Improving environmental performance in the tourism accommodation sector

While environmental legislation in Australia regulates tourism development, it is less effective in operational areas because of the dependency of tourism on environmental resources that are not managed by operators, and the small but incremental nature of operational impacts. The absence of functional environmental standards for tourism means that little guidance exists: a problem compounded by variability in the diversity of operation types and receiving environments, as well as the accessibility of information by a non-technical audience. While legislation and economic considerations may provide impetus to adopt environmental practices, it is proposed that an environmental philosophy is necessary for tourism businesses to seek out and maintain alternative sustainable modes of operation. Review of the environmental audit process used by a Queensland resort suggests commitment to continual improvement in environmental performance is attributable to individual and corporate ethics. While the case is an ecotourism operation, the literature indicates that these factors have relevance to tourism generally. Although client satisfaction and return on investment objectives are constraints, environmental auditing can provide impetus for practical expression of environmental objectives. Facilitation of ethically-motivated voluntary action may be more effective in achieving tourism's environmental objectives than codifying standards in static legislation.

Ethical perspectives of the Australian live export trade

Objective To examine the ethical perspectives of the Australian live export trade. Design and method The perspectives of farmers and other industry personnel, overseas consumers, the Australian public, veterinarians and the assumed interests of transported animals are compared in relation to the ethical consequences. Animal welfare, societal, personal and professional ethics are identified and the ratification of different perspectives considered. Results and conclusions There are positive and negative aspects of the trade for each stakeholder group, and the overall position adopted by any individual reflects their perspective of the balance of these components. The debate as to whether Australia should continue with the trade will be best served by consideration of the interests of all parties in the trade, including the consumers and animals, which are among the most affected by the trade. There is a need for further research to address the major welfare problems for the animals, an openness to inspection on the part of the trade and balance in media reporting.

Religião, ética e axiologia no campo empresarial: um estudo das empresas que adotam a cultura da excelência

Este trabalho tem como objeto de estudo a ética e a constituição dos valores que fundamentam os campos religioso e empresarial e suas similaridades levando em consideração os aspectos socio-antropológicos. A ética dentro do campo das organizações empresariais vem se tornando tema de fundamental importância não apenas na visão dos empresários, mas, principalmente, na visão dos investidores e consumidores, e, muitas vezes, tem definido o sucesso ou o fracasso dessas organizações. A religião é aqui estudada como um fato social e cultural que influencia e é influenciada por outros fenômenos sócio-culturais. A pergunta principal que norteia este trabalho é se há influência de valores religiosos na formulação da conduta ética empresarial, tendo como universo de pesquisa os ciclos de premiação do Prêmio Nacional da Qualidade (PNQ). Buscando respostas para esta questão são abordados os aspectos simbólicos dos rituais de premiação; os valores culturais que permeiam os campos religioso e empresarial; e, uma análise da conduta ética empresarial tendo como referência a implementação da Cultura da Excelência do PNQ, com destaque aos seus critérios de excelência que têm incorporado as demandas de mercado, tais como responsabilidade social, ambiental e ética.(AU)

A study of the attitudes towards unethical selling amongst Chinese salespeople

The latter part of the twentieth century saw the Chinese economy moving towards a socialist market economy rather than a planned system. Despite growing interest in Chinese business ethics, little work has examined ethical issues concerning the Chinese sales force. This study draws from existing work on Chinese and Western business and sales ethics to develop hypotheses regarding the perceptions of unethical selling behaviour of modern Chinese salespeople. A survey of Chinese sales executives is conducted and statistically analysed. Results are compared with those reported in previous US-based research with regard to differences in perceptions of unethical selling behaviour. The results indicate that contemporary Chinese salespeople were more favourably disposed than expected towards unethical selling behaviour, and also more favourably disposed than previously studied US salespeople. Younger Chinese salespeople evaluated unethical behaviours more favourably than older ones. The results are discussed, along with implications for theory, practice and future work.

Careerism:ethical behaviour in an unjust world?

Presentation

Sustainable business:key issues

Sustainable Business: Key Issues is the first comprehensive introductory-level textbook to address the interface between environmental challenges and business solutions to provide an overview of the basic concepts of sustainability, sustainable business, and business ethics. The book introduces students to the background and key issues of sustainability and suggests ways in which these concepts can be applied in business practice. Though the book takes a business perspective, it is interdisciplinary in its nature and draws on knowledge from socio-economic, political, and environmental studies, thereby providing a practical and critical understanding of sustainability in the changing paradigm of global business. It goes beyond the conventional theories of sustainability and addresses critical issues concerned with population, consumption and economic growth. It discusses realistic ways forward, in particular the Circular Economy and Cradle to Cradle frameworks. The book is both a theoretical and practical study guide for undergraduate and postgraduate international students of broad areas of sustainability, teaching ways to recognize opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship at the intersection of environmental, economic, ethical, and social systems. It takes a strategic approach in applying the power of business methods and policy to address issues of global importance such as climate change, poverty, ecosystem degradation and human rights. This textbook is essential reading for students of business, management and sustainability courses. It is written in an engaging and accessible style, with each chapter including case studies, discussion questions, end of chapter summaries and suggestions for further reading.

A Case Study in Crisis Management: Le Petit Gourmet Catering

The skills of crisis management are more and more valuable in the food service industry. How a manager handles a crisis can spell the difference between success and failure. Finding a good model for crisis management is difficult. The author offers a case study to introduce one such model.

Why Most Biomedical Findings Echoed by Newspapers Turn Out to be False: The Case of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Context: Because positive biomedical observations are more often published than those reporting no effect, initial observations are often refuted or attenuated by subsequent studies. Objective: To determine whether newspapers preferentially report on initial findings and whether they also report on subsequent studies. Methods: We focused on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Using Factiva and PubMed databases, we identified 47 scientific publications on ADHD published in the 1990s and soon echoed by 347 newspapers articles. We selected the ten most echoed publications and collected all their relevant subsequent studies until 2011. We checked whether findings reported in each ‘‘top 10’’ publication were consistent with previous and subsequent observations. We also compared the newspaper coverage of the ‘‘top 10’’ publications to that of their related scientific studies. Results: Seven of the ‘‘top 10’’ publications were initial studies and the conclusions in six of them were either refuted or strongly attenuated subsequently. The seventh was not confirmed or refuted, but its main conclusion appears unlikely. Among the three ‘‘top 10’’ that were not initial studies, two were confirmed subsequently and the third was attenuated. The newspaper coverage of the ‘‘top 10’’ publications (223 articles) was much larger than that of the 67 related studies (57 articles). Moreover, only one of the latter newspaper articles reported that the corresponding ‘‘top 10’’ finding had been attenuated. The average impact factor of the scientific journals publishing studies echoed by newspapers (17.1 n = 56) was higher (p,0.0001) than that corresponding to related publications that were not echoed (6.4 n = 56). Conclusion: Because newspapers preferentially echo initial ADHD findings appearing in prominent journals, they report on uncertain findings that are often refuted or attenuated by subsequent studies. If this media reporting bias generalizes to health sciences, it represents a major cause of distortion in health science communication.

What is this thing called Historical Archaeology?

Historical archaeology, in its narrow temporal sense -as an archaeology of the emergence and subsequent evolution of the Modern world- is steadily taking pace in Spanish academia. This paper aims at provoking a more robust debate through understanding how Spanish historical archaeology is placed in the international scene and some of its more relevant particularities. In so doing, the paper also stresses the strong links that have united historical and prehistorical archaeology since its inception, both in relation to the ontological, epistemological and methodological definition of the first as to the influence of socio-political issues in the latter. Such reflection is partly a situated reflection from prehistory as one of the paper’s authors has been a prehistorian for most of her professional life.

Facing the Face of the Other: The Case of the Nia Centre

Until comparatively recently there has been little systematic effort to record the contribution to British theatre history of the diversity represented by Black British and British South and East Asian theatre makers. That failure to ‘see’ and acknowledge this lacuna within the academy reflected what in 2001 was condemned as widespread institutional racism within the theatre industry itself. The other ‘faces’ had been rendered effectively invisible. This chapter considers the ethical and evidential challenges associated with the task of recovering the history of a project created to enhance an important concept of cultural identity: the little-documented failure in the 1990s of the Nia Centre, the UK’s first black arts centre which opened in Hulme, Manchester in 1991. My exploration raises a number of key ethical challenges: How in the aftermath of the Nia’s collapse and in the almost complete absence of archival records, is the historian to mediate what inevitably are multiple truths coming from different perspectives? Whose, and what values were, and remain, at stake both at the time of the project itself, and in the telling of the history? How does the historian deal with failure especially if the circumstances were obscure and little regarded? The dream of the Nia died more than a decade ago, but the participants in that history are very much alive and their sensitivities have to be respected as part of the ethical challenge.

Prosocial Behaviour in Palliative Nurses: Psychometric Evaluation of the Prosociality Scale

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of a prosociality scale within the palliative nursing context, and then examine the impact of prosocial behaviour in relation to job and educational satisfaction among palliative nurses. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted in 25 Italian palliative care centres, with a total of 107 nurses completing the prosociality scale by Caprara et al (2005). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were examined to evaluate a multidimensional model of prosociality. Results: A three-factor solution with a second order factor fitted the data well. The three dimensions extracted were labelled as helping, empathy, and sharing. Participants reported high levels of prosociality. In addition, prosociality was positively associated with job and educational satisfaction. Conclusions: The prosociality scale was valid and reliable when tested with palliative nurses. Although prosociality may be embedded in nurses’ personalities, this quality should be actively promoted to expand and improve the culture and the ethics of nursing.

The 2014 Greater Iowa African American Resource Guide, May 30, 2014

The Iowa Accountability program (IAP) was established to address the disproportionate numbers of African American affected by domestic violence. IAP specializes in programming tailored to working with the community, African American leaders, victim advocates and members of the legal system.