The main goal of this paper is to exhibit the role of the concept of human nature for the ethical orientation of organizational life. Therefore, after presenting some definitions of the concepts of human nature, which depict the complexity of these phenomena, some models of the concepts of human nature are described. Furthermore, the setting of the concepts of human nature in the organizational life is discussed. Those concepts can be perceived as a deep-structure of the organizational life, having an (...) impact not only on the individual behaviour of employees and managers (like sensibility for human emotions, pro-social engagement, communication style), but also affecting their moral competence and influencing whole organizational culture – image of the organization, preferred management strategies and the way of perceiving justice. Those elements play crucial role in ethical attitude of the organization because all those variables support the efficacy of ethical rules and most of them are part of ethical code and corporate ethical code. Therefore, it is necessary for an organization to consider implicit and explicit concepts of human nature on which the organizational culture is based and support those concepts, which enables the ethical conduct of the organization and being alert especially to the consequences of materialistic/egoistic and competitive concepts of human nature. The theses discussed in the paper are supported by some empirical research studies conducted in this field. (shrink)

The scope of the paper is to investigate whether e-learning is a good alternative to achieve business ethics teaching goals in the challenging context of disembedded economies. To achieve this goal, I used various interdisciplinary methods and approaches, content analysis of the relevant literature, and a case study. Firstly, I focus on the current challenges of business ethics teaching. Then, based on my experience of teaching business ethics in various forms, I distinguish the methods applied within them and evaluate them, (...) taking as criteria the cognitive, applicative, and reflective goals of teaching business ethics. Models and theories of educational psychology provide a framework to distinguish some elements that are responsible for the learning success of the student in terms of the defined teaching goal. Empirical results show that although e-learning scored best when it comes to achieving three differentiated goals of business ethics teaching, it is followed closely by seminars. This leads to the conclusion that perhaps a hybrid form, containing e-learning and seminars, would be the optimal way to achieve the goals. (shrink)

The last financial crisis combined with some recent social trends (like growing inequality or environmental problems) inspired many contemporary economists to the re-evaluation of actual economic knowledge in the search for solutions to these problems. Modern economic schools (especially heterodox ones) stress the meaning of ethical issues in economics more often. The thesis of the paper is that this revival of the ethical face of present economics depends very strongly on the changing assumptions of human nature within economics and other (...) disciplines which work alongside economics, such as social psychology or business ethics, for instance. In order to prove the thesis, the paper provides an evaluation of current economic schools, especially within the heterodoxy, in search of their ethical aspects, and presents them as a result of the changing assumptions about human beings within those schools. This ethical dimension of human beings manifests itself in different ways, which can be perceived as a result of it being based on different ethical schools and different psychological and philosophical assumptions about human nature. Therefore, the paper also considers the current developments of the view on human beings in contemporary schools of economic ethics. (shrink)

The phenomenon of financialization is multifaceted and can be considered from different points of view. The main purpose of the article is to show how financialization affects the erosion of the common good. To achieve this, various negative sides of financialization are described, referring to the eight principles of the common good: effective use of limited resources, freedom, prosperity, justice, responsibility, solidarity, primacy of interpersonal relations and institutional principle. Further considerations concern the presentation of possible solutions to the problem of (...) financialization. Two perspectives are selected. First, the answer of Catholic social teaching to the phenomenon of financialization, as presented in the form of the Vatican document Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones from May 2018. Next, one of the main causes of financialization is shown: economic and financial theories, which has become the theoretical foundation for the phenomenon. On this basis, the need for new theoretical solutions based on the institutional approach in the science of economics and finance is discussed. Possible new alternative approaches, including the concept of financial personalism, are also recognized. (shrink)