Toward Humanistic Business Ethics

ABSTRACTThis paper attempts to evaluate the trajectory of business ethics (BE) research in the realm of healthcare management (HCM) by conducting a quantitative analysis of the BE literature within the scope of HCM. We also aimed at understanding and elucidating the directions that the field was taking, the themes that have been researched, the methodological approaches that have been taken over time and emerging trends. Bibliometric analysis was employed for a systematic review of BE research in HCM. We used articles related to BE in HCM, published in leading BE and HCM journals indexed in SSCI. An overview of the study shows that the number of articles related to BE in the realm of HCM has been increasing and some specific themes have been receiving increasing attention from scientific community. Although there are abundant of empirical studies, advance statistical methods have been used rare. Accordingly, several noteworthy results raised from our analysis. The results of the study demonstrate how the progress of BE research in HCM is for policy makers, researchers, junior scholars and graduate students.

The field of behavioral ethics has seen considerable growth over the last few decades. One of the most significant concerns facing this interdisciplinary field of research is the moral judgment-action gap. The moral judgment-action gap is the inconsistency people display when they know what is right but do what they know is wrong. Much of the research in the field of behavioral ethics is based on (or in response to) early work in moral psychology and American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg’s foundational cognitive model of moral development. However, Kohlberg’s model of moral development lacks a compelling explanation for the judgment-action gap. Yet, it continues to influence theory, research, teaching, and practice in business ethics today. As such, this paper presents a critical review and analysis of the pertinent literature. This paper also reviews modern theories of ethical decision making in business ethics. Gaps in our current understanding and directions for future research in behavioral business ethics are presented. By providing this important theoretical background information, targeted critical analysis, and directions for future research, this paper assists management scholars as they begin to seek a more unified approach, develop newer models of ethical decision making, and conduct business ethics research that examines the moral judgment-action gap.

The use of focus groups is a well‐established qualitative research method in the social sciences that would seem to offer scope for a significant contribution to the advancement of knowledge and understanding in the field of business ethics. This paper explores the potential contribution of focus groups, reviews their contribution to date and makes some recommendations regarding their future use. We find that, while the use of focus groups is not extensive, they have been utilised in a non‐negligible number of studies. Focus groups are usually used as a supplementary method, often as part of the development of a research instrument. Whether used on their own or in conjunction with other methods, we find that in the majority of cases there is insufficient information for a reader to judge that the method has been carried out well and hence that the ‘findings’ may be trusted. Nor is it easy for future researchers to learn about the practical application of the method in business ethics contexts. We therefore recommend improved reporting in future published studies. Based on an analysis of a subsample of papers that provided a reasonable level of methodological detail, we provide further insights into, and recommendations for, the use of focus groups in business ethics research.

In 1989, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada established a strategic research theme on applied ethics -- a theme which has been characterized by its welcome emphasis on the integration of theory and practice and interdisciplinarity. In the six competitions in that theme for research funding, bioethics has received more support than other areas of applied ethics including business ethics. Nonetheless, I argue that Canadian research in business and professional ethics has made significant strides over the past six years.

Three Models of Corporate Social Responsibility: Interrelationships between Theory, Research, and Practice

This article provides a comparative summary of the findings of the survey of Business Ethics as field of Teaching, Training and Research across the four sub-regions in Sub-Saharan Africa (Western Africa, Southern Africa, Eastern Africa and Francophone Africa). The article commences with a discussion on the terminology that is used to refer to Business and Economic Ethics in Sub-Saharan Africa. It then provides an overview of the prevalence and distribution of Business Ethics as field of Teaching, Training and Research in Sub-Saharan Africa that demonstrates the substantial growth in the field of Business Ethics since 2000 when an earlier survey was conducted. The focus areas in the field of Business Ethics are identified as well as the major themes that were found with regard to Teaching, Training and Research in Business Ethics. Also the major challenges that are foreseen in the field of Business Ethics over the next five year are discussed. Finally a number of concluding remarks are made that highlight unique features and challenges in the current state of Business Ethics in Sub-Saharan Africa.Â

This study provides a global perspective on citations of articles published in ten business ethics journals between 1999 and 2012 and establishes three findings. First, the results indicate that Journal of Business Ethics and Business and Society are the two top business ethics journals based on the distribution of normalized citations received. Second, although North America, particularly the US, remains the top producer of business ethics research, it has been surpassed by Europe in terms of weighted normalized research citations received in 2012, implying a potential diminishing global role of US influence in business ethics research over time. Third, the top-ranked US institutions have reduced their business ethics research impact in recent years, while the European institutions have sharply increased theirs.

A growing body of academic and business specialists are paying attention to ethical issues in business and economics, drawing on a wide range of different disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. This volume presents important new insights from scholars in economics, philosophy, business ethics and management studies. In addition to providing specific perspectives on particular topics, it presents strategic perspectives on the development of the field. Readers can inform themselves on developments in particular areas, such as social accountability or stakeholder governance; they will also find substantial contributions related to the interfaces of ethics and economics, economics and philosophy, business ethics and political science, and business ethics and management. The collection is a thought-provoking contribution to the development of business and economic ethics as an increasingly important field of academic study.

Contents: Acknowledgements Introduction Jeremy Moon, Marc Orlitzky and Glen Whelan PART I THE EMERGENCE OF ETHICAL CORPORATE GOVERNANCE CONCERNS 1. J. Maurice Clark (1916), 'The Changing Basis of Economic Responsibility' 2. E. Merrick Dodd, Jr. (1932), 'For Whom are Corporate Managers Trustees?' 3. A.A. Berle, Jr., (1932), 'For Whom Corporate Managers Are Trustees: A Note' 4. Joseph L. Weiner (1964), 'The Berle-Dodd Dialogue on the Concept of the Corporation' PART II THE MANAGERIAL REVOLUTION 5. Adolf A. Berle (1965), 'The Impact of the Corporation on Classical Economic Theory' 6. Eugene F. Fama and Michael C. Jensen (1983), 'Separation of Ownership and Control' 7. James H. Davis, F. David Schoorman and Lex Donaldson (1997), 'Toward a Stewardship Theory of Management' PART III SHAREHOLDERS, STAKEHOLDERS AND MANAGERIAL DUTIES 8. William M. Evan and R. Edward Freeman (1988), 'A Stakeholder Theory of the Modern Corporation: Kantian Capitalism' 9. John Hendry (2001), 'Missing the Target: Normative Stakeholder Theory and the Corporate Governance Debate' 10. Ian Maitland (2001), 'Distributive Justice in Firms: Do the Rules of Corporate Governance Matter?' 11. Alexei M. Marcoux (2003), 'A Fiduciary Argument Against Stakeholder Theory' 12. Richard Marens and Andrew Wicks (1999), 'Getting Real: Stakeholder Theory, Managerial Practice, and the General Irrelevance of Fiduciary Duties Owed to Shareholders' 13. David Lea (2004), 'The Imperfect Nature of Corporate Responsibilities to Stakeholders' PART IV COMPARATIVE AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES 14. Ruth V. Aguilera and Gregory Jackson (2003), 'The Cross-National Diversity of Corporate Governance: Dimensions and Determinants' 15. Lori Verstegen Ryan (2005), 'Corporate Governance and Business Ethics in North America: The State of the Art' 16. Josef Wieland (2005), 'Corporate Governance, Values Management, and Standards: A European Perspective' 17. Martin Rhodes and Bastiaan van Apeldoorn (1998), 'Capital Unbound? The Transformation of European Corporate Governance' 18. David Kimber and Phillip Lipton (2005), 'Corporate Governance and Business Ethics in the Asia-Pacific Region' 19. G.J. Rossouw (2005), 'Business Ethics and Corporate Governance in Africa' 20. Mauro F. Guillen and Mary A. O'Sullivan (2004), 'The Changing International Corporate Governance Landscape' PART V ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES AND NEW DIRECTIONS 21. Gerald F. Davis (2005), 'New Directions in Corporate Governance' 22. Matthias Benz and Bruno S. Frey (2007), 'Corporate Governance: What Can We Learn from Public Governance?' 23. Thomas Clarke (2007), 'The Materiality of Sustainability: Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility as Instruments of Strategic Change?' 24. John Roberts (2001), 'Corporate Governance and the Ethics of Narcissus' 25. Amiram Gill (2008), 'Corporate Governance as Social Responsibility: A Research Agenda' 26. David Antony Detomasi (2007), 'The Multinational Corporation and Global Governance: Modelling Global Public Policy Networks' Name Index

Using 10 years of publication data (1999-2008) from 10 leading business ethics journals, we examine global patterns of business ethics research and contributing institutions and scholars. Although U.S. academic institutions continue to lead in the contribu- tions toward business ethics research, Asian and European institutions have made significant progress. Our study shows that business ethics research output is closely linked to the missions of the institutions driven by their values or religious belief. An additional analysis of the productivity of each highly ranked institution suggests that business ethics research is highly concentrated in a limited number of eminent scholars within each institution.

How can we ethically include nonhuman animals during methodological considerations in organizational and business ethics research? Additionally, what methodological opportunities and challenges do multispecies research approaches present for these research areas? Building on critical posthumanist theory, the feminist ethic-of-care tradition in animal ethics, and the aesthetics of posthuman methodologies, this article develops a novel avenue for multispecies methodological research that expands current approaches to organizational and business ethics research beyond a purely human-centric lens. Empirical materials include diary excerpts about one author’s daily ethical encounters with her dogs and video clips of dog–human relationships, along with aesthetic reflections from two other researchers. Our reflections are shaped by posthumanist theorizing and critically problematize the seemingly static, anthropocentric categorizations of researcher , positionality , and research participant within the ethically complex context of multispecies research. Beyond discussing our findings in relation to recent business ethics research, we propose a methodological avenue for studying the aesthetic hybridization of humanimal subjectivities, including subtle bodily interactions between dogs and humans. This avenue fosters more aesth-ethically attuned and species-inclusive research methodologies in animal organization studies (AOS) and the broader fields of business ethics and organization studies, which are especially critical in the Anthropocene.

Contributing to the ongoing debate in research on sensitive issues such as business ethics, this chapter provides a discussion of mixed methods research design, examining the processes and challenges of developing and deploying an online survey tool using technology within an interpretive mixed methods design. This chapter provides pointers on how to deploy this approach through technology to research business ethics using the example of researching ethical mindsets and its components, including spirituality and aesthetics. It is found that mixed methods research is an effective approach because it allows often sensitive issues (i.e. business ethics, aesthetics, spirituality) relating to questioning individuals' inner values and ethical propensities, which are usually subtle and difficult to measure and analyze constructs. While this tool was developed in the Australian context, it has the potential to form a foundation for wider examination and research in business ethics. The chapter contributes to the collective discussion of research methods using a framework that has both practical relevance and theoretical rigor.

Ethical considerations in today’s businesses are manifold and range from human rights issues and the well-being of employees to income inequality and environmental sustainability. Regardless of the specific topic being investigated, an integral part of business ethics research consists of deeply comprehending the personal meanings, intentions, behaviors, judgements, and attitudes that people possess. To this end, researchers are often encouraged to use more qualitative methods to understand the dynamic and fuzzy field of business ethics, which involves collecting in-depth information in real time. Qualitative methods in business ethics research, however, raise the two-fold responsibility of not only conducting such investigations fairly and appropriately, but also clearly communicating the research processes and outcomes to readers. Especially leading journals in the field such as Journal of Business Ethics have a responsibility to conduct their business (i.e., the business of high standard publishing) ethically, by making sure that their content represents clear and honest communications of research concerning a wide range of business systems. Unfortunately, the question of how to effectively facilitate transparent insight into the research process of qualitative business ethics studies is still unresolved. Both the lack of a clear communication of methods and results and the iterative nature of qualitative methods often make it difficult for the readers to properly assess a qualitative business ethics study and understand its results. We propose the use of narratives to remedy this situation. Specifically, we suggest a new classification of audits, named second-party audits, to facilitate a better understanding of research procedures ex-post for the readers. To illustrate this new narrative-based reconceptualization of audits, we use Agatha Christie’s detective novel The Murder on the Links as a frame of reference.

Requirements for business ethics education and organizational ethics trainings mark an important step in encouraging ethical behavior among business students and professionals. However, the lack of specificity in these guidelines as to how, what, and where business ethics should be taught has led to stark differences in approaches and content. The present effort uses meta-analytic procedures to examine the effectiveness of current approaches across organizational ethics trainings and business school courses. to provide practical suggestions for business ethics interventions and research. Thus, the primary questions driving this research are as follows: (1) what course characteristics moderate the effectiveness of ethics instruction?, and (2) have ethics education and training efforts improved? Findings suggest that professional, focused, and workshop-based training programs are especially effective for improving business ethics. However, results also reveal considerable problems with many of the criteria used to evaluate the effectiveness of business ethics interventions. Practical suggestions for course design and evaluation in business ethics efforts are discussed along with future research needs.

This paper is an essay based on many years of reviewing journal submissions and discussions with business ethics scholars on a range of themes regarding methods. To some extent, it contains condensed thoughts from two experienced scholars in the field, which we hope will be useful, especially to emerging scholars who, to some extent, may still be wrestling with some of the issues raised in the paper. The validity and reliability of research methods in business ethics research is discussed in terms of legitimate methods to employ in the discipline, the epistemic challenges in the discipline, the debate between qualitative and quantitative methods, and some considered comments on ‘researching well’ in this discipline. Within each theme, we attempt to convey our distilled thoughts in the hope that methods employed in future studies will avoid some of the failures we have observed in the past.