Innovation in Experiential Business Ethics Training

Ethics training has undergone dramatic changes in the past decade. Global business growth and increased technological change have played a role in the increasing sophistication and development of ethics programs and communication devices. These training initiatives are based on organizational ethical decision making theories and empirical research indicating the benefits of training in developing an ethical organizational culture. In this article, we discuss the issues important in developing effective ethics training, examine the goals and methods currently used in training, introduce an ethics training behavioral simulation, and discuss its implementation and evaluation.     

A Review of Empirical Studies Assessing Ethical Decision Making in Business

This article summarizes the multitude of empirical studies that test ethical decision making in business and suggests additional research necessary to further theory in this area. The studies are categorized and related to current theoretical ethical decision making models. The studies are related to awareness, individual and organizational factors, intent, and the role of moral intensity in ethical decision making. Summary tables provide a quick reference for the sample, findings, and publication outlet. This review provides insights for understanding organizational ethical decision constructs, where ethical decision making theory currently stands, and provides insights for future empirical work on organizational ethical decision making.     

Openness and total factor productivity in Swedish manufacturing, 1980–1995

Openness and Total Factor Productivity in Swedish Manufacturing, 1980–1995. — This paper studies the effect of openness on total factor productivity (TFP) growth. Using industry-level data for Swedish manufacturing from 1980 to 1995, the paper shows that integrated industries tend to be more engaged in R&D and have more entry and exit activity than other industries. The results show that domestic R&D intensity does not contribute to the TFP growth rate. Instead, openness to international markets, which helps facilitate technology spillovers, is an important factor. There is also some evidence that producers exiting the market are less productive, implying that such exits will increase the average productivity of the industry.     

Sustainable Transport Policy: The Contribution from Behavioural Scientists

Publication of the UK Government's White Paper on Transport, in July 1998, has raised public awareness of the problems associated with widespread car use. The authors argue that these problems, which largely result from the aggregated choices and behaviour of many individual car uses, could be mitigated if the main determinants of car use and the underlying behavioural mechanisms were better understood. This article examines six strategies for changing social behaviour, and some important conditions for reducing car use. Examples are presented of how the insights gained can be applied in practice.     

Exercised Voice as Management Failure: Implications of Willing Compliance Theories of Management and Individualism for De Facto Employee Voice

The advantages of employee voice for organizations and individuals are well known, but in practice those who exercise voice sometimes face serious sanctions. Tensions surrounding voice are rooted in tacit presumptions of willing compliance embedded in influential theories of management, particularly the works of Chester Barnard and Herbert Simon and those who follow their traditions. Employees who exercise voice demonstrate that management has failed to secure willing compliance, action which managers may take as personal affront. The individualism prevalent in the U.S. may exacerbate managerial tendencies to respond negatively and emotionally to those who exercise voice. Reprisals lead to self-censorship, limit de facto voice and restrict crucial organizational feedback. In addition to being valued as a right and a source of important organizational feedback, employee voice needs to be considered as an ongoing struggle within organizations.     

The effect of framing and negotiation partner’s objective on judgments about negotiated transfer prices

A common approach to set transfer prices is via intra-firm negotiation. However, Luft and Libby [Luft, J. L., & Libby, R. (1997). Profit comparisons, market prices and managers’ judgments about negotiated transfer prices. The Accounting Review, 72(2), 217–229] found that because of the existence of self-serving biases, negotiating managers have different expectations regarding what constitutes a ‘fair’ transfer price, leading to a less efficient negotiation process. In this study, we examine two factors that are expected to affect managers’ transfer price negotiation judgments, namely, framing as a gain or as a loss and the negotiation partner’s objective (whether the partner’s objective involves high or low concern-for-others). We propose that these two factors affect managers’ perceptions of the negotiation context, and thus the way they interpret the economic and social consequences of accounting information. Our results show that a loss frame (compared to a gain frame) exacerbates managers’ self-serving biases and increases the ‘transfer price expectation gap’ between buyers and sellers. Further, in our experiment where market price is higher than equal-profit price, we find that managers’ transfer price expectations are lower (and deviate more from the prevailing market price) when they are negotiating with a partner with high concern-for-others than with a partner with low concern-for-others. We discuss the broader implications of these results for the design of management accounting systems.     

A sequential procedure to test three values of a binomial parameter

Sequential tests to decide among three binomial probabilities are needed in many situations, such as acceptance sampling used to determine the proportion of defective items and presence and absence sampling to decide whether pest species are causing economic damage to a crop such as corn. Approximate error probabilities associated with Armitage's (1950, JRSS B) method of simultaneously conducting three sequential probability ratio tests (SPRTs) are derived for the binomial distribution. These approximations provide a basis for adjusting the error rates used to establish the individual SPRTs so that the desired overall error rates are attained. Monte Carlo simulation is used to evaluate the revised procedure. Received: September 1998     

A case-control comparison of direct healthcare-provider medical costs of chronic idiopathic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome with constipation in a community-based cohort

Objective: Patients with constipation account for 3.1 million US physician visits a year, but care costs for patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) or chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) compared to the general public have received little study. The study aim was to describe healthcare utilization and compare medical costs for patients with IBS-C or CIC vs matched controls from a community-based sample.

Methods: A nested case-control sample (IBS-C and CIC cases) and matched controls (1:2) for each case group were selected from Olmsted County, MN, individuals responding to a community-based survey of gastrointestinal symptoms (2008) who received healthcare from a participating Rochester Epidemiology Project (REP) provider. Using REP healthcare utilization data, unadjusted and adjusted standardized costs were compared for the 2- and 10-year periods prior to the survey for 115 IBS-C patients and 230 controls and 365 CIC patients and 730 controls. Two time periods were chosen as these conditions are episodic, but long-term.

Results: Outpatient costs for IBS-C ($6,800) and CIC ($6,284) patients over a 2-year period prior to the survey were significantly higher than controls ($4,242 and $5,254, respectively) after adjusting for co-morbidities, age, and sex. IBS-C outpatient costs ($25,448) and emergency room costs ($6,892) were significantly higher than controls ($21,024 and $3,962, respectively) for the 10-year period prior. Unadjusted data analyses of cases compared to controls demonstrated significantly higher imaging costs for IBS-C cases and procedure costs for CIC cases over the 10-year period.

Limitations: Data were collected from a random community sample primarily receiving care from a limited number of providers in that area.

Conclusions: Patients with IBS-C and CIC had significantly higher outpatient costs for the 2-year period compared with controls. IBS-C patients also had higher ER costs than the general population.