discursive practices of managers are studied. At the end of the article also some consideration is given to “information strategies” of managers, in relation to their tractable morality.Gjalt de Graaf received his Ph.D. at the Rotterdam School of Management of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He worked for two years as an assistant professor ‘‘strategic management” at the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Currently he works as a post-doc “Integrity of Governance” at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.     

Morality and marketing human organs

Recent break-throughs in surgery and the discovery of an effective immunosupressive drug called cyclosporin, have brought a Renaissance in organ transplants. These medical advances have also heightened concern over the already critical shortage of body organs. Several alternatives have been suggested which may help alleviate the organ shortage. One such alternative is to allow commerce in human organs. This article discusses the morality of commercialization of human organs within the framework of several ethical theories. Shaheen Borna is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Ball State University and has written several articles on advertising. Latest publication: The Informative and Persuasive Functions of Advertising: a Moral Appraisal — A Comment, Journal of Business Ethics 4 (1985), pp. 151–153.The first draft of this paper was presented to the faculty of Ball State University in the Bureau of Business Research Faculty Seminar Series. The author would like to thank all the faculty who provided insightful comments, particularly Dean Palomba, professors Williams and Hendrix. The author also would like to thank Mrs. Sandra Marsh for her invaluable editorial help.     

上市公司利润操纵的经济动机

政府的每一次政策出台都为企业带来了新的生机与动力,但同时也诱导着一些企业进行着利润操 纵,我们应该看到,中国股票市场走过的10年道路中,规范与反规范的争斗从来没有停止过,正是由于 这样,促使我国证券市场不断发展。     

Fraud and the Politics of Morality

Most large frauds develop only gradually and incidentally. When things fall apart it is politic to call it anything but fraud. The author is a member of the Department of Sociology, University of Liverpool, POB 147, Liverpool L69 3BX.     

让“道德”“担责”更“透明”——中铝公司社会责任报告编制经验分享

中铝公司从2006年开始发布年度社会责任报告,至今已连续编制发布了7份,曾采用多种标准和指南为依据来编制社会责任报告。2010年,国际标准化组织在瑞士日内瓦发布了社会责任国际标准ISO26000,这使社会责任从概念的规范都上升到了一个更高的国际化和标准化层面。当年12月,中铝公司就开始研究ISO26000,并连续两年以此为指南编制社会责任报告编制。     

Morality and Rationality in Environmental Policy

The "Moralist" camp takes environmental morale to be essential in order to save nature. The "Rationalist" camp, mainly represented by economists, takes market-based instruments solely relying on extrinsic motivation to be both necessary and sufficient for a successful environmental policy. Recently, the moralists have learned to appreciate economists' incentive instruments, and rationalists have learned that environmental morale is required to find political support for the introduction of their preferred instruments.Intrinsic motivation in the form of environmental morale is moreover closely connected to the extrinsic motivation via crowding effects. Economic incentives – in particular tradeable emission rights and emission taxes – tend to undermine environmental morale while policy instruments tend to raise it.An environmental policy based on complementarity is able to exploit the advantages, and to weaken the disadvantages, of the policies proposed by the two camps. Market-based instruments should be accompanied by policies informing and inviting the consumers to engage. In addition, possibilities to participate in the decision-making about environmental policy should be offered (preferably via direct democracy), and the policy should be decided and undertaken at the lowest possible level, normally the local community level.     

Morality and Strategy in Stakeholder identification

Definitions of what it is to be a stakeholder are divided into "claimant" definitions requiring some sort of claim on the services of a business, "influencer" definitions requiring only a capacity to influence the workings of the business, and "combinatory" definitions allowing for either or both of these requirements. It is argued that for the purposes of business ethics, stakeholding has to be about improving the moral conduct of businesses by directing them at serving more than just the interests of owners. On that basis, influencer definitions are eliminated on the grounds that they only concern morally neutral strategic considerations and combinatory definitions on the grounds that the combining of ethical and strategic considerations they promise can be less confusingly achieved through an exclusively claimant definition. It is concluded that for the purposes of business ethics, stakeholders are claimants towards whom businesses owe perfect or imperfect moral duties beyond those generally owed to people at large.     

Morality and ethics in organizational administration

The article is a detailed case study of theft and fraud by an employee in an organization. The analysis suggests that in the process of dealing with the employee, the issue was notprimarily one of ethics, but of two moral principles in conflict, compassion and concern for a fellow human being and the morality governing responses to betrayal. The latter governed the results because that morality was congruent with the predominant ethics of the organization concerned with preserving the authority structure and integrity of the organization rather than the personal welfare of the individual in the organization. In sum, the paper argues that, based on this case, organizational behavior towards individual employees may be determined by individual morality that is reinforced by organizational ethical principles more concerned with the self interest of the organization than ethics per se.Howard Adelman, a Professor of Philosophy, directs the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, recently recognized as a Centre of Excellence by the Canadian government. Adelman has authored three books, edited three others and published over 70 articles in other books and refereed journals. He has specialized in detailed case studies in such fields as psychiatry and law, the philosophy of higher education, philosophy of history and political philosophy.     

Hierarchical Motive Structures and Their Role in Moral Choices

Leader-managers face a myriad of competing values when they engage in ethical decision-making. Few studies help us understand why certain reasons for action are justified, taking precedence over others when people choose to respond to an ethical dilemma. To help address this matter we began with a qualitative approach to disclose leader-managers’ moral motives when they decide to address a work-related ethical dilemma. One hundred and nine military officers were asked to provide their reasons for taking action, justifications of their reasons, and to explain these justifications. We used network analysis techniques to identify a hierarchical motive structure. The motive structure is a cognitive map that identifies ethical motives and perceptions of how these ethical motives relate to each other. The motives identified represent classic conceptualizations of moral behavior; namely, virtue theories, consequentialism, and deontological theories, along with another category that expressed the emotional significance of the moral judgment, which we refer to as emotional empiricism.     

旅游广告宣传及其对旅游动机影响分析

旅游业作为21世纪一大产业,越来越受到各国和各地区的重视。旅游产品以无形服务为核心,其产品质量不能像有形实物那样可以在购买前加以判别,其价值、质量的鉴定只能由旅游者购买之后做出辨别。而旅游动机具有易变性、依附性、追求时尚性等特点,这一切都决定了旅游与广告有着天然良好的切入点。     

朱熹倡导的应试动机及其影响——科举史上一个值得关注的话题

朱熹主张以经义取士,倡导文行一致的应试动机并身体力行。这种应试动机影响了南宋以降科举社会中相当一部分有识之士。顾炎武、吕留良等人均肯定作者潜心儒家义理境界、砥砺身心、应试时以所学接受挑选的八股文。今人不顾及他们对八股文的总体认识,列举其抨击庸滥八股文的言论作为他们全盘否定八股文和八股取士制度的依据,不符合其原意。     

跨国公司转移定价的动因和影响

随着世界经济的发展,国际市场竞争日益加剧,转移定价逐渐成为跨国公司扩大企业总体利益,追求利润最大化的手段,但却给东道国造成了一定危害。文章就跨国公司转移定价的动机及对我国经济发展的危害进行了探究。     

The Power Motive and Organizational Structure: A Micro-Macro Connection

A model is described which includes a taxonomy of the power-motive profiles of individuals-a taxonomy of situational types based upon power considerations and a conceptual link among organizational structure, power-situation type, and individual power motives. The model provides a theoretical connection between micro and macro theories of organizational behaviour and adds some clarification and system to nPow theory. Résumé Le modèle décrit inclut la taxonomie des caractéristiques d'attraction au pouvoir des individus-une taxonomie de situations diverses fondée sur des considérations relatives au pouvoir et sur le lien conceptuel reliant la structure organisationnelle, le type de pouvoir découlant de la situation, et les motivations individuelles. Ce modèle prouve le lien théorique entre les théories micro et macro-économiques du comportement organisationnel, et clarifie et systématise la théorie nPow.     

Normal Injustices and Morality in Complex Organizations

This paper applies theory and research examining errors in complex organizational systems to the problem of individual and collective morality in organizations. It is proposed that because of the nature of complex organizations, unjust outcomes can (and will) result from organizational actions even when all organization members have acted responsibly. The argument that complex organizations are therefore immoral is considered and rejected. Instead, the paper argues that morality in complex organizations begins with "heedful interrelating" among individual organization members. The paper concludes with a discussion of organizational processes and structures that promote heedful interrelating.     

Durkheim, Mayo, Morality and Management

Morality and business ethics are topics facing increased attention in modern management, yet they tend to be looked at only in relation to external relationships. However one of the most important contributions to management practice and theory (human relations) was built upon a sociological theory that was totally concerned with morality. That sociological theory was borrowed by Mayo (the father of human relations) without reading the original theory; consequently he missed the real point that the theory made, i.e. a common morality embracing everyone was necessary to maintain order and social cohesion. Such a morality was only possible when we realised our social dimension through continuous contact with each other. Moral man had to be social man; occupational groups were a way of attempting to achieve this. Yet morality is a dimension of group dynamics and management training rarely mentioned, partly through ignorance, partly through a fear of what discussions of morality might lead on to, and partly through a structural blindness to non-operational problems.     

可转换债券发行动机研究综述

国内外学者从各种角度对公司可转换债券的发行动机进行了探讨,并提出了各类假说.通过综述学者们的相关研究成果,详细梳理各类假说提出的原由及内容,便于进一步研究可转换债券发行动机.     

可转换债券发行动机研究述评

在国际学术界,用于解释可转换债券发行动机的研究成果有资产替代假说、评估风险假说,后门融资假说与阶段性融资假说。同国外比起来,我国在可转换债券发行动机方面的研究还较少,研究方法的角度还有待改善。全面深入地弄清可转换债券发行动机,无论对发行可转换债券企业,还是对鼓励和扶持可转换债券都很有意义。     

The Morality of Risk Modeling

This article applies the concept of prudence to develop the characteristics of responsible risk-modeling practices in the insurance industry. A critical evaluation of the risk-modeling process suggests that ethical judgments are emergent rather than static, vague rather than clear, particular rather than universal, and still defensible according to the discipline’s established theory, which will support a range of judgments. Thus, positive moral guides for responsible behavior are of limited practical value. Instead, by being prudent, modelers can improve their ability to deal with the ethical and technical complexity of the risk-modeling process. While the application of prudence to resolve ethical challenges in risk modeling, an issue of practical importance to managers, is a first in the literature, the practice of applying an ethical lens to issues of pragmatic importance for managers is well established in Maak and Pless (J Bus Ethics 66:99–115, 2006a; Responsible leadership, 2006b) among others.