NFC, moral position, socialisation and ethical decision-making

Absolutism (deontology and teleology), moral relativism (individual moral position), and individual and environmental factors are at the crossroads of descriptive ethics research. For several decades, researchers have espoused teleological aspects, such as the punitive influence of codes of ethics, as managerial tools that enhance ethical conduct in organisations. The current study modelled the individual factors of need-for-cognition (NFC), individual moral position, and occupational socialisation as influences on the work-norms of marketers. The findings from a survey of marketers suggest that NFC influences the ethical idealism, professional socialisation, and work-norms of marketers positively. The research identifies that encouraging cognitive activities among marketers may be a useful alternative when developing appropriate deontological work-norms and decision-making under ethical conditions in marketing.

On strangers, ‘moral panics’ and the neo-liberalization of teacher education

This paper explores the convergence of neo-liberal managerialism with the neo-conservative technologies of creating ‘moral panics’ about teacher education, English language and literacy curriculum and traditional values that allegedly fail to address the issues of public safety and cultural integration in the post- September 11th world. It problematises the neo-conservative vision of managing ‘strangers’ and public risks through dominant cultural literacy. The paper counters the neo-conservative backlash with a framework that emphasizes dialogical ethics in teaching for difference and conceptualizes transcultural literacy as an alternative model of education in multicultural conditions. This model is presented both as a way of resisting the subliminal infiltration of neo-conservative thinking in teacher education today and as a way of imagining a ‘cosmopolitan’ professional.