Teachers’ ethics : education international and the forging of professional unity

The paper maintains that the current era, marked by a new global economy transforming economic and social development, has created the need for a reorganisation of teachers’ representation. This paper discusses a key development in teacher organisation, namely the emergence of Education International as a global hub for teacher unionism from across the world. This unique organisation, formulated in response to the emergence of global economies and supra-national figures, represents teachers’ response to globalised institutions and has instigated projects, such as the Professional Code of Ethics, which aim to create a sense of professional identity and unity amongst teachers. The organisation presents the political voice of teachers as a global collective that seeks to embed teachers’ interests in education reform and in the public debates concerning the direction of educational change in the era of globalisation. The paper concludes by outlining an ongoing issue that jeopardizes the collective voice of teachers and stresses how this needs to be further addressed in the ethical frameworks of what it means to be a teacher in the 21st century.

Dialogical ethics in a global society : cultural difference and answerability

Debates about multiculturalism are common to many late-modern societies today. Globalization has triggered a massive flow of people across state borders, challenging and changing assumptions about national identities and cultural politics. How to deal with difference without reducing it to sameness is becoming one of the main issues discussed by policy-makers, researchers and educators. This paper argues for the importance of turning to dialogical ethics before developing and implementing largescale political strategies in managing differences. It draws on the ideas of Bakhtin and Levinas to transcend the notion of ‘caring at a distance’ that is embedded in the neo-liberal construction of moral selfhood. As an alternative, the emphasis is made on spatial proximity – on ‘face-to-face’ relations with alterity – to conceptualize the dialogical self who is both responsive to and responsible for the Other. Bakhtin’s philosophy of the act and Levinas’ ethics of responsibility are mutually enriching in thinking about the role of the dialogical self in building a pluralistic society. The paper concludes with the implications of dialogical ethics for multicultural education.

English and its others : towards an ethics of transculturation

The article focuses on the significant role of English subject in the quality education. It states that a dialogical ethics might play in English education today as an alternative to the latest forms of political moralism in schooling the other. It highlights the need for a shift from the contradictory moralism of empowerment to a dialogical ethics of teaching and learning English language and literarcy for students and teachers to obtain a critical distance from their cultural bearings.

Business ethics and the accounting profession

Business ethics emerged as a major public concern following a spate of corporate collapses during the 1980s and early 2000s, Corporate collapses such as HIH and Harris Scarfe in Australia; Enron, Worldcom and Global Crossing in the US; and Parmalat in Europe, have precipitated questions about the business and accounting practices of these firms and the role played by their accountants and auditors, According to Armstrong et al. (2003, p, 1), one can hardly pick up a business publication today without noting some reference to an accounting scandal....The sheer number of accounting abuses serves as prima facie evidence that something more is needed in terms of accounting ethics.

(Pan-)animal magics : ecofeminist ethics and aesthetics in the Web

The 1990s has often been dubbed 'The Decade of the Environment'. Pollution, deforestation and desertification, ozone destruction, endangerment of species of animals and wildlife, vanishing wildernesses, and energy conservation are some of the visible environmental concerns which have gained international recognition. A less visible but potentially just as important environmental concern has been raised by ecological feminists. This is a concern about the connections historical, empirical, theoretical, symbolic, and experiential between the domination of women and the domination of non-human nature.

Philosophy, business and ethics

Our desire to be creative and the need for ethics in life can come together in excellent business practices. Ideas from Hegel and Nietzsche show that the intrinsic worth of these practices depends upon the stakeholder life-work ethic (motivation), business ethics (relationships) and responsible corporate governance (authority for decision-making)

Ethics, aesthetics and the transformation of the self : Foucault's practice of philosophy

Drawing in part on research carried out in the Foucault archives in Paris, the thesis both undertakes a critical assessment of Foucault's late work and attempts to reconstruct the ethical attitude which was emerging in that work. It situates Foucault's project in the context of its Nietzschean inspiration and offers a Foucauldian model of ethics as an aesthetic, transformative work carried out upon the self - as a 'spiritual exercise' in which the critical practice of philosophy takes a central role.

A comparison of business ethics commitment in private and public sector orgnaizations in Sweden

This paper reports the results of a study of the top 500 private sector organizations and the top 100 public sector organizations in Sweden. It is a replication of the study by Svensson et al. (2004). The aim of the study was to describe and compare the business ethics commitment of organizations across the two sectors. The empirical findings indicate that the processes involved in business ethics commitment have begun to be recognized and acted upon at an organizational level in Sweden. Some support is provided to show that codes of ethics are developing in some of Sweden’s largest private and public sector organizations – although this is happening to a lesser extent in the public sector. It is noted that an effect of a code of ethics on the bottom line of the business was acknowledged by respondents in both private and public sector organizations. We believe that the supporting measures of business ethics commitment appear to be underutilized in both private and public sector organizations in Sweden (among those that possess codes of ethics), thus indicating that the commitment to business ethics in Swedish organizations has potential for future development.

Measurement and structural properties of organizational codes of ethics in private and public Sweden

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the measurement and structural properties in a model of organizational codes of ethics (OCE) in Sweden.

Design/methodology/approach – The measurement and structural properties of four OCE constructs (i.e. surveillance/training, internal communication, external communication, and guidance) were described and tested in a dual sample based upon private and public sectors of Sweden.

Findings – Results show that the measurement and structural models of OCE in part have a satisfactory fit, validity, and reliability.

Research limitations/implications – The paper makes a contribution to theory as it outlines a set of OCE constructs and it presents an empirical test of and OCE model in respect to measurement and structural properties. A number of research limitations are provided.

Practical implications – It provides a model to be considered in the implementation and monitoring of OCE. The present research provides opportunities for further research in refining, extending, and testing the proposed OCE model in other cultural and organizational settings.

Originality/value – The OCE model extends previous studies that have been predominately descriptive, by using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

Business ethics and accounting students : Australia, South Asia and East Asia

Recent corporate collapses around the world show that there are no national boundaries for these occurrences. Australian corporate collapses including HIH Insurance, One.Tel, Ansett Australia and Harris Scarfe have raised public expectations of investigation of the causes of collapses (Mirshekary, Yaftian & Cross, 2005). The main reason for the collapse of HIH was mismanagement, with an emphasis more on the directors’ personal qualities such as integrity, honesty and morality rather than tougher legislation and rules. Accounting students are our future business leaders. The teaching of ethics in the classroom to multicultural groups of students provides an opportunity to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, and to increase interaction and debate around different approaches to ethics among students from different countries.
This study uses previous literature to explain the attitudes of accounting students towards academic and business/accounting ethics at an Australian university which is a multi-campus institution undertaking programs and activities at regional, national, international levels and by distance education.
This study reports the results of cross-cultural investigations of students’ ethical perceptions on moral values, academic and accounting/business vignettes, given that all students share the same learning opportunities, knowledge of ethics and interaction with their peers and lecturers. The results indicate no significant differences in responses between the students from Australia, South Asia and East Asia.