This paper puts forward an argument for stakeholder rights. It begins by exploring two major answers to the question, 'in whose interests should the commercial company function?'. One claims parity for other stakeholders alongside the shareholder on the basis of a theory of property rights, and another on a theory of citizenship. Each of these answers, it is argued, fail to convince. The way forward is to recast the initial question, not asking in whose interest the company should function, but (...) which type of interest, potentially located in any sort of person, might the company serve. That interest is identified and distinguished from others that people affected by corporations might have. These distinctions then provide the basis for an argument in favour of enfranchising two sorts of individual: sovereign stakeholders, in charge of monitoring the formulation and revision of company objectives; and secondary stakeholders, who along with those in the first category monitor the means used to achieve those objectives.The paper concludes that these distinctions should lead us to reconsider other elements in the corporate governance debate, such as the nature of a director's fiduciary duty; and the difference between democracy in corporations and democracy in the wider society. (shrink)

As the world is getting increasingly connected and interdependent it becomes clear that the world’s most pressing public problems such as poverty or global warming call for cross-sector solutions. The paper discusses the idea of business leaders acting as agents of world benefit, taking an active co-responsibility in generating solutions to problems. It argues that we need responsible global leaders who are aware of the pressing problems in the world, care for the needs of others, aspire to (...) make this world a better place, and act in word and deed as global and responsible citizens. The argument is structured as follows: first, in highlighting some leadership challenges we discuss why it takes a responsible, global, and ultimately cosmopolitan mindset to enhance human values on a global scale. Second, we define more specifically responsible global leadership and the (potential) role of business leaders acting as agents of world benefit. Third, drawing on latest research on cosmopolitanism, we discuss the hallmarks of contemporary cosmopolitanism. Fourth, and concluding our argument, we propose key cosmopolitan business principles to help leaders build a more inclusive world. (shrink)

Argues that many corporate executives have destroyed the value of their companies, cheated stockholders, employees, and the public, and compromised the integrity of financial markets and accountants while enriching themselves.

This book provides a unique introduction for business leaders to the philosophical lexicon of classical and contemporary ideas—for and against—that are relevant to business and those destined to lead it. Rather than presenting the reader with a ‘philosophy of leadership’ the author uses his experiences in academia and as a leader in business to illustrate the practical application of philosophical ideas and methodologies covering the art and science of being a business leader: motivating stakeholders to (...) deliver the initial phase of a business plan for a new product or service; processing information (and risky ‘hidden-information’) that brings the company vision into reality; and ethically managing relationships to enhance the quality of decision-making and its outcomes. Creative aspiration, knowledge and ethical character are the three pillars of leadership. Within that construct, this book challenges leaders to seek their own path to self-development inspired by ideas that shape the ecology of capitalism and the opportunities it provides stakeholders to endow meaning and dignity to their lives through their participation in business. (shrink)

Abstract -- Background, context, overview, and guiding philosophy -- Emotional intelligence meets virtue ethics : implications for educators -- Emotional intelligence as a component of business ethics pedagogy -- Nourishing life, the daoist concept of virtue -- Cultivation of virtue (dé) 1 according to the neiye -- Cultivation of virtuous leaders according to the huainanzi -- Is there a place for contemplation and inner work in business ethics education? -- Incorporating the inner work of ei and contemplation (...) in ethics education -- Glossary -- About the author. (shrink)

Successful entrepreneurs of a large retail chain for clothing—the Lojas Renner, decided to address gender, as well as job and income generation issues, in a challenging experience that involved several stakeholders in the new markets where they established their business. In 2007 they launched the ‘Mais Eu’ social campaign aligned with the business, aiming to increase women’s professional qualifications, job and income generation. The key concern relied upon the content of the communication, in order to promote a deep (...) adaptation to regional tastes and habits, respecting the different lifestyles. The institutional advertising campaign focused on the concept of woman and her relationship with important symbols such as family, considering different phases of her life-cycle and different women’s styles. This approach nationalized the concept and the importance of women from all Brazilian regions, enabling identification and awareness. The objectives of this paper are: to present the campaign, as it could serve as a model to be replicated by other companies, in emergent or developing countries; and to analyze the campaign using the theoretical framework of the Ethics of Care. (shrink)

This article raises an issue about corporate political activity that is different from those typically addressed by business ethicists. It examines the role‐model status and obligations of the business leaders who direct such activity. This approach has two potential benefits. First, since ethicists often appeal to role‐model obligations and many are concerned about corporate political activity, business ethics literature would benefit from expanding the examination of role‐model status and obligations to encompass the business leaders (...) who direct political activity. Second, it will help ethicists determine what we should demand from business leaders who direct such activity. This is important given the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in 2010 that guarantees corporations the free‐speech right to make political expenditures in support of political causes. I seek to demonstrate that we should hold business leaders morally accountable for how they direct political activity because of their role‐model status that arises from their greater fame, authority, or power than ordinary persons possess. (shrink)

The power, wealth and impact of multinational corporations now exceed that of many national govern ments, and this fact has created an expectation that corporations have a responsibility to manage their impacts on the wider social context. Although these observations are increasingly cited as 'truisms' in the business press and in policy debates, few business schools have given attention to the management of social impacts into their core curriculum. In this article the author raises the question that, if (...) business leaders, pol icy makers, NGOs and even the media agree there is a need, why is there so little expressed demand from business who recruit at business schools? The work done at the Aspen Institute has been presented in this regard. The Aspen Institute's Initiative for Social Innovation through Business has taken a system atic look at both the 'demand' for and the 'supply' of business education that addresses the interdependence between business needs and wider societal concerns. By means of global dialogues among CEOs and lead ers of the public, NGOs and academic sectors, as well as through surveys, focus groups and traditional research, Aspen ISIB has gathered data that illuminates this question of supply and demand, and also sug gests powerful levers for influencing what business scholars research and what business educators teach about the management of social impacts. (shrink)

Recent academic articles point to an increased vagueness and overlapping of the concepts around business ethics and corporate responsibility. However, the perception of these notions in the entrepreneurial world can differ from the original academic definitions. The aim of this exploratory study is to uncover how the small business entrepreneur understands these various concepts. For this analysis, the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) is used, a method with limited applications in the business and society field. Our findings partially (...) reject the confusion in terminology in academic literature. Entrepreneurs, pragmatically and rather clearly differentiate the various corporate responsibility and business ethics related concepts. (shrink)

The study reported in this article examines the relationships between nationality, gender, and religiosity and business ethics attitudes in four countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Using a survey approach, university business students in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore were asked about their attitudes regarding business-related ethicality using a six-item scale of ethicality that was reported in the literature. Business students are appropriate for this study as they are “future business leaders.” For nationality (...) significant differences emerged for only two of the six items. There was no significant difference in total ethicality, and the values were positive in all countries. In general, females were reported being more ethical than males, particularly in New Zealand and Singapore. For religiosity, overall, there was a significant difference in ethicality where those respondents reporting being “very religious” also reporting being more ethical. For individual countries, significance did emerge for Australia and New Zealand. (shrink)

The trouble with business schools -- The great, but delicate experiment -- A hippocratic oath for business -- Six more arguments for the MBA oath -- The purpose of a manager -- Ethics and integrity -- No man is an island : stakeholders -- Ambition and good faith -- The letter and the spirit : law -- The sunlight of responsibility : transparency -- Personal and professional growth -- Sustainable prosperity : a partnership for living well -- Accountability.

This article considers whether using leadership language may be one under-explored reason why there continues to be a significant lack of women at executive level. Do women make less of a linguistic impact in the boardroom than men? By analysing linguistic data from senior management meetings and follow-up interviews in seven multinational UK companies, we suggest that senior women and men use a very similar range of linguistic strategies to lead their teams except in one key respect. Women appear to (...) monitor and regulate their use of language more than men, adjusting what they say in the light of their colleagues’ concerns and agendas. This use of ‘double-voiced discourse’ enables women to survive in a male-dominated business world, but this can sometimes make their voice ‘harder to hear’. However, double-voiced discourse is also a form of linguistic expertise and potentially might offer women leaders a strategy for success. (shrink)

This paper is a contribution to the discussion of how religious perspectives can improve business ethics. Two such perspectives are in natural law of antiquity and recent Catholic social doctrine and teaching. This paper develops a conceptual framework from natural law and CSD/T that business leaders can adopt to build an ethos of humanistic management. This “Human Dignity-Centered” framework fills the gap between time-tested Christian norms and contemporary firm-leaders’ concrete needs. “Human dignity” is used as a (...) rhetorical device to convey the idea that firms are composed of dynamic social networks, with an ultimate purpose of serving human needs. Ultimately, the principles and virtues the framework employs have a logic that should inspire excellence, as ethical practices and concern for human welfare lay a foundation for long-term business prosperity. In a one-frame visual representation, this paper portrays: firm leadership challenges; a transforming ethical prism of principles and virtues; and results and feedback mechanisms. The accompanying narrative describes each element and how each affects humanistic management. Finally, illustrative company examples and questions are provided to illustrate how the framework can be used to benefit human flourishing. The framework provides an adjunct to current formulations of improving managerial excellence. (shrink)

A number of theorists have proposed mechanisms suggesting that corporate social responsibility produces better financial results. Others subscribe to the theory that, realistically, less ethical means are necessary. This article contains an analysis of these perspectives drawing on observations from evolutionary game theory and nature. Based on these analyzes, it is concluded that the financial returns of corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility (CSR and CSI) are equal on average. The explanation is that CSR and CSI are driven to a state (...) of equilibrium, because if one or the other were to offer higher profits, it would attract more players who would compete for the best opportunities until there was no difference in average profit. Existing empirical research generally shows a positive correlation between CSR as measured and financial outcomes. It is argued that what is actually causing that finding is probably not CSR but management skill. More skillful managers, whether actually responsible or irresponsible, are able to obtain both higher profits and greater credit in imperfect measures of CSR. Next it is shown that this theory of equal returns implies greater moral freedom and therefore responsibility for business leaders. It is concluded that this insight can intensify the interest of decent business leaders in vigorously championing CSR. (shrink)

Downsizing remains a topic of great interest to both academics and practitioners. Yet, the impact of layoff decisions on perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has hardly been studied. We examine the impact of responsibility of business leaders making these layoff decisions, and characteristics of the downsizing implementation on convergence and divergence in (1) CSR perceptions, (2) victims’ perceptions of fairness, and (3) survivor commitment, in four countries. Using an experimental design, sixteen scenarios were distributed to (1) 163 (...) managers in Estonia, (2) 152 MBA students in India and 125 MBA students in France, and (3) 186 (non-traditional) undergraduate students in the USA. Results suggest that when top managers are attributed with the responsibility for downsizing, the resulting perceptions of CSR are negative. A similar pattern of results is obtained for victims’ perceptions of fairness and survivor commitment. In addition, although there are differences in effect-size based on differences in power distance, these results hold good (are similar) across the four countries, from four different society clusters. We discuss implications, limitations, and future research directions. (shrink)

As integrators of talents, Catholic family business leaders are strategically positioned to leverage the unique differences of their workforce. Business literature currently emphasizes participatory leadership as best practice. Participatory leadership is insufficient, however, because increasing the number of voices in the decision-making process may lead to higher levels of conflict or disengagement if the voices are disregarded. This paper proposes that the Catholic Social Teaching concepts of subsidiarity and solidarity provide the guiding principles to integrate participation because (...) together they can account for all stakeholders while advancing business goals. To operationalize these principles, this paper suggests that the dispute resolution field has developed analytical frameworks to assess and reimagine current policies, procedures, and culture for dispute resolution and shared decision making. Ultimately, businesses are the training ground to prepare citizens to participate in the public square and contribute to the common good. (shrink)

Globalization, with its undisputed benefits, also presents complex moral challenges that business leaders cannot ignore. Some of this moral complexity is attributable to the scope and nature of specific issues like climate change, intellectual property rights, economic inequity, and human rights. More difficult aspects of moral complexity are the structure and dynamics of human moral judgment and the amplified universe of global stakeholders with competing value claims and value systems whose interests must be considered and often included in (...) the decision-making process. While managing moral challenges is considered in management literature to be a legitimate and crucial function of business leadership, the complexity of moral challenges in a globalized business culture stretches the managerial capacities of individuals who rely on a personal moral compass and their own wisdom traditions of philosophy or religion for guidance. The Global Moral Compass introduces an expanded epistemic value framework as an aid to understanding and managing moral complexity in a globalized business culture. (shrink)

This article examines the role wisdom and dignity play in developing ethical business leaders, or what we call shamanic leaders, for the twenty‐first century. We define wisdom as the integration of moral imagination (the good), systems understanding (the true), and aesthetic sensibility (the beautiful) into decisions, actions, and practices in the service of a better world. Dignity is our inherent value, worth, and vulnerability, a core aspect of humanity that each of us is born with. The challenges (...) of developing shamanic leaders, i.e., individuals who evidence the shamanic attributes of healing, connecting, and sensemaking, are discussed, including how to think about and embody wisdom, and the learning that is required to understand and lead with dignity. We argue that dignity and wisdom can be learned and provide the reader with insights into what is required to promote an inclusive and integrated culture where human flourishing and well‐being are at the core of ethical leadership. (shrink)

Recent examples of corporate, national and international ethical and financial scandals and crises have created a need to bolster the ethical acumen of managers through business education imperatives. This topical book forms an important part of the debate on the development of ethical business leaders and provides empirically grounded, theoretical insights for rethinking business curricula requisite for understanding and meaningfully confronting an ethical vacuum that sometimes exists in business. Management Education for Integrity explains how curricula (...) should be streamlined and rejuvenated to ensure a high level of integrity in management education, providing numerous examples of new tools, teaching methods, integrity sensitization and development exercises and ethical management education assessment approaches. Chapters include: fostering integrity in business curricula; a critique of ethics education in management; measuring best practices in management education for integrity capacity; encouraging moral engagement in business ethics courses; management education for behavioral integrity; and scenario-based approach as a teaching tool to promote integrity awareness."--Publisher's information. (shrink)

We asked whether and how generations vary in their perceptions on moral matters ranging from their justifications of crime and questions concerning bodily autonomy. In our exploratory study using data from the World Values Survey, we found that Generations Y and Z are more likely than their older counterparts to justify crimes, such as cheating on taxes or stealing property, and to favor greater bodily autonomy in issues such as suicide and abortion. They also rank lower the importance of God (...) and national pride. Implications are offered for employers who wish to motivate and incentivize a multi-generational workforce. (shrink)

This article makes the case for servant leadership as a model for business in its analysis of the leadership style of former Philippine president, Corazon C. Aquino. Premised on the idea that self-management requires deep spirituality lived integrally (and sustained by an interior or inner life), we identify specific traits and virtues of Aquino and their implications on her leadership and effect on people. The article begins with an introduction to establish the contribution of servant leadership on business. (...) It continues with a summary of key points in servant leadership literature. Then, we analyze Aquino as a person and leader and find that the former spilled over to the latter. We conclude by providing a model based on Aquino’s journey into the role of servant leader; thus, presenting a framework that charts the path toward servant leadership to help businesses address the leadership crisis brought on by an Enron-WorldCom-Tyco dominated business culture. (shrink)

This article is the integral text of an inaugural lecture as professor extraordinary for business ethics at the Catholic University of Brabant at Tilburg, the Netherlands. The author is professor of ethics at the Catholic University of Leuven and an Associate Editor of this Review.

Leaders in business need to become more literate in the dynamics of the present day?subjects such as systems theory, paradigm change, complexity and holistic thinking. These new leaders will recognize that humanity is in the midst of a significant transformation in its evolution?at the end of the honeymoon with the Industrial Age and preparing for an Age of Consciousness. Recognizing human beings are not mere objects or resources for businesses to use up or discard, these leaders (...) will create a new cosmology for private enterprise?one which will lead the rest of society to a new future. (shrink)

Business Ethics for Future Leaders presents students with contemporary readings in the discipline that highlight the changing dynamics of ethics in today's business world and challenge readers to transcend the traditional leadership mindset. In Section I, students read articles that address how ethical behavior can contribute to organizational success, why individuals view ethical behavior differently, and how leaders can incorporate ethical principles into their decision making. Section II focuses on ethical challenges in the multigenerational workplace. In (...) Sections III and IV, students learn about the ideal mindset for ethical leaders and ethical challenges related to cyber security and the internet. Additional sections discuss the ethics of business decision making, sustainable environmental management, and ethical climate and safety performance. The final section speaks to ethical public affairs, issues, and crisis management. Featuring highly accessible readings, Business Ethics for Future Leaders is an ideal supplemental textbook for courses in business and leadership. (shrink)

More than a dozen prominent leaders in business and other fields leaders discuss successes and failures, and lessons learned, while grappling with real ethical ...

We propose Edgar Morin’s notion of transdisciplinarity as a complementary educational perspective for preparing business school students in addressing the complex global socio-economic and environmental challenges that our planet has been facing for some time. Morin’s notion of transdisciplinarity spans various disciplines, both within disciplines and beyond individual disciplines. Morin’s transdisciplinary approach is inquiry driven and presents a systemic/humanistic vision and form of awareness that challenges habitually dualistic and simplistic thinking. Morin’s transdisciplinarity is based on a dialogical and translogical (...) principle that extends classical and rigid logic and that helps students to explore and unify concepts of a simultaneous complementary and contradictory nature. Confronting students with different modes of thinking, imagining and feeling can help them to develop greater self-awareness, critical reflection, and creativity; with various frames of reference; and with an openness toward and confidence in engaging in changes needed to address global challenges in a sustainable and responsible way. (shrink)

How do work motivations and sector perceptions differ between graduate students at prestigious Business Schools and Public Policy in Asia? Where do Asia’s future business and government leaders want to work, and why? To answer these questions, we compare Asian Master of Business Administration students with Master of Public Policy and Master of Public Administration students from three leading Schools based in Singapore through a survey study and a series of seven focus groups. Our findings indicate (...) that work motivations, sector perceptions, and career preferences differ between both groups but slightly less so than between their Western counterparts. Moreover, future Asian leaders equally value being successful while many view government as bureaucratic and prone to cronyism regardless of degree program and employment preference. We discuss how our findings may advance a more robust management and leadership research agenda for Asia. (shrink)

How do work motivations and sector perceptions differ between graduate students at prestigious Business Schools and Public Policy in Asia? Where do Asia’s future business and government leaders want to work, and why? To answer these questions, we compare Asian Master of Business Administration students with Master of Public Policy and Master of Public Administration students from three leading Schools based in Singapore through a survey study and a series of seven focus groups. Our findings indicate (...) that work motivations, sector perceptions, and career preferences differ between both groups but slightly less so than between their Western counterparts. Moreover, future Asian leaders equally value being successful while many view government as bureaucratic and prone to cronyism regardless of degree program and employment preference. We discuss how our findings may advance a more robust management and leadership research agenda for Asia. (shrink)

Following the landmark corporate scandals of the early 21st century, there appeared to be a tremendous increase in the U.S. business media's emphasis on issues of ethics in corporate leadership. The purpose of this research was to examine whether that apparent increase was reflected in an actual change in that media's portrayals of successful leaders. We content analyzed the text of a total of 180 articles in Business Week, Fortune, and Forbes magazine, 90 from the five years (...) preceding the landmark scandals and 90 from the five years following the scandals. We found no evidence that the landmark scandals had any impact on the media's incorporation of ethics in their portrayals of leaders. We attribute this substantially to the persistence of a world-view in the U.S. business press that emphasizes leader traits and actions that have a direct impact on corporate profits. Additionally, we found some interesting consistencies and differences in media portrayals across the two time periods, likely related to the rise and fall of dot-com businesses. We discuss the implications of these findings for researchers and corporate leaders. (shrink)

This paper explores the kinds of representations of the woman leader produced discursively in the Finnish business media. The paper draws on the idea that jobs and organizations are gendered and, to the extent that gendered features are valued differently, with masculinity being favoured particularly in managerial positions, the status of women and men leaders becomes unequal. Based on the assumption that the media form a powerful force which creates and maintains meanings in contemporary society, we focus on (...) articles published in a leading business newspaper and major business magazines in Finland. Three discourses are built based on the texts, namely a patriarchal, a victim and a professional discourse. The results of the study imply that the texts are largely reified in terms of masculinity, and that one underlying problem is the shortage of female role models and lack of the feminine perspective in the dominant discourse. It is suggested that, if we are to develop alternative, “new” ways of constructing the woman leader into being, the writing in the business media texts should opt to test the limits of the current discourses by voicing comments regarded as expressly feminine, instead of taking the masculine as the dominant norm. (shrink)

Textbooks and manuals on management suggest that managers are heroes who deal with difficult problems of collective adaptation and change. American films are similarly built on the premise of a hero confronted with extremely difficult situations. What if this hero figure promoted for so long in both management literature and the American film industry was the same at the structural level? This paper will attempt to clearly define the ethical performance of heroes that is perhaps shared by the imagination industry (...) and the workplace on the long run. We shall follow this picture of a hero-leader in the ethics of business and cinema through a large corpus of movies and writings on management and provide a set of six features for examining both, a common heroic structure we shall call the Hero-Leader Matrix. (shrink)

This paper explores the kinds of representations of the woman leader produced discursively in the Finnish business media. The paper draws on the idea that jobs and organizations are gendered and, to the extent that gendered features are valued differently, with masculinity being favoured particularly in managerial positions, the status of women and men leaders becomes unequal. Based on the assumption that the media form a powerful force which creates and maintains meanings in contemporary society, we focus on (...) articles published in a leading business newspaper and major business magazines in Finland. Three discourses are built based on the texts, namely a patriarchal, a victim and a professional discourse. The results of the study imply that the texts are largely reified in terms of masculinity, and that one underlying problem is the shortage of female role models and lack of the feminine perspective in the dominant discourse. It is suggested that, if we are to develop alternative, “new” ways of constructing the woman leader into being, the writing in the business media texts should opt to test the limits of the current discourses by voicing comments regarded as expressly feminine, instead of taking the masculine as the dominant norm. (shrink)

Civic engagement in the form of social and moral awareness projects has grown in popularity among higher education practitioners in the past decades, and even more among business schools as a response to the many embarrassingly self-centered business CEO acts in recent years. Research thus far shows a wide variety of advantages tied to social and moral awareness projects, varying from greater understanding of students about the needs in society, and improved connections between the sponsoring institution and the (...) community, to more focus in students’ selection of future careers, and greater personal and professional emotional intelligence levels among these students. This article reviews the achievements of 156 undergraduate and graduate business students in regards to their social and moral responsibility projects, and the preferences they displayed in selecting the topics of these projects. (shrink)

Packed with real-life examples of business decisions gone awry, the 8th Edition of BUSINESS ETHICS: CASE STUDIES AND SELECTED READINGS explores the complex issues of business ethics from the leaders' perspectives. This best-selling text offers a rare collection of readings which examines the business decision-making processes of many types of leaders, while revealing some of the common factors that push them over ethical lines they might not otherwise cross. A combination of short and long (...) cases, readings, hypothetical situations, and current ethical dilemmas, BUSINESS ETHICS: CASE STUDIES AND SELECTED READINGS provides a stimulating and thorough basis for evaluating business ethics, and encourages stronger values in future business leaders. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version. (shrink)

This article examines the impact of female leadership on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in publicly traded corporations. Our analysis finds that female leadership matters. For example, female leadership at the board level increases the likelihood of having a female CEO and the overall percentage of women executives in firms. The study measures CSR practices using the Thomson Reuters corporate responsibility ratings (TRCRR) from the Thomson Reuters ASSET4 database for 1242 firms over a 7-year period, from 2009 to 2015. Panel (...) regression estimates indicate that board gender diversity (BGD) has a positive impact on CSR, while two other measures of female leadership (presence of female CEO and percentage of female executives) were largely insignificant. We perform our analysis in the context of upper echelons theory and expand on recent studies of the impact of female leadership on CSR practices by using a different and a larger data set than previous research studies. (shrink)

In this article, we focus on the concept of leadership ethics and make observations about transformational, transactional and servant leadership. We consider differences in how each definition of leadership outlines what the leader is supposed to achieve, and how the leader treats people in the organization while striving to achieve the organization's goals. We also consider which leadership styles are likely to be more popular in organizations that strive to maximize short run profits. Our paper does not tout or degrade (...) any of these leadership theories. Instead, it points out which theories allow reason to play more than a minimal role in ethical decision-making, as well as those that are most consistent with a firm's desire to achieve efficiency in the short run. We explain our view that the way leadership is practiced in large, bureaucratic organizations suggests that ethics is often absent from the leader's decision-making process. Consequently, we suggest that before we engage in a meaningful dialogue about what kind of leaders we might really want in business, we must consider how much short-run profit we are willing to forego in exchange for more ethical corporate cultures. (shrink)

Although undergraduate students are exposed to ethical issues through class assignments, discussions, and readings, they typically do not have first hand experience with business dilemmas. Student opinions on ethical standards and behavior in American business have received scant attention in the literature. The purpose of the study is to provide additional information to both educators and organizations about the ethical perceptions of students. Furthermore, the study contrasts student responses to business and community leaders' responses obtained in (...) a prior study conducted by Touche Ross (1988). The findings from this study are based on an opinion survey about ethics in American business, completed by 476 liberal arts and business students attending a private, religiously affiliated college in New York State. The data indicate numerous differences in perceptions between students and business and community leaders. Differences were also found when students were classified by school (Arts & Science versus Business) and by gender. Overall, students appear to place a strong value on education. Students are the source of new entrants to the business world and the foundation for ethical structures being built by organizations. The findings from this study should assist both educators and employers in the development of necessary programs to maximize the ethical potential of their constituents. (shrink)

The role of the business leader is key to develop the culture of an enterprise. To exemplify its importance in the national and globalcontext, the Muslim author from Indonesia points with admiration to Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Matsushita Electric Corporation, who already in the 1930s set up the seven ethical principles for healthy business growth, which also are commended by the Islamic imperative. Due to the current dynamic business environment, Muslims find themselves confronted with serious dilemmas and (...) need guidance from a clearly developed Islamic business ethics. For this purpose the author offers, first, the essentials of such an ethics: the utmost importance of all sort of productive work and the distribution of wealth in society; the vocation of trade; the fundamental principles of freedom and justice for business conduct; the prescription of certain manners such as leniency, service-motive, and consciousness of Allah; and mutual consultation. He, then, presents his personal view on leadership in business. It involves three basic ingredients: an inspiring vision of high and achievable standards; a value system based on the principles of freedom and justice and promoting fairness, business integrity, and efficiency; and courage to face tough decisions while putting one’s complete trust in Allah. (shrink)

The role of the business leader is key to develop the culture of an enterprise. To exemplify its importance in the national and globalcontext, the Muslim author from Indonesia points with admiration to Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Matsushita Electric Corporation, who already in the 1930s set up the seven ethical principles for healthy business growth, which also are commended by the Islamic imperative. Due to the current dynamic business environment, Muslims find themselves confronted with serious dilemmas and (...) need guidance from a clearly developed Islamic business ethics. For this purpose the author offers, first, the essentials of such an ethics: the utmost importance of all sort of productive work and the distribution of wealth in society; the vocation of trade; the fundamental principles of freedom and justice for business conduct; the prescription of certain manners such as leniency, service-motive, and consciousness of Allah; and mutual consultation. He, then, presents his personal view on leadership in business. It involves three basic ingredients: an inspiring vision of high and achievable standards; a value system based on the principles of freedom and justice and promoting fairness, business integrity, and efficiency; and courage to face tough decisions while putting one’s complete trust in Allah. (shrink)

In this article, we focus on the concept of leadership ethics and make observations about transformational, transactional and servant leadership. We consider differences in how each definition of leadership outlines what the leader is supposed to achieve, and how the leader treats people in the organization while striving to achieve the organization's goals. We also consider which leadership styles are likely to be more popular in organizations that strive to maximize short run profits. Our paper does not tout or degrade (...) any of these leadership theories. Instead, it points out which theories allow reason to play more than a minimal role in ethical decision-making, as well as those that are most consistent with a firm's desire to achieve efficiency in the short run. We explain our view that the way leadership is practiced in large, bureaucratic organizations suggests that ethics is often absent from the leader's decision-making process. Consequently, we suggest that before we engage in a meaningful dialogue about what kind of leaders we might really want in business, we must consider how much short-run profit we are willing to forego in exchange for more ethical corporate cultures. (shrink)