156 Posts Found

Robert Jackall’s Moral Mazes offers an eye-opening account of how corporate managers think the world works, and how big organizations shape moral consciousness.

Based on extensive interviews with managers at every level of two industrial firms and of a large public relations agency, Moral Mazes takes the reader inside the intricate world of the corporation. Jackall reveals a world where hard work does not necessarily … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Robert Jackall | Subjects: Ethics, Organizational Behavior

Poker’s own brand of ethics is different from the ethical ideals of civilized human relationships. The game calls for distrust of the other fellow. It ignores the claim of friendship. Cunning deception and concealment of one’s strength and intentions, not kindness and openheartedness, are vital in poker. No one thinks any the worse of poker on that account. And no one should think any the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Ethics

Running an organization does not license a manager to violate the norms and standards of society, but instead introduces a brand-new set of moral considerations based on stakeholder obligations. In respect of normatively legitimate stakeholders (e.g. financiers, employees, customers), the ethics of business implies more obligations rather than less.

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Ethics, Social Responsibility (ESG)

The goals of this article are to propose a free-market model of business ethics for firms of all sizes and types (by describing a past attempt to promote such a standard), to comment on the history of regulation and on the emergence and teachings of the discipline of “business ethics,” and to argue that Friedman’s perspective on corporate responsibility as outlined in 1970 and his … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Richard W. Wilcke | Source: The Independent Review | Subjects: Economics, Ethics

It’s hard to know what is meant by business ethics. Only people, not businesses, have ethics. Ethics is me, the individual, as a person. I’m ethical or unethical. If I’m employed in a business that I think is unethical, I have a clear choice. I can get out of that business and find something else to do. It doesn’t seem to me it’s ethical for … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Ethics

Nobody really believes that it’s an ethical precept that you obey every law. If you obey a law that requires you to do something that is unethical or amoral, I think everybody in the room would agree it’s a proper human behavior to break that law as long as you’re willing to accept the responsibility for that. That was the justification for conscientious objection during … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Ethics, Legal

Sometimes the most appealing Web sites are those without all the Java bells and whistles-just simple information presented simply. “What can you learn about business ethics from the movies?” wondered Carolyn Johnson, business librarian at Arizona State University. The answer is this Web site. Here you’ll find a list of movies that in some way or other offer interesting perspectives on tricky business issues. Johnson … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Author: Carolyn Johnson | Source: Arizona State University West | Subject: Ethics

You cannot fight norms solely with laws. You need to fight norms with other norms.

I think that our culture is biased toward laws and rules. Cultures work best when there’s a thick layer of moral norms – shared values and habits of behavior – undergirded by a relatively thin base of law. In the United States, we’re over-lawyered, overregulated, and under-normed. We’re attempting to deal … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Ethics, Personality / Behavior

The preoccupation with self led many people from repudiating unnecessary sacrifice to discarding the ethic of sacrifice altogether. The emphasis on relative values, as opposed to absolute values, left people somewhat bereft of common agreement about right and wrong. The current explosion of religious belief represents a search for something absolute to believe in. But in the larger culture, particularly the business culture, there is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Culture, Ethics

The importance of leadership is a recurring theme within the business ethics literature, and top executives have been shown to have a great impact when it comes to establishing the ethical tone of an organization. However, if ethical leaders help to inspire ethical organizations, who will inspire those leaders? How can one develop business leaders for this new millennium who can embrace and demonstrate an … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Ken Peattie | Source: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) | Subjects: Ethics, Miscellaneous

Decision making can often result in managerial missteps, even those decisions that involve ethical considerations. Many common themes emerge as we look at these problematic decisions. Most significantly, various cognitive processes that leaders often unwittingly employ and which may be called “mental gymnastics” or mind games may serve to support and sustain unethical behavior.

Content: Article | Author: Charles D. Kerns, Ph.D. | Source: Graziadio Business Report | Subjects: Ethics, Management

Corruption happens. When corruption occurs, either in an organization’s home (domestic) environment, or in a foreign country, it raises a number of questions and issues for managers and professionals. The questions relate to what forms corruption takes, who is involved, and why it exists. The issues relate to how we cope and deal with corruption in general and within specific cultural and national contexts. The … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Diane Singel, Gerry Rossy, Ph.D., Mark Mallinger, Ph.D. | Source: Graziadio Business Report | Subjects: Ethics, International

We talk about moral viruses, which are simply inaccurate or incorrect beliefs about the world or oneself. Almost all viruses stem from fear-based beliefs, which are usually irrational or inaccurate fears, such as the fear of an ethnic group.

Leaders have their own set of moral viruses. One that’s lethal relates to trust–the idea that you can’t trust people until they’ve proved they’re worthy. That’s a … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subject: Ethics

Values drive behavior and therefore need to be consciously stated, but they also need to be affirmed by actions.

Content: Article | Author: Charles D. Kerns, Ph.D. | Source: Graziadio Business Report | Subject: Ethics

we used to endorse character and integrity, but today the business ethic that reigns is achievement. And whenever you establish the worth of someone based on what they can do and not on who they are, you have created the environment for fraud.

Content: Quotation | Source: CFO Publishing | Subjects: Ethics, Integrity

Business leaders who want to create an ethical work environment should first identify their own core values and commit to practicing them.

Content: Article | Author: Charles D. Kerns, Ph.D. | Source: Graziadio Business Report | Subjects: Ethics, Leadership

A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.

Content: Quotation | Source: Across the Board (ATB) | Subject: Ethics

At the heart of Western thinking is the notion that the individual, rather than the group, is the fundamental moral and ethical unit. Companies have rights accorded them by law, systems have functions, but individuals have the responsibility to determine right from wrong.

Since systems are really only groups of people tasked to do certain things in certain ways, they can be subverted. And, while individuals … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Ethics, Organizational Behavior

How do you go from developing great ideas about ethics and what they mean, to an organization that actually lives those values? This article lays out general principles for how to do that.

Content: Article | Author: Bruce A. Hamm | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Ethics

From childhood on, individuals are told that setting goals for themselves will make them more successful in whatever they set out to do – whether it’s win tennis games, ace their exams or become CEO of their company. But goal-setting also has a dark side to it, according to a recent research paper by a Wharton faculty member and two colleagues. In addition to motivating … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Bambi Douma, Lisa Ordonez, Maurice Schweitzer | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Ethics