Business Ethics is Socio-Political, or Not at All

This chapter explores the moral aspects of commercial deals that allegedly democratic governments enter into with foreign investors. These are discussed against a twofold theoretical background – where the philosophical ideal of public ethics based on truth and transparency meets business ethics theories. The Kantian ethics of duty proves to be the key link between these, as particularly relevant for cases where the impact on a wide range of stakeholders is considerable. The main case under consideration is the controversial USD $2 billion Romanian mining project at Rosia Montana, which highlights the need for accountability mentioned above and lends itself well to a multi-fold business ethics analysis. The role of the civil society in effectively stopping the project is a good illustration of the stakeholder theory. The chapter concludes with the thesis that a high degree of socio-political responsibility may be best achieved when trying to combine principle-based and utilitarian thinking.

Utilizing Emotions for Ethical Decision Making in Leadership

Modern organizational leaders must rise to the challenge of making both ethically sound decisions as well as traditional fiscal decisions in order to remain competitive in today's marketplace. It is critical for leaders to be mindful of how emotions may assist or hinder them throughout the ethical decision-making process. Attempting to ignore the emotional component of ethical decision making or pretending that emotions do not exert influence on decisions is foolhardy and disregards both empirical and theoretical research suggesting otherwise. The challenge for leaders is how to best incorporate emotion into ethical decision making. This chapter examines several theoretical models of emotion and ethical decision making, applies theoretical and empirical findings to explain how two common emotions—anger and anxiety—impact ethical decision making, and provides recommendations for leaders seeking to improve ethical decision-making outcomes.

The Moral Limitations of the Rational-Monistic Model

This chapter proposes a rational-pluralistic model for decision making in organizations. The authors developed this model as a potential solution to the negative moral implications (such as alienation from the workplace) that the formal rational decision making model has on organization employees. The negative moral implications are due to the fact that the formal rational model is monistic, limited by the considerations of the organization's utility, and neglects moral values and non-utility values that are related to the employee. The rational-pluralistic model is based on a revision of the concept of rationality and rational action. The basic assumption of this model is that there is a range of values other than the utility value that are involved in rational decision making. The more extended definition of rationality makes it possible to avoid a situation in which employees are only the means for organization goals, rather than ends in themselves.

A Matter of Justice

A crucial aspect of a fair allocation of scarce resources in hospital is the close cooperation of hospital executives and physicians. This chapter has three aims. Firstly, it provides an analysis of basic elements of medical and hospital executives' ethics. Secondly, it discusses the role of concepts of justice in hospital decision-making. Thirdly, it reflects on process criteria and structures that might support coping with allocation conflicts in hospitals. While hospital executives mainly act according to economic, legal, and strategic considerations, physicians are traditionally obliged to professional ethics codes. These include patient welfare as the primary concern with economic aspects a secondary priority. Therefore, implementing and applying ethical principles for the allocation of scarce resources requires an ongoing constructive discourse between hospital managers and physicians. Furthermore, in order to build trust between the two stakeholders, an effective structure for solving ethical conflicts and a fair decision-making process is paramount.

The Impact of Corruption on Entrepreneurship

There is a consensus that corruption may result in high societal costs. A growing body of research reveals the negative effects of corruption on a variety of economic indicators. This chapter presents a literature review on the impact of corruption on entrepreneurship. It allows us to suggest that one of the transition channels through which corruption has impacted growth is entrepreneurship. The main channels in which corruption impacts entrepreneurship is through reduced incentives for entrepreneurial activity and reduced trust within the system. The authors present evidence that the negative impact of an incremental increase in the level of corruption on entrepreneurship is more harmful in developed countries than in developing countries. Thus, they stress the need for more research in this area with the aim of establishing appropriate frameworks for the fight of corruption in both developing and developed countries and suggest significant gains from anti-corruption efforts, especially in developed countries.

Business Ethics Competencies

This chapter aims to discuss the divergent views of 102 practitioners and academics about business ethics competencies and potential implications for business ethics training. It presents, first, an introduction to the nature of the misalignment between academia and industry and, second, business ethics training issues and controversies. Next, the two phases of the research, including document analysis and a survey in Canada and the US, are noted. When considering practitioner needs, potentially over- or under-emphasized competencies are identified by means of a survey to shed light on the extent of this misalignment, so that future instructional efforts can focus on increasing content considered by practitioners to be under-emphasized, while reducing the content considered to be over-emphasized. Finally, a proposed business ethics competency model is provided, as well as a comprehensive content selection model for business ethics development, designed and recommended for business ethics practitioners and academics.

Sowing the Seeds for Ethical Business Leadership through Business Education

In an era that has seen events involving ethical misconduct by prominent business leaders, there is renewed attention around the issue of how and where business leaders acquire their ethical orientation. In this chapter, the authors argue that business education is an influential foundation upon which an ethical orientation is developed and offers an opportunity to be a primary focus for responding to the pressing need for strong ethical leadership in business. The chapter extends existing research in business ethics to present the novel possibility of situating ethics alongside technical competencies since this will assist in the training of business leaders who are needed equipped or armed with their skills, including those soft skills, to meet contemporary business challenges.

Ethics in Business and Human Flourishing

This chapter demonstrates the relation between business ethics and human flourishing. It argues that a business's contribution to human flourishing needs to be understood in terms of its viable options and what it makes of them as a core part of a modern civil society. Against this general background, the chapter explains the theoretical aspects of the intrinsically entwined relationship between business practice and business ethics. Successful entrepreneurship and business activities are those that can effectively recognize and cultivate this relationship. This emphasizes not only individual and entrepreneurial moral sense and reliability in economic affairs, but also incorporates an approach to business ethics that encompasses a total concept of a “good life” and its striving towards a just, civil society based on mutual responsibility.

In Case You Didn't Know

The case-based approach to learning and instruction has been employed across multiple disciplines, including ethics education, and advocated for its effectiveness. Despite the widespread use of cases, there remain questions regarding optimal methods for case construction and presentation in order to facilitate knowledge acquisition, ethical decision making (EDM), and the transfer of learned material. Several empirical studies were conducted over the course of three years (2010-2013) in an attempt to shed some light on these topics. This chapter's purpose is three-fold. First, it provides a brief overview of the literature regarding case development. Second, it describes the new studies in this arena with respect to ethics case construction. Third, the chapter culminates in specific recommendations for case-based ethics training for young scholars and professionals in light of the new evidence.

Self-Awareness

The purpose of this chapter is to provide managers and employees with ways to internalize ethical behavior in a company. One of the ways to strengthen the effectiveness of management is to give managers the necessary tools that will enable employees of the post-modern age to internalize moral principles and ideas and to understand what is acceptable and what is prohibited. This theory relies on Wolf's (2008, 2013a) claim that man can be trained to be self-aware as the first step toward actual ethical conduct. Her approach is based on the principles of the humanist approach, which maintains that people are endowed with an “ethical sense” and wisdom as well as with the ability to correct their behavior and to choose their own course of action. This chapter utilizes the foundations and principles of this approach to explain what motivates a person to behave morally.