Search results
21 – 30 of over 5000Kathleen Lilley, Michelle Barker and Neil Harris
Global citizenship, social responsibility and sustainability are constructs increasingly used in business schools. Yet, there is no widely accepted definition or conceptualization…
Abstract
Purpose
Global citizenship, social responsibility and sustainability are constructs increasingly used in business schools. Yet, there is no widely accepted definition or conceptualization of the global citizen, nor is there strong evidence of how the global citizen is effectively translated into university ethos, culture and practice. This paper aims to conceptualize the global citizen in higher education broadly and more specifically in regard to business schools.
Design/methodology/approach
International higher education, social science and business literature has been reviewed to present an integrated understanding of the global citizen; contextualized to higher education generally and business schools specifically.
Findings
It is argued that the global citizen, viewed through a moral and transformative cosmopolitan lens, provides an alternative to the rhetoric frequently paid to the construct. This paper describes “global citizen learning” underpinned by the social imaginary, relationality and reflexivity. These virtues equip the students' global business mindset for complexity and ambiguity.
Research limitations/implications
The interdisciplinary literature reviewed in this paper brings a focus to moral reasoning, sensitivity and values-based teaching. These aspects create new ways for the global citizen to be more explicitly integrated into business ethos and curricula.
Practical implications
Global citizen learning provides the “conceptual glue”, needed to link social responsibility, sustainability and ethical principles to business curricula. Also, the paper outlines how “global citizen learning” can be utilized in existing curricula from a practical perspective.
Originality/value
This paper discusses values and moral reasoning in business education. It is proposed that the global citizen conceptualized through moral and transformative cosmopolitanism provides a humanistic buffer to the neoliberal growth paradigm.
Details
Keywords
Cam Caldwell, Larry Floyd, Joseph Taylor and Bryan Woodard
The purpose of this paper is to define “beneficence” as a management concept that is the action associated with “benevolence” the intention. This paper explains how beneficence is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to define “beneficence” as a management concept that is the action associated with “benevolence” the intention. This paper explains how beneficence is a critical element for leaders in building trust. The authors identify how beneficence honors the ethical duties owed to followers and creates competitive advantage for organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach of this paper is to present an extensive conceptual review of beneficence as it relates to leaders and managers and to suggest eight propositions identifying how beneficence can create competitive advantage.
Findings
The findings of this paper include eight propositions about beneficence as a source of competitive advantage.
Practical implications
The practical implications of this paper are for practitioners and scholars. This paper provides an opportunity for leaders to recognize the importance of translating good intentions into specific action in acting virtuously toward others. For scholars, this paper provides testable propositions for learning more about beneficence as a source of increased commitment, greater trust, and competitive advantage.
Originality/value
Although benevolence has been acknowledged to be a foundation of trustworthiness, benevolence is an attitude or intention. This paper explains the importance of beneficence as the action derived from benevolence as an attitude or intention to do that which benefits others.
Details
Keywords
Endang Ruswanti, Nia Puspita Hapsari and Moehammad Unggul Januarko
Retail or entrepreneurial shops support economic growth, conducting studies in this area is needed. Our study examines whether the buyers have moral intensity, religious beliefs…
Abstract
Retail or entrepreneurial shops support economic growth, conducting studies in this area is needed. Our study examines whether the buyers have moral intensity, religious beliefs, and self-concept affect purchase ethics. Using quantitative analysis, we employ 150 respondents, consisting of 94 women and 56 men; the analysis tool used is the structure equation modeling model. The results showed that moral intensity influences religiosity. Moral intensity does not affect self-concept, but religiosity stimulates self-concept, and self-concept impacts purchasing ethics. The limitations of this study have not tested the ethical attitudes of retailers, and respondents are very limited.
Details
Keywords
This study aims to review Luhmann's theory of moral communication while focusing on symmetry conditions, in light of Armin Nassehi's criticism, to clarify issues regarding this…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to review Luhmann's theory of moral communication while focusing on symmetry conditions, in light of Armin Nassehi's criticism, to clarify issues regarding this concept. Then, Luhmann's symmetry condition is reconstructed as a concept containing double meaning via a case study in Japan. Correspondingly, interesting situations and characteristics of moral communication, such as “inflation,” the “polemogene” and ubiquity of moral communication, are interpreted more consistently.
Design/methodology/approach
In today's society, moral communication may spiral out of control and even be fatal. By examining Niklas Luhmann's theory, in this paper, the author elaborates on why and how this mechanism occurs.
Findings
The author emphasizes that the suspicion pertaining to the asymmetry of communication is stressed in the case of anonymity. When an individual communicates using a moral code, it is impossible to discern whether the implications of self-bindingness are undermined or not through observations or consequences of communication and can only be questioned or confirmed through communication. However, criticizing the outburst of the masses and exchanging blame by isolating only one aspect of such a phenomenon will only be superficial.
Originality/value
This study reveals that the very condition that makes moral communication possible enables people to communicate respectfully or contemptuously with others without any special qualification. Such an analysis can serve as a theoretical underpinning for the analysis of today's phenomena.
Details
Keywords
The ability to imagine our world being arranged along different lines is the first step to achieving sustainability. This skill comes particularly easily to artists and designers…
Abstract
The ability to imagine our world being arranged along different lines is the first step to achieving sustainability. This skill comes particularly easily to artists and designers, who have been trained to appreciate the unexpected connections among facts, ideas, and images. It also comes more naturally to young people. As designers and teachers, how can we help others take that first step? I argue that museums offer the right settings and tools for opening eyes to seeing new possibilities. Students' personal accounts of their experiences in an art museum demonstrate that private, focused encounters with artifacts from other periods and cultures can trigger the process of seeing the world from new angles. Providing opportunities for business leaders to replicate such experiences of wonder may offer a path to stimulating the innovative thinking so critical for a sustainable future. This chapter argues that cultivating both the imagination and moral artistry are vital to moving from sustainability to achieving sustainable value.
Four members of SEAL Team 10 faced a moral dilemma during Operation Redwings in 2005. Their mission was compromised when three goat herders discovered their position. They had to…
Abstract
Four members of SEAL Team 10 faced a moral dilemma during Operation Redwings in 2005. Their mission was compromised when three goat herders discovered their position. They had to decide if they should kill the herders and continue their mission or release them, thus terminating their mission unsuccessfully. Students in an applied ethics class were asked which moral theories applied to their eventual decision.
Barbara Leonard and Jerry Biberman
The purpose of this paper is to describe and compare various theoretical models of decision making such as classical rational decision making, left‐brain/right‐brain dominance…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe and compare various theoretical models of decision making such as classical rational decision making, left‐brain/right‐brain dominance decision making, utilization of tacit knowledge in decision making, utilization of intuition in decision making, utilization of emotional intelligence in decision making, a systems approach to decision making, and spirit‐based decision making.
Design/methodology/approach
Studies on different modalities of decision making are reviewed, discussed, and compared.
Findings
The traditional assumption of the optimality of rational decision making may be improved by including other dimensions of decision making. It is posited that organizations that encourage and support multi‐dimensional decision making, which utilizes the rational, intuitional, emotional and spiritual aspects of the whole person, develop better management–employee relations, more creative problem solving, and better market place performance.
Research limitations/implications
Development and testing of instruments that measure multi‐dimensional decision making would extend the scope of this study.
Originality/value
This paper compares different styles of decision making to assist the manager in making optimal decisions. By expanding on the traditional rational decision making model to include other dimensions of decision‐making, managers are able to capture additional information in framing their decisions.
Details
Keywords
Carolyn Koh, Mario Fernando and Trevor Spedding
The purpose of this paper is to explore the western developed notion of responsible leadership (RL) from a Singapore context.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the western developed notion of responsible leadership (RL) from a Singapore context.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the qualitative research tradition, face-to-face interviews with 20 influential Singaporean leaders were developed into case studies. Grounded theory methodology was applied to identify similarities and differences within and across cases.
Findings
The findings reveal that the interviewed Singaporean leaders projected traits and values consistent with western definitions of responsible and effective leadership. Findings also suggest that contextual factors such as national culture and the ethos of the nation as well as leaders’ relational intelligence influence RL. These factors also help responsible leaders to better manage the tension between responsible and effective leadership.
Research limitations/implications
The small and geographically bound sample size makes it difficult to generalise the findings of this study. As in other ethics studies, interviewees’ desire to present a socially desirable image of themselves could be high in this study. Finally, the methods and analytical techniques applied may be biased and be influenced by the purposive selection of the participants.
Practical implications
Singaporean business leaders may need to consider the importance of retaining and developing the national culture and ethos of the nation, since these are the factors that have been identified in this study as key to influencing RL.
Originality/value
This study identifies the factors that influence RL from a Singapore context. It extends the understanding of the mostly western-based multi-level theory of RL.
Details
Keywords
The vast majority of contemporary social scientists have distanced themselves from moral reflection and the academic disciplines that engage in it. Throughout his long career…
Abstract
The vast majority of contemporary social scientists have distanced themselves from moral reflection and the academic disciplines that engage in it. Throughout his long career Philip Selznick took a different path, engaging deeply with the moral content of the concepts he employed. This paper argues that he had good reasons to do so. Value neutrality in social research can fatally sever inquiry’s connection to the practical concerns that originally motivated it, and it can distort our understanding of those concerns by recasting them in a scientific mold. To make this case I draw from a long tradition of philosophical thought about the relationship between facts and values, and I illustrate it by examining the limitations of recent social science research about procedural justice in organizations and the order maintenance function of the police.
Details