Reflections on teaching business ethics

The start of the twenty-first century witnessed a number of company scandals and ethical breaches that have brought to the forefront community feelings of anguish and disgust towards large companies in addition to spawning more legislation aimed at avoiding a repeat of these collapses. The question that arises is whether the past measures (including legislation) have worked, given the recent Global Financial Crisis (GFC) as it has raised more questions than it has answered. Against this backdrop, we need to consider whether business ethics can be taught to a person irrespective of their age? Should we as community members, customers, shareholders of today give up on the current senior managers who are mostly representatives of the baby boomers and concentrate on increasing ethical awareness of our current undergraduate students (at least of Generation Y and Z)? If we proceed with this argument as being both valuable and also possible, the next step is to consider the ways by which to teach business ethics to a group of students and this aim is the focus of the chapter.

Civic integration for religious community leaders new to Australia : a multifaith peacebuilding approach

We inhabit a mobile world. Globalisation has resulted in the rise of the movement of religion and therefore an increase in religiously diverse societies. A heightened awareness of global risks has also produced an unprecedented interest in global peace and security initiatives. Multifaith peacebuilding is an example of this phenomenon as it has gained increasing prominence on the global agenda since September 11. The role of religious leaders in promoting violence and peace is being examined by scholars, as is the growing multifaith peacebuilding movement. This paper will discuss a recent Australian pilot study, which applied a multifaith peacebuilding approach to civic integration training for religious community leaders. It argues that the peacebuilding potential of religious community leaders must be recognised and that integration strategies that are inclusive and promote the building of networks between multiple function systems, can contribute to security and social cohesion in diverse societies. Alternately, assimilationist, exclusionist strategies can exacerbate security risks. In an increasingly mobile world, religious diversity has become the norm and multifaith peacebuilding strategies require further research and state support.

Code of ethics quality : an international comparison of corporate staff support and regulation in Australia, Canada and the United States

The objective of this paper is to examine the ‘Code of Ethics Quality’ (CEQ) in the largest companies of Australia, Canada and the United States. For this purpose, a proposed CEQ construct has been applied. It appears from the empirical findings that while Australia, Canada and the United States are extremely similar in their economic and social development, there may well be distinct cultural mores and issues that are forming their business ethics practices. A research implication derived from the performed research is that the construct provides a selection of observable and measurable elements in the context of CEQ. The construct of CEQ consists of nine measures divided into two dimensions (i.e. staff support and regulation). They should not be seen as a complete list. On the contrary, it is encouraged that others propose and elaborate revisions and extensions. A practical implication of this paper is a structure of what and how to examine the CEQ in a managerial setting. It may assist companies in their efforts to establish, maintain and improve their ethical culture, norms and beliefs within the organization and supporting them in their ethical business practices with different stakeholders in the marketplace and society. The dimensions and measures of the construct may be used as a frame of reference for further research. They may be useful and applicable across contexts and over time using similar samples when it comes to large companies, as small- or medium-sized ones may not have considered all areas nor have the elements in place. This is a research limitation, but it provides an opportunity for further research.

The personal selling and sales management ethics research : managerial implications and research directions from a comprehensive review of the empirical literature

Research into ethics in personal selling and sales management has increased substantially over the preceding decade by investigating complex dimensions of ethical decision-making in greater depth and with more analytical sophistication. This review of the recent conceptual and empirical literature provides insight into the extent and the direction of this knowledge, recommends managerial action, and discusses areas for future exploration. Future direction is also provided through research propositions. The type of sales practitioner investigated, the main variables examined, and the key findings are summarized in an Appendix.

Teaching ethics in organisational behaviour : a Humean viewpoint

Problem Statement: Concepts of ethics have rarely been easy to teach in the organizational behaviour curriculum. The philosophical bases of ethics are often abstract and prone to multiple interpretations and dilemmas. The changing global environment of organisations adds complexity to the interacting values that people bring into the workplace. To redress the situation, this articlerepresents the stance of David Hume on human morality and proposes an original nexus of his concepts for application in the teaching and learning of ethics in the field of organizational behaviour.

Method: Based on the literature, we develop a conceptual model from a thread drawn between Hume’s influence on the Scottish Enlightenment and accordingly the current complex business environment which was fostered in part by the economic models espoused by his Enlightenment associates. The concepts are presented as a matrix and relevant examples are explained in this context.

Results: Pointing out the challenge of the global rifts in organisational morality, we relate the fable of the traveller from Hume’s writings and make the point that the Humean nexus, now distilled from the elaborate reasoning of Hume, provides educators and managers alike with a helpful centre of gravity around which to develop analyses of decisions and actions in order to gain moral perspective that transcends time and place.

Conclusions: Business ethics lessons have sometimes been abstract and emotive in organisational Behavior education but the empirical concepts of Hume in this new form have the potential to be useful and agreeable for many.

Review : Ethics for health care (2nd edition) by Catherine Berglund

Ethics is a broad discipline and in health the debate between bioethics and behavioural ethics is one that goes to the centre of public health debates.

Commitment to business ethics in UK organizations

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to determine the commitment to business ethics in UK corporations. This study reports on the responses of those organizations that participated in the survey and possessed a code of ethics.

Design/methodology/approach – An unsolicited questionnaire was sent to the top 500 private sector organizations by market capitalization in the UK. A total of 92 companies responded, of which 56 possessed a code of ethics.

Findings – The empirical findings indicate that the processes involved in developing business ethics commitment have begun to be recognized and acted upon at an organizational level. The supporting measures of business ethics commitment appear to be under-utilized by many of these UK organizations. This suggests that many organizations have not so far developed a strong organizational commitment to embedding their codes of ethics into organizational practices.

Research limitations/implications – While the responses provided a rich picture of organizational actions, further research exploring internal culture and attitudes would add to an understanding of organizational commitment.

Practical implications – It is found that in order to influence practice, it is not enough to have the artefacts of an ethical culture, such as codes, without ensuring that all employees are assisted in understanding what is required of them.

Originality/value – Despite a history of business ethics research, there are a limited number of studies seeking to understand UK companies' commitment to ethical codes. The paper provides guidance on steps that organizations can take to develop a higher level of commitment.