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In the light of major corporate failures worldwide, business ethics have become an increasingly important area of managerial competence and responsibility. Most studies on business ethics in general and the work ethic in particular have been based on the experiences of Western nations, with a primary focus on the Protestant work ethic (PWE) as advanced by Max Weber. This paper aims primarily to explore the Islamic perspective to ethics, which follows the Judeo‐Christian tradition as the last of the three great monotheistic religions.

A range of relevant works published over the past two decades is compared with and heavily supplemented by extracts from the Islamic Holy Book, the Qur'an, in order to outline the Islamic approach to business and work ethics.

The paper highlights that within the Holy Qur'an and other aspects of Shari'ah, there is much with which to construct an authentic Islamic approach to ethics. It also highlights the substantial need to examine the work ethic and other work‐related attitudes, such as individualism in non‐Western settings.

The paper contributes to the body of knowledge in several ways. First, it is one of a very limited number of papers that does not use a research instrument created specifically to measure work orientations in a Western setting. Second, it provides a better understanding of cultural variations among nations, by examining the ethical beliefs of the fastest growing religion in the world.

The purpose of this paper is to review the challenges of teaching values and ethics in mental-health, explore the differing perspectives of the key stakeholders and stimulate further questions for debate in this area; leading to a proposal of an alternative approach to educating mental-health professionals on values and ethics.

In current mental-health care settings, very few professionals work with homogeneous populations. It is imperative that mental-health education and training ensures health professionals are competent to practice in diverse settings; where ethics and values are bound to differ. Establishing professional practice not only involves considering concepts such as values and ethics, but also equality, diversity and culture. Incorporating values-based practice and cultural diversity training holds promise to education and training, that is truly reflective of the complexity of clinical decision making in mental-health. Further research is needed as to how these two frameworks can be unified and taught.

This paper aims to critically reassess established approaches to the teaching and analysis of computer ethics, and to propose a revised methodology, drawing on the practical experience of teaching undergraduates in a culturally diverse, international learning environment.

Theoretical in scope, reviewing concepts and methods in the existing literature and developing an alternative inter-disciplinary and multi-dimensional framework.

Ethical analysis can benefit from broader, inter-disciplinary perspectives that take into account the social and economic context in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) are designed, deployed and used, and the complex forces that drive their development. A richer analysis of this context enables a better understanding of the specific properties and applications of ICTs which, in turn, foreground particular ethical issues. This can result in a more self-reflexive and rounded appreciation of the ethical, legal and professional issues invoked by ICTs.

The paper develops a revised, flexible methodology for doing ethics which can be applied to any case study or domain of application. It outlines some of the key questions and major ethical principles that are generated by ICTs. The paper has pedagogical value for both teachers and students of computer ethics, but has relevance also for information technology professionals and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Pakistani bank front-line employees’ intentions to behave ethically by using the extended theory of planned behaviour (ETPB) into which religiosity (i.e. religious activity, devotion to rituals and belief in doctrine) is integrated as a moderating variable.

The authors collected 234 self-administered questionnaires and analysed them using SmartPLS 2.0, a second generation structural equation modelling technique.

This paper demonstrates that the ETPB can explain intentions to behave ethically. Moral norms (i.e. the rules of morality that people believe they ought to follow) and perceived behavioural control (i.e. people’s perceptions of their ability to perform a given behaviour) are the best predictors of ethical behavioural intentions. The effects of injunctive norms (i.e. perceptions of which behaviours are typically approved or disapproved in an organisation) and of perceived behavioural control on behavioural intent are moderated by religiosity.

Leading by example, providing ethics training, empowering employees and encouraging the expression of religiosity are proposed as ways to foster an ethical culture in the workplace.

Even though numerous empirical studies have utilised variants of the theory of planned behaviour to explain consumer behaviour, its applicability to ethical behaviour in the workplace has scarcely been explored. Moreover, its tests in non-western contexts are scant. This study demonstrates the applicability of the ETPB in a broader circumstantial and cultural context and enriches it with religiosity, a pertinent characteristic of billions of people around the world. Finally, this is one of the very few ethics studies focusing on banking, an industry fraught with allegations of moral breaches.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the attitudes of two key groups of stakeholders (n=22) from academia and industry toward the nature of business ethics and their integration and inculcation in MBA programs in Malaysia.

This is a qualitative study based on n=22 interviews with stakeholders from academia and industry.

The main findings of the study indicate that respondents in this context tended define business ethics with reference to factors such as the interests of organizational stakeholders, environmental issues, property rights, and religion. It was also found that the respondents tended to consider ethical business practice to be primarily a social and religious obligation rather than representing a specific requirement of the workplace which could and should be developed during an MBA program.

The implications of the study are discussed in relation to some of the barriers that may exist to integrating business ethics into MBA programs in Malaysia.

The study highlights the widely held view among the respondents that employees’ business ethics are primarily attributable to family upbringing, including religious instruction thus limiting the perceived need for and effect of later training and education in business ethics.

This study is aimed at investigating the degree to which business managers in developing countries adhere to business ethics with special reference to the case of Jordan and comparing results with findings of previous studies. This comparison is done to assess whether business managers in different countries make compromises in their ethical stance under pressure of practical reality; and exploring the links (if any) between each of company's features and manager's characteristics and ethical orientations of business managers. Achieving the above objectives can help in assessing the universal theory of business ethics. Results indicate that the ethical orientations of Jordanian business managers are positive on certain aspects and negative on others. For instance, padding an expense account was considered unethical with a mean of 5.30 reflecting relatively high ethical orientation. On the contrary, giving gifts to purchasing agents was not perceived unethical. The mean for this vignette was 3.29 indicating unethical stance of the respondents. The findings seem to converge with previous studies in the region. Results also validate the practical reality theory, which is based on the notion that business managers make compromises in their ethical beliefs under pressures of reality. Recommendations are made to upgrade the ethical awareness of subjects and incorporate business ethics in their companies’ policies and plans.

The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the perceptions of Saudi university accounting students of the importance of developing generic skills in their accounting education, the levels of competence they should acquire and expect to achieve during the academic study, and the constraints that may hinder the development of generic skills in accounting education.

The study uses the skills outlined in the IFAC’s International Education Standards (IES) 3 (intellectual, personal, organizational and business management, and interpersonal and communication) and IES 4 (ethics in accounting/business). A survey questionnaire was used to collect the data.

The findings show that students perceived all five generic skill categories to be important, with ethical skills rated as the most important. However, the students expected that they would achieve a somewhat lower level of generic skill by the end of their studies in all areas, and they perceived a number of constraints that impede their skill development. The results indicate the importance of developing generic skills in accounting education and suggest that the Saudi accounting education system could do more to provide students with opportunities to develop generic skills to enable them to succeed in their future careers.

As little of the current literature has focused on generic skills in accounting education in a non-Western country, this research contributes to the literature on generic skills in a developing nation.

The purpose of this paper is to postulate, in addition to “moral” and “strategic” considerations, a third general standard for corporate social responsibility (CSR). That third approach is what moral philosophers call “virtue ethics.”

This paper uses a single organization case study of a Malaysian publisher to put forward the practice of virtuous CSR based on Islamic values and principles in a family business.

By focussing on creating or maintaining virtuous habits in the family and the firm, the family business has avoided the equally unrealistic notions that CSR must be entirely selfless or entirely strategic to be legitimate. Virtues that foster a successful strategy such as vision and competence can be enhanced rather than hindered by virtues such as integrity and generosity.

This is a case study of a single family. Nevertheless, this paper has implications for strategy and CSR for non-family business as well because it brings into the discussion virtue ethics which is largely absent from popular ethical discourse in the West, including popular discourse about business ethics and CSR.

While moral and strategic interests merit consideration, virtue is often the most important concern of all. Virtuous CSR aims to improve or at least preserve the character and the soul of the family and its enterprise.

This paper shows that in family business moral freedom and CSR do not have to be purchased at the expense of an effective business strategy. Paradoxically, an effective business strategy may be partly non-strategic and partly non-business – i.e. partly focussed on virtue. Further research may show that family business can be a leader in CSR, teaching managerial techniques to non-family business.

Recognising interest in the nascent “rise of China”, the purpose of this paper is to engage with the normative social science approach to comparative management, positing that it is inadequate for an enlightened view of the Chinese subject.

This paper presents a critical appraisal of extant literature, specifically Redding's The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism, by drawing resources from Fabian's epistemological critique of anthropology and Levinas' ethics to replace ontology as first philosophy, and by reference to historical studies on China's economic culture and its language.

Attention is drawn to how Redding's research subject is made an object of knowledge. In the objectification process, the subject's continuity is interrupted, its voice deprived, and its capacity for dialogue denied. This is evident in Redding's framework for analysis. Indeed, his Weberian social science template manifests a certain “imperialism of the same” and is symptomatic of much in comparative management regarding non‐western subjects. After critique, this essay then explores a supplement to Redding.

The paper proposes three principles for finding one's way out of objectification: ethics before “knowledge”, justice before “power”, and dialogue before “vision”.

The paper contributes to discourse on how comparative management must transcend its imperial social science legacy before it can find a just footing, and be born again.

Although the topics of business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are not new, this article focuses on the changing role of both subjects in the current business world. Having heard much about CSR in the past, the authors were under the impression that it had taken hold as a movement and more and more corporations were leaning toward ethical business practices and social responsibility. Media attention on the shocking revelations of the tobacco industry stimulated their interest in investigating this impression. Their research indicates that, although some corporations are still practicing unethical behavior, many more indicated that they have a social responsibility to their stakeholders.