« Previous
Thursday | Friday | Sunday
Next »
6:30 – 8:30am Continental Breakfast — Vancouver
8:00 – 9:15 am Concurrent Session 3
Panel: Child Slave Labor in the Cocoa Industry in Ivory Coast and Ghana, and Alien Tort Statute Litigation in the USA — Beijing
More Info
Moderator
Paula Becker Alexander, Seton Hall University
Panelists
Paula Becker Alexander , Seton Hall University
Wendy Blanpied, Save the Children
Marco Simons, Earthrights International
Judy Gearhart, International Labor Rights Forum
Todd Camp, The Hershey Company
Child slave labor in the cocoa industry in Ivory Coast and Ghana has been addressed by the UN and NGOs since 2001, and before, but without effective correction of the problem. A case has been brought in the USA under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), and the 9th circuit court of appeals, USA has permitted the case to proceed, notwithstanding the Kiobel case decided 2011 by the US Supreme Court about the application of the ATS in the USA. In Kiobel, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to exercise jurisdiction of Shell Oil Company for human rights violations in Nigeria. In the Kiobel case, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to assume jurisdiction on the basis that the activities of Shell Oil Company failed to touch and concern the interests of the United States sufficiently to justify the assumption of extra-territorial jurisdiction. The Alien Tort Statute provides that aliens may seek recourse for violations of the laws of nations. Slavery is violation of the laws of nations; and the fact that the practice of child slave labor in the cocoa industry has been addressed for a period of years, but not corrected weighed in favor granting access of the plaintiffs to the U.S. courts. The defendants in the ATS case, Doe v. Nestle, ADM and Cargill, are alleged, not to have engaged in direct action, but in aiding and abetting the cocoa farmers that do utilize child slave labor.
Emerging Scholars — Connaught
Chair
Robert Phillips, University of Richmond
Study on Evaluation of Social Impact of CSR Activities
Maki Dan, Keio University
Mitsuhiro Umezu, Keio University
The Evolution of Data Governance Institutions in Data-Based Business Models
Angelique Slade Shantz, York University
Ethical Constraints on the Pursuit of Profit
Carson Young, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Finding the Good in Business
Florian Krause, Leibniz University of Hanover
Panel: Business Usage of Social Media in Japan and North America — Library
More Info
Moderator
William Sodeman, Martin Methodist College
Panelists
William Sodeman, Martin Methodist College
Joji Nakaya, Kinki University
Hiroki Idota, Kinki University
This panel discussion is a comparison of corporate social media usage in Japan and North America. The fast pace of technological change creates many challenges for employees who use social media within businesses, as well as managers who must plan and monitor corporate social media usage and policies. The Japanese approach involves business ethics principles from the perspectives of technological determinism and social constructivism. The North American approach to corporate social media usage is examined in terms of corporate social performance (CSP) and reputation. The ability of companies and employees to build or damage economic value is also examined through several recent examples. The role of regulation in Japan and North America is also examined.
Business Ethics Theory — Pacific
Chair
Marc Cohen, Seattle University
‘We Can, therefore I Will’ Tenability in a Dynamic Conception of ‘Ought Implies Can’
Gastón de los Reyes, George Washington University School of Business
Business ethicists frequently object to moral proposals on the ground that they are too demanding in light of the facts about humans in business today. Appealing to the Kantian dictum “ought implies can,” the resulting thought experiment standardly assumes the status quo, not only in terms of human nature but in terms of the prevailing institutional environment and its cumulative demands. The static approach taken—assuming zero changes in the status quo—provokes skepticism as to human moral potential. To counteract this limitation, I characterize a dynamic conception of “ought implies can” analysis designed to evaluate whether a morally attractive proposal for a change in business practice is worth pursuing. By this I mean that it promises the potential to survive an equilibrium, even if it is not clear how to bring the practice into being. Looking to eunomics—Lon Fuller’s label for the study of good order and workable arrangements—I propose a framework for evaluating the potential of a proposed moral practice to latch onto the institutional framework, enacted by us the way we are today. I conclude by discussing aspects of the application of the proposed tenability framework, including the matter of scoping the counterfactual. I claim that this tenability framework—and eunomics more broadly—represents a distinctive and underrepresented approach to the problems of business ethics that is essential for continuing progress in the project to positively impact practice.
The Hobbesian Approach to Business Ethics
David Dick, University of Calgary
When moral theory is applied to business cases it is often ill fitting. Most approaches require commitment to values (such as maximal utility or the good will) that are both foreign to business practitioners and that can require unprofitable actions. This leaves much of business ethics struggling to reply to a particular kind of skeptic who wonders why she should adopt a set of values so foreign and potentially contrary to her values as a business person. This kind of skepticism is even stronger for corporate entities that may be incapable or legally prohibited from advancing values other than shareholder return.
This kind of skepticism can be answered by adopting an approach to business ethics inspired by the moral and political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. Following interpreters like Gregory Kavka and Edwin Curley, the Hobbesian approach is a rule-egoist one that grounds reasons to behave well in one’s long term self-interest. The strength of this approach is that it can give reasons for the skeptic to behave well without forcing the adoption of a new set of values.
The Hobbesian approach to business ethics just is the “business case” for ethics made at the level of moral theory. It recommends attending to one’s reputation as a way of avoiding the “financial state of nature,” where a firm’s life will be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” It even offers guidance for proper business regulation, to motivate short-sighted business agents to do what is ultimately in their long term self-interest.
9:30 – 10:20 am Concurrent Session 4
Deliberation within the Firm —Beijing
Chair
Verena Patock, Institute for International Business, Vienna University of Economics and Business
Configuring Political Spaces for Democratic Deliberation in Business Firms
Jennifer Goodman, ESADE Business School, Ramon Llull University
The role of the business firm in responding to the ever-growing concerns of climate change, natural resource depletion and human rights abuses is under increasing scrutiny. In response to the demands placed on corporations for greater social and environmental responsibility, scholars have begun to develop a political theory of the firm. However, this project remains widely debated and political conceptualisations of the business firm have been diverse. This paper contributes to the conversation from the perspective of deliberative democracy and uses the case of Vélib’, the widely acclaimed cycle share system in Paris, to illustrate a successful configuration of a deliberative political space within a business firm. We argue that it is possible, and even desirable, to create such spaces within the business firm which are orientated towards mutual agreement and which can overcome doubts raised about the potential for achieving communicative action in practice.
Diversity as Polyphony: Diversity Management Reconstructed From a Communication-Centered Perspective
Hannah Trittin, University of Zurich
Dennis Schoeneborn, Copenhagen Business School
This paper proposes the reconstruction of diversity management from a communication centered perspective. It is based on the observation that the literature on diversity management, both from the instrumental and critical traditions, is primarily concerned with the ways in which intra-organizational workforce diversity is accomplished. We add to the literature by developing a complementary, communication-centered perspective that elaborates different ways to maximize and accommodate the plurality of intra- and extraorganizational voices within organizations. Specifically, we propose to draw on works from the ‘communicative constitution of organizations’ (CCO) perspective and other studies that view organizations as polyphonic entities. Based on this view, we contribute to the literature on diversity management by moving away from individual-bound categories of diversity and toward a processual understanding of diversity as the polyphony of internal and external voices. Furthermore, we elaborate on the ethical-normative implications of applying a communication-centered view to organizations.
Ethical Behavior in Organizations — Connaught
Chair
Nicholas Schlereth, The University of New Mexico
Is the Bloom Still on the Rose? Perceptions of Organizational Ethics
Julie Ragatz, The American College
Jason Martin, Temple University
Gerry Herbison, The American College
Treviño, Weaver & Brown’s (2008) research on the variation between perception of organizational ethical culture and organizational position suggests that it is ‘lovelier at the top’, that is, that higher-level employees tend to have more favorable impressions of organizational ethics than lower level employees. This discrepancy is troublesome since it could undermine both the creation and efficacy of organizational ethics initiatives. This research study is guided by the following key research questions: how do financial services professionals’ perceptions of the ethical cultures in their companies vary along the following dimensions: (1) position in the organizational hierarchy – company leaders, middle managers and field employees (2) tenure in current position. Addressing these key questions provides an opportunity to test Treviño et al.’s conclusions related to the relationship between individuals’ organizational position and their perceptions of their company’s ethical culture. The present study utilizes a mixed methods approach to address these questions. Specifically, a sample of 2,331 individuals within the financial services sector were randomly selected from a total of approximately 75,000 listed in The American College Alumni database of financial service sector employees. In addition, 21 qualitative interviews were completed which addressed respondents’ opinion in more detail. This paper for the SBE conference contains the theoretical framework, methodology, results of our factor analysis, basic descriptive findings from the survey and a description of our multivariate analysis structure. We describe the next steps in the concluding section of the paper.
Who Can Cast the First Stone: Blame, Moral Standing, and Organizational Justice
Miguel Alzola, Fordham University
It is widely believed that if a person is blameworthy for having done something wrong, then each and every one of us may blame him or her for that action. According to that view, anyone can blame every wrongdoer for every wrong. But our moral practices do not work that way. Even if a wrongdoer is blameworthy, a person may be disabled to blame the wrongdoer. That is because of the would-be blamer’s position, prior misconduct, and/or character. This paper is concerned with the question of whether, to what extent, and under what conditions a manager may lose (or retain) his or her standing to blame his or her subordinates. In the course of this paper, I shall examine four possible ways to undermine one’s moral standing to blame. And I shall defend the claim that the moral standing to blame in corporate roles is continuous with individual moral standing.
CSR — Library
Chair
Anna Erat, University of Zurich
Linking Resource Investments and Organizational Implementation: Analyzing the Relationship between the Corporate Social Responsibility Management Function and the Institutionalization of Corporate Social Responsibility within Large Swiss Firms
David Risi, University of St. Gallen
Institutional theory is less clear on whether implementation of a practice is either more or less substantive, and what the factors are which lead to a specific outcome. This limitation is due to the current field and inter organizational level of analysis which fails to capture the implicit nature of organizational implementation with corresponding low visibility to outside observers. Against this background, this research applies an internal organization perspective to study the link between a distinct organizational function and the implementation of a particular institution. The inductive and longitudinal analysis of the relationship between the Corporate Social Responsibility management function and Corporate Social Responsibility implementation within large Swiss firms suggests that direct resource investments in the function, which is primarily in charge of Corporate Social Responsibility, and advancing Corporate Social Responsibility implementation are not linear proportional during time, but instead dynamically and negatively related. The insight that staffing, internal resources and implementation are dynamically and negatively related challenges research applying staffing or internal resource pressures as indicators for implementation. At the same time, the study consolidates the common assumption that implementation is less visible and implicit by nature, and shows that implementation and adoption are clearly related.
Why Do Firms Explicitly Commit to Social Responsibility? The Multiwave Diffusions of Global CSR Initiatives in South Korea, 2003-2014
Sang-Bum Park, Korea University
Hicheon Kim, Korea University
While much is known about whether and how corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects firm consequences, less is known about why firms engage in CSR. Focusing on the multiwave diffusions of related CSR initiatives—the Global Reporting Initiative and the United Nations Global Compact, this study examines why some firms explicitly commit to global CSR norms while others are hesitant or defiant. Using longitudinal data compiled from South Korean firms, which are mostly family business, this study further explores sources of similar and varied firms’ responses to social demands, and why ‘within differences’ among family firms occur. As a result, this study finds that institutional isomorphic pressures play important roles in the diffusion of global CSR initiatives among regional firms in an emerging country. Moreover, this effort provides fresh evidence that the initial adoption of one CSR initiative facilitates the subsequent diffusion of another CSR initiative, which shares institutional logic with the preceding one. In addition, results show that family governance, which is elaborated to the extent that firms are embedded in family owners and managers, is a distinct cause of different organizational responses to institutional stimuli. These findings contribute to recent endeavors to elucidate antecedents of CSR with a finer nuance on the interplay between institutional context and organizational agency, and to the family business literature by explicating variance among family firms in dealing with mounting social demands on responsible and sustainable business.
Business Ethics Theory — Pacific
Chair
Richard De George, University of Kansas
Theories of German Business Ethics and Ethical Economy in a Cosmopolitan Perspective
Jacob Dahl Rendtorff, Roskilde University
In this paper I discuss the major paradigms and Schools of German Business Ethics and Ethical Economy (Wirtschaftsethik) with regard to the possibility of cosmopolitan business ethics. With the examination of the traditional paradigms and schools of business ethics I want to analyze their potential for developing cosmopolitan business ethics as a global philosophy of management. In Germany, as a relatively large academic community with many scholars and professors, a school formation of business ethics has developed since the beginning of the discipline in the 1970s. These schools have had importance nationally in Germany, although they have not been very important internationally and they are nearly unknown in the context of Anglo-Saxon business ethics. In the following, it is my aim to present these different schools of German business ethics in order to contribute to the international debate on business ethics.
Toward a Theory of Business
Thomas Donaldson, University of Pennsylvania
Jim Walsh, University of Michigan
This paper attempts to help us answer the questions “What is the purpose of business?” “What constitutes business success?” “To whom is business accountable?” and “How are we to control business?” Most would agree that the purpose of business minimally involves the creation of value, but such discussions are haunted by a blurred double image of “value,” one that confuses one concept value with a similar but different one. The image of what counts as “value” for an individual firm is laid atop the image of what counts as value for business in general. Our paper explains why these two images cannot match and why the resulting blurriness is an example of the “exception fallacy.” Working toward a theory of business (and not a theory of the firm), we develop a set of definitions that gives precision to such everyday concepts as “value,” “exchange” and “business success.” Developing four key propositions, we close by inviting others to help us understand how to commingle our understanding of firm conduct with an aspiration for business activity that honors human dignity when we produce, exchange and distribute our goods and services.
10:30 – 11:20 am Concurrent Session 5
Neuroscience and Ethical Decision Making — Beijing
Chair
Virginie Lecourt, ICP
Mirror Neurons, Intuitionism, and the Social Dimension of Ethical Decision Making
David Ohreen, Mount Royal University
Within business ethics literature, the use of psychological literature to support ethical decision making has become increasingly important. This paper will look at two emerging trends that bridge psychology and business ethics—mirror neurons and intuitionism. First, neuroscience on mirror neurons has been applied to number of business contexts including marketing, charitable giving, organizational connectedness, and leadership. Our ability to empathize with others creates an emotional and cognitive (mental states) resonance whereby we are able to ‘step into their shoes’ and come to know what they are feeling and thinking. However, I argue that this research rests on a false assumption; namely, it fails to provide an understanding of the intentions or goals behind actions and thus cannot be used in the managerial context. Second, research on intuitionism suggests our moral decisions about what is right and wrong is primarily due to automatic intuitions. As we will see, intuitionist models underdetermine the role rational contemplation accounts for our moral decisions and do not sufficiently explain the process by which social factors influence our moral intuitions. To account for these deficiencies, I suggest ethical intuitionism and rational moral judgments can be improved or scaffolded by the day-to-day dialogue with parents, teachers, peers, and their social environment. If correct, social/peer discussion with colleagues and various stakeholders that is the best approach to enhancing ethics in business.
Neural Correlates of Post-Conventional Moral Reasoning: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study
Diana C. Robertson, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Kristin Prehn, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Hengyi Rao, University of Pennsylvania
Marc Korczykowski, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Zhuo Fang, University of Pennsylvania
Going back to Kohlberg, moral development research affirms that people progress through different stages of moral reasoning as cognitive abilities mature. Individuals at a lower level of moral reasoning judge moral issues mainly based on self-interest (personal interests schema) or based on adherence to laws and rules (maintaining norms schema), whereas individuals at the post-conventional level judge moral issues based on deeper principles and shared ideals. However, the extent to which moral development is reflected in structural brain architecture remains unknown. To investigate this question, we used voxel-based morphometry and examined brain structure in a sample of 67 students from a Master of Business Administration (MBA) program. Subjects completed the Defining Issues Test (DIT-2) which measures moral development in terms of cognitive schema preference. Results demonstrate that subjects at the post-conventional level of moral reasoning were characterized by increased gray matter volume in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, compared with subjects at a lower level of moral reasoning. Our findings support an important role for both cognitive and emotional processes in moral reasoning and provide first evidence for individual differences in brain structure according to the stages of moral reasoning first proposed by Kohlberg decades ago.
Ethical Behavior in Organizations — Connaught
Chair
Shahir Kassam-Adams, University of Virginia
Factors Impacting Ethical Behavior in a Japanese Pharmaceutical Company
Nobuyuki Demise, Meiji University
Yoshinari Koyama, Kanto Gakuin University
Eugene Taniguchi, Hokkaido University
Previous studies have pointed out that the ethical behavior of peers is an important factor impacting the ethical behavior of individuals. It is predictable that, in the Japanese corporate environment, where collectivism prevails, the ethical behavior of peers impacts that of individual employees. At the same time, Japanese corporations think highly of their mission statements and establish their codes of conduct on the basis of them. They provide collective training on their mission statement and code of conduct to all their employees. Therefore, it is predictable that the code of conduct impacts the ethical behavior of the employees.
This study examines factors impacting ethical behavior of 1475 sales employees of a Japanese pharmaceutical company. Ethical behavior of peers and acceptance of the code of conduct had a significant impact on the ethical behavior of the respondents. In particular, the ethical behavior of peers had the greatest impact on the ethical behavior of the employees.
Timing Is Everything: Reexamining Assumptions of Counterproductive Work Behavior
Johnathan Nelson, Morehead State University
This article proposes that counterproductive work behavior (CWB) does not universally contribute to negative, undesirable outcomes, but instead, depending upon the time period that is considered, CWB may lead to less negative and even positive outcomes. This paper argues for a more complex approach for viewing CWB, than researchers and practitioners have traditionally taken. Rather, this paper proposes that CWB contributes both to positive and negative outcomes depending upon the seriousness of the behavior and when it is enacted. Theories of dynamic criteria, time, and group development are drawn upon to support this argument.
CSR — Library
Chair
Hannah Trittin, University of Zurich
Does Corporate Social Responsibility Respond to Employees Interest? The Effect on Downsizing
Sebastian Vogt, University of Würzburg
Sanja Pekovic, University Paris Dauphine
Marcus Wagner, Augsburg University
Following social contract and stakeholder theories, we argue that socially responsible firms aspire to higher ethical and moral standards than other firms and have higher intrinsic motivation to avoid violating social contracts through downsizing. Moreover since socially responsible firms make additional efforts to enhance their human capital as well as their reputations, those firms would avoid downsizing that could impact negatively on both employees’ behavior and corporate reputation. In line with this, we develop hypotheses proposing a negative effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on both downsizing and downsizing severity. Working on a sample of 1286 firms over a seven-year period, we confirm these hypotheses and find that CSR has a negative association with downsizing that increases with the severity of downsizing, thus confirming the above reasoning on socially responsible firms.
Corporate Social Responsibility for Local Communities: The Roles of Companies after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011
Yoshinori Yaguchi, Tohoku Gakuin University
In this paper, we consider the roles that companies in disaster areas (CDAs) have played in local communities after the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) from the perspective of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The originality in this paper is that we consider the efforts of CDAs that are headquartered and develop their main businesses within disaster areas; we refer to this as “inside-to-inside” approach. Specifically, the main objects are two specific CDAs located in the Miyagi Prefecture in the Tohoku region of Japan.
First, we confirm the outline of the area damaged by the GEJE. Second, we present the analytical framework of this paper to define CDAs, organize the timeline after the GEJE, and present our originality and academic definition by reviewing previous studies. Third, we consider the roles of CDAs for local communities during the GEJE and the relief process thereafter based on case studies of ISHII and Butai-Farm.
Finally, we conclude with the following. Most CDAs are small and medium-sized enterprises that are deeply embedded in local communities; therefore, CDAs have symbiotic relationships with and willingness to serve for local communities. Furthermore, the CSR practices of CDAs involve the accomplishment of economic responsibility through their core businesses on the premise of business continuance and have the characteristics of “implicit CSR” derived from the philosophies of owner-managers and the values of employees.
Business Ethics Theory — Pacific
Chair
James Murphy, DePaul University
Social Foundations of Business Ethics
Francis J. Schweigert, J,Metropolitan State University
This paper is an investigation of moral sensitivities and accountabilities that are endogenous in market activity and constitutive of human communities as systems of reciprocal exchange. I introduce this study with a brief sketch of ordinary features of our current market system, then proceed historically to examine how markets have served the common welfare and how these responsibilities have been understood. Part I describes moral responsibilities in archaic and ancient markets as systems of total service. Part II traces the disjunction of markets and morals in the Christian West, which continues in Part III with an explication of liberties and rights in the modern private property free market. Part IV concludes with five concepts drawn from innate sensitivities and relations of reciprocity that provide a social foundation for business in a system of exchange serving the common welfare. These five concepts are, (a) a shared understanding of substantive fairness in distribution of goods, (b) the marketplace as a complex adaptive system aiming for ever greater fit with the natural environment, (c) wealth as a collective resource that serves individuals and their communities, (d) the recovery of public honor as a social norm in market relations, and (e) the marketplace as a system of provision, protection, and meaning governed through civic evaluation. I conclude that markets have always served and sustained the common welfare, and this ordinary and necessary public responsibility should be a regular part of management education and business ethics education.
Resolved: We Already Have Enough Business Ethics
Wayne Eastman, Rutgers Business School
Jason Stansbury, Calvin College
The broad purpose of the panel/debate is to explore an alternative, critical understanding of business ethics, grounded in the idea that ethics can be understood in terms of historical stages that are constitutive of, as well as constituted by, material orders of production. In this understanding, hunter-gatherer economies were created by, and in turn helped to foster, an ascendant warrior ethics of tense egalitarianism; agricultural economies were created by, and in turn helped to foster, an ascendant priestly ethics of ashamed compliance; and modern industrial and post-industrial economies have been created by, and have in turn help to foster, an ascendant business ethics of drive to work, pragmatic calculation, and anonymous trust. That historical narrative resembles both Marx and Engels’s materialist account of the transition from primitive communism to despotism to capitalism and Hegel’s (and Hegel’s modern successor Francis Fukuyama’s) idealist account of the transition from conflict to rule of the master to mutual recognition, but is not necessarily wedded to either the anti-capitalist hope for a successor to capitalism that is central to the Marx-Engels narrative, or to the “end of history” perspective that is central to the Hegel-Fukuyama narrative. The historical narrative, and the alternative understanding of business ethics that it implies, will be advanced by the panel/debate organizer (Eastman), and questioned by the other panel/debate participant (Stansbury).
11:30 am – 12:20 pm Concurrent Session 6
Moral Courage — Beijing
Chair
Monga Manjit, University of South Australia
Durable Moral Courage in Organizations: Preventing Demoralization Before and After the Going Gets Tough
Debra R. Comer, Hofstra University
Those who take a stand against unethical incidents in their organizations may have to pay a personal price for their morally courageous efforts. Although the topic of moral courage in organizational settings has begun to receive scholarly attention in recent years, there has been scant consideration of factors that enable an individual to carry on with moral courage after a negative organizational response occurs. In this paper, we develop a model outlining factors that promote durable moral courage in the workplace and inhibit the demoralization an individual might experience in the face of organizational rejection, resistance, and/or retaliation. Specifically, we explain how hardiness, grit, moral efficacy, and planning for endurance before acting with moral courage can help to insulate the morally courageous actor from a negative organizational response, reducing the extent to which the actor perceives that response as negative, and thereby promoting durability and inhibiting demoralization after that response. We also consider how the fortification afforded by emotional self-regulation can promote durability and inhibit demoralization after a negative organizational response.
David vs. Goliath?: Reframing Whistleblowing in the National Security Context
Benjamin Hawbaker, Boston College
Richard Nielsen, Boston College
Whistleblowing has been consistently shown as one of the most effective means of enforcing accountability on the part of powerful institutions (Kohn, 2011). Few institutions can lay claim to more power and less public accountability than those that make up what is now frequently referred to as the United States’ military-intelligence-industrial complex (Fry, 2014). When such unfettered power leads inevitably to unethical behaviors within these institutions, opportunities for whistleblowing can be important. Unfortunately, the evidence from recent military and intelligence-related whistleblowing efforts indicates that our existing formal systems to encourage this beneficial correcting behavior are broken. This has resulted in a dangerous escalation in the tactics used both by those compelled to blow the whistle on unethical behavior and those intent on subverting the efforts of these whistleblowers. In this article we discuss the practical and ethical arguments for whistleblowing, examine the obstacles to whistleblowing and failings of the systems currently in place, advocate reframing (Benford & Snow, 2000) and replacing the dominant metaphor used to describe whistleblowing, and propose a critical reframing of whistleblowing as a helpful precursor to successful and sustainable change. The intent is threefold: first, to convince practitioners and policy-makers of the ethical and practical benefits of whistle-blowing, second, to encourage a productive reconception of cognitive models of whistleblowing in order to change the existing, broken systems, and, finally, to obviate the need for continued extraordinary measures on the part of whistleblowers or those in power.
Workshop: Special Session with Ethics and Compliance Officers Association — Connaught
Chair
Tim Mazur, College of Business, University of Wyoming
Business Ethics Theory — Cristal Ballroom
Chair
Jeffery Smith, Seattle University
Business Ethics, Political Philosophy, and the Debate on Liberal Neutrality
Ben Wempe, Erasmus University Rotterdam
This article responds to a recent review on the intersection of business ethics and political philosophy by Heath, Moriarty & Norman (2010, hereafter HMN). These authors make a case for more intensive forms of cooperation between these two academic disciplines. The present article critically reviews an aspect of the methodology debate that is carried on in political theory between Rawls and his communitarian critics, so as to establish to what role this can play in HMN’s proposal. Although Rawls is a major source of inspiration for a more robust method of normative inquiry, there is an -as yet unresolved- debate on the idea of liberal neutrality which importantly affects the domain to which his methodology for normative inquiry can be applied. We look at the basis of Rawls’s methodology for normative inquiry, i.e. the idea of wide reflective equilibrium (WRE) and the contractarian method to justify the theory of social justice as was developed in Rawls (1971). We then discuss the arguments leveled against Rawls by his communitarian critics as well as the adaptation this has prompted in Rawls (1993). Third, we discuss the methodological criticism which continues to attach to the later version of his theory and methodology. This is illustrated from the Goodridge case on same sex marriage (SJC of Massachusetts, 2003).
Open Discussion: Business Ethics Theory: Taking Stock
Moderator
Jeffery Smith, Seattle University
Theories of the Firm — Library
Chair
John Boatright, Loyola University Chicago
Holistic Shareholder Primacy
Matthew Emmet Brophy, High Point University
Henry Hansmann proclaims that the corporate governance debate has reached the “end of history,” where shareholder primacy has – once and for all – ascended the throne. He states that, “since the dominant corporate ideology of shareholder primacy is unlikely to be undone, its success represents the end of history for corporate law” (2003). If the proclamation of this Yale law professor and economist is correct, and business ethics is ultimately to be practical, then a new ethical discussion must originate within this prevailing paradigm.
This paper pragmatically accepts shareholder primacy as its starting point: namely, that the fiduciary duty of the manager should be to advance shareholder interests. Given this starting point, the paper examines what it means to advance shareholder interests. Traditionally, shareholder primacy characterizes these interests as economic: namely, to maximize shareholder wealth. According to Hansmann and Kraakman, there is “widespread normative consensus that corporate managers should act in the exclusive economic interests of shareholders…” (2003). This paper argues for the expansion of this narrow circumscription: acknowledging that the duty of corporate managers is indeed to act on behalf of shareholders, yet not only in terms of their economic interests, but framed by their moral values as well.
Firms in Parental Justice
Sandrine Blanc, Inseec Business School
Tim Meijers, Chaire Hoover d’éthique économique et sociale, Université Catholique de Louvain
This paper considers the role of businesses in questions of parental justice, broadly defined as the question of the fair distribution of the costs of having and raising children. This question is examined from a liberal egalitarian perspective. Liberal egalitarians have indeed taken an increasing interest recently in the role of firms for social justice. But discussions have focused on general questions of distributive justice rather than more specific areas of justice, such as parental justice. Simultaneously, parental justice as a topical and important aspect of justice has received increasing attention from liberal egalitarians, but firms have remained outside the scope of discussions. However, such an account is incomplete without considering the role of firms, because business firms are or perhaps should be involved in bearing pregnancy and parental costs, as demonstrated by controversies over the recent case of UPS in the US. In this paper we ask whether firms can be expected to carry (some of) the costs of pregnancy and parenthood. If so, which costs should firms cover, e.g. full time salary for part-time parents, replacement revenue for parents on parental leave, etcetera? If not, should firms be reimbursed for the costs incurred and by whom? We consider two grounds for addressing these questions: grounds of equality of opportunity in society and ground of fairness in cooperative schemes. Overall the paper argues firms should bear some pooled costs of pregnancies and parenthood, but not the direct costs they may incur for their employees being or becoming parents.
12:30 – 2:00 pm Presidential Luncheon & Awards — Cristal Ballroom
Is it Time to Jump off the Sustainability Bandwagon?
Joe Desjardins, President
Tickets purchased in advance.×
2:15 – 3:45 pm Concurrent Session 7
Panel: Educating for Success in Business — Beijing
More Info
Moderator
Michael Pritchard, Western Michigan University
Panelists
Michael Pritchard, Western Michigan University
Aine Donovan, Dartmouth College
Elaine Englehardt, Dartmouth College
Michael S. Pritchard will introduce the topic of the panel, which will focus on questions about what should be regarded as a “successful” business career. Elaine E. Englehardt will describe an 11 year Excellence in Ethics Award in Business program at her university that presents outstanding examples of businesspeople who define their success in business, in part, in terms of deeply held moral values. Aine Donovan will chair the session and comment on these two presentations before inviting the audience to join in discussion.
Asked why they are pursuing college degrees in various areas of business, students can be expected to respond that they are trying to prepare themselves for good jobs in the business world. They are, they hope, on “the road to success.” But how do they plan to navigate their travels, and where do they think this “road” might take them? In short, what do they regard to be the marks of a successful business career? Making a good living would be one feature. But is that all? This panel will discuss views of moral exemplars in business, those whose views of business success include strong ethical ideals as well as profitability. It will also discuss ways in which such examples might be incorporated in the business curriculum.
Sustainability — Connaught
Chair
Karen Paul, FIU
Further Validating a Policy-Capturing Measure of Human Values in the Context of Sustainability
Joel Marcus, York University
Common ipsative and normative measures of human values have a number of limitations, and as explicit measures align poorly with the conceptual definition of values. In this research we conduct a comparative analysis with established values measures and provide further evidence of the validity and utility of a recently developed policy-capturing values measure. The policy-capturing measure demonstrated greater variability in scale responses, less susceptibility to social desirability effects, and greater correspondence with a multi-dimensional measure of sustainability actions.
Discriminating Business Sustainability from Corporate Social Responsibility
Pratima Bansal, Western University
Hee-Chan Song, Western University
Business Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are research fields and constructs that have become deeply entangled and blurred. A field’s development is shaped by the clarity of its constructs, underlying assumptions and shared paradigm; however, such clarity is missing in business sustainability and CSR research. In this study, we illustrate the convergence in business sustainability and CSR by reviewing the last 20 years of business sustainability and CSR research. We then describe their differences by tracing back their historical foundations, showing that CSR was founded on ethical claims, whereas business sustainability assumed a systems perspective. We argue that this systems perspective has been sidelined and claim that a systems perspective has considerable potential in helping to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
The Relevance of the Organizational Micro-Level in Corporate Sustainability: Cross-Country Empirical Evidence from US-DJIA and German-DAX Companies
Matthias Georg Will, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg
Stefan Hielscher, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg
Mengdong Zhuang, University of Richmond
Recent years have witnessed a welcome upswing in empirical sustainability research, particularly in cross-country analyses. Despite these increased efforts, current research suffers from two important shortcomings: First, from an empirical perspective, the cross-country literature offers little to understand the link between sustainability and corporate profitability. Second, from a conceptual perspective, this unsatisfying result is due to under-complex conceptual frameworks underlying much empirical research. In this paper, we open the ‘black box of the corporation’ and contribute to the understanding of the link between different management functions and corporate sustainability below the organizational macro level. The paper’s results suggest integrating innovations and innovation management as a cornerstone into the concept, and we offer a more fine-tuned proposal to account for it.
Exploitation and Manipulation — Library
Chair
Sareh Pouryousefi, Nottingham University
The Dark Side of Buyer Power: Supplier Exploitation and the Role of Ethical Climates
Martin C. Schleper, EBS University for Business and Law
Constantin Blome, University of Sussex
David A. Wuttke, EBS University for Business and Law
Media increasingly accuse firms of exploiting suppliers, and these allegations often result in lurid headlines that threaten the reputations and therefore business successes of these firms. The phenomenon of supplier exploitation has not been investigated from a rigorous, ethical standpoint, and neither have answers been provided regarding why some firms pursue exploitative approaches. By systemically contrasting economic liberalism and just prices as two divergent perspectives on supplier exploitation, we introduce a distinction of common business practice and unethical supplier exploitation. Since supplier exploitation is based on power, we elucidate several levels of power as antecedents, and investigate the role of ethical climate as a moderator. This study extends Victor and Cullen’s (1988) ethical climate matrix according to a supply chain dimension, and is summarized in an integrated, conceptual model of five propositions for future theory testing. Results provide a frame of reference for executives, who can now delineate unethical exploitation and understand important antecedents of the phenomenon better
Exploitation in Mutually Beneficial Market Exchange
Andras Miklos, University of Rochester
The paper analyzes an exploitation-based objection to free markets. Advocates of free markets emphasize that free exchange in markets leads to Pareto improvements, making parties better-off than they would be without the exchange. Free-marketers conclude from this observation that the existence of free markets is morally desirable and thus public policy should create and protect free markets in a wide range of goods. Some critics of this argument object that voluntary and mutually beneficial trades between free and competent parties can be morally impermissible due to their exploitative nature. In this paper, we distinguish between two underlying rationales for regarding mutually beneficial transactions in markets exploitative. One rationale emphasizes the underlying injustice or unfairness between consenting parties. Exploitative trades are mutually beneficial only because at least one party has very unattractive outside options due to the unjust or unfair background against which the trade wo