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.     

High Stakes Decision Making: Normative,Descriptive and Prescriptive Considerations

This paper reviews the state of the art of research on individual decision-making in high-stakes, low-probability settings. A central theme is that resolving high-stakes decisions optimally poses a formidable challenge not only to naïve decision makers, but also to users of more sophisticated tools, such as decision analysis. Such decisions are difficult to make because precise information about probabilities is not available, and the dynamics of the decision are complex. When faced with such problems, naïve decision-makers fall prey to a wide range of potentially harmful biases, such as failing to recognize a high-stakes problem, ignoring the information about probabilities that does exist, and responding to complexity by accepting the status quo. A proposed agenda for future research focuses on how the process and outcomes of high-stakes decision making might be improved.     

Assessment of statistical power in contemporary strategy research

The concept of statistical power was reviewed, and the power of 44 recently published empirical studies in strategic management was analyzed. Using small, medium, and large estimates of effect size, standardized 0.05 α, and assuming nondirectional nulls, the mean power figures were 0.23, 0.59, and 0.83 for the three levels, respectively. These results were generally similar to findings in other social sciences and were considered particularly important for strategic management research, given the correlational nature of many strategic management investigations and the complexity and evolving stage of the field which make small effect size more likely. Ways to improve statistical power in strategic management research were discussed.     

Community advisory panels within the chemical industry: Antecedents and issues

Community Advisory Panels (CAPs) are currently being sponsored by the American chemical industry as a way to repair lost trust. Over 200 CAPs are currently in operation. Their goals, composition and impact vary. Like governmental advisory committees they run the risk of being vehicles of persuasion as opposed to bodies which bring about organisational or health and safety changes. This article reviews the evidence we have to date about CAP operations and sets an agenda for future research.     

University Accounting Curricula: The Perceptions of an Alumni Group

Abstract

Many of the problems associated with accounting education could be due to at least two reasons: inadequate attention given to the design of accounting programmes, and the narrow view of stakeholder approach adopted in examining education issues. The existing literature mainly focuses on students' perception about issues such as teaching quality, alumni experience in major accounting firms, and so on. This paper deals with the design of accounting programmes, and proposes to ascertain the views of an important stakeholder group (i.e. alumni) on this issue. The findings of this study give credence to some of the generally held views, e.g. that it is no longer appropriate for tertiary education providers to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. However, in some other areas, the findings represent a stark contrast to the views on certain issues promulgated by the professional bodies in New Zealand and overseas including the USA, (for example, the issue of appropriate proportions of accounting, business and liberal studies in an accounting programme). Notably, the respondents in general placed a low importance on auditing as part of an education programme. Further, in terms of the emphases that should be placed in an accounting programme, contrary to the endorsement in the literature, ‘work experience’ was not considered as important as other areas of emphasis, (e.g. global perspective, local perspective, professionalism and social and environmental perspective).     

Strategies for online communities

This study examines the participation of firms in online communities as a means to enhance demand for their products. We begin with theoretical arguments and then develop a simulation model to illustrate how demand evolves as a function of interpersonal communication and a firm's chosen strategy. In this model, the firm's strategy involves allocating advocates who promote its product in online communities. Our model results point to some key parameters informing firms' strategies when social learning processes shape demand. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CHALLENGER: FINE-TUNING THE ODDS UNTIL SOMETHING BREAKS

The Challenger disaster illustrates the effects of repeated successes, gradual acclimatization, and the differing responsibilities of engineers and managers. Past successes and acclimatization alter decision-makers’ beliefs about probabilities of future success. Fine-tuning processes result from engineers’ and managers’ pursuing partially inconsistent goals while trying to learn from their experiences. Fine-tuning reduces probabilities of success, and it continues until a serious failure occurs.     

Cost Effectiveness of Water Supply Technologies in Rural Indonesia: Evidence From Nusa Tenggara Barat

The supply of adequate safe water to households in rural Indonesia remains a problem despite considerable government effort. Causes include lack of funds, the administrative shortcomings of water supply authorities, and inadequate consultation with the communities involved. The choice of water supply technology is crucial, because the alternatives vary widely in cost and in the demands they place on the organisational and technical capacity of water supply authorities and village communities. This paper compares the average incremental costs, in both financial and economic prices, of various technologies used in rural Indonesia, and discusses how to estimate their economic benefits. It shows that installing improved traditional wells and simple piped systems and rehabilitating large scale piped systems in Nusa Tenggara Barat province is likely to increase economic welfare, while installing new large scale piped systems may not. Finally, a distributional analysis of the different technologies is used to trace their beneficiaries.